Kimball Payne of Newport News's Daily Press highlighted the group on Thursday after finding out that these "Citizens" had donated $200,000 to conservative republican Tricia Stall for her Newport area race against Democrat John Miller.
From the perspective of local democratic organizer in Fairfax's Braddock District this is an amazing amount of money for anyone to be providing to our local Senate races (just like it is in Newport News). Every year, we work for months to organize "Derby Day,"
our celebration of the running of the Kentucky Derby where we raise the four figure amount that funds our local democratic committee. We struggle over issues like whether we get can the detail cleaning again from Don Beyer for the silent auction, who is going to bring the shrimp, and are we going to blow our personal budgets bidding on lunch with our favorite delegate. We aren't used to thinking about local politics in terms of six figure amounts.
Who are these concerned "Citizens?" VPAP reports that the group describes itself as follows:
"Citizens for the Commonwealth that will work to elect General Assembly candidates who support 'Virginia's history of commitment to the free-enterprise system.'"
A little vague, huh. Perhaps we should not just take this description at face value: How can we know that they represent "free enterprise" or even "citizens"? After all, the group is unable to string together
a single grammatical sentence to describe their purpose: maybe they may be some kind of foreign agents -- kind of like Boris and Natasha from the Underdog cartoon. More striking, it turns out that "Citizens for the Commonwealth" appears to be made up of just six guys. A communist cell perhaps? Something more insideous?
Or are these just some of our neighbors who got so worked up about transportation, redistricting, immigration, eductation or abortion that they decided to devote their retirement savings to this off-off year election?
Kind of makes you want to find out what kind of neighbors or citizens these "Citizens" are. . . .
CITIZEN SHARP is this guy who used to work at Circuit City . . . . actually, RICHARD SHARP is a Richmond businessman whose net worth is $170 million (according to the June 2007 edition of "Virginia Business") and tops the "Citizens" list with a $350,000 contribution:
Sharp [recently retired] as chairman of Richmond-based CarMax Inc., but he's still is involved in innovative businesses. He serves as chairman of Crocs Inc., a maker of brightly colored footwear that softens with body heat and molds to the wearer's foot. Colorado-based Crocs had revenue of $354.7 million last year, up 236 percent from 2005, while profits rose 395 percent to $20.8 million. The company's stock has doubled in the past 12 months and was trading around $53 in late April. Sharp also is a board member and former chairman of Singapore-based Flextronics International Ltd., which had 2006 revenues of $15.3 billion. Sharp is credited with revolutionizing the used-car industry with the introduction of the CarMax superstore concept while he was CEO of Richmond-based Circuit City Stores Inc. The Sharp Foundation had assets of more than $7 million and made donations of $441,957 in 2005. President Bush visited Sharp's home in Goochland County in May for a private fund-raising event for the Virginia Republican Party.
Perhaps on our next trip to the Bowling Alley in Burke, we'll bump into CITIZEN WILLIAM H. GOODWIN, JR., founder of CCA Industries, an investment company with real estate holdings. CITIZEN GOODWIN ponied up $100,000 of his considerably more than $100 million in net worth for his fellow "Citizens" to donate to our friendly neighborhood neanderthal conservatives. Says Richard Foster of Virginia Business:
For William H. " Bill" Goodwin Jr. and his wife, Alice, the most effective use of charitable giving is to create something that didn't exist before. Whether it's underwriting the construction of a new church or donating $47.5 million to help establish a school of engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University, the impact of the Goodwins' charity is far-reaching in Virginia. . . .
During the past two decades, the Goodwins have pledged and donated nearly $75 million to VCU, ( Alice's alma mater) including $25 million for the VCU Massey Cancer Center. Last year, the school named the center's new 80,000-square-foot research building after them.
Yet, having their name on a building is not what motivates the pair. They shun the spotlight, seldom giving interviews about their charity or Bill's business ventures, which over the years have included investments in a luxury hotels, island resorts and recently MAXjet Airlines, a low-cost business carrier offering nonstop service from New York to London. "We're private people, and we don't like to get a lot of publicity," he says. "We don't like to brag about what we do . . . ."
What isn't disputable is his business acuity. After buying the struggling bowling operations of AMF in 1986, he restored the company as an industry leader and sold it 10 years later for $1.37 billion. . . .Today, he's chairman of Richmond-based CCA Industries, a diversified holding company, and he heads the Riverstone Group, a family-owned company that owns such luxury properties as Richmond's five-star Jefferson Hotel.
Next, CITIZEN BOB PENCE, who describes himself as President and co-owner of Pence-Friedel, a McLean-based real estate development company, gave a whopping $50,000. The website for the company provides little information, but instead shows this image: 
Really: that is Bob on the left.
A Dunn & Bradstreet description lists Pence-Friedel as having 12 employess, and only 2.3 million in sales. Ah, finally, a "modest" local businessman with a passion for Politics?
Doubtful based on an article in the Springfield Gazette from a few years ago, which describes Pence as "sitting in the catbird seat" as owner and operator of the Dulles Expo Center, and builder with McLean's Robert Oremland of the nearby six-story, 233-room Holiday Inn Select.
