Democracy for Virginia

Support DC for Democracy - rally for DC voting rights tomorrow!

DC for Democracy, our ally in DC (and co-host of our upcoming Campaign Training for Grassroots Activists in Falls Church on July 9-10), is organizing a rally for equal voting rights for DC tomorrow on Freedom Plaza at 12:30.  Related activities will also be occurring all morning.

If you work in DC, please consider spending your lunch hour with other great progressives at this rally!

More information from Team DC Democracy, an alliance of organizations working for equal voting rights for DC residents, is available here.

Earnie Porta Beats McQuigg in Fundraising

One House race which could get VERY interesting (but hasn't attracted much attention in the blogosphere or the mainstream press) is the race between Earnie Porta and incumbent Republican Michele McQuigg [candidate Web site] in the 51st district, which consists of parts of Prince William County including Occoquan.  Janet, the leader of our Occoquan Meetup, sent me this fundraising update from his campaign:

Porta out raised his opponent during the most recent filing period.  He was able to raise over $24,000 while McQuigg brought in just over $22,000, opening eyes to an already red-hot House of Delegates campaign. 

Even though both campaigns reported raising similar amounts and are neck and neck with each other in cash on hand, their contributions have come from starkly different sources.

"Ours is a grassroots effort," Porta said. "People who believe Prince William County deserves more effective representation are giving of their time and money to help my campaign."

During the April through June period McQuigg raised $775 in contributions of $100 or less.  Porta raised ten times that amount, bringing in over $7,000 in low dollar contributions.  McQuigg has only listed 36 contributors on her most recent filing report including many large corporations and Political Action Committees. [McQuigg's top donor list is here.]  Porta's funds were raised from 159 contributors including Prince William County-based small businesses and individuals. [Porta's top donor list is here.]

The strong fundraising effort demonstrates that Porta is prepared to mount a serious challenge.  "People already know Earnie is running a tough, grassroots campaign that fights for every vote," Porta's campaign manager Lucinda Guinn said. "What this report shows us is that he will also compete dollar for dollar with his opponent."

Earnie Porta is an Occoquan resident running for Delegate in the 51st District.  Porta is an attorney as well as a financial planner, and has spent most of his career working in finance.  Porta is the Vice-Chair of the Occoquan Magisterial District Democratic Committee, and a member both of Historic Occoquan, Inc. and the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary.

I had the pleasure of meeting Earnie at a fundraiser for Bruce Roemmelt a few weeks ago, and I believe Earnie is one of the most impressive and likeable Democrats we have running this year.  To learn more about Earnie Porta, read today's great RaisingKaine interview with him.

Nader's Virginia chief sentenced to 30 days for VA election fraud

Remember all the controversy about Nader's efforts to get on the ballot in Virginia last year?  Nader's petitions were originally disqualified because they did not follow the Virginia Board of Elections requirements for submission (specifically, they weren't sorted by Congressional District).

Then Attorney General Jerry Kilgore stepped in to help the Bush/Cheney campaign (for which he just happened to serve as state chairman) and declared those Virginia Board of Elections rules, which had been in place since 1999 and which every other candidate had followed assiduously, invalid. 

In the end, only about half of Nader's submitted 14,000 petitions were certified, well short of the 10,000 signatures needed.

It's not easy to collect valid signatures in Virginia given the rules.  Separate petitions must be kept for all congressional districts and all municipalities within a congressional district.  I remember trying to collect signatures in NoVA in 2003 to get Dean on the ballot, and finding that only about 1 in 3 people knew what congressional district they were in (or who was their member of Congress).  Others couldn't even say definitively whether they lived in Falls Church City or the Falls Church part of Fairfax County, or Alexandria City or the Alexandria part of Fairfax County.  If they sign the wrong petition, their signature is invalid even if they may be a valid registered voter.

For the grassroots Dean campaign in Virginia, our volunteer statewide petition coordinator, Sherry Stanley of Staunton, put in hundreds of hours of work to make sure we followed VBE rules to the letter.  Hundreds of volunteers around the state worked on this effort.  We followed all of the rules and submitted nearly twice the 10,000 required signatures to get on the ballot.

