Democracy for Virginia

Demonstrating Kilgore's Wide Appeal (Not!)

I had intended to phone bank at the coordinated campaign HQ in McLean yesterday evening, but an earlier meeting went over-time and I ended up showing up at HQ, embarrassed and apologetic, with only a half hour of calling time remaining.  I was of no use to the campaign, but was interested to hear that other volunteers had been delayed in commuting to the office after work because they were stuck in traffic jams caused by security for George W. Bush, who attended "very intimate dinner" for 100 in McLean last night as a fundraiser for Jerry Kilgore.

Bob over at Commonwealth Commonsense raised a pertinent question about what kind of "intimacy" can occur with 100 people at a time (and whether Dick Black and Bob Marshall might disapprove).  I was even more amused by details in this morning's Post coverage of last night's event (emphasis mine):

The minimum [contribution] at the McLean dinner, at the home of developer and home builder Dwight Schar, was a $15,000 donation to Jerry W. Kilgore, gubernatorial candidate in Virginia's Nov. 8 election.

"They called and asked if we wanted 'dinner with the president,' " said Ray Breeden, chairman of the Breeden Co., a development firm based in Virginia Beach. "And who's going to turn that down?" Breeden was planning on flying his jet up for the event. [...]

The invitation to Dwight and Martha Schar's luxurious home by the Potomac River in McLean beckoned with the promise of proximity to power: a "very intimate dinner," it proposed, with "our very special guest President George W. Bush."

What that meant in practice was a meal at a 10,000-square-foot house attended by Bush and about 100 other guests, campaign aides said, not including a phalanx of police and well-dressed security men. The dinner guests were guided down a windy, wooded road on the Schars' 10-acre estate, which bears the name "Wind Falls."

Okay, so they're super-rich.  (My condo could fit inside that house 18 times over - think they have enough closet space?)  No news that big Republican donors are rich, of course.  But what struck me as laughable was the comment that Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh made about the alleged significance of the event:

Tim Murtaugh, Kilgore's spokesman, said yesterday's financial rewards show that the Kilgore campaign holds appeal for everyone from Main Street America to "the leader of the free world."

Well, no.  Yesterday's event doesn't show the Kilgore campaign holds appeal for everyone.  It shows that the Kilgore campaign holds appeal for one couple living in a gargantuan-sized mansion and a hundred people who can shell out an average contribution of $20,000 to buy some "intimacy".

In contrast, a thousand people, mostly young voters, attended Wednesday night's Tim Kaine fundraiser in Arlington with Barack Obama, for which the suggested minimum contribution was 35 bucks.  Of course, there's no question the Kaine campaign would rather have netted $2 million, but opening up an affordable, small-dollar fundraiser to a thousand young voters does provide other tangible (though less quantifiable) benefits to a campaign. 

The Bush event was supposedly 10 times more "intimate", but was more than 400 times more expensive per attendee.  Evidence of wide appeal?  I think not.  Those in the market to buy some political "intimacy" might also note that we got the better bargain overall.

But who knows.   Maybe they had really good appetizers.  One would hope so.

News-Press Describes Progressive Determination in Falls Church

The Falls Church News-Press was on hand to witness the remarkable display of determination of Virginia progressives during the campaign leadership training weekend in Falls Church on July 9-10 offered by Democracy for America and co-hosted by DFV.  An article in yesterday's edition describes the scene:

There aren’t many things that could convince somebody to give up a sunny summer day to spend hours in a high school classroom. Just the idea of leaving the beach blanket to sit in an uncomfortable desk under fluorescent lighting is tantamount to punishment.

Yet earlier this month, as the hours ticked away on a glorious July weekend, over 100 people, from teenagers fresh out of high school to senior citizens now earning Social Security checks, showed up at George C. Marshall High School at 8 a.m. and staying all day for two days, sacrificing their free time in exchange for an education in grass roots politics.

During the day before the training, I was on the phone with a candidate for the House of Delegates, talking about the candidate forum planned for the next day.  He said to me, "You're telling me you're expecting more than a hundred people in July to give up two whole weekend days for training on campaign leadership?  Did you bribe them or something?  That's unheard of."

