Candidates
Trump and Republicans Continue Embrace of Fascism and Autocracy
- “Former president Donald Trump has crossed a red line into championing what we’d recognize as full-flung fascism if it came from the mouth of a foreign leader. It demonstrates just how inured we’ve become to Trump’s despicable despotic rhetoric that he’s not ostracized or treated like a renegade to the US Constitution and American democracy. Instead, he remains the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.” Boston Globe, 11/14/23
- “It’s now clearer than ever that Trump, if elected, will use the federal government to go after his political rivals and critics, even deploying the military toward that end. His allies are hatching plans to invoke the Insurrection Act on day one. The US then “would resemble a banana republic”, a University of Virginia law professor [Ed– Saikrishna Prakash] told the Washington Post when it revealed these schemes. Almost as troubling, two New York Times stories outlined Trump’s autocratic plans to put loyal lawyers in key posts and limit the independence of federal agencies. The press generally is not doing an adequate job of communicating those realities.” The Guardian, 11/09/23
- “In Ohio, after voters on Tuesday approved an amendment to the state constitution protecting abortion rights, Republicans are calling the amendment “ambiguous” and trying to remove it from the jurisdiction of the courts. They want to make the legislature—which they dominate thanks to gerrymandering—the only body that can decide what the measure means. They are openly trying to override the decision of the voters. In Washington, Republicans have empowered Christian extremist Mike Johnson (R-LA) to lead the House of Representatives as speaker, and today we learned that outside his office he displays a flag associated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) network that wants to place the United States government under the control of right-wing Christians.” Prof. Heather Cox Richardson, 11/10/2023
Winning in November, Option #2 — Canvassing Locally
We’re partnering with the Albemarle Dems to ensure we win all our local races; with several uncontested City races, it makes sense to shift some of our energy.
- State Senate: Incumbent Senator Creigh Deeds is favored to win our crucial Senate District 11, but the district has some very conservative areas, and we can’t be complacent if we’re going to keep this seat. His opponent, Philip Hamilton, is quite a piece of work; among other claims to fame, he’s publicly misgendered his own 12-year-old, claiming that school teachers had poisoned his child’s mind into being non-binary. And he favors schools outing gay students to their parents (see below in “Preaching Beyond the Choir”). This is not someone we want representing us; please donate to or canvass for (or both) the Deeds campaign!
- House of Delegates: Amy Laufer (our Albemarle County neighbor running in a competitive District #55 race) and Katrina Callsen (running unopposed in our District #54)
- Charlottesville City Council: Natalie Oschrin, Michael Payne, and Lloyd Snook (running unopposed)
- Charlottesville School Board: Amanda Burns, Shymora Cooper, Chris Meyer, and Nicole Richardson
- Albemarle County Board of Supervisors: Bea LaPisto-Kirtley, Ann Mallek, and Michael Pruitt
- Albemarle County School Board (ACSB): Rebecca Berlin, Judy Le, Ellen Moore Osborne, and Allison Spillman. A few notes about Allison’s race: she’s running against Meg Scalia Bryce, the daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia-Bryce is (a) very concerned that the ACSB has been treating LGBTQ kids with respect and support, and (b) is very offended by its anti-racist curriculum. Scalia-Bryce has been winning the fundraising race by a wide margin, and we can’t let extremists like her (e.g. a big fan of the Moms for Liberty book banners) start taking over our local schools (per Forward Albemarle, all her kids attend private schools). Please help Allison’s campaign any way you can, especially via donations and canvassing help.
If you’d like to canvass locally (figure a shift is roughly 3 hours):
- On a weekday, please email karencombs6522@gmail.com .
- On a weekend, use SignUp Genius to participate in one or more of these coordinated canvasses:
Combs’ Office map Mudhouse Crozet map yellow=Weekends of Action emphasis
Please tell your friends and social media connections how important it is to vote (and maybe even volunteer!); we need to hit high vote counts in our area to offset more conservative areas!
Local Elections: Canvassing with the Albemarle Dems
We’re partnering to ensure we win our local races (with several uncontested City races, it makes sense to shift our efforts!):
State Senate: Creigh Deeds is favored to win our crucial Senate District 11, but the district has some very conservative areas, and we can’t be complacent if we’re going to keep this seat. His opponent, Phillip Andrew Hamilton, is quite a piece of work; among other claims to fame, he’s publicly misgendered his own 12-year-old, claiming that school teachers had poisoned his child’s mind into being non-binary. This is not someone we want representing us; please donate to or canvass for the Deeds campaign!
