Man, I rea
lly feel for poor Jeannemarie Devolites and her husband. Not only do they have to face re-election in an impossible district, they have to face off against one of the most impressive, tenacious campaigners in Virginia.
Last night I was at Chap’s big Young Lawyer’s event and he owned the night. And even without the assist from young lawyer mastermind Scott Surovell, State Senate mastermind Creigh Deeds, and “his excellency” Mark Warner.
I saw Chap give two speeches in the span of about half an hour (one in a smaller reception and the other in the bigger room) both without notes and both brilliant and entirely unique. On several occasions he had the audience so engaged that individuals burst into applause in mid-sentence. In his bigger speech he further wowed the huge crowd with detailed proposals for reforms in Richmond to improve our quality of life up here in Fairfax County. It’s rare that a politician- especially one so endowed with the gift of gab like Chap – will move beyond the platitudes to really respect our intelligence enough to tell us exactly the things they want to accomplish and exactly how they plan to do it.
It seems clear now that Chap’s loss in the LG primary in 2005 was just a small bump in the road in a long and impressive public service career. Tom and Jeannemarie better just move out of the way, because Chap is coming, and he’s in top form.
