A lot of you may not be following Virginia House of Delegates races too closely (an easily forgivable oversight, perhaps), but I wanted to draw everyone's attention to one race in particular that I've been working a lot on recently. I think these smaller races are critical for a number of reasons, both practically - we're six seats from taking back the Virginia House of Delegates, a body which will at least partially responsible for Virginia's redistricting and, consequently, the futures of Reps. Nye and Perriello - and in terms of how the success or failure of Democratic candidates in an off-year following President Obama's election will influence the national narrative when there're no other tea leaves to read. More below the fold.
Cynthia Neff is a former IBM executive who's running for Delegate in the 58th district. The district - which includes parts of Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Orange counties and all of Greene County - was gerrymandered to be an easily Republican district, but went for Tom Perriello by 10 points last year and nearly went for Obama. The demographics of the area are trending our way, and Cynthia is the first candidate to give entrenched Republican Rob Bell a run for his money. Bell is sitting on a mammoth warchest and definitely has his eye on higher office, but has a history of being weak on every issue save crime and punishment, and his popularity is based largely on constituent services.
Regardless, I'm not only excited about Cynthia because of what her victory would mean for reelection prospects, what it would mean for the national narrative, or even what it might mean for the future of Virginia politics. I'm excited because Cynthia is a bold, courageous progressive who isn't afraid to speak her mind on tough issues. She took such a bold stance last Wednesday at the first public forum opposite Rob Bell when - faced with an obviously planted question - Cynthia didn't even flinch before coming out strongly in support of marriage equality.
In her time at IBM, Cynthia rose to the level of VP of Human Resources, and was instrumental in making IBM the first major corporation in the entire nation to include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy. Cynthia has consistently said on the campaign trail that nondiscrimination is not only the morally right thing to do, but also smart from a business perspective, because we're always stronger when we're inclusive and stand together. This is exactly the kind of language we want Democrats to be using to talk about this issue, and I think she should be applauded for taking such a stance in a close election in a close district.
You can find more information about Cynthia at her website - www.cynthianeff.com