Virginia voting has been going on for several weeks (restricted early voting) and the polls are open in nine days. This should be, according to generic assumptions, a blowout: in the range of a 15-point win in the governor’s race, with with a coattails that would put the Virginia House of Delegates in play for a MAJOR flip to Democratic Party control. Sigh, what “should have been” just doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Depending on the polling, the Democratic Party’s gubernatorial nominee Ralph Northam is polling anywhere from about 7 points ahead to a point behind GOPer Gillespie. In other words, the majority of “good polling” shows this race either “within the margin of error” or with Northam just above it. (Note that in 2013, the polling showed Terry McAuliffe winning handily and he ended squeaking through.)
IN OTHER WORDS
HELP / ACTION IS REQUIRED.
This post is NOT asking for $s and assumes that you can’t (as I did yesterday) get to the streets for canvassing (or other on-scene engagement) but that you WANT TO HELP. Here are some easy tools to engage to help GOTV and motivate Virginians.
Boosting on Facebook: A group of activists (who are spending lots of time door knocking, fundraising, etc …) have a daily alert asks for perhaps two-to-five minutes of your time on Facebook to like/share specific items to boost visibility. You’ll get only one email a day through November 6. (Note: and, if you’re so inclined, the linked material often provides windows on great House of Delegate candidates or other issues you might find interesting.)
Daily Facebook Action to Turn VA Blue
Making calls from home is something pretty easy for most of us to do. One person that I alerted this to made 87 calls Friday evening and over 60 last night. Another got together a bunch of friends for a “pot-luck calling dinner”: an evening of socializing and more than 500 called Virginian households … Much easier to reach people than that canvassing and a useful one-on-one tool to help GOTV.
Democracy for America DFA Dialer for Justin Fairfax
As to that last,
WofA – We of Action – is an Indivisible / Women’s March group and movement for change, based in Virginia. Our group of volunteers, founded by a teacher, sends simple steps everyone can take to restore American rights, values, and civil liberties. We are also a community – your friends and neighbors, meeting near you to build positive results. You can make a difference, and we’re doing it together.
BE A PART OF THE ACTION – CLICK HERE TO JOIN WOFA
FOR VIRTUAL PHONEBANK ACCESS,
EMAIL PHONEBANK4VA@GMAIL.COM OR
ON TWITTER, FOLLOW AND DIRECT MESSAGE @PHONEBANK4VA
Texting is a way to keep engaged while mobile, with direct contacts, but avoids that ‘talking’ part if that makes you uncomfortable. Here a tool for doing this:
Red2Blue: Texting for VA House of Delegates (form)
The second comes from Network NoVA: a networking group for activists in Northern Virginia which has lots of options for volunteering on the ground along with, as per that texting, ways to engage from further away/remotely.
Another is Virginia Doers Do. and their
- Code Blue has a great list of HoD candidates that they are helping.
- Sister District partners Deep Blue districts (activists in them) with Purple districts around the country to help provide resources (like calling …) to help flip Red-to-Blue.
NOTE: The above are a taste of ways to engage/help. Please add more in comments, if you have them, and I will add them to the diary when I see them.
IF YOU ARE IN (or want to come to) VIRGINIA
We're counting on folks like you to keep Virginia blue! https://t.co/npTRnwbgrd #GameOnVA
— . (@RalphNortham) October 28, 2017
If you want some understanding of the top races, here some of my Blue Virginia posts:
- Northam’s Life of service versus Gillespie’s life of serving oneself: Voters have clear choice come November
- Concerned About Energy/Environment/Climate? The Choice is Clear: Northam for Governor
As to the Republicans, the amazing thing is that the Republican Lt.Gov. candidate, Jill Vogel, might have an even uglier professional and political activism history than the Gillespie’s destructively venal record.
Also, let’s be clear, this election is about DONALD TRUMP!
REMINDER:
why Virginia matters
not just for Virginians …
Like WofA, WhyVaMatters has Candidate pages summarizing the Dem HoD candidates’ platforms. They also link to summaries of the Republican opponents’ “bad bills” (would’ve been terrible laws if Virginia had a Republican governor).
There are so many reasons why this election matters. One few pay attention to: the Virginia GOP wants to split the electoral college votes like Maine now that Ds win comfortably in the Commonwealth. Would move something like half of Virginia’s EVs from the D column to GOP. If GOP controls Governor’s mansion along with even stronger control of legislature, that seems a real possibility.
And, re voting rights … expect Gillespie to sign off on lots of stuff to restrict / hurt voting rights if he wins. (The GOP LtGov Candidate, Vogel, has been nasty in the voting (anti-)rights movement/actions over the past several decades.
And, of course, whoever is the Governor will have power/role for the next redistricting and we can expect that all GOP control would further weaken D prospects.
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