The Virginia Republican Party has really been dropping the ball lately. That’s been evident with the Democratic take over of the State Senate as well as losing a U.S. Senate seat in 2006. It’s also looking fairly likely that they will lose the other U.S. Senate seat this year as well.

All of that along with a growing disenchantment of the Republican establishment may very well have been what lead to the defeat of the State’s GOP Chairman John Hagar yesterday. What’s even more significant about this loss is that it was Hagar’s son who just married Jenna Bush last month, turning Hagar into a Bush in-law. None of that seemed to matter yesterday to the state committee voters who chose a young, 32 year old State Representative Jeff Frederick to succeed him as the new State Chairman.

Frederick is a stalwart conservative who Democrats have been unable to take down in either election of the two terms he has served. He is a former enlistee of the U.S. Naval Reserves and current member of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly and the Virginia Club for Growth. I imagine we will see good things from him and hopefully he will be able to pull the Virginia GOP out of their current funk.