The Move

When I was a little girl my grandfather sat with me on quiet afternoons with a checkered board and royal pieces set up for a good game of chess. He taught me how the individual pieces moved around the board with the prime directive of protecting the queen.


At the risk of sounding like Forrest Gump, politics is like a game of chess, sometimes you never know what you’re going to get. Here in Virginia, we love our politics and every year is an election year. With that we have our own interesting game of chess going on right now.

The governor’s race between Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terri McAuliffe is beginning to warm up (hopefully we’ll see some heat as Election Day draws closer). As of this writing, Mr. Cuccinelli has raised $6.5m and Mr. McAuliffe has raised $10.4m in contributions (per vapap.com). Ken Cuccinelli has been seen out and about making appearances for voter support but not so much for McAuliffe. There is some speculation that Terri will be waltzing down Highway 95 with the King and Queen (Bill and Hillary) on each arm relying on his Democrat family tree. Whether that and his war chest are going to be enough for him to win in an off year election is yet to be seen.

Up next is our Attorney General Race with now republican state Senator Mark Obenshain having recently debated now Democrat state Senator Mark Herring. With both candidates being sitting senators, there is the distinct possibility that either party could pick up an additional senate seat through special election, likely sometime in January or February 2014.

Last, but not least, we have the Lieutenant Governor’s race with the republican candidate, Bishop E W Jackson and Democrat candidate Senator Ralph Northam from the 6th District. Should Bishop Jackson win the election Mr. Northam retains his senate seat, however, if Senator Northam wins, there is yet another opportunity for a state senate seat to be filled by way of special election.

So you see, politics is very much like a game of chess, when you advance a piece you leave behind a vacant square that could tip the scales for either side. Let’s hope the Bishop knows how to move other than diagonally.

JG