We Want Weed!
No, not that kind of weed. (Well, maybe, some of us.) But it's safe to say that nearly all of us want this kind of Weed: Al Weed, a Democrat running in Virginia's 5th District for U.S. Congress.
Aside from a campaign rally cheer that's sure to be popular on campus in Charlotesville among Young Democrats, Al Weed has got the background, the biography, and the organization that make him the Democratic Party's best chance of picking up a seat in the House from Virginia.
Al Weed, a winery owner/farmer and retired Army special operations reservist of more than 42 years, is up against popular but controversial incumbent Virgil Goode (R), who has won loyalty among many "independent-minded" constituents but the wrath of the Virginia 5th District Democratic Committee for switching his party affiliation in 2000 from Democratic to Independent to Republican.
Reportedly, Al Weed attended a Dean Meetup tonight and impressed a lot of people. He's got a really interesting resume and is someone that we Kossacks might be interested in supporting with our wallets and our organizational skills.
Read on for more detail...
The Contender
Al Weed has one of those personal stories that is just crying out to be a made-for-TV movie. It's better than the son of a millworker story.
He grew up in housing projects in New York City, where his father struggled with a drinking problem and his mother worked on and off to help support five children. The family occasionally relied on Welfare to survive.
Little Al ran away from home in 7th grade with the dream of leaving the city to become a farmer in Idaho. He made it as far as rural Pennsylvania where he was picked up by police. With the help of a full scholarship and assistance from a church group, he attended the Church Farm School in rural PA and went on to earn an ROTC scholarship to Yale.
He attended Yale but quit before getting his degree to enlist in the Army. He served in Vietnam and came home to finish his degree at Yale and go on to get a Master's degree in Economic Development and Political Modernization from Princeton. He worked at the World Bank and other organizations for years before returning to Nelson County, Virginia, in what is now known as Virginia Wine Country, in 1973.
It wasn't wine country back then. Virginia had no wine industry to speak of 30 years ago. Largely due to Al Weed's leadership, Virginia now has over 80 active wineries and a tourist industry that is heavily dependent upon wineries. As a motorcyclist, I have special affection for Nelson County, which is home to some of the best "twisties" in all of the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, and community leaders like Nelson have succeeded in turning this area into a major tourist destination while retaining its identity as an oasis free from crass commercialism.
Al Weed has run a one-man winery for 30 years. He understands rural economies and business development. He's got the military background, Ivy League education, and military service.
He's got the pull-yourself-up-from-poverty bio. He's a winegrower that served in Special Forces in Panama, Bosnia, and Vietnam - his amazing military career is profiled here.
I must admit I don't understand how one can run a one-man winery and serve in Special Forces on missions around the world, but I spend hours most days on political blogs. Apparently people who don't get a lot more done in their lives. ;-)
The District
Virginia 5th is an interesting district, the boundaries of which were re-drawn by the Republican VA legislature in 2000 to better support a Republican candidate. While it includes more liberal areas such as Charlottesville, home of UVA, it stretches west through the Blue Ridge Mountains and south to the North Carolina border, encompassing some of Virginia's poorest and most rural areas.
8.88% of registered voters came out for Virginia's open Presidential primary in District 5, slightly lower than the state overall turnout of 9.35%. (By contrast, the 8th District in Northern Virginia, represented by Jim Moran (D), had 15.96% turnout.) These numbers may seem surprisingly low to those of you in other states, but VA has not had a Democratic Presidential primary since 1988, and this one got very little publicity statewide. In this district, totals were:
Kerry 50.6%
Clark 9.5%
Dean 6.7%
Edwards 27.5%
Sharpton 3.0%
Kucinich 1.7%
Given the economic situation in Virginia, it's not an impossible district for a Democrat to win the 5th. And if any Democrat can win this district, it will have to be someone with a background like Al Weed.
The Opponent
Virgil Goode is by many accounts a really popular guy in his district. I haven't been able to locate any polling data, but the word on the street is that Al Weed does stand a strong fighting chance against him.
Virgil Goode was elected as a Democratic member of the U.S. House in 1996. He quickly earned a reputation as a very conservative Democrat, voting against President Clinton's legislative agenda 74% of the time in 1997 votes and 84% of the time in 1999 votes. His rocky relationship with the Democratic Party came to a head in 1999/2000 with a vote to impeach Clinton and a few high-profile snubs, the most famous of which involved inviting popular Democrat John Lewis to speak at the 5th District Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraising dinner, and then not showing up. Before officially leaving the Democratic Party, he appeared at a fundraiser for GOP Senate candidate George Allen, snubbing incumbent Dem. Chuck Robb, who went on to lose to Allen. He endorsed George W. Bush for President.
In early 2000, Goode announced he was an Independent and was rewarded by the GOP with a seat on the Appropriations Committee. He's now officially a Republican.
Goode's record is pretty consistent. He's voted:
- FOR a ban on gay adoptions in DC
- FOR making Bush tax cuts permanent
- FOR a constitutional amendment against flag burning
- FOR a ban on so-called "partial birth abortions"
- FOR the global gag rule
- FOR funding for vouchers in DC schools
- AGAINST implementation of Kyoto protocol
- AGAINST a ban on drilling in ANWR
A few other votes have been less totally right-wing, such as Goode's vote in opposition to decreasing the waiting time for gun purchases from 3 days to 1 day. But for the most part, the Republican Party is the right place for him.
We Want Weed
An overview of Weed's beliefs on core issues is a little light on specifics (leaning towards "Puppies are good" generalities) but right on in sentiment. It does clearly state Weed's positions on two key issues:
- support for civil unions
- support for reproductive freedom of choice
What I really enjoyed were two statements on risky positions to have in VA that are so appealingly frank, they reminded me of Dean:
- The death penalty does little to deter crime and much to brutalize our society.
- Effective regulation benefits all of us by limiting the reach of human greed, and taxes pay for efficient government.
I don't want to pretend to be an expert on Al Weed, but this stands to be a very interesting and competitive race, and one that may well be worth the support of Kossacks.
If you're a Kossack who wants Weed, you may be delighted to note that his web site accepts PayPal as well as credit cards. I really appreciate the sentiment behind the "Give a Little" icon, too. His web presence suggests that somebody in his organization "gets it".