Two quick things for today:

1) If you are a Republican, remember that the Republican Party is holding a Party Canvas in Chesterfield today from 4pm-8pm to select their nominee to run in the special election to fill Delegate Sam Nixon’s vacant seat (27^th House District). Click here for details on the canvas and here for details on the four candidates running. The Richmond Tea Party will Twitter the event @libertyproject.

2) The Richmond Times-Dispatch is hosting a Public Square at their downtown location (300 E. Franklin St.) with Governor McDonnell this evening from 7-8:30. He will speak and answer questions on how he plans to make Virginia’s government more efficient. We encourage you to attend, but seating is limited and offered on a first-come-first-serve basis. We will also Twitter this event @libertyproject.

We can only be cautiously optimistic that Governor-elect McDonnell will live up to his ambitions to pursue 10th amendment issues, completely restructure state government, significantly cut spending, drill offshore, and not raise taxes.  It is up to the tea party movement to keep McDonnell accountable to his campaign promises, so together we can ensure the success and vitality of our Commonwealth.

He [Governor-elect McDonnell] adds: “I do think that talking about the excesses of the federal government is something you are going to hear Republican and Democratic candidates for statewide office talk about for a while because I think you’re going to see a resurgence of discussions of federalism, about the 10th Amendment, about limits on federal power, and federal spending.”

As for the damaged Republican brand, one message voters sent with Mr. McDonnell’s election is that they don’t want the GOP to repeat its mistakes from the past decade. Mr. McDonnell seems to have received that message, saying that it was important for him to run on fiscal issues, because “we’ve got to hold the line on taxes and we’ve got to cut spending.”  Read the entire Wall Street Journal Op-Ed…