Nope, we didn't bribe them (although we did feed them).  In fact, most participants contributed to cover the cost of the training and to sponsor scholarships for other participants!

Many Democrats and others who fought to defeat Bush are taking this year "off" - regaining their hope, replenishing their bank accounts, re-connecting with parts of their lives that were neglected while volunteering on campaigns.  But here in Virginia, we've had to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get immediately back to work for our 2005 elections.  Seeing so many people gathered together to learn to be more effective volunteers and campaign leaders was a real inspiration.

In addition to the FCNP article, blogger Teddy Goodson (an inspirational and feisty ex-Republican) over at Raising Kaine has been describing her experiences at the training in a series of detailed posts.  Her first three installments are here, here, and here, with more to come.  And lovely Luna over at Liberal Rage has a great writeup, too.

DFV-PAC Endorses Roemmelt and Porta

One of the most important goals for Democracy for Virginia PAC in 2005 is supporting socially progressive, fiscally responsible candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates who are standing up to oppose previously unopposed right-wing Republican incumbents.

The Republican majority in the House of Delegates is focused on a divisive, socially-regressive agenda that is hurting our Commonwealth.  In the long run, we believe that no Republican should run unopposed.  In 2003, 43 Republicans in the 100-member House of Delegates ran unopposed by Democrats.  This year, there are 41.

Democracy for Virginia PAC is proud to announce that the first two candidates we will be endorsing this year are two courageous Virginians who are standing up to oppose Republican incumbents who went unchallenged in 2003.  They are both running aggressive, ambitious grassroots campaigns in their districts.  We are proud to support Bruce Roemmelt and Earnie Porta for election to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Every dollar contributed to Democracy for Virginia PAC between now and July 31 will go directly to supporting Bruce, Earnie, and the DFV-PAC Endorsement Challenge Fund. Contribute today.

Bruce Roemmelt is a teacher, retired firefighter, and a decorated veteran with decades of public service in Prince William County.  Bruce and his wife Beth live in Haymarket.  Bruce's grassroots campaign combines netroots outreach, ambitious door-to-door voter contact, building home-grown campaign leadership, and developing and training local precinct leaders.  He has successfully outraised his Republican opponent for the last three reporting periods with large numbers of small-dollar donors.

Bruce's focus on education, transportation, and health care is in stark contrast to incumbent Delegate Bob Marshall's obsession with a narrow set of divisive social issues.  Team Roemmelt has already knocked on thousands of doors in the 13th district, and residents consistently cite transportation, public education, and access to health care as their main concerns.  Meanwhile, this year alone, Bob Marshall has patroned or co-patroned more than 15 bills that are focused on restricting access to contraception, restricting access to abortion, and restricting rights of gay and lesbian Virginians.  His extremism makes Marshall ineffective, even with a wide Republican majority in the House.  Of the 37 bills for which he was chief patron in 2005, for instance, only 7 appear to have been enacted, including a bill to provide instructions about dividing pollbooks (voter lists) into sections, a bill to postpone execution of a pregnant inmate on death row until after she gives birth, a bill to mandate reporting of use of student fees in public colleges, a bill regarding student athletes who use steroids, and a bill instructing school boards to develop guidelines for dealing with bullying. 

Earnie Porta is also fighting for more effective representation for his district, the 51st, which includes parts of Prince William County, where incumbent Republican Michele McQuigg also ran unopposed in 2003.  Democrats are building strength in this district, which John Kerry came within 100 votes of winning (out of 28,000 cast) in November.  Earnie Porta's ambitious door-to-door outreach in his campaign this year is critical to continuing to strengthen local Democratic leadership. 

An attorney and financial planner, Earnie Porta is a member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary.  He and his wife Barbara live in Occoquan.  Earnie's campaign is focusing on the need for transportation solutions, improved public schools, and effective leadership in dealing with issues of growth, sprawl, and environmental protection.  Earnie is a pragmatic progressive, strongly supporting reproductive freedom and opposing efforts to "enshrine discriminatory treatment" based on sexual orientation. 