When we found out that Jerry Kilgore was intervening on behalf of the Nader campaign to throw out the rules that the Nader campaign didn't follow, many of our dedicated volunteers were furious at what appeared to be a blatant abuse of power to assist the Bush/Cheney efforts.  The Nader campaign sent out a press release saying the following about the Democratic party, which simply felt that the Nader campaign should have to follow the same rules as everyone else:

The Nader team in Virginia has done nothing wrong and we are getting tired of the Democrats trying to spin the truth and make us look as if we are, in any way, at fault for their disgraceful attempt to subvert democracy.

In that context, I can't help but feel somewhat vindicated at the news that Nader's Virginia Campaign Director has pleaded guilty to election fraud based on illegally certifying Nader's petitions in Virginia:

James P. Polk, 47, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, which he will serve under house detention, and fined $2,500.

Polk was indicted on 10 counts of election fraud in October, but prosecutors withdrew nine of those counts.

Polk was accused of illegally certifying petitions to get Nader, an independent candidate, on the ballot. Nader's name was not placed on the ballot in Virginia.

The original story on Polk's indictment on 10 counts, from last October, is here.

DFA Richmond Phone Banking for Tim

Meet at Kaine HQ for DFA Night phone banking - spend time with DFA friends while helping elect Tim!

Monday, June 20, 2005 at 6:00 PM
Kaine Campaign HQ (Coord. Campaign HQ)
6010 N. Crestwood Av.
Richmond, VA 23230

Hat tip to Kathy at My Own Backyard, central Virgniia's best progressive blog.  :-)

Post coverage of yesterday's canvassing with Kaine

The Washington Post mentions Tim's canvassing in my precinct yesterday in a larger article about the Democratic team's campaign kickoff yesterday:

Early Saturday, Kaine stopped by a cul-de-sac off Federal Hills Drive in Falls Church, careful not to trample across residents' lawns as he knocked on doors of the attached brick townhouses. He was followed by an entourage of volunteers, photographers and reporters. He greeted the neighbors, "I'm Tim Kaine. I'm running for governor of Virginia."

He leaned against the door frame as he talked to Kristin Ruedel, 33, while her 10-month-old pulled on her T-shirt. She said she's a voter who values social programs and doesn't mind paying higher taxes. Kaine helped her fill out a volunteer contact form.

Twenty minutes later, he greeted some men in a parking lot outside a shopping center. " Me llamo Tim Kaine. Soy el candidato democrata para governador de Virginia," he told the men. Kaine, who spent a year as a missionary in Honduras, asked the men what issues mattered to them. They talked about getting driver's licenses for immigrant workers and about finding help for day laborers who were not getting paid.

My writeup of canvassing with Tim is here.  RaisingKaine also comments.

Debunking Bolling on Byrne: A Must-Read

Saddle up, kids.  Getting the word out about the truth of Leslie Byrne's record starts now, and all I can say is I'm incredibly grateful to have Lowell from RaisingKaine leading the grassroots charge.

Lowell de-bunks every misleading statement about Byrne in a recent mailing from Bolling.  It's an absolute must-read for supporting Byrne this year.  Seriously.  Must read.  You must read it.  Why aren't you reading it?  Go away and read it I tell you!

Canvassing with Kaine

I'm one of the luckiest supporters of Tim Kaine here in the Commonwealth -- I got to canvass with Kaine in my own neighborhood today!

Along with many DFV members and other familiar faces from last year's elections, I volunteered this morning at the Coordinated Campaign Headquarters in McLean for today's canvassing kickoff event.  As a precinct captain, I was incredibly proud to be able to walk through the neighborhoods of my own precinct, streets that I've canvassed previously for Dean, for Moran, and then for Kerry/Edwards, this time with the actual guy who is on the ballot!

After revving up over 100 volunteers ready to pound the pavement in precincts all around NoVA (including my fellow bloggers Kenton of 750 Volts and Jim E-H of DFV), Tim Kaine and a small caravan of us drove from McLean to the Seven Corners area of Falls Church.  My ethnically diverse precinct is composed primarily of garden apartments, garden-style condominiums, public housing, and a few streets of single-family homes and townhomes. 

