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Video: Rep. Gerry Connolly’s St. Patrick’s Day Event Has Record Turnout of 1,200; Straw Poll Results (Shannon Taylor 62%-Jay Jones 38% for AG; Aaron Rouse 25%-Levar Stoney 24%-Babur Lateef 22%-Ghazala Hashmi 15.5%-Victor Salgado 8.5% for LG)

By
lowkell
-
5

See below for video and straw poll results from tonight’s St. Patrick’s Day fete, the 31st annual put on by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11) and his team, and with an apparent record 1,200 people in attendance. That’s encouraging, by the way, as it yet again shows significant engagement by Virginia Democrats – also see the large turnouts at town halls, local Democratic commitee meetings, etc. – which should bode well for November.  Speaking tonight, in addition to Rep. Connolly, were Reps. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10) and Eugene Vindman (D-VA07), plus former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA07), who’s now running for governor, plus the Democratic candidates for Lt. Governor and Attorney General. I’ll have more tomorrow, but for now, here are the videos and straw poll results…

P.S. I’m not going to post transcripts of the LG and AG candidates’ speeches, as they’re mostly the same (but shorter, given that they had less time at this event) as at the Mt. Vernon Dems’ Mardi Gras party a few weeks ago…see here for those. I did post an excerpt from Jay Jones’ speech last night, as he wasn’t at the Mt. Vernon Dems’ event, so there’s obviously no stump speech from that event for him.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11) introductory remarks

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10): “Virginia has an opportunity to send a message to the rest of the country that we  reject MAGA, we reject DOGE, and we will make sure that Democrats are back in power soon.”

Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07), who Rep. Gerry Connolly correctly called an “American hero”: “I love this man [Gerry Connolly]…He is my hero, he is my mentor…This November is going to be critical, the message we send when we elect Abigail Spanberger as the next governor and we have a Democratic LG and a Democratic Attorney General is going to resound around the country. And we need to make it not 5 points, but we need to make it 10 points – we need to make it clear.”

State Senator Aaron Rouse:

Former Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney

Attorney Victor Salgado

Prince William County School Board Chair Babur Lateef

Attorney/Labor Activist Alex Bastani

State Senator Ghazala Hashmi

Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor

Former VA Del. Jay Jones: “It has been six or seven crazy weeks and every person across Virginia has a story about
how these crazy things are impacting them. It’s personal for me; my mother-in-law is a 30-year government employee and she’s gotten not one but two emails from Elon Musk telling her to tell him what she did last week. And there are people stepping up to fight – it’s the Democratic Attorneys General – but the problem we have here in Virginia is that our guy [Jason Miyares] won’t lift a finger to help us”

Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA07)

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11) announces straw poll results

LG: Aaron Rouse 25% – Levar Stoney 24% – Babur Lateef 22% – Ghazala Hashmi 15.5% – Victor Salgado 8.5% – Carl Eggleston 2.9% – Alex Bastani 2.9%

AG: Shannon Taylor 62%  – Jay Jones 38%

MAGA Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA09) Claims Town Halls Are “Inefficient” So He’s Not Holding Any; In Stark Contrast, His Predecessor Rick Boucher (D) Says *HE* “held 70 or more in-person town halls across the district”

By
lowkell
-
10

From the Lexington and Rockbridge and Buena Vista Democrats:

Republican Congressman Morgan Griffith, who represents our neighboring Ninth District, says holding in-person town hall meetings with his constituents is “inefficient.”

He says that due to the size and dispersed population of the Ninth, he hasn’t held a “brick-and-mortar” town hall in more than 10 years.

However his Democratic predecessor Rick Boucher held at least 70 town halls throughout the district during his 18 years in Congress.

Ben Cline held in-person meetings with his Sixth District constituents until last November. He hasn’t held a single one since. He can’t even offer the same dubious excuse as Griffith, So what’s CLINE’S excuse?

Also, per this article:

Griffith dismissed complaints about his lack of in-person town halls as “Democratic talking points.” He said that his predecessor – Democratic congressman Rick Boucher – did not hold town halls throughout his 22-years representing the Ninth District until Griffith won the 2010 election.