Like Marshall, incumbent Michele McQuigg fails to represent the needs and priorities of the voters in her district.  Though she is not a cartoonish right-wing "bad guy", introducing numerous socially regressive brochure bills like Marshall does, she goes along with his agenda.  She tries to pass herself off as moderate, but her voting record makes clear that her allegiance is to the right-wing extremists in the House.  For instance, for every vote for which she was present on one of Bob Marshall's bills that came to the floor of the House in 2005, she voted with Bob Marshall.  And although residents in the 51st consistently bring up transportation as one of their top issues, McQuigg introduced only one bill even remotely related to transportation this year - a bill to expand use of photo-red light cameras - which failed to make it to the House floor.

Both Bruce Roemmelt and Earnie Porta have outraised their opponents during the past two reporting periods through their commitment to grassroots campaigning and small-donor outreach.  They are both pragmatic progressives who are committed to empowering more Virginians to become involved in the political process.  Both Earnie and Bruce are investing in strong grassroots campaigns, focused on building local precinct-level leadership and one-on-one outreach to voters. 

All contributions to Democracy for Virginia PAC between now and July 31st will support Bruce Roemmelt, Earnie Porta, and our endorsement challenge fund.  If you share our belief that we should be fighting Republican extremism everywhere in Virginia, please contribute today and show your support for great candidates like Earnie and Bruce!

Authorized by Democracy for Virginia PAC, VA 05-036.  Not authorized by any candidate.

Virginia Blogging Summit

Thanks to the efforts of Waldo Jaquith and Chad Dotson (aka John Behan), the esteemed Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at University of Virginia will be offering the first Summit on Blogging and Democracy in the Commonwealth on August 27.

The mission of the summit is twofold:

1)To promote commonwealth over partisanship among political bloggers in Virginia.
2)To explore efforts to regulate political blogging.

After pasting the first objective above, I had to chuckle when I clicked on over to John Behan's site to create the link to his site and saw that his topmost post read:

Leftist morons like Paul Begala and Howard Dean are trying awfully hard to make sure that the Democratic Party becomes a permanent minority party.

Commonwealth over partisanship, indeed.  ;-)

Seriously, this summit holds great promise, and its success depends on far more than the fine organizers who have put it together - it depends on all of us in the Virginia political blogosphere, from bloggers to commenters to lurkers - participating actively.  From the press release:

"Part of the Sorensen Institute's mission is to promote civility in politics. Bloggers play an important role in educating the voters," explained Sorensen Institute Executive Director Sean O'Brien. "We hope that by bringing bloggers of all political stripes together that we can promote a civil discourse of the important issues facing the Commonwealth."

"It is becoming increasingly evident that bloggers will be playing a significant role in the political process over the next few years," said Chad Dotson, Commonwealth's Attorney for Wise County and the City of Norton. In addition to his duties as a prosecutor, Dotson writes for Commonwealth Conservative, a blog about Virginia politics. "For some time, it has been my desire to see Virginia bloggers step to the forefront in promoting an atmosphere where bloggers can help move Virginia forward on issues important to us all, rather than engaging in partisan bickering. I'm very pleased that the Sorensen Institute is taking on this project, and I look forward to attending."

"Blogs have become a promising medium for involving more ordinary Virginians in the political process," says Maura Keaney, a blogger and board member of Democracy for Virginia PAC. "We've only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of how blogs can be used to inform, include, and empower voters in Virginia."

"This conference comes at an ideal time in the growth of the Virginia political 'blogosphere,'" continued Keaney, "It will allow bloggers on all parts of the ideological spectrum to come together and discuss blogging as a medium before we head into the fall elections in Virginia."

A day packed with serious agenda items will be followed by an evening of bipartisan socializing.   And we all know that's where the real drama will be, right?  Will fans of "leftist morons" like Howard Dean be able to get along with bloggers who call Dean a leftist moron?  Will anonymous bloggers wear paper bags over their heads like the Unknown Comic?  If the stereotype of the blogger is someone who blogs all night in his underwear eating Cheetos in his mom's dark basement, will the entire social event collapse from a collective lack of social skills?  Will blog commenters wait for bloggers to start the conversations before speaking up?

