Frederick’s lawyer wants to succeed him

RICHMOND (AP) | A conservative trial lawyer who represented the former Virginia Republican Party chairman when the central committee ousted him last month is now vying to be his successor.

In announcing his candidacy Wednesday, Bill Stanley of Franklin County repeated many of former Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick’s themes.

He said in a three-page statement that the party must be driven by its conservative “grass roots” and it “must not permit the judgment of the few to instruct or override the will of the many.”

He said the chairman “must be elected, not anointed” later this month.

That is similar to what an angry Mr. Frederick said about the April 4 meeting called by the central committee where he was removed on a vote of 57-18.

Mr. Frederick, at odds with some state party leaders since he was elected to a four-year term at the 2008 state Republican convention, called his ouster a power grab by the party’s elites.

Mr. Frederick’s critics, however, cited his handling of state party finances and sobering Republican defeats in presidential, U.S. Senate and U.S. House races under his watch last fall in Virginia.

Last weekend, the central committee elected longtime Fairfax and Loudoun activist Pat Mullins as interim chairman.

Mr. Mullins and Mr. Stanley will offer themselves to convention delegates for the chance to complete the three years left on Mr. Frederick’s term.