We all know that President Obama* and the Koch brothers have tussled in the past. Well, it’s happening again, and it’s once again showing how the Commonwealth of Virginia is the epicenter of politics right now.
The wonderful folks at the Virginia Public Access Project send a daily email with political news from the around the Commonwealth, calling it, “Virginia’s best paper route.” For those of us vested in, but far from, the Old Dominion, it’s a great compilation. And today, their compilation blew my mind a little bit because of the two headlines, below, listed one right after the other.
Both from the Washington Post, and both by the same journalist, Fenit Narappil. (It’s almost as if it’s balanced journalism or something. Crazy. (#fakenewsnotfakenews))
One can read the articles for oneself but here’s the quick summary: In the first article, the Kochs are running an ad saying Virginia Democratic gubernatorial** candidate Ralph Northam misses a lot of meetings. (Gasp! The Horror!! Gimme a break.)
In the other piece, the Obama-backed, Eric Holder-directed National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) is dropping a cool one-half of one million dollars on Northam to win. For the record, the NDRC’s mission is pretty simple — not let the Republicans win the 2020 census-driven federal and state legislative redistricting that is coming up, an issue the Democrats have kind of missed, completely, for a while now.
Worth noting is that this is is the very first campaign contribution that the NDRC has made. I have to say, it couldn’t come in a better state, one where the courts have been throwing out Republican gerrymandering schemes for… well, for-almost-ever, and as recently as the 2016 election cycle.
So if this is how President Obama* is going to go about his post-Presidency, I say, “Oh, hell yes!” It’s about time the Democrats had a high-profile counterweight to those cocks….er...Kochs. It.is. ON .
One final note, Virginia has not only statewide offices coming up for a vote THIS NOVEMBER, but also the entire legislature. To anyone reading this (all 5 of you. Hah!), please feel free to put in the links to candidates in the comments. Remember, it’s THIS NOVEMBER. Get involved. PLEASE!! Or swing on over to 90for90.org and find information on all the elections coming up THIS NOVEMBER.
*Can I just say that It’s so nice to be able to put a name next to the word, “President.” I refuse to do it for our current President. I fully recognize that we have one, that he is, despite silly, “Not my President!” protests, 100% the President of the United States, that he is my President, I just can’t put his name next to the office. I respect it too much.
**Such a great word. Someday I’ll bore everyone to death with my lecture about it’s true meaning. It involves boats.