Boucher on Thursday countered Griffith’s claim.

“Let me set the record straight,” said Boucher. “Most years while I was in Congress, I held 70 or more in-person town halls across the district, at least two per locality. The district was a little smaller then but with independent cities and counties, that was 27 localities in which we tried to hold at least two meetings a year or more.”

Exactly right by former Rep. Rick, Boucher (D-VA09), who by the way was an INFINITELY better Congressman than Morgan Griffith, who is just an embarrassment and a clown.

Speaking of clowns, check this out from the Goochland Democratic Committee about their insurrectionist, far-right-extremist joke of a “Congressman,” John McGuire, and a 5th CD Town Hall citizens of VA05 will be holding this afternoon, “with or without him.”

Among other things, presumably VA05 voters would love to ask McGuire about his absurd, false, crazy statements about “entering the Golden Age of America” under Trump, and supposedly how things “will get tough before it gets better,” because…blah blah blah Biden blah blah blah.  What  f’ing joke.

Finally, speaking of horrible Virginia Republican members of Congress, how about this: Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA02) refuses to hold a real town hall with her constituents, then claims to have held one…except it turns out it was with the Koch-brothers-funded, far-right group “Americans for Prosperity” (anti-environment, anti-healthcare, anti-labor, anti-democracy, etc.). To this day, it’s mind boggling that a narrow majority of VA02 voters actually chose to replace the superb Rep. Elaine Luria (D) with Kiggans, who is a MASSIVE step down in quality from Luria.  What the hell were those voters even thinking??? Were they thinking at all??? Ugh.

P.S. Recall that when he was representing VA05, Tom Perriello (D) held numerous town hall meetings, despite getting screamed at, burned in effigy, threatened, etc. during the height of the “Tea Party” movement, as the nation’s first African-American President, Barack Obama, outrageously attempted to…yep, improve American health care, including making quality care available to 10s of millions more people. The horror!

P.P.S. Here’s video of today’s Goochland Dems’ VA05 Town Hall – WITHOUT their Trump cultist Congressman, John McGuire (R).

Sunday News: Trump’s “Massive Gift to America’s Enemies”; “Trump’s Attempts to Muzzle the Press Look Familiar”; “Judge blocks Trump after he invokes wartime Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations”; “Trumpflation” Time; “Whitewashing American History”

By
lowkell
-
11

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines political and otherwise, for Sunday, March 16.

New Study by Media Matters Illustrates Democrats’ MASSIVE – and Disastrous – Failure in Online Media

By
lowkell
-
5

This graphic by Media Matters clearly illustrates the MASSIVE failure of Democrats over the past 15-20 years or so to build an online presence, especially when considering that back in the 2000s, arguably Dems had the lead online (not counting talk radio, which was has been dominated forever by the right wing – another massive failure by Democrats; and also TV news, which was/is…yep, dominated by the right wing and/or “both sides”/false equivalence media). Note that even some of the blue-colored circles, like The Young Turks, aren’t pro-Democratic by any means. As Media Matters summarizes, “As Americans increasingly get their news from online shows and streamers, the influence of this media ecosystem becomes more prominent — and Media Matters has found that the most popular of this content is overwhelmingly right-leaning.”

So yeah, total f’up  – and a truly disastrous one -by Dems, who: a) failed to invest in building an online media ecosystem, while the right-wing most definitely did so; b) actually were hostile/scornful towards the online pro-Democratic media that existed, such as the “SoapBlox” network of state-based pro-Democratic blogs); c) never seemed to grasp the power of online media, even though it was glaringly obvious that this is where people increasingly were getting their information (or, more to the point, misinformation and disinformation), and even though right wingers clearly figured it out; d) still, to this day, don’t seem to “get it,” or invest accordingly, a failing that almost certainly played a major role in Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in November 2024.

