And the winner in the 24th is . . .

Okay, I guess we should wait until Tuesday to count the votes, but already it looks clear to me that Emmett Hanger will win the Republican Primary in the 24th Senate District. And he's run a very interesting campaign, one that allowed Scott Sayre's handlers to spin hopelessly out of control until anyone who is paying attention (maybe not a lot of folks, actually) has seen them behave badly, at times viciously, and always a bit like a scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Virtually all Republican elected officials have endorsed Hanger. The Staunton News Leader is practically frothing at the mouth in its denouncements of the Sayre campaign workers and their criticism of the candidate for not even being willing to meet with the Editorial Board. Guess who SNL will be endorsing? In fact, the only folks who have lined up behind Sayre are the leaders of the local Republican Committees and what that tells me is there has been a concerted effort of the far right wing of that party to take control of the committees, which probably wasn't too hard to do given that the jobs are, at best, thankless. Too bad (for them) that the rank and file haven't followed suit.

For a while, thanks to the pretty red signs all over Augusta County (not sure they're anywhere else, though, and by the way every time I see them I think of the flag of the People's Republic of China), it looked like Sayre had a chance. Now, though, I think Hanger has momentum and I don't think it will even be close. And Sayre, who seems like he might be sincere in his beliefs, can look to his blogging friends for taking him down with them in their frenzied attempt to sink Hanger's ship.