Republican leaders in Virginia’s 5th District will be picking between five candidates for their party nomination in this year’s congressional election.
The district’s Republican committee came together Saturday at the DoubleTree Hotel in Albemarle County to discuss whether this year’s nomination would be chosen by convention or an open primary.
After giving each of the five Republican candidates a few minutes to make their case for a convention or primary, the committee voted 19 to 16 in favor of a convention.
Five candidates have announced their intention to take over the congressional seat from Republican Rep. Robert Hurt, who has said that he will retire from the post at the end of his term in January 2017. On Thursday, Lynchburg man Andrew Griffin announced that he would add his name to a list of candidates that already includes Sen. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham, businessman Jim McKelvey, technology executive Michael Del Rosso and congressional intelligence advisor Joseph Whited.
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Whited and Griffin had previously expressed support for an open primary, in which registered voters choose the party nominee, while Garrett, McKelvey and Del Rosso called for a convention, in which party delegates vote on a nominee. The committee typically chooses nominees by convention, although Hurt was selected in an open primary in 2010, beating six other candidates with 48 percent of the vote.
In a statement, Griffin said he was “disappointed” in the decision to use a convention, saying the majority of the district’s voters are “boxed out of the electoral process” by not utilizing an open primary.
“While I understand the benefits of a convention, I maintain that neither the candidates nor a small minority of politically active delegates should deprive legally registered voters from participating in the process,” Griffin’s statement read. “This decision sends the wrong message and lacks transparency at a time when the average citizen feels forgotten by the leaders they have elected to office.”
The convention is scheduled for May 14.
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