With 136 votes cast, the decisive winner of the unscientific, RK 11th CD poll is Leslie Byrne. In a 4-way race, Byrne finished with 52.9% of the vote. That didn't surprise me, as Byrne is very popular among netroots activists. Still, it was a very strong showing for Byrne.
Probably the biggest surprise of the poll, at least to me, was that newcomer Doug Denneny finished slightly ahead of Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerry Connolly, 18.4%-16.9%. Needless to say, that's not exactly a sign of strength for Connolly against a virtual unknown.
Finally, I was definitely surprised that Andy Hurst, the Democratic 11th CD nominee in 2006 and someone who I thought was popular on the blogs, finished with just 8.8% of the vote. I'm not exactly sure what to make of that, except that Hurst supporters may have switched to Leslie Byrne and, secondarily, Doug Denneny.
Again, this was an unscientific poll of 136 RK readers, so take it however you see fit. Having said that, I do believe -- based on reading blog comments and hearing what people have been saying the past few months -- that this poll accurately reflects the sentiment of netroots activists about the 11th CD race. We'll see if that sentiment changes as the contest heats up, and as the formal Democratic field is decided in coming weeks. It certainly should be interesting! In the meantime, congratulations to Leslie Byrne, who I personally have endorsed for the nomination.
I certainly will be working hard for Leslie but lets not discourage talented and capable newcomers.
Candidates for this important Democratic tilting seat should be in the race by now. People who are not in the race by now should not be taken seriously.
If a recently re-elected officeholder chooses to do what I and others alleged he would do.......waste the taxpayers money by running for Congress a few months after getting re-elected to do his old job for another four years........ it should be a campaign issue. It should be a big campaign issue. Lets start calling attention to brazenly selfish politicians consumed with their own lust for power.
Politics is supposed to be about the voters and not about the politicians. I think that Leslie Byrne understands that. I assume that Doug Denneny understands that. We have two fine people with different backgrounds to choose from. We should be satisfied with these two public servants as our options for defeating Tommy "Gerrymander" Davis. Leslie Byrne, by the way, won the 11th when she ran for Lieutenant Governor in 2005.
Leslie served in the Virginia House of Delegates for 7 years, starting in 1985 by defeating two-term Republican incumbent Gwen Cody, before being elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 from the newly created 11th congressional district. Virginia was awarded an additional House seat as a result of the 1990 U.S. Census. The General Assembly had designed the new district to elect a Democrat.
She is the first woman to be have been elected to Congress from Virginia, and in fact, 1992 was known as the "Year of the Woman" for the large number of women elected to Congress in that election. No doubt, the strong showing of Bill CLinton in Northern Virgnia was helpful.
Tom Davis, then Chairman of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, defeated her for re-election in 1994's "Republican Revolution." Leslie did not return to try to unseat Davis in 1996, but instead sought and lost the Democratic nomination for US Senate to Mark Warner won the nomination at the 1996 Virginia Democratic Convention, garnering 1,889 Delegates to her 231, as he went on to lose to Sen John Warner.
Leslie returned to elected office when was elected to the Senate of Virginia in 1999, winning a very close election against two-term incumbent Republican Jane Woods (45.52% to Wood's 45.39%). This was made possible by a third candidate who pulled from the Reublican vote. She did not seek re-election to the Senate of Virginia in 2003, after redistricting put her into the same district as a fellow Democrat. Her dilemma was that she either oppose an incumbent Democrat, move into another district to run against an incumbent Republican, or retire. This opened up the 34th State Senate district to a narrow victory by Jeanmarie Devolites-Davis who won a narrow victory over first time candidate Ron Christian.
Leslie was the 2005 Democratic Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Republican Party candidate Bill Bolling narrowly defeated her by one per cent in the November 8, 2005 general election with the vast majority of suppoort coming from Northern Virgiia, who rejected the arch-conservative Bolling.
In 2006 Leslie endorsed James Webb for United States Senate and Ken Longmyer for the 11th Congressional District. Longmyer did not make it to the general election as he was defeated in the primary by Andrew Hurst.
Does the RK poll represent memories from the 90's or a forecast for the 21st century?
The point most of us are making here is that we do not want a candidate who's style of politicis would take us back to the 19th Century. Any such candidate should just forget about it.