Don't miss the drama.  Sign up!

Yep, someone really does read them

If you write letters to your elected representatives often, it's easy to forget that real people actually read them and sometimes even act on what we write.

It's nice to be reminded. 

Hat tip to the friendliest, smartest Watchdog ever.

Pound the pavement, then party with DFV

For ordinary Virginians who really care about politics, Saturdays from now until November can be really packed with political activities, but it's important to fit in occasions for fun, too!

Tomorrow, for instance, Lowell will be driving nearly 6 hours at the crack of dawn to report on Tim Kaine's debate with Jerry Kilgore...in West Virginia.  Waldo and other bloggers will be at home all morning to live-blog the event.  Democrats around Virginia will be attending debate "non-watching parties" at locations throughout the Commonwealth in the morning.  Many groups such as the Falls Church City Democratic Committee will head out to canvass neighborhoods. Progressive activists working with America Votes coalition partners will be participating in Day of Action events for this year's Virginia elections at locations around Virginia as well as in DC.

All that work should be rewarded with some relaxation and fun, so we're looking forward to Saturday night's Democracy for Virginia House Party in Alexandria.  It'll be a casual potluck event, a great way to relax and meet new friends after a day of political action.  Special guests will include two inspiring Democratic candidates for Virginia House of Delegates.  We hope to see you there!

Big Mileage on the Blue Truck for Blubaugh

The Augusta Free Press today has an interesting story on Jim Blubaugh's race for the open seat in the 15th district.  According to the article, the mountainous district, which includes the counties of Rappahanock, Shenandoah, Page, and a small part of Rockingham County, is larger in square mileage than the state of Rhode Island.

With Mark Warner's popularity soaring, it's not surprising that Blubaugh, a retired federal government executive with over 30 years' experience, will be running as a "Mark Warner Democrat":

"[Warner] worked very hard on creating compromise. That's what everybody finds so admirable about Gov. Warner. It wasn't a matter of who to blame. It was about getting Virginia out of the mess that it was in. And not only did he get the state out of the mess that it was in, but he brought us to a point where we have a fiscal surplus that is absolutely amazing.

According to Blubaugh's campaign site, his platform includes support for:

• strong schools and a strong community college;
• more jobs and better jobs, with health benefits;
• control over unplanned growth;
• fiscal responsibility, ensuring that Richmond spends our tax dollars wisely;
• more open land for hunting and fishing;
• clean air and water.

The open seat in the 15th is formerly held by Republican Delegate Allen Louderback, who has held the seat since 2000.  Blubaugh's Republican opponent for the open seat, Todd Gilbert, had a 4-1 fundraising advantage as of the end of last month; that might change in the next couple of days as this month's reports come in.

In 2003, Democrat Thomas Lewis earned 37% of the vote, but raised only approximately $5,000 to the incumbent's $80,000.  Blubaugh should do considerably better in a race for an open seat and with more money in the bank.  It shows great promise that he's racking up so many miles in his "Blue Truck", reaching out to voters all over his huge district.

Hat tip to Adam at the great VAYD-6thCD blog.

Supreme Court Grants Stay of Execution in Lovitt Case

From the AP:

The U.S. Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution Monday for a man convicted of fatally stabbing the manager of a pool hall with a pair of scissors.

Robin Lovitt, 41, had been scheduled for execution at 9 p.m. Monday.

The stay will remain in place until the court returns in October from a three-month break. Justices will announce then whether they will hear Lovitt's appeal or allow Virginia to execute him.

Is Virginia About to Execute an Innocent Man?

The following guest post was written by Albert Monroe, Convenor of the Northern Virginia chapter of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP). 

This Monday, July 11^th, at 9 PM, the Commonwealth of Virginia is scheduled to execute Robin Lovitt.  We think that Robin Lovitt is innocent, but we will never know because the evidence from his trial has been destroyed, in violation of Virginia law.  Please help save Robin Lovitt’s life!