This area is unfortunately best known for the crazy Seven Corners intersection (Rt. 50, Rt. 7, Sleepy Hollow, Wilson, Hillwood, and a smattering of access roads all meeting together!) and more recently made infamous by what folks around here call "the Sniper Home Depot", the shopping center where FBI analyst Linda Franklin was murdered in Fall 2002.  Snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad shot Franklin from the trunk of their car while parked in the parking lot for our precinct's polling place.

Politicians rarely come here.  Most residents of my garden-style complex are not native English speakers and many are undocumented workers.  There are other precincts with a much higher density of reliable voters.  But Tim wanted to come here, and seeing him in action today with my neighbors makes me even more confident that he'll make a great Governor of Virginia.

Get Involved Tomorrow! (Saturday)

It's a good thing that the weather forecast is looking good for tomorrow (until early evening potential thunderstorms...) because there are many great opportunities to get involved in political action tomorrow!

Canvassing with Tim Kaine
First of all, Tim Kaine himself will be canvassing in NoVA tomorrow!  DFV volunteers will meet at the NoVA Coordinated Campaign HQ at 9:30.  If you'd like to join us, RSVP here.

America Votes Day of Action
Other DFV volunteers will be joining our allies in the America Votes coalition for June Day of Action Events around the state.  As part of the America Votes Day of Action, Democracy for Virginia will be running a phone bank in Annandale from 10AM - 1PM.  If you'd like to join our phone banking team or any other America Votes events in Virginia tomorrow, sign up here.

Democratic Unity Rally in Williamsburg
Join Governor Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Leslie Byrne, Creigh Deeds, and other great Democrats from all around the Commonwealth in a celebration rally to kick off our efforts to win in November!  The rally will be held in Bicentennial Park at the corner of Newport and Henry Streets in Williamsburg.  RSVP here.

Of course, there are many other great opportunities to get involved in House of Delegates campaigns tomorrow, too - please feel free to share them in comments if you're working on a House campaign!

Lt. Gov. Primary Strength Map

Kenton over at 750 Volts gets another A+, this time for his Lieutenant Governor primary mapping project. 

First, he's created a map (2005 Democratic Lieutenant Governor Primary) showing the top Democratic Lt. Gov vote-getters in each Virginia county highlighted by relative strength.  It's a fascinating map with surprising results in some areas - strength for Viola Baskerville throughout central Virginia down to the North Carolina border, a southwest Virginia sweep for Phil Puckett, a sprinkling of counties and cities won outright by Chap Petersen, over 50% strength for Byrne in vote-rich NoVA, and a veritable rainbow in the southeast corner/Tidewater region.

If you haven't memorized all counties in Virginia, our own Jim E-H linked to this useful Virginia county map from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Of course, what a geographical representation alone doesn't show is where the votes are, relatively speaking.

Kenton's also got maps showing the strength of Leslie Byrne and Chap Petersen support throughout the state.

Kenton's map for Bolling v. Connaughton is even more dramatic, showing clearly that Connaughton only had very strong support in a few scattered counties.  And note the strength of support for Byrne in beyond-the-beltway NoVA vs. strength for Bolling.  Given how vote-rich NoVA is, this is one good sign for us.

UPDATE: Jim E-H in the comments writes this caveat much more effectively than I did:

One of the important things to keep in mind with these maps, as with the famous red-vs.-blue maps from the November election, is that counties are not equal in population.  Square miles don't vote, people do.

Englin Wins in the 45th: A Victory for the Politics of Conviction and the Tactic of Hard Work

I began my day today at 5:00 am and spent 14 hours on my feet in temperatures that approached 100 degrees helping David Englin win the Democratic nomination to represent the 45th district in the Virginia House of Delegates. So why am I blogging at a quarter till midnight instead of sleeping? Because what David his incredible volunteer effort accomplished in the 45th's 25 precincts is truly remarkable. And it has implications for the Commonwealth of Virginia that extend far beyond the boundaries of this Northern Virginia district—I hope Tim Kaine and the other Democratic nominees are paying attention.

David Englin discovered the secret to winning elections, a strategy so clever that long-time political professionals haven't been able to figure it out. And I'm so excited about David's discovery that I'm up tonight to share it with the world. Yup, that's right, I'm going to put this secret strategy for success on the internet for the whole world to see. (This is freeware, folks!)

And all I ask in exchange is that you promise to share this secret with every Democrat within shouting distance. (Or at least every Democrat on your email list)