Decision of Va. As rival Democrats convened next door in Norfolk for their own weekend of party-building, the central committee of a resurgent Republican Party went with tradition, hostile to a primary election that would have been open to the state's 3 million voters, who do not register by party. Full speed ahead. . . .
Competition is a positive thing if it's done right.
The deepening divide between Hager and Earley is a worrisome family feud for a Republican Party that in recent years set aside its age-old internal spats to win successive governorships and capture uncontested control of the General Assembly last fall for the first time. Compounding the GOP's problem is the certainty of facing Alexandria businessman Mark R. Warner, a millionaire who has sewn up the Democratic nomination and is prepared to spend more of the personal fortune he brought to bear in an unsuccessful 1996 run for the U.S. Senate. Warner's intimidating money guided the central committee's vote for a convention, which in the end was less a referendum on Earley and Hager than it was a recognition of the Democrat's vast resources, the cutthroat competition for dollars in a primary and the party's own precarious finances. In a primary, the campaigns would spend heavily on developing the extensive advertising and the political organization necessary to get out the vote throughout the state. Much of the cost of a convention is borne by the party renting the hall.