In short, this failure by Democrats was totally avoidable, but somehow was NOT avoided, and instead turned into a major disadvantage for Democrats…one that’s still not showing any serious signs of being corrected. Which proves yet again that Democrats are very good at policy but HORRIBLE at politics, framing, communications, messaging, etc etc.; while Republicans in contrast are HORRIBLE at policy, but excellent at (or at least pour huge amounts of $$$ into!) politics, framing, communications, messaging, etc, etc. Given that asymmetry, and given the way humans actually get their news these days, which of those two do you think is going to be more effective??? Hmmm…

P.S. I’m not surprised to see Republican VA Del. Nick Freitas on here, as he’s put a lot of effort into his YouTube channel (which now has 1.19 million subscribers, with dozens of videos with >100k views and two videos >1 million views) providing a steady stream of right-wing “red meat” content for his audience. I’m also not surprised to see zero Virginia Democrats on this list, sad to say, as it’s pretty much par for the course for Democrats (and so far at least, there’s no sign the new DNC Chair understands online media; we’ll see about the new DPVA Chair).

 

“Incredibly bleak how all the top conservative shows are all in for republicans and the top 3 left shows are lukewarm on democrats at best”

************************

“5. There is a lot of talk right now about influencers in political circles. But, be warned. Many of same extremely incompetent consultants that have been messing up Dem campaigns for years are porting their paid media approach to influencer space by way of “pay to post content.”

Audio: 2025 VA GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Amanda Chase Says She Wasn’t Going to Run Until Winsome Earle-Sears’ Campaign Started “Unraveling”; Riffs on the “Battle of the Blondes,” “Trump 2.0,” “Population Control”; Brags About Being There on 1/6/21; etc.

By
lowkell
-
5

How far off the deep end has the Trumpified, MAGA Republican Party gone? Check out this interview, and see below for audio clips, for some crazy, crazy stuff from 2025 VA GOP gubernatorial candidate and former State Senator Amanda Chase.

  • First, Chase explains why she’s running for governor, saying she “was not originally planning to run, we were all going to get behind Winsome Sears…she was our presumed nominee; then we get the call last week that Winsome Sears has gone through her second or third team of consultants and her campaign teams and her campaign is unraveling and a lot of the unit chairs were getting frustrated because they were trying to reach out to her…and the calls were going  unanswered and people were really asking what is going on here. So I stepped in…”

  • Chase then claimed: “Chris LaCivita, who is senior advisor to President Trump, chose me back in 2019 to run against Abigail Spanberger...so I know that I can beat Abigail Spanberger, even the professionals have paired me up with her to to win…between the two of us [Winsome Earle-Sears and Amanda Chase], I think I’m probably the better candidate to face off against Abigail Spanberger, let’s just call it battle of the blondes, right, let’s have some fun…Spanberger is beatable.”

  • Chase then talks about how Earle-Sears has “spoken against President Trump numerous times…she has not been on board with President Trump,” and actually BRAGS that “someone like myself…was there on January 6th, didn’t enter the building, I’ve never had the FBI visit my house or anything, I left in time, but I was there to express my concern over the 2020 presidential election…everybody knows I’ve been with President Trump from the beginning, I was censured illegally by the Virginia Senate, which was controlled by Democrats, and that was for going to the January 6 rally just to express my constitutionally protected First Amendment right to express my opinion – I believe the election was stolen and I said that numerous occasions.” Yikes.

  • Chase then had some, er, “interesting” (aka wildly false) comments on what she calls “Trump 2.0,” which she argues “is very different than the first Trump Administration – he learned what to do better this go around, and look at the team he’s put together, I mean they’re going gangbusters exposing the fraud, the waste, the abuse, the downright theft going on in within our government, SSI benefits going to people who are 200 years old…”