House of Delegates: Amy Laufer (our Albemarle County neighbor running in a competitive District #55 race) and Katrina Callsen (running unopposed in our District #54)
- Charlottesville City Council: Natalie Oschrin, Michael Payne, and Lloyd Snook
- Charlottesville School Board: Amanda Burn, Shymora Cooper, Chris Meyer, and Nicole Richardson
- Albemarle County Board of Supervisors: Bea LaPisto-Kirtley, Ann Mallek, and Michael Pruitt
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Allison Spillman Albemarle County School Board: Rebecca Berlin, Judy Le, Ellen Moore Osborne, and Allison Spillman. A special note about Allison’s race: she’s running against Meg Scalia Bryce, the daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia-Bryce is (a) very concerned that the ACSB has been treating LGBTQ kids with respect and support, and (b) is very offended by its anti-racist curriculum. Scalia-Bryce has been winning the fundraising race by a wide margin, and we can’t let extremists like her start taking over our local schools. Please help Allison’s campaign any way you can, especially via donations and canvassing help.
If you’d like to canvass locally (figure roughly 3 hours):
- On a weekday, please email karencombs6522@gmail.com .
- On a weekend, use SignUp Genius to participate in one or more of the coordinated canvasses we’re doing with the Albemarle Dems, see the table below.
Sign up using this Signup Genius link!
Maps: Combs’ Office Mudhouse Crozet
Note: yellow highlights show “Weekends of Action” emphasis
Big Picture: Winning Locally Is NOT Enough
Republicans control the House of Delegates and the Governor’s mansion, and Dems barely hold the Senate; if Republicans take the Senate, then Virginia will become Florida, which means forced childbirth laws, schools teaching whitewashed history, “don’t-say-gay” laws, and other measures to erase LGBTQ youth.
We can’t let this happen; all Dems need to help in some way. Here are four non-local races where our help can make a difference:
The state party’s political staff say that two must-win races are Senate District 17 (Delegate Clint Jenkins looking to move up) and Senate District 24 (incumbent Senator Monty Mason running in a redrawn district). These races aren’t in the neighborhood, but if you can send a few bucks, it can help us retain the Senate!
In not-too-distant HD-57, Western Henrico/Eastern Goochland, Charlottesville native Susanna Gibson is running in a no-incumbent, competitive district; we need to win this seat to have a chance at a House of Delegates Democratic majority. January 6 insurrectionist John McGuire represented about 55% of current HD57 voters in the old HD56, so we have MAGA voters to beat!
Lily Franklin is running for the HD-41 seat, around Blacksburg. Charlottesville Dems know her well from her excellent work on the Josh Throneburg campaign, and she’s exactly the sort of person we need in the House! She’s in a right-leaning district, but we believe Lily has a fighting chance if we pull together. The “Turn Out the Vote Thursdays” group will be helping her campaign, possibly including a road trip to knock on doors there.
Whatever you choose to do, please do something to help the good guys hold the Senate and regain the House! Thank you!
And re: bad guys (elections matter!): our former 5th District Representative, Republican Tom Garrett, now running unopposed for VA House of Delegates District 56, was back in the news yesterday re: his bitter divorce proceedings with allegations of spousal abuse, attempted suicide, and thoughts of having his chief of staff killed.
Successful “Summer Fun in the Sun” Picnic with the Albemarle Dems (7/30/23)
75 people turned out on July 30 and did have a lot of fun… and got to hear good, short speeches from most of our local candidates!
The Albemarle Dems were super well-organized and had everything running smoothly and brought plenty of good food; thank you Karen Combs and crew!
John McLaren coordinated getting gas grills (thanks to Rodney Beard and Jules Tatum for providing the equipment and transportation) and Martha Donnelly (game buyer extraordinaire), Emily Little, and Dan Doernberg organized the games, with cornhole provided by Josh Throneburg and Jason and Tom Vandever.
Erin Monaghan took the games and miscellaneous other things to our storage locker for the next picnic (everyone said we should do this again, and hold more joint events with Albemarle!).
Creigh Deeds
Amy Laufer
