Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

Elections

Big Picture: Winning Locally Is NOT Enough

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1-panel cartoon — a female white elementary school teacher holds a textbook called "DeSantis History", and on her blackboard is written "Florida African-American Studies". The teacher says "Slaves developed skills that could be used for personal benefit... like picking cotton, outrunning bloodhounds, waiting on white people, and Mandingo fighting." A white students, wearing a Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt, says "Thank God they banned Critical Race Theory".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:

 

  • 2023 Clinton Jenkins headshot wearing suit and tie with American and Virginia flags in background Monty Mason 2023 headshot 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!

 

  • 2023 headshot of Susanna Gibson in her nurse practitioner medical gownIn 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!

 

  • 2023 headshot of Lily FranklinLily 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!

2016 headshot photo of Tom Garrett wearing a checkered dress shirt and holding a microphoneAnd 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.

Cville Dems Have a New Voter Protection Head!

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Jeremy Jones with a straw hat and an "I voted" sticker standing in front of an "Early Voting Here" sidewalk sign.Jeremy Jones is taking the reins from Bekah Saxon and Kristin Clarens after two election cycles of their good and gracious tutelage (and his prior 2020 experience working as an election official on Election Day). Jeremy really enjoys helping people on Election Day, when everyone’s excited about casting their ballots and having their say in who governs.

Jeremy is looking to expand the VoPro Team to not only cover all the Charlottesville precincts in November, but also hopefully to help out in some other key VA races across the state, so everyone who’s eligible to vote gets to do so.

Voter protection requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work, so there are many ways you can pitch in. The main three:

1. Observe polling place operations and use an online system to file reports of any problems with the State Democratic Party’s boiler room of lawyers ready to handle them. You don’t have to be a lawyer to do this! The only prerequisites are:

  • Taking a 2-hour training session before Election Day (since it’s all about making sure the rules are followed, step #1 is having lawyers explain what the rules are!).
  • On Election Day you must work either the entire long exhilarating day (5am to 8pm!) or a more moderately thrilling half-day shift, either 5am-1pm or Noon-8pm.
  • Being able to keep your cool and speak diplomatically if any problem(s) should arise.

Two examples of issues last year’s team helped with:

  • Explaining the new same-day registration and provisional voting rules to make sure that all such votes could be validated and counted.
  • Dealing with a traffic accident in front of Tonsler Precinct that temporarily blocked voter access.

2. “Chase and cure” (remote work, flexible schedule over the six weeks of early voting) — after a bit of training, help voters fix problems with their mail-in absentee ballots so those ballots can be counted (e.g. when someone gives a PO Box mailing address rather than the required street address).

3. Help staff the Voter Protection Hotline (also remote) — answer problem report phone calls and then try to resolve those problems. This also requires training.

If you might be willing to get involved in these kinds of efforts, please contact Jeremy: hijeremyjones@gmail.com

NOTE: Threats to our elections are not hypothetical… VA counties not so far from us are under attack and we need to stay vigilant! For example:

“Allegations of misconduct and incompetence have bombarded the Buckingham County election office since last November …. after the entire office chose to resign rather than tolerate the accusations, a staff of four has been replaced by a staff of two …. The chairwoman of the Buckingham County Republican Committee who is now trying to assuage voter concerns may be the very reason voters had concerns in the first place … two sources told The Daily Progress that [Republican Committee chairwoman Ramona] Christian emailed an unsubstantiated document to the local Republican Party that claimed absentee ballots in the county’s 2022 General Election came from nonresidents.” Daily Progress, 7/11/23

Report: June Primary Results

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Round graphic saying "Virginia is for Voters" put out by Virginia Department of ElectionsWe held our primary on June 20th. As Democrats, we believe in competition, and as a sign of our healthy, vigorous party, we had plenty of competition on the 20th! Our candidates for state and local races ran vigorous campaigns, full of positive ideas and proud Democratic values.

