SBE Tells Know Campaign to Disclose Source of Voter Data

The Know Campaign, which had planned on a mass mailing to voters in Virginia before this years elections, has been told by the State Board of Elections to identify the source of the mailing list by December 3, 2009. SBE officials said they would turn the case over to the Virginia State Police if the deadline wasn’t met.

The mailing campaign, which was scrapped after questions of its legality, was to collect information about voters’ voting habits, among other data. That constitutes information that is illegal to posses by anyone other than party officials, candidates, and elected officials.

The attorney for Know Campaign said they were cooperating, and also said that the list was actually the property of the mailing house.

This will be an interesting story to follow. A week from tomorrow is December 3, 2009.

H/T Daily Press

Have These People Forgotten Where They are Running for Office?

GOPAC Advertisement for District 24 GOP candidate

If you look closely, you can see the GOPAC address in this browser screen shot. H/T Adam Feiler.

UPDATE: HD-21 exact advertisement for the GOP candidate there. See Vivian for more.

What the NRA Thinks of Virginians

Presented without comment, for youse enjoyment.

more about "What the NRA Thinks of Virginians", posted with vodpod

WDBJ Video: Goode stumping for Bob McDonnell|

Radical xenophobe and former Congressman Virgil Goode campaigns Friday for Bob McDonnell in Stuart, Virginia.

more about "Virgil Video: Goode stumping for Bob …", posted with vodpod

The McDonnell-Bolling Education Shell Game

I had read some of the material that described the ‘Education Plan’ of Bob McDonnell and Bill Bolling, but I hadn’t paid much attention to the details. The plan is fatally flawed and seeks to deceive voters into thinking that the money the plan speaks about is extra money put into the schools. This is disingenuous and false. To do it justice, read the article for yourself at the links provided. I can’t do it justice in one article.

In thearticle online by Lieutenant Governor Bolling in which he states his case for the plan. In it, he uses the phrase ‘central office to the classroom’ over and over, in an attempt at a one-size-fits-all scenario, where all schools would be required to attain 65% in ‘instructional expenses’. This would also be regardless of certain characteristics at schools that cause a problem, such as schools in low-income and poverty neighborhoods.

Generally not all schools will have the same need for administrative staff and overhead.

Another problem with the plan, or at least the way it was described by Mr. Bolling, is that it is written in a tone that is brusque and not at all friendly. Disparaging remarks about office personnel and Administrators at the schools are in my opinion, a sign of the plan’s shortcomings and weaknesses as a viable plan for our schools and the children that attend them.

Any plan that starts out being snippy and derogatory to a group of professionals such as I have mentioned, is no plan for fixing what’s wrong with the schools.

Selling a plan that merely uses the meager funds we have now differently, requires more than a pledge to put half a billion dollars into schools. No funny business with the accounting. Money from somewhere else will need to be found to meet the needs of the areas you propose to take money from. The schools need the money they have now, and a whole lot more.

Here is an example of another disconnect (from Bolling’s article).

While a vast majority of Virginians support increasing instructional spending by shifting money from the central office to the classroom, our Democratic opponents and certain members of the education establishment have been critical of the McDonnell/Bolling plan.

They claim that Virginia is already spending 64.5% in the classroom. Under the state’s broad definition of classroom spending, this is true. However, the state considers expenditures such as “office of the principal”, “social work services” and “media services” as instructional spending. While these may be worthwhile expenditures, we do not consider them classroom expenditures.

Notice how Mr. Bolling says that the state’s current definition of classroom spending, the 64.5% figure is true. He then goes on to downplay the importance to instruction of the office of the principal, social work services, and media services. All of these items are interwoven with the instruction day. Do I really need to spell out why social work services is a good thing for 6th through 9th grade classrooms?

Whatever changes are being proposed by this plan would have a very rough time in the Senate, and maybe even in the House of Delegates. New laws would need to be passed to put this plan into place.

Unfortunately, critics of the McDonnell/Bolling plan are largely members of the education establishment and the politicians beholden to them. We understand that they may have something to lose if our plan impacts the status quo, but they should not let their own self-interest stand in the way of providing a better education to our children.

Forgotten the log in your own eye, Mr. Bolling?

H/T Virginia Tomorrow

R2K/DailyKos Poll: McDonnell 50, Deeds 43

Research 2000 for DailyKos (unknown trend lines) September 14-16, 2009 4%MOE

Creigh Deeds (D) 43

Bob McDonnell (R) 50

Undecided 7

Republicans for McDonnell  89 Deeds 5  Undecided 6

Democrats for Deeds 80 McDonnell 15 Undecided 5

Go look for yourself at the crosstabs. There is always some interesting stuff going on there.

Who Is Running The DPVA?

In recent days, we have heard about the hiring of many fine people for Creigh Deeds campaign. Several of them are veterans of political campaigns in Virginia and elsewhere. Some, however, are top-level officials with the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA). This is troubling to me for several reasons.

When the never-ending election season turned to the 2009 elections for Delegates, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, there was a lot of talk about winning back the other house in the Virginia Legislature, the House of Delegates. Since then, we have seen a carnival-style primary election season that sucked all the money and air out of the activist base in Virginia. After what seems like years between January and June, our question was answered and we have a ticket of great, qualified and dedicated people.

My good friend Vivian Paige published an article last night that spurred this train of thought. I had been thinking along the same lines, although in the recesses of my brain. Vivian asked some of the same questions I am, namely, “Who will ensure our majority in the House of Delegates?” We both agree that of equal importance to electing a Democratic Governor is electing the majority status in the House of Delegates.

The House of Delegates has more contested races this year than it did in 2007. Today, I believe the total is 69.

Here’s a question. With the large number of House races this year, who will be doing the usual jobs of Levar Stoney and Jared Leopold? These races need to be worked by the party, and from what I have seen in previous House election years, they couldn’t cover the races they had with a full complement of people at DPVA. In one instance at the end of the election season in 2007, a literature drop was scheduled at little or no cost to the party. Unfortunately, unless you lived in Northern Virginia, Roanoke, Danville/Martinsville or Hampton Roads, there were no events listed. This is inexcusable.

The whole of western VA, aside from a few areas like Roanoke and Danville, are routinely written off. Prince Edward County went for Obama last year. Will we see any sort of focus on Southside areas outside the ones I mentioned? Not likely.

Without the House of Delegates, there is a real good chance that redistricting would happen under the rules and carving knife of the Republican majority. We can’t let that happen to Virginia for ten years, because we couldn’t adequately staff our organizations. We can’t let it happen to Virginia’s people either, they are pushed to the economic limit now, along with the usual headaches. We especially can’t allow it to happen to the children that have no say in any of this. They deserve a good education and good health care, and a reasonable government that does the things that help people.

Will we rise to the occasion? I am hopeful, but I am not optimistic.

[Edit: Text was added that had been inadvertantly left out. Also, categories were added. 06-19-09]