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By David M. Wagner

As many headlines put it, Jim Gilmore "ekes out" a win over Bob Marshall in the race for the Va. Republican Senate nomination.

That must by why the Gilmore people were running around during the vote going "Eek! Eek! Eek!"

Yes, it was much closer than anyone would have expected when pro-life, pro-marriage maverick Marshall announced in January that he was going up against the state GOP establishment with a shoe-string campaign against erstwhile annointee Gilmore.

As The Virginian-Pilot's Warren Fiske perceptively remarks:

Gilmore withstood a strong tide from social conservatives and libertarians ? many of them first-time convention goers ? to push the GOP to the right and overhaul the party?s leadership.

Rewind and replay: social conservatives and libertarians. Yes, a coalition deemed unlikely, even impossible, by many in the media; yet there they were, cheering every Marshall speaker's reference to "100% pro-life" -- and also sporting Ron Paul 2008 stickers.

And "first-time convention goers," like my son. Now they know how the system works, and they know the establishment isn't invulnerable. They're in the system, and time is on their side. Me? Not my first time: I was there to support Mike Farris for Lt. Gov. in '93, and Jim Miller for the Senate in '94. I don't share every detail of my son's Ron Paul enthusiasm, but, like him, I was there on Saturday to support Bob Marshall.

We lost on the Senate nomination vote, but we won on the party chairman vote, tossing out the establishment and putting in a young pro-life state senator, Jeff Frederick. (Many Gilmore delegates voted with us on that.)

And can you guess what happened on Monday? Young activists -- not me, but people like my son -- got e-mails announcing that, surprise surprise, there are suddenly lots of job vacancies at Republican Party of Virginia headquarters! Personnel is policy, as Morton Blackwell always taught us.

Full post as published by Ninomania on June 02, 2008 (boomark / email).