Lynnforvirginia.com
There is a familiar spring smell of newly budding blossoms in the air. Campaign season comes to Virginia every year.
People come out of their homes and are welcomed by a new voice with a reoccurring message: things are not right in Richmond.
The "Virginia Way" is nothing new. It has been the accepted way of making backroom deals with a slap on the back or a bill that is lost in an unrecorded vote with a wink and a grin.
The big boys and the bad deals have had their way of sliding into home past ethics violation charges, campaign finance slush fund allegations and campaign slogans of "Keeping the Big Boys Honest".
So where does an outsider, a woman, or any new Progressive candidate fit into this smoke room dinosaur of a system? Well, we don't.
We need to focus on a new way to turn a deal in the chambers of the south. The southern capital has its sentinels of marble to remind us there was never room at the top for a different mold.
The chance to have a voice and represent a percentage of the population that has dim numbers in the seats is still a battle that moves the needle slowly.
Reform is the new cry. Transparency, campaign finance, ethics, ending gerrymandering and allowing new faces a space at the table forges the new "Virginia Way".
I feel I have invaded the men's locker room. The stare down I am getting is a warning you are in the wrong place.
I can only imagine how it must have felt for anyone earlier in the history of our politics, changing the political landscape with different faces of color, sex or creeds.
Today I feel I am carrying the stories of all the people I have encountered that do not have a seat at the table.
A young woman, who doesn't know where she will go after being thrown out of her father's house, pregnant and hanging on to a two-year-old.
A fifty-something-year-old woman facing eviction because her elderly kind landlady had died and the landlady's children are selling the property.
An elderly couple who have a pipeline coming through their property and want to move but the real estate agent said that their property is worthless.
I have met many people at their door, in marches, at protests and rallies and I try to assure them their voice will be heard.
I don't think today's legislatures have spent real time with the public because they have been only dealing with their inner circles.
I want to get a seat at the table so all those voices I carry will be able to come out and have their say.
The strength of these people I meet is as firm as the sugar maples that have shaded centuries of Virginians as they wander under their majestic limbs.
The breezes whisper in the pine trees of the Blue Ridge to those who pause to listen.
There is a new way for Virginia, a better way.
And let's make this new Virginia together.
If you wish to support my candidacy for a better Virginia, you can donate here.
Thank you.
Angela Lynn
House District #25
FB /Lynn4Virginia
twitter @LynnforVirginia
Lynnforvirginia.com