Democracy for Virginia

With no Democrat on the ballot, race in 91st is still interesting!

The Hampton Roads Daily Press had an interesting article on the race in the 91st district, which includes parts of York County, Hampton, and Poquoson, on Tuesday.

Incumbent Republican Del. Thomas Gear is being challenged by independent candidate Randy Gilliland, a city council member from Hampton.  Though there is no Democrat on the ballot, some of the controversy in this race seems related to which candidate is more closely tied to the Democratic party:

Gilliland's largest contribution is $5,000 from Gov. Mark R. Warner's political arm, the One Virginia political action committee. Gear said that got the attention of Republican leaders in Richmond who assured him that the party will help him try to match Gilliland's spending.

And lastly, there promises to be a good scuffle about who really is a Democrat. The district is solidly Republican. So much so, that since this district was created in 2001, the General Assembly redrew all 100 districts to account for new census numbers, Democrats have not run a candidate in any of the three elections.

Gilliland has always associated himself with the Democratic Party, although city council races are technically nonpartisan. Gear also considered himself to be a Democrat before switching parties when he ran for the House in 2001 and beat an incumbent Republican.

So nobody in this race wants to affiliate with the Democratic party.  But what about the issues?

The contrast between the candidates is not only rooted in personal differences, but also represents the divide that stifled action in Richmond in recent years.

Gilliland believes the state has a responsibility to properly finance core services like educating children and building roads.

Gear opposes new taxes and tax hikes at every turn and portrays himself as a friend of ordinary people and watchdog against special interests. [...]

Gilliland fashions himself as a champion for business owners and public schools. He talks about his role in fostering economic development in Hampton while on City Council, as well as spearheading the effort to pay for new schools for the first time in decades.

Gear touts himself as a social and fiscal conservative who defends ordinary taxpayers.

Given Gilliland's responsible support for funding core government services such as public schools and transportation, it's no big surprise that Governor Warner's One Virginia PAC is supporting him.  It's harder to see the "taxpayer defense" free-luncher Gear running as a Democrat in the past.  The article points out other significant differences in the candidates' personal criticisms of each other. 

At this point, Gilliland is winning the money race against the incumbent, with slightly more raised and significantly more cash on hand.   In 2003, though, even with no opponent, Gear managed to raise over $90,000.  (For someone who purports to be a "watchdog against special interests", Gear sure does take a lot of money from them...but maybe taking money from industry associations is one way to watchdog them?  Hmmm.  Perhaps I am unclear on the concept.)

The Daily Press says the race in the 91st "appears to be shaping up as one of the most costly and contentious races in Virginia."

Verified Voting Hearings in Richmond

Virginia Verified Voting has sent out an alert about an upcoming meeting of the "Joint Subcommittee Studying the Voting Equipment Certification Process" on Tuesday, July 19.  VaVV lists the subcommittee members here.  Their alert reads:

Virginia is holding hearings to consider requiring voter-verified paper audit trails for voting equipment. Many Virginia jurisdictions have purchased paperless electronic voting machines, and others are considering doing so.

Digital voting machines that lack a voter-verified paper trail are subject to programming errors and possible fraud, with no ability for meaningful audits or recounts.

Attend the hearings and show support for voter-verified audit trails by wearing orange shirts or ribbons.  A large audience will show that Virginians care about the ntegrity of our elections, and that we demand transparent and reliable elections.

Joint Subcommittee Studying Voting Equipment, General Assembly Building, Richmond

• Tuesday, July 19, 2005, at 12:30 p.m. in Senate Room B
• Monday, August 22, 2005, at 12:30 p.m. in House Room C
• Monday, November 21, 2005, at 1:00 p.m. in House Room C

More information can be found at http://www.vavv.org and http://www.verifiedvoting.org.

Hat tip to Alice from GOTV.

DNC Chairman...and this weekend's training

The cover story of this weekend's Washington Post Magazine was a profile of DNC Chairman Howard Dean.  It's a fascinating piece, and the latter section contains great personal details about Dean that most media profiles have completely ignored.

