Throughout the 2018 primary season, Mary Jones and her supporters have found themselves under near constant attack from the powers that be in southeastern Virginia’s Republican politics, and as Election Day closes in, things have heated up. Since declaring her candidacy, Jones has found little to no support from the GOP hierarchy, despite a groundswell of grassroots support as evidenced by both real world metrics, and online chatter.
At the center of the attacks on Jones lies Jim Kaczmarek, the former Vice Chairman of Virginia’s 2nd District GOP, who resigned under a cloud of shame after his use of alternate Facebook accounts to launch vulgar, sexual, and sometimes violent verbal attacks on Mary Jones and a number of her female supporters was revealed this spring. Despite these revelations, Kaczmarek appears to have resigned in name only, as Scott Taylor and members of party leadership have continued close associations with Kaczmarek, posing alongside him for photographs, thanking him for his service, and even interacting with his latest alternate account, ‘Jim Roberts.’
In fact, Dennis Free, the sitting Chairman of the GOP in the 2nd District recently shared a Facebook post of Kaczmarek’s, which along with showing a still seemingly cozy relationship with the former Vice Chair, proved local party leadership to be anything but neutral, as the post begged the question: ‘Mary Who?’
Even Congressman Scott Taylor, who has found himself under considerable pressure to denounce and distance himself from Kaczmarek, has shown his apathy towards the events of recent weeks, posing for pictures with him at local campaign events. Kaczmarek went as far as to claim that Taylor ‘thanked me for all my efforts’ although the Congressman ‘knows I’m not politically correct.’
Additionally, Kaczmarek’s apparent obsession with Politics Elections has continued, as he has continued his use of alternate Facebook accounts to target authors and write poor reviews the website’s ‘Like’ page.
Taking things a step further, Robert Stubbs, Chairman of the Northampton County Republican Unit, used his status as a police officer to threaten legal action against a Jones supporter in Facebook messages for the crime of posting pro-Jones material in a Northampton Republicans Facebook group.
As we well know, these are not isolated incidents, and the attacks levied on Mary Jones and her supporters by team Taylor and the 2nd District GOP highlight a blatant disregard for the voters. The message is clear: ‘Vote for Scott Taylor, or you will be attacked.’