This is good for our party and for the Commonwealth, because it allows voters to see Democrats debating how best to move our economy forward to include everyone; to protect rights to healthcare; to increase access to housing; to prevent gun violence; to protect our environment; and to provide a better future for all Virginians. Republican primaries, on the other hand, tend to be contests to see which candidate can best attack the most vulnerable minority scapegoat of the moment; voters see this and notice the difference. Thanks to all of our candidates for making it clear what Democratic Party values are all about.

In the city council primary, Natalie Oschrin, Michael Payne, and Lloyd Snook won the nominations, congratulations to them… and thank you, Dashad Cooper and Bob Fenwick, for running and campaigning with honor and making us all proud.

In the 54th House of Delegates District primary, Katrina Callsen won the nomination; congratulations Katrina, and thank yous to Dave Norris and Bellamy Brown for running and consistently promoting beautiful Democratic values.

In the Senate District 11 primary, Creigh Deeds won the nomination. Congratulations, Creigh, and thank you Sally Hudson for running and standing for good government for all.

A SPECIAL WORD OF THANKS to the volunteers at the polling stations on primary day, who greeted voters and provided useful information, as well as to the precinct chairs who organized them. And to all the campaigns’ staff members and volunteers who knocked on countless doors and spread their candidates’ messages; you’ve all helped our party grow!

The voters were the real winners of this affirmation of the democratic process. Now we look forward to the general election in November, where we need to ensure that our excellent candidates win the offices we nominated them for!

Early Voting Has Started, Here Are All Your Voting Options!

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graphic showing a ballot being submitted via insertion into a box with a narrow slit at the top. into

  • Early voting for the Democratic Primary (which in Charlottesville more or less determines the winners of the November General Elections!) started Friday May 5 at the Registrar’s Office and runs through June 17 (Monday-Fridays, and there will be Saturday voting on 6/10 and 6/17).
  • Register now through 5/30 at your Registrar’s Office, or online, or at a registration drive.
  • Do same-day registration when you early vote 5/31-6/17 at your Registrar’s Office.
  • Vote on Election Day 6/20 any time from 6am-7pm at your local precinct (when you use same-day registration at your precinct, you vote with a provisional ballot, which will be counted unless there’s some other problem).
Related Notes
City Council approved some changes to precinct boundaries and polling locations that took effect on April 7, in time for the June primaries. Around May 1 the Registrar’s Office sent postcards to all registered Charlottesville voters; if you didn’t get one, or have any questions about voting or your voting status, call the City of Charlottesville Registrar at 434-970-3250 (Albemarle readers should call the County Registrar at 434-972-4173).
Whenever you cast your ballot, bring an ID that meets Virginia’s criteria (see lists of acceptable IDs in English, Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese). If you don’t have an ID, or forget to bring one, you can sign a form affirming your identity and you’ll still be able to vote a regular ballot.

Forums for June Primary Candidates

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Photo of April 26, 2023 VA House of Delegates forum, (L-R) moderator Karen Combs and candidates Amy Laufer, Kellen Squire, Dave Norris, Bellamy Brown, Katrina Callsen.   Graphic reading Candidates Forum in white letters with red stripes and white stars above and below the words - all set against a blue background for a red white and blue American flag effect

House of Delegates — We held one on April 26 (photo left, video online here) at the Jefferson School, co-sponsored by the Albemarle Dems.
City Council — We’re holding a forum for this race on Wednesday, May 24; time, venue, and other details are still being worked out.
State Senate — The Executive Committee decided last month not to organize another forum.

 

Forums for June Primary Candidates

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Graphic reading Candidates Forum in white letters with red stripes and white stars above and below the words - all set against a blue background for a red white and blue American flag effect
Here’s where these stand:
  • House of Delegates — We’ll have one forum at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center on 4/26, 7:00-8:30pm, for all the primary candidates for both our District 54 (Charlottesville and parts of Albemarle) and also our neighboring District 55 (which includes the rest of Albemarle). This is co-sponsored by the Albemarle Dems.
  • City Council — We’ve started exploring logistics for this.
  • State Senate — At our Executive Committee meeting we’ll see if there’s interest in us hosting a forum for this race (there was a forum this past Monday and at least two other local ones are already scheduled).