Tag Archives: Election

Unfit for office, unfit for endorsement

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I could never, had I been asked to imagine the most ridiculous and easily verifiable lie that Eugene Delgaudio might invent, have imagined something as ridiculous and easily verifiable as this:

When contacted by the Loudoun Times-Mirror for comment about the exposure of his “Blood Door” email, Mr. Delgaudio told the reporter that the Photoshopped image he had sent to his mailing list was the original and that his image had actually been Photoshopped, by the very people who caught him in this behavior, to make it “look like blood.”

Side by side image comparison by the Loudoun Times-Mirror

When the reporter told me this, I said I thought that was interesting, and suggested that she search on Google images for “blood door.” She did.

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An unfortunate omission

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I was very impressed with the airy above-it-all tone Joe was able to summon about “the recent Halloween unpleasantness” until I saw his images, images that were apparently the point of the post.

The thing is, there’s nothing new there. We already know that there are people on the outer fringes of good judgment and civility, enough of whom might actually be dangerous that we need a Secret Service whether our president is a Democrat or a Republican. What I fear is that this post is a – I hate to say it – deliberate attempt to pretend that the images at issue in Loudoun did not come from an official Republican Party Committee and a Republican elected official, and hope that no one notices. I’m sorry, but someone did.

From the official Republican Party Committee

From the Republican elected official

Is this acceptable to you, LTM?

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A second update (the first one appears at the bottom of the post): This is the original image that was photoshopped by Loudoun Republican Eugene Delgaudio to turn the blood “rainbow,” which he then lied about to the Loudoun Times-Mirror. This was found by a commenter via google using the search terms “blood door.”

Image included in the header of an October 25 fundraising letter sent by Eugene Delgaudio

Editor: Please direct the following to all individuals with input into political endorsements at the Loudoun Times-Mirror.

Is this what the Loudoun Times-Mirror editorial staff had in mind when you said of Eugene Delgaudio “his view on social issues is unsettlingly conservative and his antics distracting”? The attached image of the GLBT rainbow symbol in the shape of a pool of blood, complete with a gruesome bloody handprint, was sent to the presumed supporters of an elected official to whom you just gave your endorsement for reelection. While it could be described as unsettling, especially if one has been witness to such a crime scene, I don’t think that “conservative,” “distracting” or “antics” would apply.

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What is OpenBand buying?

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Another excellent, informative letter published at Ashburn Patch. Especially interesting are the laundered contributions to Dick Black. I look forward to hearing more about what they’re expecting for that expenditure.

We would like to update your readers on the issue of the ongoing campaign contributions to several Loudoun County Board of Supervisors candidates. One thing to keep in mind; OpenBand’s video franchise with the county expired two years ago and OpenBand currently has an application before the Board for a new franchise, which makes the following campaign contributions troubling.

In our previous letter to the editor, dated October 7, 2011, we provided details on campaign donations from OpenBand’s parent company. We showed monetary contributions made by OpenBand’s parent company and its officers to the various Loudoun County Supervisor races. Since then additional contributions have been made. This data is publicly available by the State Board of Elections and VPAP. Below are the updated campaign contribution totals:

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Bought and paid for. Deal with it, suckers.

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Thanks to Liz for alerting me to the recent obscenity from the Sterling supervisor, in which he rants about the Board of Supervisors supposedly “punishing” business leaders:

The pursuit of profit and prosperity is what makes America a great nation.

To attack free market leaders and business spokesman in Leesburg– our local seat of government– or on Wall Street– is an attack on all our freedoms..

..[T]his board has ochestrated and frequently hosted assaults in public on business leaders and spokesmen and spokesladies who simply come and give professional written testimony about what other business leaders think or say.

Top business leaders have been brought into the public gallows and condemned by members of the Loudoun County board of supervisors by name and accused of crimes, undue influence and illegal acts on a routine basis.

“Top business leaders” like OpenBand spokesman Ben Young, perhaps? He does seem intent on removing any obstacles – like competition – to his company’s “pursuit of profit and prosperity.” The rant is followed by this, about the “top business leaders” who have donated to Eugene’s campaign: “These donors and their companies have been generous on the record and make a very big difference.” Indeed.

