Jerry Kilgore’s mother may have a legal problem. [Link Fixed] But the intelligentsia doesn’t think it will hurt the likely GOP nominee for governor.
“This campaign would have to get incredibly nasty for mothers to be considered legitimate targets,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist.
“That’s one I believe the Democrats will stay away from,” he said. “The old ‘Your mother wears Army boots’ attack usually backfires. Mothers are special.”
Political analyst and Emory & Henry College president Thomas Morris said he, too, doubted that the investigation would even be raised, much less seen by voters as relevant.
Even if criminal charges were to be filed, Sabato doubted that the news would resonate statewide. “Ninety-five percent of Virginians have never heard of Gate City, and couldn’t find Scott County on a map,” he said.
And assuming voters did hear about the scandal, they might be reluctant to hold it against Jerry Kilgore.
As Sabato put it: “Is he his mother’s keeper?”
Sabato et al may be right — for only one reason: It’s not a mother of a Democrat who is in trouble, in which case I would expect to see the Swift Boat Vets Against Voter Fraud swing into action. Dems shouldn’t be afraid of looking into this because “[t]he Kilgore family, critics say, runs the political machinery of Scott County.”