Cville Dems

The Charlottesville Democratic Committee

Elections

Three VA Early-January “Must-Win” Special Elections

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 Get out the Vote graphic reading "Calling All Democrats! Get out the Vote! Knock Doors Make Calls (for) Jand Harris Special Election Tuesday January 10" The image shows a January 2023 calendar with Saturday 7th - Tuesday 10th blacked out.
The three races below are critical to protect the progress we’ve made and for the upcoming legislative session. We have just a few days left to elect candidates who will support reproductive and voting rights, environmental protection, rule of law, etc. These aren’t our districts, but Democrats are all on one team and we need to show up for each other!

photo of State Delegate candidate Jade Harris1. Our friends at Rural GroundGame need our help for the final 4 days of District 24’s 1/10 Special Election that will helpfully see Jade Harris win a seat in the House of Delegates!

Jade is the only candidate in the race with solid, local, political experience (she was Vice Mayor of Glasgow, VA) and has worked on funding for community infrastructure and gun violence prevention.
At this point she really needs physical and virtual “boots on the ground” for the final GOTV:
  • January 7, 8, & 9 — In-person AND virtual at 10am/Noon/3pm
  • Election Day 1/10 — In-person AND virtual at 9am/Noon/3pm
In-person meet-up locations:
Lexington: 11 S. Jefferson St. Lexington, VA 24450
Amherst: (location TBA)
For more details, please reach out to harris4va@gmail.com
2. Aaron Rouse, former Virginia Beach City Councilman (and Hokie/NFL football player) is running for VA-07 State Senate (Virginia Beach area). The election is Jan. 10th. Visit https://rouseforsenate.com to find out more about this excellent candidate, and donate here.
3. VA-35 (Fairfax County) has a January 7th Special Election. Holly Siebold is a progressive Dem (and Mom and Educator), and this is an important seat for us to keep blue! Visit hollyseibold.com for info about this excellent candidate, and donate here.

Aaron Rouse in group photo with people holding "Aaron Rouse for Virginia Senate" signs          Holly Siebold photo with text reading "Delegate. Educator. Mom. Advocate. Progressive Democrat for Delegate. When I see changes needed in our community I don’t sit on the sidelines. I roll up my sleeves and get to work. That’s what Democrats do. I’ll do it every day."

REPORT: 11/28 Executive Committee Meeting

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There are important discussions going on about where how we vote in the city that will impact a large fraction of the city’s voters in 2023 and thereafter.

Precinct Redistricting

City of Charlottesville Registrar Taylor Yowell and Electoral Board member Ann Hemenway shared the City’s draft proposal for reformatting Charlottesville’s precincts with the goals of evening out the number of voters in each precinct and increasing functionality, i.e. walkability, parking, etc. Around 40% of city voters would be in a new precinct. Alumni Hall (high-traffic accessibility problems) and Tonsler (inadequate space and parking) precincts would be replaced by Charlottesville High School and Jackson-Via.

 

Update on Ranked Choice Voting (RCV)

Delegate Sally Hudson explained that, due to electronic voting equipment limitations, City Council won’t have the ability to use RCV in the 6/2023 primary, but could authorize its use starting as soon as the 11/2023 general election. Sally asked the Executive Committee to consider having the Full Committee pass a resolution telling City Council whether we support or oppose an ordinance authorizing RCV for City Council elections.
It’s likely that the Cville Dems will need to have additional meetings and/or communications re: RCV and regarding the process of nominating candidates soon.
Sally shared a document with some of her perspectives on RCV:

Reflections on the November General Election

Josh Throneburg campaign poster showing Josh, his wife, and two children standing in a meadow

Josh Throneburg reported that he and his team are doing an after-election report to analyze what worked well and what didn’t; Josh is committed to staying involved to try to build in all of those areas for the future.

The campaign’s budget was much smaller than it had been for the previous two Democratic campaigns in the district, and so the campaign couldn’t reach as many voters as it needed to. Josh also indicated that the party needs to build up its infrastructure if we want to have success in the Fifth; some counties barely have a functioning Democratic committee, and the party’s network in rural areas is weak. His team is creating some briefing materials and other infrastructure so our next 5th District candidate won’t have to start from ground zero as his campaign did.
[As co-chairs Dashad and John previously posted on social media a million “thank yous” to Josh Throneburg, his staff, his family, volunteers & donors. We didn’t win, but we put out a positive message of Democratic values, compassion, and common sense. Josh has our party’s gratitude and great respect, and we salute him for leading our good fight!]

