Press Releases

Demo Memo: 6/20/08

Posted by Greg on Friday, June 20

June 13, 2008 - June 20, 2008
www.vademocrats.org

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INTRODUCTION

First, a very big thank you to everyone who came out to Hampton for the 2008 Virginia State Democratic Convention last weekend. We have a strong, unified front going forward into the fall campaign season, and we couldn't have done it without your help! Eric at Raising Kaine and Mark Brooks have some great photographs up here and here, and Johnny Camacho has more up on his site. And if you have any photos you'd like us to add to our Flickr album, just send them our way!

We are also officially launching our 2008 Coordinated Campaign field campaign this weekend, with more than 25 simultaneous canvasses across Virginia. If you can join tomorrow, please call (703) 636-7270 or contact your nearest field office (listed here).

Finally, if you're going to be in the Richmond area this Thursday, we'll be hosting a benefit concert for our 2008 campaign efforts at Toad's Place on the Canal Walk. The event will feature the musical talents of Bio Ritmo and the D.J. Williams Projekt. Food will be served during the reception beginning at 6:30. For more details or to RSVP, click here.

Best,

Levar Stoney
Executive Director

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QUOTES OF THE WEEK

"I have been working really hard since last fall, and I am committed 110 percent to asking the people of Virginia to give me the honor of being elected their next United States Senator. I have not sought and will not accept any other opportunity, because I want to serve in the United States Senate."
- U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner, at the 2008 Virginia State Democratic Convention [Roanoke Times, 6/15/08]

"Gilmore's strategy is to avoid Southside at all costs. Mark Warner on the second day of his announcement tour was here."
- House Democratic Leader Del. Ward Armstrong, on Jim Gilmore's kickoff tour mysteriously avoiding Southside Virginia [Martinsville Bulletin, 6/16/08]

"I don't know a lot of young Republicans who end up being felons."
- Del. Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), who apparently doesn't read the news [Washington Post, 6/17/08]

"Virginia's years as a Republican stronghold are well over."
- Prof. Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics [Crystal Ball, 6/19/08]   

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HEADLINES

Gov. Tim Kaine

Sen. Jim Webb

Congressional Delegation

General Assembly             

Election 2008

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EDITORIAL HIGHLIGHTS

"In making his rounds across Virginia, Gov. Tim Kaine is both outlining his proposal for comprehensive transportation funding reform and inviting others to suggest their own solutions. It is an approach aimed at toning down partisan bickering and pre-campaign jockeying while creating an atmosphere conducive to capturing the compromise that has eluded the General Assembly for most of a decade... The commonwealth is better positioned than most states for success, but in the area of transportation it must first overcome its history of failure." [Leesburg Today, 6/13/08]

"For those many thousands of Virginia residents who are new to the state or are newly of voting age, it must have seemed a strange spectacle that former Republican governor James S. Gilmore III -- who also served a stint as his party's national chairman -- scarcely managed to eke out a victory the other day against a relatively obscure Northern Virginia state delegate to become the GOP's nominee for the U.S. Senate. It may seem odder still to watch prominent fellow Republicans either endorse Mr. Gilmore's Democratic opponent in the Senate race, former governor Mark R. Warner, or go mute when asked whom they support. A review of Mr. Gilmore's calamitous record as governor provides a ready explanation." [Washington Post, 6/15/08]

"When Gov. Tim Kaine announced his transportation package, Republicans in the House of Delegates essentially treated it as dead on arrival... Last week Del. Bill Janis (R-Mars) accused Kaine of spending more time campaigning for Barack Obama (and maneuvering for a position on the ticket) than promoting transportation legislation. He studied records of the governor's schedule to make his point! So, Janis expects Kaine to devote greater energy to a transportation scheme his GOP colleagues summarily scorned. Fasten your seat belts. The oldest and most distinguished legislative body in the New World soon will convene." [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 6/16/08]

"Republicans have taken the state for granted in presidential elections for years. They won't this time." [Richmond Times-Dispatch, 6/16/08]

"Restoring so fundamental a right is simple justice for people who have served their time, stayed out of trouble and want to take up the responsibilities of citizenship. This is not a radical idea. In most states, a felon's right to vote is restored automatically upon completion of his or her sentence. Virginia is unusually and unreasonably restrictive. Kaine is right to try to expand access to the voting booth." [Roanoke Times, 6/18/08]

"Democratic Senate candidate Mark Warner drew a sharp and welcome distinction between himself and his Republican opponent Wednesday. Warner offered Virginia voters an energy policy plan, not a slogan." [Roanoke Times, 6/20/08]

"Former Gov. Jim Gilmore showed last week he is still mired in the negative politics of the past. And those politics, sadly, put name-calling ahead of a positive platform from which he could present his ideas for the future of Virginia and the United States. Gilmore, who narrowly won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. John Warner, apparently has decided that a negative campaign will help him in his uphill battle against another former governor, Democrat Mark Warner. How else could Gilmore justify the name-calling used to launch his general campaign last week? Is that the only way he thinks he can win the Senate seat? If so, he has badly misjudged the Virginia electorate." [Lynchburg News & Advance, 6/19/08]

"Jim Gilmore is in a tough spot this year - and everybody knows it. Gilmore barely won the Republican Party's nomination for John Warner's Senate seat. He's trailing Democrat Mark Warner in the money race and in the polls. Even some prominent Republicans are supporting Mark Warner. Faced with that kind of uphill climb, Gilmore has come out either swinging, name calling or simply flailing. Call it what you will, but calling Mark Warner a tax piranha is awfully desperate for June." [Danville Register & Bee, 6/19/08]

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Democratic Party of Virginia
1710 E. Franklin Street
Richmond, VA 23223
(804) 644-1966

www.vademocrats.org

 

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