Scandal-scarred Virginia GOP selects new leader

RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Republicans, shaken by an eavesdropping scandal that forced the chairman and executive director to resign, Saturday chose their first female party leader, the daughter of a U.S. Senate nominee killed in 1978 plane crash.

Longtime party activist Kate Obenshain Griffin, 34, was elected party chairwoman on an unanimous voice vote by the state GOP's governing Central Committee.

"There is no question we as a party have done much to be proud of over the past decade, but there is also no question that individuals veered off course here in this building," Griffin told the committee. "Mistakes were made and people within the party suffered, but we will not become paralyzed by these challenges."

Griffin, a mother of four who has never held a state party office, is the first woman to head the state GOP. All 140 seats in the state's Republican-dominated General Assembly are up for election Nov. 4.

The state party came under fire over a year ago when its executive director, Edmund A. Matricardi III, was accused of eavesdropping on a Democratic Party conference call.

Matricardi, 35, has said he did not know he was breaking the law when he joined the conference call using access codes provided by a disgruntled former Democratic Party operative, but he acknowledged it was a mistake. He resigned, and earlier this year pleaded guilty to one federal felony count. He was sentenced in July to three years' probation.

In August, GOP chairman Gary R. Thomson resigned and pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge for failing to stop Matricardi from distributing written transcripts of the intercepted call.

"It's been very distracting," Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore said Saturday. "Today is a new day for the Republican Party of Virginia. We have a new chair, we have a new vision, and we're going to go forth and win elections."

After Griffin's father, Richard Obenshain, the party's nominee for U.S. Senate, died in the campaign plane crash, the GOP nominated John W. Warner, who last fall won his fifth consecutive Senate term.

The building where Griffin was selected party chairwoman was named for her father.

"I think my dad would be very proud today. He dedicated his life to building this party. I'm sure he's smiling down on us today," Griffin said.