Pence - it turns out - is also bundler and national finance co-chair for Mitt Romney for President; the same guy who bought his old friend Congressman Tom and Senator/spouse JMD Davis that $13110 trip (according to RK) to Italy last year to celebrate Mr. Pence's birthday (how that got through the Ethics Committee is still a mystery); . . . .
and then there is this description of a nice little party at the Pence's place last Thursday:
Following a quick motorcade ride to an elegant home in Georgetown, President Bush helped raise an estimated $550,000 Thursday night for the Republican National Committee.The president and about 55 others attended the RNC Regents Dinner, a group of top donors to the party, according to the RNC. The event was closed to the press.
The event was held at home of Suzy and Bob Pence, who live at Washington Harbour, which offers views of the Potomac River, the Washington Monument and the Kennedy Center.
Seeing a pattern here yet? Perhaps you remember CITIZEN DWIGHT SCHAR, from that trip with the kids to Six Flags: With $445 million to his name, his relatively modest $25,000 contribution to "Citizens," may seem a bit stinting, but CITIZEN SCHAR managed to beat out CITIZEN PENCE for 69th Place in the national top individual contributors list for the 2006 campaign cycle, says Opensecrets.
According to Virginia Business:
After stepping down in 2005 as CEO, the chairman of NVR Inc. (SCHAR) has been branching out. He became a director of theme park operator Six Flags Inc., and he owns about 15 percent of the Washington Redskins. The team's chief owner, Daniel Snyder, is Six Flags' chairman and a business partner in another deal. Schar, Snyder and Six Flags CEO Mark Shapiro partnered in 2006 to create First and Goal LLC to back Tom Cruise's production company, although they have the right to back out of the deal in two years. Despite a downturn in the real estate market, NVR had a decent 2006 with consolidated revenues of more than $6 billion, up 17 percent over 2005 revenues. Schar exercised $59.4 million worth of stock options. He owns 542,000 shares, or about 9.4 percent of the home building and home mortgage company. A major donor to Republican campaigns, he hosted a January 2006 reception Bush attended for GOP donors at the oceanfront Palm Beach estate he purchased from billionaire Ron Perelman and actress Ellen Barkin for a reported $70 million. He also owns a home valued at more than $7 million in McLean.
Then there is the dude from the Dollar Tree - CITIZEN THOMAS SAUNDERS III, who gave 25,000 of those dollars to his fellow "Citizens." Forbes.com says that Tom did more than just work the cash register:
Mr. Saunders, age 70, is the President of Ivor & Co., LLC, a private investment company. He was a founder of Saunders Karp & Megrue Partners, L.L.C., ("SKM") which controlled the SK Equity Fund, L.P., once a major investor in (Chesapeake, VA based) Dollar Tree. SKM merged with Apax Partners in 2005. Before founding SKM in 1990, he was a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley & Co. from 1974 to 1989. Mr. Saunders has been a Dollar Tree director since 1993. He also serves on the Board of Hibbett Sporting Goods, Inc.
Finally there is CITIZEN JOHN WHITLOCK whose $25 K contribution came right out of his pocket from his job at The Whitlock Group, which is a "one-stop source" for you to pick out, install and maintain your multimedia equipment. Whitlock started in computer sales and service, where he supervised just 5 employees.
But before you call CITIZEN JOHN up and ask him to help you with that annoying flashing from the DVR, be aware that his business has grown a bit since then:
"The Whitlock Group grew to $65 million in sales and over 250 employees by the end of 1994. In April 1995, Whitlock sold the computer division of the company, but kept and began investing in the smaller, lesser known division of the company, The Whitlock Group broadcast and presentation solutions. Annual sales of this division have grown from $9,600,000 to over $80,000,000. The number of employees has grown from 29 to over 300. And, The Whitlock Group has expanded its operations to 22 offices in twelve states, including Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Alabama, Kentucky and Florida. As well, John Whitlock owns Richmond.com, an online community guide offering website development & maintenance, domain name & hosting services and e-commerce solutions.
So these "Citizens" aren't our Braddock neighbors after all. Or even anywhere nearby: these are folks who occupy a wealthy parallel universe where the amounts we fuss about every year in our neighborhoods and our lives are hardly even real.
Is this all some sinister plot? Somehow, maybe even worse than the communists?
Actually, such $100,000 donations affect these "Citizens" net worth less than the $30 you gave to George Barker or Janet Oleszek at the neighborhood house party affects yours: they have that much money
In the "Citizens" universe $100,000 is the price of a good cocktail party: it is their "retail politics:" it is not worth a second thought. The description the "Citizens" gave to the Virginia State Board of Elections seemed off-hand because it was: CITIZEN SHARP probably composed it on a napkin.
But the "Citizens" also know that in places like Braddock -- where we live -- $100,000 is real money, and can win an election for their side. So when the "Citizens" talk about:
"'Virginia's history of commitment to the free-enterprise system.'"
We haven't seen the end of the "Citizens" money: It is up to us to get out and give and give and stop them on the ground.
Beyond this election cycle, we need to start talking more seriously about what this kind of money is doing to our political system in the Commonwealth.
Otherwise the "Citizens" may be the only citizens who count.