Robin Lovitt was convicted based on DNA evidence that has now been destroyed.  The only witness to clearly identify Lovitt as the attacker was a jailhouse snitch.  At his trial, prosecutors claimed that DNA test results showed that the victim’s blood was on the murder weapon and that Robin Lovitt’s sweat was left on the murder weapon.  In fact, the only identifying allele was one that is common to 35% of the male African-American population, including Robin Lovitt.  None of the blood found on Robin Lovitt’s jacket matched the victim, which would be expected if he were the actual murderer.

The use of current DNA techniques would likely exonerate Robin Lovitt, as in the case of Earl Washington, the only exoneree from Virginia’s death row.  But we’ll never know because the evidence has been destroyed.  The only person that can stop the execution of Robin is the Governor.  The Governor’s intervention would save an innocent man and maintain confidence that no innocent person is ever put to death in the Commonwealth.

We can stop the execution of Robin Lovitt, but we must pressure the Governor to do the right thing and commute his death sentence.  Contact Governor Warner to ask him for a commutation of Robin Lovitt’s death sentence.  His contact information is:

Gov. Mark R. Warner   
State Capitol, 3rd Floor   
Richmond, Virginia 23219   
Phone: (804) 786-2211  Fax: (804) 371-6351   
TTY/TDD (For the Hearing Impaired): (804) 371-8015
To send an electronic email  message to the governor click below:

http://www.governor.virginia.gov/Contact/email_form.html 

Also, if you want to write a letter to the editor to the Washington Post, you can write them at [email protected]<. If you wish to contact the Metro editor, Bob Barnes, write him at [email protected].  Don't send an attachment, but instead write a heartfelt letter and include info about the case at the bottom of the letter.  You can also contact Michael Shearof the Washington Post's Richmond Bureau ([email protected]<); he's covered death penalty issues in the past.  Also, contact other daily papers around the state. The entire Commonwealth of Virginia needs to know that the Commonwealth is about to execute an innocent man.  More information about the case can be found at http://www.vadp.org/action.htm. To join our e-mail list and get more information about how to fight this and future executions, write the group at [email protected] or me personally at [email protected].

The Northern Virginia chapter of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP-NOVA) will hold an execution vigil for Robin Lovitt at 8:30 PM at Courthouse Metro station in Arlington.  If by some chance Robin Lovitt is not executed, we will still meet at the Metro stop and go somewhere to meet and celebrate the commutation.

If you are outside of Northern Virginia, there will be an execution vigil at the same time (8:30 PM, Monday July 11^th) at the execution site at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, VA. 

Please help.

DFA Training & Candidate Forum in Falls Church tomorrow!

We're now expecting over 175 people to gather in Falls Church for an intensive-two day training program in campaign leadership for grassroots activists - an amazing testament to progressive enthusiasm and strength here in Virginia.  When that many people are willing to give up two beautiful weekend days during the summer to gain political skills, it's a vivid sign that ordinary Virginians are willing to go to extraordinary lengths stand up and fight against right-wing extremism and for sensible leadership for all Virginians.

It's going to be a great weekend of intensive skill-building workshops and networking opportunities.  It's not too late to join us - we hope to see you there!

In addition to our full training day tomorrow from 8:30 - 5:00, our group of fired-up, newly trained activists will have an opportunity to meet with a number of great Democratic challengers for House of Delegates tomorrow night at our Candidates Forum.  If you can't make it for the full two days of training, you're still welcome to stop by and join us for the forum from 5:30 - 7:00PM to meet some inspiring, courageous candidates.

Democracy for Virginia and DC for Democracy Candidates Forum for Virginia House of Delegates
Candidates scheduled to appear include David Poisson, Dave Marsden, Bruce Roemmelt, David Bulova...and other special guests will stop by throughout the weekend!
Saturday, July 9   5:30 - 7:00 PM
George Marshall High School, 7731 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church

We hope to see you there!