I think this exchange, which occurred with a group of students at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, is most emblematic of what Dean hopes to achieve as DNC chair as well as what inspires many of us working with Democracy for Virginia:

Also, Democrats must contest races in all states, at all levels, in all years, not just presidential ones. "It is disrespectful not to come to Tennessee and Mississippi and Alabama as well as California and Michigan and Ohio . . . We need to come to Tennessee because what you could think of Democrats by watching [Republican] ads is all you're going to think of us unless we show up and make our case in person."

A young man stood up and asked what he could do to help the party, other than give money, which he didn't have. Dean bobbed on his feet, delighted with the question, because it allowed him to show off his best side -- the side that grew a presidential candidacy from a small Vermont operation with seven employees into a national campaign with 600,000 supporters.

"The number one thing you can do is run for office."

[Class giggles]

"I'm absolutely serious. I am not kidding."

The class grew quiet. Here was Dean as a Johnny Appleseed, sowing civics in the young. While Democrats have conceded parts of the country considered hostile, Republicans have left no office untested, he pointed out. The result is that Dems have no farm system, no ability to find young political talent in red states and groom it.

Run, he urged the students. Run for county road commissioner. Run for city council. "If you don't have people running for offices like county commissioner, who do you think is going to run for Congress a generation from now?

Dean has said that if you can't run for office yourself, the next best thing is to be a leader on someone else's campaign.  Or be an occasional volunteer.  Or give money.  But just voting is the bare minimum of what is required in a democracy.

Democracy for Virginia is working to help train and support a new "farm team" of candidates and campaign leaders in Virginia.  Over 100 grassroots activists were trained in May in Charlottesville.  We've teamed up with Latinos for America, DC for Democracy, and Democracy for America to host another DFA Campaign Training, this time in Falls Church.  Over 150 people have already signed up for this weekend's training.  We hope you'll join us!

Washington Post story on Virginia political blogging

The Washington Post today ran a story on political blogging in Virginia subtitled "Va. Candidates Find Help, Lies on Web" on the front page of the Metro section.

Unfortunately, the story focuses mainly on the example of Not Larry Sabato's blog running a rumor that Shayna Englin was planning to run for Congress.  Of course, this example highlights the more negative aspects of some types of political blogging -- unconfirmed rumors, anonymous sources, anonymous bloggers, anonymous commenters, innocent subjects.  I consider it a major low point for NLS's blog, which otherwise provided very interesting coverage of House races and has succeeded in attracting and maintaining a bipartisan audience - something that I don't think is true for any other Virginia political blog. 

By focusing on the worst post of this one blog, the WaPo article misses the bigger story on Virginia political blogging.  The opening paragraph mentions it:

David and Shayna Englin are all too familiar with the power of bloggers. Courting these off-the-cuff Internet columnists helped David Englin, a relative unknown, win a Democratic primary for a Northern Virginia House seat last month.

But then the rest of the story ignores this positive aspect of blogging and focuses on ethical concerns about the anonymous NLS blog, which is an outlier in the Virginia political blogosphere in that it is completely anonymous and runs anonymous rumors without confirmation.  (Not to bash NLS's blog - it still has more coverage of Virginia House races than any other source, blog or otherwise.)

What would have been far more instructive and unique would have been to ask the Englins how blogging - their own, and that of prominent political bloggers they befriended - impacted their race.

Was it through giving them buzz they wouldn't otherwise have had?  Did bloggers help attract volunteers to the race?  Did blogging help to feed stories to the mainstream media about their campaign?  Did blog-based coverage of their race inspire donors and supporters?  What are the constructive and useful aspects of blogging?

DFV was mentioned in the "Blog Spots" list which accompanied the article, along with two of my favorite Virginia political blogs, Commonwealth Commonsense and 750 Volts.  Two right-wing blogs, Bacon's Rebellion and Sic Semper Tyrannis were also mentioned.  Welcome to Washington Post readers who've found us today!