By now, you may have heard of the clusterfuck which is the 2023 election in the 49thHD in Virginia. The Democratic committee has decided to hand the election to the Republican candidate. There have been 3 diaries written about it here so far.
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There is a candidate who is ready and willing to run. She missed the deadline to come up with 500 nonrefundable dollars (something no other candidate was asked for). She missed the deadline because she didn’t have the money. She’s not wealthy. Luckily there are other ways to get on the ballot, but the local committee is ignoring them.
Herb Jones gets why it’s important to run a candidate in every seat, in every race. It helps everyone up and down the ballot. Trudy Berry understands that as well.
Hello everyone,
The Jasmine Lipscomb situation is not going away – it continues to be discussed on Facebook, not to mention two articles on Daily Kos – and as a Democrat and candidate for Senate District 9, I believe it is my duty to address it for the sake of the district and the Party.
We are supposed to be better than the Republicans, but the violation of Section 7.4 of the Party Plan and the nominating committee’s refusal to nominate Jasmine per Section 10.6 of the Party Plan indicates that we are not.
The extraordinary caucus requirements of a $500 fee and 100 signatures is unmatched across the Commonwealth and appears to be nothing more than a barrier to the sole candidate that filed the required forms before the June 20 deadline. Such caucus requirements are not necessary to determine a person’s willingness and commitment to run and follow the filing process; just stepping up and filing the forms indicate those qualities.
Another factor in this situation is the belief that Jasmine was given bad advice – advice from a Democrat with strong ties to Virginia who consistently tries to get good Democrats to run for office up and down the ballot but is apparently disliked by a few of you. This is no reason to withhold nomination from Jasmine. It does, however, appear spiteful and that you are blaming Jasmine when it is not her fault.
Digging your heels in appears to be a face-saving tactic, but it only worsens the situation and makes you, the district, and the Party look bad. This spoils the statewide tickets (Governor, Lt Governor, AG), the tickets for U.S. Congress and Senate, and the state Senate tickets when it is supposed to uplift them.
I hope you do the right thing by acknowledging that mistakes were made, recognizing that the situation has been misjudged, and re-forming the nominating committee in accordance with Section 7.4 of the Party Plan and reconsidering your decision to cede the seat to a Republican by declaring Jasmine the nominee for HD49 per Section 10.6 of the Party Plan.
Respectfully,
Trudy Berry for Senator Website Facebook Twitter DONATE
And still, the committee is holding to this response:
Good Morning Ms. Lipscomb,
Ms. Lipscomb, if cutting corners and disregarding policy and procedure is the strategy you wish to utilize, I must inform you that the integrity of the process and providing the voters with the best possible candidate is the one and only goal of this committee and will not succumb to tactics of deceit and the attempt of intimidation.
Therefore, the previous decision made by the House District 49 Committee stands as not having a Democratic Nominee for House District 49.
We wish you the best in your endeavors.
Thank you,
Patricia Harper-Tunely
The bolding is mine. What the fuck?!? The Democratic Committee is choosing to not run a candidate when there is one right there willing to run? Their goal is to provide voters with the best possible candidate and this Democratic committee thinks the best possible candidate is a Republican?!? Again, what the fuck?
If this pisses you off as much as it pisses me off give someone a call, write someone an email.
Telephone: 804-644-1966
Call and ask for these people:
SUSAN SWECKER, CHAIRWOMAN... chair@vademocrats.org
SHYAM RAMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR… sraman@vademocrats.org
LIAM WATSON, PRESS SECRETARY… liam@vademocrats.org
OLIVIA RAPPE, OPERATIONS DIRECTOR… olivia@vademocrats.org
JACK FOLEY, POLITICAL DIRECTOR… jack@vademocrats.org
You can also donate here. Sometimes money talks and makes the bullshit walk.