When we last left the Chair of the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee, Carla Hesseltine in part one of this series, she had just tried to unilaterally add two Republican candidates to the Democratic sample ballot after they donated $1,000 to the Committee. As previously mentioned, she also held a long-running grudge against a Democrat, Mike Maskell, who was running for City Council.
Undermining a Member of her own Steering Committee
All of my sources have told me essentially the same story when it comes to how Carla treated Mike Maskell.
After her efforts to get Maskell’s Republican opponent Jim Wood on the sample ballot in the Summer failed, Carla found other ways to undermine Maskell. One example is this odd exchange where she engages in a hostile debate with an elected official who endorsed Maskell. Why would a Chair go out of their way to attack a councilman who had just endorsed a Democratic candidate?
I agree with A.J. Vasta here. “Thank you for your support” would have been the appropriate response. Why did Carla go after Councilman Moss so harshly and get into this protracted debate (which continued beyond what I include here)? He just endorsed your candidate! Why did Carla feel this conversation needed to happen, and publicly at that? Why did Carla want to drive Moss away at a time when he was reaching out and supporting a member of her Steering Committee?
Carla wasn’t done. Shortly after this exchange a video came out compiling a number of comments Maskell had made privately on Facebook.
What the video comes down to is he made a series of immature jokes, none of which referenced anything non-consensual, illegal, or hateful towards any group of people. For example, he joked that he “sometimes wrecks hotel rooms with [his] penis”. Carla tried to paint this as sexist. For what it’s worth, every woman I talked to told me they thought it was absurd that Carla moved to remove him from the sample ballot over this, and none of them were offended. One even said that she “watched the video three times trying to find something offensive. [She] never found anything”.
Former Steering Committee member Emily Hoapili, who resigned in response to Carla’s sample ballot shenanigans, stressed the negative precedent this decision sets. “For Mike to have given so much of his time and talents to the VBDC, it’s unacceptable for them to turn their backs on him after bad jokes that weren’t racist, sexist, or inciting violence…Look at the numbers. If he had been on the sample ballot, he could have closed the margin. And the message this sends to any members considering running for office is just bad”.
I recently gained access to a recording of the conversation where Steering members discussed how to handle the controversy. Mike read a draft of a statement he wanted to release, and members of the committee explained what they thought should be changed and how he should handle questions from the media. They were all business-minded and professional. Except Carla.
Early in the call she said “I’m not interested in your campaign or what you will do in that aspect”. Her other comments throughout the call were limited to saying she would not defend him, she wanted him off the ballot, she thought his comments were gross, and she wasn’t sure how he came up with those jokes. She focused on the personal, rather than the professional. In addition to those talking points, which she repeated multiple times, she compared his jokes to the actions of Kavanaugh and Trump. Here is how the conversation went:
“Carla: I didn’t agree with Donald Trump’s locker room talk.
Mike: The key difference is at no point did I talk about assaulting or harassing anybody.
Carla: I think you’re splitting hairs
Mike: That’s a pretty thick hair
Carla: Oh, ok…hopefully you’ll contain it before anyone in the press gets ahold of it.”
Mike was kept on the ballot at that time. Shortly thereafter the video did, in fact, get to the press.
Regardless of whether one thinks Maskell’s jokes were appropriate or not, comparing jokes to actual assault is not only absurd, but deeply insulting to those who have suffered sexual assault. The context of Carla’s months-long effort to boost Wood and undermine Maskell is also important to remember. All of the women I have spoken to defend Maskell, so I feel comfortable saying that Carla was using this comparison for political reasons, rather than out of genuine concern.
One member of the VBDC pointed out that “If [Carla] couldn’t get Wood on the sample ballot, getting Mike off that ballot was the next best thing”. This would explain why Carla was willing to risk having no down-ballot races on the sample ballot at all.
Maskell was eventually taken off of the sample ballot a couple weeks before the election, crippling his campaign, since otherwise Carla would not have allowed any sample ballot. Jim Wood cruised to victory, giving Republicans a key City Council seat.
Representation, Unilateral Leadership, and Leaving Members Voiceless
Representation on the committee is another consistent issue. Jones being on the ballot disturbed people not only due to his Republican ties, but also because of his history of racially insensitive remarks. All of my sources, regardless of race, find it disturbing that Carla only appointed white people to positions on Steering after her election. Several of my sources pointed out that Carla is often in conflict with black members of the VBDC. One black member said she felt Carla’s personal distaste for her was partly connected to race.
