Interview – JOHN WHITBECK – chairman of Republican Party of Virginia

• TOPIC: latest on the VA governor’s race:
• Virginia governor’s race CNU poll: Ed Gillespie tied with Democrats in general election. Republican Ed Gillespie would tie with either of the Democrats vying for their party’s nomination in this year’s gubernatorial contest, according to new survey results released Wednesday. Gillespie, a longtime GOP strategist and former counselor to George W. Bush, drew 40 percent of registered voters to Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam’s 39 percent in the poll by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University. In a head to head matchup with former congressman Tom Perriello, who is competing with Northam for the Democratic nomination, Gillespie and Perriello tied at 39 percent each. A fifth of voters were undecided in both match-ups. The poll found that Gillespie performed best against either Democrat compared with his two rivals for the GOP nomination, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart and state Sen. Frank W. Wagner (Virginia Beach).
• CNU poll: Tom Perriello, Ralph Northam even for Democratic guv berth
• Trump campaign’s Virginia chairman is running a Confederate-friendly campaign for governor. Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart pledges to defend the Confederate flag and monuments. Corey Stewart, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman in Virginia who was fired before the election for starting a protest outside the Republican National Committee headquarters, is running the most openly Confederate-friendly campaign for governor “in recent memory,” according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
• VA GOVERNOR’S RACE BACKGROUND: The Virginia gubernatorial election of 2017 will take place on November 7, 2017. Primaries will take place on June 13, 2017. The incumbent Governor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, is not eligible to run for re-election due to term limits established by the Virginia Constitution. Virginia is the only state that prohibits its Governor from serving consecutive terms. The primary elections will take place on June 13, 2017. Virginia utilizes an open primary, in which registered voters are allowed to vote in only one party’s primary election.
• Declared Democratic primary Candidates: Ralph Northam, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and Tom Perriello, former U.S. Representative
• Declared Republican primary Candidates: Ed Gillespie, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2014, Corey Stewart, Chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 2013 and Frank Wagner, State Senator