  • Finally, Chase goes fully into 100% false, conspiracy theory la-la land, riffing as follows: “This is about the globalists, this is about population control, this is about wanting to kill Americans at any cost and basically destroying the basic fabric of the family. Fentanyl is just one of the many ways that they’re doing that, they’re doing that through the indoctrination of our schools, you don’t see this in other…you know like China and some of these other places; this was designed to kill and destroy Americans and especially American children. Look at the policies of the Democrats it’s kill, steal and destroy…Fentanyl is just a sign of the bigger problem that I see, you know, if a child is actually born, because remember they have abortion…that’s health care for them is abortion, it’s going to kill…they’re going to use abortion as health care…everything is about kill still destroy because they want to depopulate the Earth, they want the elitists to be the ones left on the earth to have what they consider completely limited resources and...they want to wipe off the face of the Earth anyone who is conservative, anyone that doesn’t adhere to their cult, their religion. And so this has been intentional, allowing fentanyl, allowing the drug smugglers, allowing the gang members, our enemies foreign and domestic, to basically kill whole generations through abortion, through fentanyl…”

In sum: What can you even say about such unhinged stuff, and the fact that Chase could actually win the 2025 VA GOP gubernatorial nomination?  Also note that Chase was a top political ally of Youngkin’s in 2021 and beyond, so this isn’t just some “fringe” of the party – it’s the *heart* of the MAGA GOP. And yes, that means we need to defeat these people in EVERY SINGLE ELECTION, without exception.

Trump’s Assault on Perkins Coie, Covington & Burling, Georgetown University Law Center, etc. Puts the “Bully” (Seeking to Harm or Intimidate) in “Bully Pulpit”

By
Blue Virginia
-
0

by John Seymour, a retired attorney living in Arlington, Virginia.

During President Theodore Roosevelt’s terms of office he frequently referred to his office as a “bully pulpit” — the perfect place from which to advocate for his foreign and domestic agendas. Today, President Trump’s “bullying” embodies the word’s more contemporary meaning — one who seeks to harm or intimidate those he views as weaker and more vulnerable.

In recent days, Trump has issued an executive order stripping security clearances from lawyers at the law firm of Covington & Burling who are providing pro bono legal assistance to Jack Smith. As Special Counsel, Mr. Smith led the Justice Department investigation into Trump’s involvement in the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. His report concluded that the charge against Trump for election subversion represented one “in which the offense was most flagrant, the public harm the greatest, and the proof the most certain.”  Unsurprisingly, Mr. Smith is now under attack by Trump and his allies.

Even more recently, Ed Martin, Trump’s acolyte at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia, sent a letter to Georgetown University Law Center, demanding that the School cease all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and warning that, if it did not, the Office would not hire the School’s graduates. Mr. Martin also reportedly referred to the School as a hive of anti-Trump activism and urged that Georgetown’s federal grant and loan fees be cut.

As a legal matter, both President Trump’s and Mr. Martin’s actions violate the U.S. Constitution in the most flagrant and brazen way. Its First Amendment protects the rights of individuals and institutions to freedom of expression — the rights of individuals to petition the courts and retain legal counsel, the rights of attorneys to practice their profession without fear of political reprisal, and the rights of universities to determine what they may teach, and to whom. Indeed, in recent days a federal district court condemned Trump’s attacks on another prominent D.C. law firm, Perkins Coie, for engaging in legal work on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign. In a strongly worded opinion, the court found that the attacks “threatened the very foundation of our legal system” in a way that “sends chills down my spine.”

In addition to its legal infirmities, the Trump Administration’s impulsive and vindictive bullying of law firms and law schools will almost certainly prove self-defeating. Law firms who represent clients persecuted by powerful interests command respect from current clients and present an irresistible appeal to prospective ones. Covington & Burling, in particular, has an enviable and long-standing reputation as a law firm that stands up to intimidation. Over the decades, Covington has won numerous national awards for its pro bono practice, taking on some of the most difficult and controversial national legal matters. A firm lawyer served as defense attorney for Fred Korematsu in his landmark Supreme Court challenge to the World War II internment of Japanese Americans. Firm lawyers today represent numerous Guantanamo Bay detainees and prisoners on death row. Their courage and integrity on behalf of clients in times of national turmoil, like today’s, have been tested time and time again and proven utterly immune to political attack.

