Time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Yesterday I wrote a DIARY warning us all about an odious bill in committee in the VA state Senate that would prohibit out of state contributions to state congressional candidates. Apparently our success in motivating action in 2015 got under some GOP skin. But there’s another, even better reason to become active and involved in Virginia right now!
As I touched on in yesterdays diary, Virginia is one of only four states or commonwealths that holds state legislative elections in odd numbered years. This is 2017. There are no Senators up for reelection this year in Virginia, but all 100 House seats are up for grabs. Yeah, I know, why start anything now, nobody will remember this shit all the way in November? Here’s why.
Right now the GOP holds like 63 or 64 seats in the House. Democratic candidates are already filing to run in November, in fact several have already joined our friend 90 for 90. I know, again, so what, it’s too damn early! No it’s not, for a very simple reason. Read on grasshopper.
At the moment, the Virginia legislature is in session. I know, BFD. Actually, in this case it is a BFD. They have this rather odd law in Virginia that prohibits sitting incumbents from fundraising or accepting any donations while the legislature is in session. I guess it makes them feel pure or something. But the point is, you have 64 incumbent GOP House members who are hamstrung right now, they can’t take a damn dime in donations! And there are already Democratic challengers lining up and filing to run against some of those members in November. They are free of those contribution shackles, they’re not sitting members of the House! We have the opportunity to help them build an early war chest while the GOP incumbents are unable by law to take a dime, put them behind the cash 8 ball right off of the bat.
As I said earlier, several of these candidates have already joined the august 90for90.org. They have a page set up for the Virginia 2017 elections, you can find it HERE. As near as I can tell, none of the names on the list are incumbents. You can simply to to the page and click on the “Donate” button to pitch in. It would also be a good time for active Election Team members to hit the site up, pick one, and get an early candidate diary out there about them. Get them some early name recognition, help to frame them, and give their war chests an early boost. I plan to start doing some of these next week.
But just as importantly, there are 64 GOP controlled House seats, but only 10 names on the 90for90 website. Which means that there may well be Democratic candidates who have filed and announced that are not members of 90for90, or who may be filing soon. We need every Kos member who lives in Virginia to keep an eye out for new candidate filings to run for those GOP held House seats, and get the word on the street, publish a candidate diary so we can get their names out there and get them some early recognition and love.
Look, the Virginia GOP is already not very happy with us for our partisan meddling in their supposedly automatic reelection bids. Isn’t it a lot more fun to be a collective pain in their ass, as early and often as possible than just sitting around throwing darts at James Comey photographs? I sure happen to think that it is, and to borrow from President Obama, I’m “Fired up! Ready to GO!”