by Cindy
I think we all know the Democratic Party in Virginia is desperately trying to recover from some horrific revelations about its top leaders. All Virginia Democrats are struggling with how we handle the fallout from these revelations, how we hold together our party and its core values—which are not represented by these revelations—while holding our leaders accountable. We’re all walking on eggshells, not wanting to do further damage and bring further shame and embarrassment to our party, not wanting to harm our chances in this November’s elections, but also not wanting to lose the very principles we stand for.
Let me say, it’s a terrible time to be a Democratic caucus leader right now. It’s even more terrible to be a brand-new Democratic caucus leader. So when I see members of the House Democrats repeatedly leaking private conversations and communications to the media, it makes me seething angry. Because the last thing we need right now as a party is to point out divisions and rifts and lack of trust amongst one another and with the Leader.
For instance, the following tweets from Jonathan Martin of the New York Times should never have happened.
NEW: How frozen are Va Dems? House caucus emailed members warning them a @nytimes reporter (a colleague) was in Capitol to ask Fairfax questions
Emailed had link to his picture & talking pts, including a dodge about whether they believed the 2 accusershttps://t.co/hCX9RArgXx
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) February 13, 2019
Two Va Dems tell me that the House Minority Leader @EFillerCorn upbraided her colleagues yesterday at the caucus meeting for the below leak.
“Never seen her so pissed,” said one of the Dems >https://t.co/xfizpjoQIo
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) February 14, 2019
If there’s one thing that is absolutely certain, it’s that Republicans will take advantage of any signs of weakness, and capitalize on them to our detriment. They will use this kind of thing to tell their donors and their voters that the Democratic Party is in shambles, to help them raise money, and to diminish whatever chances we still have of taking back the majority in the Senate or House this November. Whoever is responsible for these leaks is putting their own ego and private grudges ahead of the good of Democratic Party and the Virginia voters they purport to represent.
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