Trump’s actions against the firm for its representation of Jack Smith, a career prosecutor to whom the nation owes a profound debt of gratitude for his unwavering service in the face of partisan attacks on his character and professional probity, will fail to harm the firm, as they are intended to. They will only burnish Covington’s reputation for exemplary advocacy on behalf of those facing government persecution, in the best tradition of the legal profession.

The same can be said for Georgetown Law Center. Despite the Supreme Court’s recent decision to ban race-based affirmative action programs at universities, the Jesuit institution continues to design and implement lawful, yet aggressive, programs designed to increase minority representation in the legal profession locally and nationally. In his response to Mr. Martin’s threat, the Dean of the Law School, William Treanor, remains steadfast — the federal government simply cannot “direct what Georgetown and its faculty teach and how to teach it” and expressed his conviction that Mr. Martin must ensure that Georgetown students receive full and fair consideration in any hiring decision.

If Mr. Martin fulfills his threat to penalize newly-minted lawyers because the School’s refuses to end programs and teachings deemed offensive to the Trump Administration, the Office and the people of the District will suffer the loss of superb legal talent. He will discourage well-qualified and public-service minded attorneys, graduates of both Georgetown and other law schools, from applying there. Young lawyers, in particular, still believe that the law “is the stone in David’s sling.” They want to work within institutions, and attend law schools, that share that same belief.

As one who was fortunate to have practiced with, and learned from, talented and passionate Covington & Burling lawyers as a young associate there decades ago, and also was selected to work with equally accomplished and dedicated government attorneys at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. while studying law at Georgetown, I was appalled, but not surprised, by the Administration’s threats.

From Trump, we have long learned to expect only contempt for the law, and spite and malice in his dealings with his opponents. From Mr. Martin, it appears, we can expect only the skimpiest and most ideologically distorted understanding of the law. From Covington & Burling and Georgetown, though, we can expect the best in legal training and practice, and the continued honorable defense of the institution that protects us all from tyranny — the rule of law itself.

Saturday News: “Republican Russophilia” – Trump “Putin-ised” the GOP; “It Isn’t Just Trump. America’s Whole Reputation Is Shot.”; “US consumer sentiment plunges”; “Don Deranged at DOJ”-“Trump calls for jailing his perceived opponents”; “Why Trump 2.0 Is Worse Than…Expected”

By
lowkell
-
11

by Lowell

Here are a few international, national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, March 15. As historian/author Kevin Kruse says, “I want to stress how far off the rails this is in terms of not just our norms and our expectations but our laws. There’s a lot that’s deeply unconstitutional here. I get that they’re trying to flood the zone and overwhelm the opposition, but the opposition shouldn’t let itself be overwhelmed. It shouldn’t accept this as the new normal, which is what the administration wants us to do.” Also, David Rothkopf writes: “If the last six weeks are any indication, the damage Trump and Musk and MAGA will do in the next six months will be horrific. Millions of lives will be shattered whether due to job losses, loss of vital government services, national economic misfortune resulting for economically ignorant policies, international programs shut down, and illegal prosecutions and arrests. Critical government capabilities will be obliterated. The rule of law and our rights under the Constitution will be relentlessly attacked.” So…on that cheery note, on to the news headlines…ugh.

New Report: U.S. House Bill’s SNAP Cuts Could Blow a $352M Hole in Virginia’s Budget, Increase Risk of Hunger for 800,000

By
Blue Virginia
-
0

From the always-excellent Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis:

 

 

WINSOME, LOSE SOME: With a Campaign in Shambles and Primary Opponents on Her Heels, There Are No Wins for a Hiding Winsome Earle-Sears

By
Blue Virginia
-
5

See below for two press releases from the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA); note that the first one draws on this scoop by Virginia Scope about leaked audio from the Winsome Earle-Sears campaign.

