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In Virginia's CD2, The Party Chair Appoints The Democratic Nominee. [1]

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Date: 2022-11-23

In the recent election, Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District lost to Virginia State Senator Jen Kiggins. That freed up her seat and now there will be a special election to fill her seat.

The special election is critical for Democrats’ control of the state senate at 21 to 19.

In an unusual display of bipartisanship, Gov. Glen Youngkin, and President pro tempore and state senator Louise Lucas — have settled on January 10th as the day of election.

Also:

If Democrats flip the competitive district, they’ll have more of a cushion to vote down Republican-backed bills, particularly on any new abortion restrictions that might come over from the GOP-controlled House of Delegates. If Republicans hold it, they’ll have a clearer path to get bills through with the help of dissenting Democrats and the tiebreaking vote of Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. By delaying the special election and holding the seat open, Democrats could have potentially deprived the Republican minority of a vote for much of the session. Democrats Aaron Rouse, a member of the Virginia Beach City Council, and former Del. Cheryl Turpin, who narrowly lost to Kiggans in 2019, have both announced candidacies for the special election, as has Republican Kevin Adams, a retired Navy commander.

So, Democrats Aaron Rouse and Cheryl Turpin have thrown their hats in the ring. On the opposing side, Republican Kevin Adams is stepping up to run.

Aaron Rouse has served on the Virginia Beach City Council since 2018, the fifth Black council member to hold a seat in the city.

Daily Kos helped Cheryl Turpin win when she ran the last time.

Here, the Democrats have an embarrassment of riches in that we have two fabulous candidates with their hats in the ring. This, of course, means that there will be a raucous firehouse caucus - to determine who will be the Democratic nominee. Right? And a public set of rules for that Call to Caucus. That, after all, is how we Democrats roll in Virginia. We don’t do things the way Harry F Byrd and Everett Randolph Combs did things back in the days of the Byrd Machine. We are now the Democratic party of Virginia in the 21st century, after all.

WRONG.

x No nominating contest on either side for the upcoming special election for Virginia Senate.



I'm told former delegate Cheryl Turpin, who was thought to be in the mix, attempted to file. But only Rouse met all the requirements. https://t.co/H3bPhpBoEz — Graham Moomaw (@gmoomaw) November 17, 2022

Special elections and their caucuses are good for the party base, because it bonds us to each other and helps turn out a ground game facilitated by activists. Are you wondering what happened to the raucous firehouse caucus? It met a political machine, and withered.

Here’s the Call to Caucus.

Here’s how it played out [the link will take you to Twitter where you can click on the page imaged below, to read it]:

Here’s some information on how it came to be:

The Call to Caucus, distributed on November 16.

Democratic candidates were required to file their paperwork and filing fee by the next afternoon, November 17 at 4:00 pm.

The date for the caucus was set for Saturday, November 19th from 10:30 am until 2:30 pm.

The candidates were required to file a Declaration of Candidacy form, and pay a $5,000 filing fee, directly to the CD2 Chair Sandra Brandt.

The speed with which all of this was done is jarring and stinks. Seriously.

And that’s one hell of a hefty filing fee. Particularly when the Code for Virginia states:

Every candidate for nomination for any office at any primary shall, before he files his declaration of candidacy, pay a fee equal to two percent of one year's minimum salary attached to the office for which he is candidate in effect in the year in which he files.

Cheryl Turpin made the deadline by electronically transmitting her filing as candidate. Because she was travelling, she submitted a letter addressing the money requirement, in place of the required cashiers check.

At 4:20, Sandra Brandt, party chair for the district declared — read that as ‘appointed’ — Aaron Rouse the candidate, claiming that Turpin had not met her candidate requirement by failing to submit $5,000.

That’s the Democratic party-chair of the Congressional 2nd District putting her finger on the scale to appoint the candidate, eliminating the other from the contest. And more importantly —

NOT A SINGLE VOTER IN THE DISTRICT WENT TO A FIREHOUSE CAUCUS.

NOT A SINGLE VOTER FROM THE DISTRICT VOTED FOR THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE.

Evidently, the Democratic Party in Virginia still has political machines, party fat cats and back room deals. And they feel they have the right to appoint their nominee. We voters are just so much riffraff.

As a voter, all we want is to vote for our delegates and our senators in the state legislature.

They represent us. We get to vote for the one we want.

That’s what a democracy does — it allows people to vote for their candidate in a contested primary.

Is that so difficult for the Virginia Democratic Party to comprehend?

x $5K and 48 hrs. This is a must read if you want insight on 'the system.' Democrat or Republican, I will always be on the side of #Democracy and #Representation that is decided by the people and a fair system that is inclusive, not exclusive to a few. https://t.co/q6usz0ogoa — Del. Kelly Convirs-Fowler (@FowlerforVA) November 19, 2022

Here’s a great read on the whole shambles. [From link in above tweet].

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/23/2137964/-In-Virginia-s-CD2-The-Party-Chair-Appoints-The-Democratic-Nominee

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