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Loudoun Government For Sale?

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To date, the real estate community has given over $118,000 to candidates in this year’s local races. That may not seem like a lot, but it is 50% more than any other industry.
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And there can be no doubt that those donations are going to come thick in these last days. In 2003 and 2007, the real estate business spent over 750,000 in each cycle to see their candidates elected. We live with the consequences of the Board that served from 2003 to 2007 every day, in crowded roads, stuffed schools and a crisis of foreclosures and underwater mortgages. Thankfully, the current Board has helped curb the excesses of that period, and introduced rationality and close consideration to the real estate development process.

These donations, however, are of a kind with others to Republican candidates that beg the question of whether Loudoun County’s government, when controlled by Republicans, is for sale?

Witness (Republican-turned-Independent) Sheriff Simpson’s history of benefits provided to his donors.

Or Chairman York’s vote in favor of every development project presented to this Board, and resulting plethora of campaign cash from the industry.

Indeed, some Republican candidates have taken to actually selling their services in return for political donations.

It begs the question of whether Loudoun’s Government will, in fact, be for sale come November 9th, if Republicans are given control. It’s something to think about.

Post-primary postmodernism

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Wherein a few loose ends are explored.
(Updated to clarify meaning of terms.)

1. The GOP has a bigotry problem. Those who are genuinely trying to combat it have my sympathy, if not my confidence. A commenter at TC who goes by Muslim Conservative has been patiently doing a lot of heavy lifting in that regard, and has managed to dislodge some damaging admissions, to wit: Former Republican candidate for Sheriff Greg Ahlemann has stated once again that he categorically does not “vote for or support candidates who support or practice Islam.” He also stated that he would never vote for or support “a homosexual.”

That statement might surprise those who read my interview with him on Equality Loudoun back in 2007, in which he talked about Muslim friends and gay friends in a way clearly intended to dispel the rumor that he harbors bigotry. What might also surprise you is that his views haven’t changed since then, and that he doesn’t see any contradiction. He genuinely believes, I think, that these statements do not constitute bigotry, and he is not alone in this view.

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Wait, there’s an election on November 8th?

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It’s that time of year again.  Campaign season.

Well, to tell the truth, campaigning has been going strong for months.  But it’s first in August, when vacations are ending and school start dates magically (and, if you’re a student, often tragically) appear on the calendar, that people are suddenly awake to the fact that summer will, indeed, eventually end.  And those of us who give a damn about local politics can only hope that their next thought is something along the lines of gee, I guess I should vote this year…

Of course, it isn’t.

If half of the people we wave signs at and call day and night to Get Out The Vote actually do make their way to the polls, I would call it a miracle. See for yourself: Loudoun’s average turnout the last time we had a Board of Supervisors race in 2007 was 33%, and 2008’s voter leap to 78% isn’t likely.  But that’s the way we work as a society: we’re all just fumbling around with our faces to the ground, unaware of the pillars that build up around us until we bang blithely into them.  Then we might be motivated to make a change.  Then again, maybe not.

Still, I like to think voter apathy is not a sign of a national crisis of faith in the system that governs, but a sign of an overabundance of faith – that everything will work out fine because the people in charge obviously got there due to their high qualifications, first-hand knowledge of our national experience, ability to differentiate between right and wrong, and constant cogitation that saves from rash mistakes.  I also believe that birthday cake is an acceptable replacement for salad.

And then, of course, there is the other side.  Perfectly intelligent people who forget the other 24 letters of the alphabet on Election Day, who scan the ballot for a D and an R and dutifully make their mark. I do believe that it is important to place faith in your political party, but a deserved faith adapts to/is impervious to scrutiny, not immune from it. Vote for the best candidate, not the best party.  Be open-minded.  Do not slam your door in the face of the opposition (or it’s canvassing representatives – I still have a welt on my forehead from a walk card that was thrown back in my face).  This refusal to do something silly like learn about both candidates is what has led us to the sort of ongoing stand-off in Washington that has the rest of us anxiously chewing our fingernails, waiting for the other shoe to drop (Update, August 7, 2011: the shoe has dropped.)

