Evandra Thompson
Yesterday I introduced Air Force vet
Evandra Thompson, who is challenging Liebermanesque Virginia state delegate
Rosalyn Dance in their Richmond-area district. Despite her youth (30 years old) and political inexperience, Thompson is busy consolidating local establishment support, a rare occurrence in electoral politics. Incumbents always stick together. So why the defections?
Perhaps it's headlines like these:
In Democratic primary feud, Dance pledges to reject Republican campaign donations
Huh, what? In the 11 years I've been doing this, I don't recall ever seeing a Democratic primary candidate have to promise to stop taking Republican money. But she didn't take just
any Republican's money:
In 2001, then-Del. Bob McDonnell contributed $500 to her unsuccessful House bid as an independent.
This is the same Bob McDonnell who is now governor, who signed the
forced ultrasound bill among other atrocities. And of course, she was running as an
independent, before deciding she had better odds of victory pretending to be a Democrat.
Thompson has put Dance on the spot:
“My question to you is: Will you pledge not to accept Republican money, directly or indirectly, during the primary campaign? I hope that you agree to make this simple pledge because I believe that this primary should be decided only by real Democrats,” Thompson wrote.
Dance's colleagues in the state house of delegates are certainly sick and tired of her party disloyalty.
Led by Del. Joseph D. Morrissey, D-Henrico, Dance’s opponents have accused her of voting against her own party line too many times. “For eight years, Rosalyn has masqueraded as a Democrat who then turned around and voted Republican,” Morrissey said in an interview.
Yesterday, over 250 of you gave over $6,500 to a previously unknown candidate for a state House seat, far exceeding any expectations I or anyone on the Daily Kos elections team had. For a candidate that had about $2,000 cash on hand, this is game changing. Just like in the IL-02 special election, the Daily Kos community has reshaped a race.
So let's keep the momentum going by chipping in $3. Let's get rid of a Lieberdem, let's build our bench in a state that is trending our way, and let's make sure we help our Virginia friends have a legislature that can stop the worst abuses of their crazed governor and his House majority.