Don't Get Suckered By More Republicans Pretending To Run For Office As Democrats

Kellen Squire (Confused-VA) claims he's a Democrat & that his brand of Blue Dogism will save the party-- and that Bernie is "goofier than a pet goat"

Rob Bell is about as far right as Republicans in Virginia get-- and that's pretty far right. And, so is his General Assembly district-- VA-58, which includes Greene County (Trump 62.5%; Hillary 30.8%) and parts of Albemarle, Fluvanna and Rockingham Counties, but neither Grounds nor the City of Charlottesville. He's been in the House of Delegates since 2001, reelected every 2 years. Generally, Democrats don't even bother challenging him-- unopposed in 2011, 2013 and 2015. In 2009 the Democrat who ran, Cynthia Neff took 8,948 votes, almost 10,000 less than Bell's 18,402. This year the Democrats are running someone against Bell-- or at least someone pretending to be a Democrat, Kellen Squire. He describes himself as "an unapologetic rural Blue Dog," but reading through his online history, it's pretty clear he's just an opportunistic Republican who sees an opportunity to take advantage of the growing anti-Trump tsunami. He admits on his Facebook page that "Sadly, this is an accurate portrayal of much of the leadership in the Republican Party, and why I left them behind." He didn't say when he left them behind, only that he agrees with Democrats on some issues and disagrees with Democrats on other issues.

He doesn't talk much about issues, just about being a nurse, though I don't think he's a nurse the way RoseAnn DeMoro of National Nurses United is a nurse. This one is an anti-Choice fanatic. Instead he claims his brand of conservatism is going to save the Democratic Party. He compares progressives to the Tea Party that practically destroyed, he says, his beloved GOP. He likes talking about how he's pro-gun and anti-Choice and how voter ID-- Republican shorthand for voter suppression. His description of Bernie: "goofier than a pet goat." Sounds perfect for the Democratic Establishment that has so blurred the party's brand that garbage like Kellen Squire can call themselves Democrats and get away with it.

Although he's tried to clean up his website, originally he wrote on it that "I'm fervently and unashamedly pro-life. If it were up to me, I'd advocate for the addition of a plank to the Democratic party platform that we eliminate abortion in the Commonwealth of Virginia as soon as possible." You want that as an elected official of the Democratic Party? How about, "My idea of gun control is pretty simple-- you control your gun, I'll control mine. Gun control-- right? But, seriously, I'm an unabashed supporter of the Second Amendment. Like it or not, we have a Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, which the government must ensure."

He's told the local press that he decided to run as a Democrat because his opponent Bell is a Republican. He's the opposite of the kind of candidate Democrats should be electing, regardless of how "red" the district is. He should probably be primarying Bell if he doesn't like him. Needless to say, people are falling for his Republican-lite centrist claptrap. After all, he constantly uses his big brood of children as props in his political outreach, I've seen what happens when people like Kellen Squire get into office. You wind up with people like Joe Lieberman and Blanche Lincoln eventually destroying the agenda from within and wrecking the party in such a way that young voters start to say, "what's the difference?" The morons running Run For Something may not be aware there is one-- they endorsed Squire-- but there is and, as long as economic royalists are allowed to prey on the working class, there always will be. The Virginia Democratic Party would be better off going back to running no one against Bell than spending a dime to help Squire. Primary election day was June 13; it was uncontested-- just Squire... so there's no actual Democrat even running in November.