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Primary fights fuel big spending before showdown in fall [1]
['Michael Martz Richmond Times-Dispatch', 'Michael Martz', 'Associated Press', 'Dave Ress', 'Bob Brown Times-Dispatch', 'Lindy Keast Rodman', 'Dan Currier Times-Dispatch', 'No Credit Please', 'Mark Gormus Times-Dispatch', 'Clement Britt Times-Dispatch']
Date: 2023-06
Democrats hold a significant advantage in campaign cash over Republicans for the general election showdown next fall for control of the Virginia General Assembly. But some legislators in both parties first have to survive well-financed challenges in looming primaries and new districts not drawn to protect them.
Clean Virginia, a Charlottesville-based political fund founded by Michael Bills, CEO of a $1.5 billion hedge fund, and aimed at countering Dominion Energy’s influence over state elections, is making big investments in three Senate races — including one in the Richmond area. It is backing progressive challengers to incumbent Democrats under a new political map that the Virginia Supreme Court approved in late 2021.
“We look at these races and districts as new,” said Brennan Gilmore, executive director of Clean Virginia. Last month it endorsed 52 candidates and pledged $686,500 in political contributions to candidates in House and Senate races who don’t accept money from Dominion and other state regulated public utility companies.
Dominion, long dominant in Virginia political donations and policymaking, has raised questions about what it terms Bills’ outsize influence in political races, and asserted its right to participate in the political process as Virginia’s largest electric utility and one of the state’s biggest employers. “It’s worth noting that our critics donate millions more than we do,” Dominion Senior Vice-President Bill Murray wrote in a letter to the Richmond Times-Dispatch in January.
All 100 House seats and all 40 Senate seats are up for election in November. The fight for control of the legislature will be critical to the outcome of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s agenda on matters such as abortion restrictions, school choice and corporate tax cuts.
Senate Democrats, who hold a 22-18 majority, had about $12.6 million in cash on hand to about $7.1 million for Republicans through March 31, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Democrats also hold an edge on campaign cash for races in the House of Delegates, in which the GOP holds a 51-46 advantage, with three vacancies. House Democrats ended the quarter on March 31 with $7.98 million in cash on hand, compared with $6.96 million for Republicans, VPAP reported.
The Clean Virginia Fund gave $150,000 to former Del. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, who has pulled ahead of Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Petersburg, in political contributions and cash on hand for their showdown in the Democratic primary for the 13th Senate District on June 20. Aird also received a $75,000 donation from philanthropist Sonjia Smith, wife of Bills.
Morrissey countered with donations of $25,000 from Dominion and $15,000 from the utility company’s political action committee this year, but Aird outraised him during the first quarter, which she ended with a slight advantage in cash on hand for the primary stretch run.
‘Clean Virginia versus Dominion’
It’s a similar proxy war in two key Northern Virginia races for Sen. George Barker, D-Fairfax, co-chair of the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee, and Sen. David Marsden, D-Fairfax, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. Both face nomination challenges by more progressive candidates aided by Clean Virginia.
“That’s sort of the story in a lot of these primaries — Clean Virginia versus Dominion,” said Bob Holsworth, a veteran political scientist in Richmond. “Clean Virginia comes in with money and it gives these challengers certainly an opportunity there.”
The primaries are providing opportunities for challenges from the left for Democrats and from the right for Republicans against candidates backed by their parties’ establishment. Youngkin is looking to play a game-changing role for the GOP after raising a record $7.5 million in donations of $10,000 or more in his first 15 months in office through two political action committees.
Retirements free up cash
The Virginia Supreme Court imposed new electoral boundaries in December 2021 that paired incumbents in multiple contests, leading to a raft of retirements. Many senior lawmakers who are retiring have sizable war chests that likely will help their parties in the contests to come.
For example, retiring Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, had $1.2 million in cash on hand as of March 31. Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Tommy Norment, R-James City, had about $897,000.