In the end, I guess the only thing to be said is that politics are messy.  And still, somehow exciting.  With the number of races and traveling campaign managers that somehow found their way into Northern Virginia at the same time, one could say that the circus is in town and really not be far off the mark.  And in these campaign strategies, political affiliation is Aesopian language for either friend or enemy, depending on the letter behind a candidate’s name.  At the same time, the majority of our county population is relegated to the margins because it doesn’t vote, and the numbers that strategists target as ultimately responsible for deciding who leads us are only in the hundreds.  As an independent youth with a less-than-stellar voting history, I have been written completely off by both parties as someone who won’t make a difference with my vote (and they wonder why the American youth isn’t motivated.  Some prophecies fulfill themselves).  But our two-party system is capable of more than this, more than the two extremes of complete apathy and mechanical loyalty.   We just have to give people a reason to pay attention.

 

Oh, and if that doesn’t work, I call for a multiparty system.  Here are a few good examples of the chaos that will ensue.

 

Where Do I Vote in Loudoun (Preliminary)?

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Every year, the pressing question leading up to Election Day is often not “who will I vote for,” but rather, “where do I vote, again?” The “who do I vote for” question, after all, derives from your voting precinct, as our elected officials represent Districts determined (mostly) by precinct lines.

With a tip-o-the-hat to folks from the Loudoun County Board of Elections, here is a preliminary, unofficial list of the precincts in Loudoun County which will be in place for the November 8 elections this year, organized by (new) Magisterial (i.e., Supervisor) Districts. As an added bonus, the State Senate and House of Delegates District numbers are also provided, so you can look up who is running. For example, SEN-33 is Senator Mark Herring’s District, while DEL-87 is where Mike Kondratick is running and DEL-10 is where Dave Butler is running.

Follow below the jump for the full list.
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Winning the House of Delegates

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The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is the arm of the Democratic Party that works to elect Democrats to state (and commonwealth) legislatures. This critical, but little noticed, piece of machinery is responsible for tracking election results for a huge number of elections, every year. Because of the sheer number and variety of races involved, it is a lot easier to draw assumptions about electoral trends from these state legislature races than from, say, a single US Senate or House special election. And the trending for Democrats at the state level this year is a lot better than it was in 2010.

In the last three months, we’ve noticed a startling trend: Since March 1st, Democratic candidates have overperformed in almost every similar special election compared to the Democrats who ran in the same districts in 2010.

This is a truly stunning turnaround. The conventional wisdom says that all else being equal (though it never is), a lower-profile election will produce a more Republican electorate. Therefore, a presidential year like 2008 should see better Democratic performance than a midterm like 2010, which in turn should see better Democratic performance than an odd-year special election.

But ever since the radicalism of the GOP’s assault on working families had a chance to sink in nationally, we’ve begun to see the opposite. Democratic special election candidates are now performing about 9.7% better than the Democratic candidates who ran in the exact same districts in 2010. – DLCC

The DLCC analysis goes on to state that the Wisconsin Recall elections will provide a wealth more data to be added to the analysis. Even without the Wisconsin results, an average improvement in 9.7% in special elections is incredible.

I mention this because here in Virginia Democrats seem to write off the House of Delegates. Even some of my favorite Delegate candidates speak of serving in the minority in Richmond. But by my estimation, there are no fewer than twelve seats in the House of Delegates that would have been flipped from Republican to Democrat in 2009, if the Democrat had won 9.7% more of the vote. That would have easily flipped control of the House of Delegates from Republicans to Democrats. And this is before Redistricting – Redistricting which has added even more seats from Democratic Northern Virginia.

The first step towards winning a majority is starting from the belief that you can (though not necessarily will) win a majority. The analysis from the DLCC shows that there may be a wind at the backs of Democratic state legislative candidates, a wind that will blow into November for us here in Virginia. So let’s start talking like we’re going to win, because we can, and we should, and if we work hard enough to make it happen, we will.