June’s special election in Georgia’s Sixth District is the most expensive House election in U.S. history — by a wide margin. Seen as a major potential stake in the ground for resistance against Donald Trump and the GOP train wreck in Washington, $10s of millions poured into the campaign.
Organization after organization, individual after individual pumped up this election — with email inboxes swamped, on some days, with dozens of appeals to send money to Ossoff’s campaign, to make calls, to …
In Virginia, the 2017 election campaign has now entered its last two months with all state-wide positions up for grabs and the House of Delegates (HoD) potentially at stake.
The Republicans currently hold a massive majority in the HoD but a record number of Republican seats have credible Democratic Party challengers. While it will take some good luck and serious campaigning, the ‘whisperers’ see a potential Democratic seizing of a HoD majority if (IF) Ralph Northam (D) beats “Enron Ed” Gillespie by a sizable margin (perhaps in 7-9+% range).
While polling seems to suggest that Northam is in the stronger position, the race is entering into its last months when a good share (the majority) of people will begin to notice that there is an election and who is in it.
Getting to these people — while maintaining/generating enthusiasm in the base — is critical.
And, part of that ‘getting’ is getting the resources to get to them.
Right now, the numbers aren’t looking that good. Gillespie’s campaign is outspending Northam’s on the airwaves. And external support, with the Koch Brothers’ stepping in to help their bud Enron Ed (note that Gillespie was was the keynote speaker at the Koch’s Americans for Prosperity’s summit in Richmond in August), to the tune of at least $1.5M … to start with — or, as Lowell put it in a post on the VPAP advertising report at Blue Virginia, “is at least a bit unnerving”
Some national money has entered to support the Northam campaign (reported $2M from Tom Steyer and $500K from President Obama backed NDRC)
OBAMA-BACKED REDISTRICTING GROUP GIVES $500K TO HELP ELECT NORTHAM IN VIRGINIA 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.
but the groundswell of “THE RESISTANCE” stepping in — as occurred with GA-06 — to help put steel into the Virginia Line against Donald Trump has yet to be seen.
[Note: Justin Fairfax is the Democratic Party nominee for Lieutenant Governor. This primary ad spoke to me in June … and should speak to all of US today … about how important it is to have a Virginia line against Donald Trump’s excesses.]
As Lowell ended his discussion,
I mean, seriously: if Democrats were willing to contribute $23 million for a single House of Representatives seat (Ossoff), you’d think that they’d be willing to throw in far more for the Virginia governor’s mansion, Attorney General’s office and entire House of Delegates.
Do national Dems, both “establishment” and grassroots, still mostly care about the White House and Congress – and not about the states, where we’ve been wiped out the past six years or so, and which are absolutely crucial both on their own merits and also for Congressional redistricting in four years?
If so, what will it possibly take to get them to care?
I’m baffled and frustrated, to be honest, as the concept that states are absolutely crucial – and that Virginia is the big state up for grabs this year – really “ain’t rocket science,” as the saying goes…
This Virginian implores you …
- figure out how you can help Virginia Democrats hold and strengthen The Virginia Line.
- Whether sending money, sending yourself (door-to-door or ...), or sending your voice (phone banking), and/or convincing a group you’re involved with to step up (raising funds, education, ...), figure out how you can step up.
- Whether a general ‘I’ll help’, support to one of the state-wide races, or picking a HoD race to try to help win/flip, figure out who you’ll help.
Alone, Virginia might fall to the Koch onslaught.
Together, we can place a serious stake in the ground that Virginia’s Democratic Party will romp and help put the nation back on a path toward sanity.
It’s two months to election day.
It’s a long slog to get there.
Figure how you’ll help Virginians and the nation over that time.