WINSOME, LOSE SOME: Spoiler: With a Campaign in Shambles and Primary Opponents on Her Heels, There Are No Wins for a Hiding Winsome Earle-Sears

VIRGINIA – It’s been an especially terrible, awful week for Winsome Earle-Sears as the GOP Governor’s primary accelerates and her opponents strike. And as the continuing chaos of the Sears campaign is exposed by the Washington Examiner, Sears goes a second week in a row without answering questions from the press. Where is Winsome?

With her birthday earlier this week, she should have wished for a break.

🏆SETTLING THIS WEEK’S SCORE 🏆

Winsome’s Wins:

  • None
Winsome’s Losses:
  • Winsome (STILL) Won’t Comment: Amidst her internal campaign chaos, primary challengers, and Trump’s attacks on Virginia jobs, Sears has spent the last two weeks dodging the media.
  • Racing to the Right: A new story from the Virginia Mercury included commentary that “They’re having a primary because they’re not happy with Winsome Sears. Dave LaRock and Amanda Chase are getting in, […], and that’s pushing Republicans further to the right.”
  • LaRock Solid Insults:  In an interview with former Trump Co-Chair John Fredericks, LaRock slammed Winsome Earle-Sears for being unable to unite the Virginia GOP and having no track record to run on, and if that wasn’t tough enough for Sears, LaRock then repeated the same attacks again and again.
And with Winsome, it’s Virginians who stand to lose the most:
  • With a GOP primary field focused on causing chaos, proving their loyalty to Trump, and fighting with each other instead of fighting for the Commonwealth, Virginians will lose the most.
  • No matter how much the GOP field fights, they all agree on the same radical agenda backing ongoing attacks on Virginia jobs and workers, defunding public schools, and ripping away reproductive rights.

Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07) Nails It: “Allowing this CR to proceed puts a Democratic Party stamp on it. It demonstrates weakness when the American people need strength.”

By
lowkell
-
5

With Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer apparently throwing in the towel on any effort to stop the House GOP’s/Trump’s horrendous “CR” (in quotes, because it’s not a clean CR), Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07) really nails it.

“The President is driving our economy into the ground, damaging our international relationships, breaking the government, and exposing Americans to danger. He owns that. Allowing this CR to proceed puts a Democratic party stamp on it. It demonstrates weakness when the American people need strength. It hurts veterans, law enforcement, and average Americans. All Democrats should vote against this partisan bill because that’s right for the American people. Fear of what the President may do in a shutdown cannot override the reality of the harm he’s doing now. I urge all Senate Democrats to gird yourselves. Vote against cloture.”

Meanwhile, House Democratic Leadership weighed in, correctly arguing that “The far-right Republican funding bill will unleash havoc on everyday Americans, giving Donald Trump and Elon Musk even more power to continue dismantling the federal government,” adding “House Democrats will not be complicit. We remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill under consideration in the Senate.”

So the big question is, what on earth is Chuck Schumer thinking? On the Senate Dems website, he argues, correctly, that “in two months, has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon” and that “Republicans in Congress meanwhile have caved to his every whim,” but that “there are no winners in a government shutdown,” but that Democrats face “a Hobson’s Choice: either proceed with the bill before us, or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.” According to Schumer, this “is no choice at all” – “While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” and that “allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”

The problem, in my mind at least, is that Trump and co-President Musk are going to do (heck, is ALREADY DOING) all the bad stuff – seizing more power, waging war on the federal workforce slashing crucial government programs, establishing a kleptocracy the likes of which the world has never seen, etc. – lawlessly and unconstitutionally. Which means that Democrats can either be: 1) a serious RESISTANCE to this illegality and violations of the constitution, rule of law, separation of powers, checks and balances, etc.; 2) a weak, divided, ineffectual party that inspires nobody, serves basically no purpose, and might as well hang it up if it’s going to act this way. For my part, the choice isn’t a “Hobson’s Choice” (where “only one option is truly available, or where the only alternative is to accept nothing at all”), but a real, even existential choice that Democrats need to make – to do the right thing, to use all their power to defend our democracy, and to go down fighting if necessary. At least there’s honor in that; there’s none in appeasement and caving to a thug (who obviously will sense weakness and keep pushing for more…).

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