“The success or failure of the debate was going to depend to a large degree on whether the candidates themselves are willing to engage on policy issues,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington.
“I can imagine that the Republicans will want to talk about this at every opportunity. This in may ways is the best issue that Republicans have had in months in this campaign.” said Stephen Farnsworth of the University of Mary Washington in response to a question about the impact of the text messaging scandal involving candidate, Jay Jones.
Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, told Newsweek that the fallout will likely have long-term consequences. “I expect that some Democrats will leave the AG line blank, which reduces the chances that Jones will win,” he said. “Even if he does win this time, Virginia Democrats are unlikely to forget his reckless behavior.”
“If you think about how the world has changed, things that would have been disqualifying 30 years ago may not be disqualifying today,” said Dr. Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington. “The Democrats obviously want to talk about something else, and Republicans want to talk about nothing else. We’ll see who wins that framing battle moving forward.”
“There’s simply no way to sugarcoat the candidate’s remarks. They were horrible. And the voters will determine whether they were unforgivable,” Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, said Sunday. He noted that “the two other Democrats on the statewide ticket have both condemned these remarks, as they should.”
“We’re talking about votes already cast in Virginia. It seems to me that even if there was an idea that the Democratic Party should change courses, it’s way past mid-stream in this situation. Voting has been going on for a couple of weeks already in Virginia,” said Stephen J. Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington.
