It's the Night Before E-Day and All Through VA...

With just four hours until our polls open in Virginia, after years of hard work, we stand poised to make history for Democrats in Virginia. For 86 years, Red Sox fans waited in vain for victory until they made history in 2004. By those standards, the 40 years we've waited since Lyndon Johnson took Virginia for Democrats may not seem that long...but we're poised to make history in 2004, too, and we're not going to wait any longer than 7PM on November 2 to make it happen!

Many people would consider our current status victory enough. Just visit Electoral-Vote.com, one of the most popular election sites online, and see where Virginia stands on this electoral map. To have Colorado and Virginia appear as "barely Bush" states would have been considered impossible just two years ago, and we've achieved that together. But we know that's not enough. We still need to sprint to the finish line and turn that light pink to dark blue.

Thanks to all those Virginians who became involved in politics for the first time during the Howard Dean campaign and dug in to continue the hard work to win Virginia for Kerry. Thanks to many who returned to political action after years of fatigue and cynicism. Thanks to those who donated for the first time this year, to Dean, to Kerry, to the Virginia Democratic Party, and to our great Democratic candidates for Congress from Virginia. We are poised to make history together tomorrow, and the outlook for socially progressive, fiscally responsible Democrats in Virginia is far brighter because of what we have begun together.

Thanks especially to volunteers who have worked so hard on the campaigns of Al Weed in VA-5 and James Socas in VA-10. We are proud to support both Dean Dozen candidates, and thank you and your candidates for all you have done to revive Democratic action and Democratic courage in districts that so many others had written off as "too red" in the past.

Good luck to Congressman Jim Moran and Congressman Bobby Scott, whose courage and support in the Dean campaign was so inspiring, and whose continued leadership is so needed in the House. Good luck also to Congressman Rick Boucher, whose representation is so important for Democrats in Southwest Virginia and around the Commonwealth. Best wishes to Ken Longmyer, who is courageously taking on a popular incumbent, and to Jonathan Menefee, who at such a young age has demonstrated the political courage that we need from Democrats in every Congressional District in Virginia. And all eyes will be on David Ashe, who has made us proud by campaigning in VA-2 with such integrity and class, and who has given Virginians a new and shining example of patriotism in the Democratic Party.

Thanks to Laura Bland and Kerry Donley of the Democratic Party of Virginia for welcoming the input and activism of our nascent organization, and to Leslie Byrne, Don Beyer, and Howard Dean for continuing to lead and inspire us to live up to the promise of our democracy.

Excelsior!