Retirements also could free some remaining, favored incumbents to spread the wealth and help colleagues in competitive contests. For instance, the retirement of Del. Glenn Davis, R-Virginia Beach, means that House Appropriations Chairman Barry Knight, R-Virginia Beach, faces only a lightly funded Democratic opponent in a heavily Republican district. Knight had about $1.03 million in cash on hand as of March 31.
In the Richmond area, Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, is defending her seat in a new, less hospitable Senate District 16 against Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico. Dunnavant has raised more than $1 million and had almost $650,000 in the bank on March 31, while VanValkenburg, endorsed by Clean Virginia, has raised about $454,000, with more than $372,000 in the bank.
In Northern Virginia’s Senate District 31, based in Loudoun County, businessman Juan Pablo Segura, a Republican, has raised $534,131, most of it from the Renew Virginia Political Action Committee financed by a $1 million contribution from Securiport LLC, a border security company owned by his father, Enrique Segura. Democrats will choose between attorney Russet Perry and Zach Cummings in a primary on June 20. Clean Virginia has endorsed Perry, a former CIA officer and Loudoun prosecutor, who has a sizable fundraising lead over Cummings.
Northern Virginia primaries
Clean Virginia also is playing a major role in primary challenges in three key Senate races in Northern Virginia.
Barker, a key Democratic player in an ongoing budget battle with Youngkin, is trying to hold off a challenge in the 36th Senate District by Stella Pekarsky, a first-term member of the Fairfax County School Board. She received $100,000 from Clean Virginia and $50,000 from Smith in this quarter. Barker, who has received $40,000 from Dominion since his last election in 2019, has raised $490,493 in the cycle and has $372,249 on hand.
But Pekarsky has raised more this year, $219,468, compared with $64,370 for Barker, who ended March with almost $188,000 more in the bank than his challenger.
Marsden holds a 2-to-1 advantage in cash on hand over Democratic challenger Heidi Drauschak in the 35th Senate District, but she received an endorsement, a $100,000 contribution and $23,000 in in-kind donations from Clean Virginia, as well as $50,000 from Smith. The senator started the year with more than $300,000 in the bank, including $65,000 he’s received from Dominion during the four-year election cycle, but Drauschak raised $229,743 in the first quarter, compared with $48,265 for Marsden.
Clean Virginia also has endorsed former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William, in her Democratic Senate primary against former Del. Hala Ayala, D-Prince William, in Senate District 33, based in the county. Carroll Foy, who finished second in the 2021 contest for the Democratic nomination for governor, has raised more than $686,000, compared with $404,000 for Ayala.
Richmond-area contests
In the Richmond area, Clean Virginia has endorsed and financed political newcomer Rae Cousins, who has a huge fundraising advantage in a three-way race in the 79th House District, based in Richmond. She received $100,000 from Clean Virginia and $55,000 from Smith last year, with an additional $20,000 from Smith in the first quarter. (The initial report from VPAP included higher numbers that it had double-counted.) Clean Virginia and Commonwealth Forward, a related political action committee, also have given more than $32,000 in in-kind contributions to Cousins, who has raised $300,771, including almost $106,000 in the first quarter.
Richmond City Council member Ann-Frances Lambert, daughter of the late Sen. Benjamin Lambert, D-Richmond, reported raising $19,341, including a $10,000 loan she made to her campaign. Activist Richard Walker has raised $3,732.
Republicans also face primary battles, including a three-way challenge in the 12th Senate District, based in Chesterfield County. Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, is fighting to keep her seat against former Sen. Glen Sturtevant and Tina Ramirez, who previously had planned to run for Congress in the 7th District until the state Supreme Court moved the district to Northern Virginia.
Sturtevant has raised $344,225 during the cycle and holds a $100,000 advantage in cash on hand, but Ramirez said she raised more than he did in the quarter, not counting a $7,000 loan he made to his campaign and in-kind contributions. She has raised $349,606 during the cycle, including $100,554 during the quarter, and held $109,190 in cash on March 31.
Chase, seeking her third term, has raised $197,908 during the cycle, including about $40,000 in the quarter, and had $107,828 on hand on March 31.
But while the self-styled political maverick trails her rivals in fundraising, Holsworth noted, “You just never know how strong her constituency is.”
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