Post-Election Day Polling Place Update

Electoral Board member Jim Nix reported that 53% of active voters voted in the past election, only down 3% from last year’s gubernatorial race. The new electronic poll books worked very well. Same-day registration/voting on election day was a major change this year: 950 provisional ballots were cast (901 were certified and counted), nearly all were done on election day itself and, as expected, most were from students. This was even more provisional ballots than expected and led to a lot of stress on Carver and Venable poll workers, issues that will be addressed.

​​Josh Throneburg Campaign: Final Election Day Push!!

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Bob Good photo with "No" Slash mark across circle symbol over it

If you (rightly) think that Bob Good is a horrible extremist and a terrible Congressman, please invest a few hours to be the change you want to see!

You have lots of good ways to pitch in during the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) push that makes all the difference (ideally sign up at https://www.mobilize.us/joshforvirginia, but OK to just come out):

 

Josh Throneburg campaign poster showing Josh, his wife, and two children standing in a meadow

  • Thursday (TODAY): Former Democratic CD-5 Rep. Tom Perriello will be at Josh’s Headquarters for the start of the 1-4pm canvass; stop by to say hello and then canvass with us! We’ll meet at Josh’s Pantops office at 302 Hickman Rd. in the parking lot at the back of the building, where the office entrance is! Before you arrive, it’s a big time saver if you download the “Minivan” app we use to take down and input our canvassing data!
  • Thursday (TODAY): “Turn Out the Vote Thursdays” (see below)
  • Thursday (TODAY): Virtual Phone Bank (6:30-8:30pm) led by J4VA & Generation Ratify Virginia
  • Saturday: Canvassing in Charlottesville (10am, 1pm, 4pm), see Thursday above for details
  • Sunday: Canvassing in Charlottesville (10am, 1pm, 4pm), see Thursday above for details

 

Dr. Ivy Hinton: We Need to Vote!

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Headshot photo of Dr. Ivy Hinton

[Dr. Hinton, our co-chair 2015-2020, posted this on Facebook yesterday]

It’s taken me a while to say this, I think because I can’t fathom the need to do so, but it’s not too late to say: we need to vote.

Not voting puts almost everything we value at risk. We’ve heard over and over the Republican plans for our future: impeach Biden, Harris, Pelosi, Schumer, even Dr. Fauci (yes, they don’t value Dr. Fauci’s good work keeping most of us alive and well during a pandemic). These are not serious solutions to real problems.

We need to vote.

I too feel the concerns about the price of gas and food, but those are short term things; I feel an even greater distress about our democracy being at risk, and that’s not short term, that’s something we may not get back if we lose it. Racism and sexism are also on the ballot. We need to do better than shake our heads and shrug our shoulders: we need to vote.

The Democratic candidate Josh Throneburg is an ordained minister and owner of a small business, a husband and father. He said, “As the father of two young girls, and both of them are young women of color, you want to make sure that they’re going to have a future that is happy and healthy.” I believe him. I trust him. I want his way of thinking to represent me in Congress.

For that to happen… we need to vote.

Larry Sabato said that “VA-5 is a safe Republican seat this year”. But it doesn’t have to be a safe seat! The 5th District is the third most competitive district in the state; if we have a big turnout of Fifth District Democratic voters, Josh will win.

It may be asking a lot for everyone to go vote, but there’s a great deal at stake:

• Please make a plan for when you’ll vote (Early Voting is now through Saturday, polls open on Tuesday 6am-7pm).
• Please take a friend or two or three.
• Please save our democracy.
• Please: go vote.

Eyes on the Prize, not the Polls!

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Long-time Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg was on MSNBC the other night saying the polls this year (especially 538) are understating how well Dems are doing, and that early voting (which is very encouraging) is a better indicator.
Victor Shi, iGenpolitics Strategy Director, says the same thing.
In any case, we should ignore polls and just focus on turning out the vote these last few crucial days!
Screenshot of Simon Rosenberg 20221101 Twitter post initial Early Voting numbers are promising for DemsVictor Shi 20221103 Twitter post initial Early Voting numbers are promising for Dems

People-Persons (People-People??) for the Polls on Tuesday

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Photo of two Democrats, a black woman and a white man, in front of their tent outside a polling placeWe still need one or two friendly Dems to represent us at each polling station for just a few hours on Election Day, to share a sample ballot (marked for Josh!) and encourage people to take part in our local Democratic activities. We’ll provide the info that you’d need (it’s not hard!), please email us at cvilledemschair@gmail.org if you might be able to help with this very important final opportunity to influence people who will be voting in 20 seconds!