The establishment seems to be turning to harsh negativity and personal attacks in the closing days of the race for DNC. What that means, clearly, is that they're worried – about losing control, and about having a progressive, grassroots, independent-minded candidate beat them on Saturday. Needless to say, that's exactly why you should do the exact opposite of what they want you to do. 🙂 For more, see the following letter from several of the most respected, progressive Fairfax Democrats in support of Ben Tribbett's candidacy.
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Dear Fairfax County Delegates:
UNITY. It's a word often used, but rarely practiced in politics in our county. With the largest population of any county in Virginia, our politics is known statewide for its entertaining and sometimes epic political factions and brawls. In fact, those of us signing this letter have often been on different sides on various issues, primaries and other party fights.
But we are writing you today to ask that you set aside the thunder of these past battles and look to the future.
At our state convention this weekend, we are all strongly supporting Ben Tribbett to be Virginia's new member of the Democratic National Committee. This is a real job, and what our National Committee members do with the position has real consequences in our elections.
First, this is a position on the State Steering Committee with a key vote on what kind of nomination process we use for statewide elections for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and United States Senate. Ben is the only candidate for this position who has pledged to always support a primary in every circumstance and keep our statewide nominations open and transparent for all voters. Supporting methods of nomination based on principle rather than the candidates running is critical for our credibility with voters.
Another important part of this position is being able to interface with national leaders and delivering resources to our state. On day one, Ben will be instantly known at the DNC as their first member of the new media to successfully seek election to the committee. He will be a national resource for candidates on how to get their message out online and use new technologies. The DNC already agrees with us- their most recent new media training book on the first page mentions how Ben started certain stories online that defeated a United States Senator in 2006. You all remember that George Allen guy, right?
That's what we know Ben can deliver in this position. But we also want to discuss what he has done in the past. Many convention attendees are new to politics, so we'd like to share what Ben has done for Fairfax County over his 15 year career as a political leader:
As President of the Fairfax County Young Democrats in 1999, 2000 and 2001, Ben expanded the Young Democrats to membership levels never seen before or since. He led a project to increase youth voter turnout in our county election cycle in 1999, expanding turnout among college students away at school by over 300% in the pilot areas and delivering key votes in a number of close races that year.
As our Vice Chair for Precinct Operations in 2002 and 2003, Ben led the efforts to identify a precinct captain in every Fairfax precinct- something that had not been accomplished many years prior to that. He rewrote our precinct operations manual, overhauling it to include new technologies and ran many trainings around the county with LaVerne Taylor to recruit and train our precinct captains.
As a campaign operative Ben has played a key role, often unpaid to turn red districts blue around Fairfax. InSpringfield where Democrats rarely win district elections, Ben was instrumental in helping defeat an incumbent Republican on the School Board in 1999 and elect Cathy Belter. In Sully, where Democrats had also struggled, Ben was a force in our special election to elect Kathy Smith as the first Democrat to hold a Sully seat in 2002. In Mason, Providence and Braddock, Ben helped turn out a longstanding House incumbent in 2001 to elect Chap Petersen, and then returned in 2007 in a larger district that also included Hunter Mill to help Chap turn out another incumbent in the Virginia Senate. He even worked on John Foust's first campaign in Dranesville before many of us even knew who John was! That's only a few- we could name many other Fairfax County campaigns that Ben has been involved with. He specializes in helping our new candidates get off the ground and take on the toughest GOP held seats.
There are seats for two men from Virginia on the DNC. There are plenty of other excellent candidates for you to support with your second vote, but we ask every Fairfax County delegate to cast one of their two votes to elect Ben Tribbett to the DNC this Saturday.
Sincerely,
Cesar del Aguila
Fairfax County Democratic Committee Chair 2012-2014
Barbara Caputo
Former Vice Chair and candidate for Fairfax County Democratic Committee Chair for 2012-2014
Rex Simmons
Fairfax County Democratic Committee Chair 2010-2012
Scott Surovell
Fairfax County Democratic Committee Chair 2008-2009
Emilie Miller
Fairfax County Democratic Committee Chair 1976-1980, 1998-2000
P.S. Please see the impressive list of elected officials endorsing Ben below from around the state.
STATE
Former Congresswoman Leslie Byrne
Former Delegate Chuck Caputo
Senator Adam Ebbin
Delegate Patrick Hope
Delegate Mark Keam
Delegate Kaye Kory
Senator Louise Lucas
Former Senator Emilie Miller
Senator Chap Petersen
Delegate Scott Surovell
LOCAL
Russell County Supervisor Jon Bowerbank
Roanoke City Mayor David Bowers
Leesburg Councilwoman Kelly Burk
Fairfax City Councilman Dan Drummond
Albermarle Supervisor Chris Dumler
Fairfax County Supervisor John Foust
Rockingham County School Board Member Lowell Fulk
Arlington County Board Member Libby Garvey
Former Fairfax School Board Member Tina Hone
Fairfax County School Board Member Ryan McElveen
Former Loudoun County Supervisor Andrea McGimsey
Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff McKay
Virginia Beach School Board Member Brent McKenzie
Fairfax School Board Member Megan McLaughlin
Henrico School Board Member John Montgomery
Arlington County Commissoner of Revenue Ingrid Morroy
Former Fairfax School Board Member Janet Oleszek
Russell County Supervisor Joe Puckett
Fairfax City Mayor-Elect Scott Silverthrorne
Fairfax School Board Member Kathy Smith
Arlington County Commonwealth's Attorney Theo Stamos
Fairfax County School Board Member Ted Velkoff
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