Although Carla ignores most complaints, there was a meeting where she called on everyone who wanted to speak, except for one black person. One of my sources, a woman of color, stated that she believes “if a white person brought up these issues in committee [Carla] would have taken it more seriously”. This is essentially what I hear from every person of color I talk to. At best, Carla does not care about diversity or a having Steering committee that represents the diverse community in Virginia Beach.
In a city with a long history of disenfranchising African-Americans, this is especially disturbing. Democrats must not assume that we are doing enough because we’re liberal — our party still needs to do better in many respects when it comes to race and representation. The state party, especially as one of our state-wide officials supports a pipeline that would cut through a historic black community in Union Hill, needs to take these concerns seriously and show that we care.
This is a part of a larger problem where Carla shuts out voices other than her own. She unilaterally removed the Committee’s 19 year old web designer because he liked a tweet pointing out her Republican ties. She wanted to remove the President of the Virginia Beach Young Democrats, the only remaining person of color on Steering at that time, from her position. Carla was unaware that the Young Democrats are a separate organization, and their President is guaranteed a spot on the committee regardless of what Carla wants.
When Carla came under criticism in the form of a petition from over a dozen members of the committee for her unilateral, counterproductive, and poor leadership. In response, she singled out two black women and claimed that they threatened her. This was based on nothing more than these women consistently criticizing Carla and a joke one made about holding a protest outside Carla’s house. No such protest ever happened or was planned. In response to this, Carla tweeted at their employer asking for them to be fired. Threatening somebody’s paycheck, somebody’s ability to pay their rent, somebody’s future, is way across the line.
Now, let’s talk about an actual threat.
This screenshot comes from an argument Carla got into on the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee page. A former School Board member, Leonard Tengco, accused the Committee (not a particular individual) of selling itself by allowing Republicans Jones and Davenport to buy spots on the sample ballot for $1000. This is only part of the argument, which went on for dozens of comments.
People say mean things on Facebook all the time. A Chair can not use the official Democratic Committee Facebook page to engage in such petty arguments. On top of that, they definitely can’t threaten a local politician — or anybody for that matter. Let’s be honest, saying that the men in your family want to meet someone in person who you are arguing with online is a threat. There must be consequences for this, especially since she has a history of making inappropriate comments on social media (which she often deletes). Carla has no right to complain about other people when she goes around threatening people and trying to get people fired.
“Final Answer”
These events have set a series of terrible precedents for the VBDC. First, support for Republicans, particularly in the context of the donations they gave shortly before being added to the sample ballot, shows that there is a pay-to-play politics at work within the Democratic Committee. Second, Maskell’s removal from the ballot furthers the perception that Democrats are weak and divided. It shows that if the Chair dislikes you on a personal level, you can’t expect support — even if you are on Steering. Worse still, it is known that a local Republican activist was involved in creating the video. Bowing to this pressure encourages further such attacks in the future.
Most of my sources called Carla a Republican plant. Yvonne Leonard, a long-time member of the committee said “I think Carla is a Republican plant — a successful Republican plant”. Only one said she did not think this was the case, instead chalking up Carla’s failures to “gross incompetence” and “pettiness”.
Regardless of intent, Carla Hesseltine’s tenure as Chair of the VBDC crippled multiple Democratic campaigns while boosting multiple Republicans. The way she pushes out minorities, young people, and those who criticize her has done lasting damage to the party. This is the exact type behavior that makes people not want to become, or stay, involved in Democratic politics.
This is a serious danger to Democratic candidates running in 2019, some of whom have already begun to announce their campaigns. Democrats are only two seats away from taking power in the House of Delegates, and one seat away in the State Senate. Virginia Beach contains enough flippable districts to make both of those victories happen. We have a great opportunity in 2019 — let’s not let this type of “leadership” get in the way again.
Carla needs to go. And the sooner the better. Members of the VBDC are attempting to address these concerns, and many are pushing to remove Carla from power. A committee has been formed within the VBDC to consider removing her from power. However, this is a difficult process since Carla brought in many supporters, and many of those who oppose her resigned their positions. The Second Congressional District Committee is also looking into the grievances that have been filed, but this process has been moving slowly, and so I felt that this series of articles would be useful for keeping public focus on the issue. The Democratic Party needs to show that we do not stand for, and do not tolerate, this type of behavior and cronyism.
The article this series is based on can be found in one piece here: https://medium.com/@WilliamM/the-chair-of-the-virginia-beach-democrats-is-destroying-the-party-3fe0ca1dc8a0
One minor correction to the previous article: I originally said that Carla revealed her sample ballot during the last meeting of the VBDC before the election. One long-time member of the committee commented explaining that “The ballot guide was released after the last meeting before the election.”, not during the meeting. My statement that the general membership was not able to comment on the ballot is still true, and I would argue that the reality is worse than I originally stated.