As you may know, Eric and I are doing some consulting work for LG candidate Jon Bowerbank. This weekend, Jon was a busy beaver, mainly in the Hampton Roads/Virginia Beach area. A few highlights of his trip include (most of the following reports courtesy of Brian Patton, who was traveling with Jon and is also consulting for him):
*Jon was the featured speaker at the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee bi-monthly breakfast at Jason's Deli. I hear there were around 60 people there, that Jon spoke for about 30 minutes, and that only 1 person fell asleep. Just kidding on the person falling asleep; the report I got is that Jon did great, talked about why he's running for LG, and was very well received.
*Jon also attended Vivian Paige's Memorial Day bash. Brian tells me that Jon was introduced to the 150-200 people in attendance as the only announced candidate for LG. Among the many others in attendance included candidates for the top of the ticket (Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds); AG candidate Steve Shannon; Rep. Bobby Scott; Senators Ralph Northam, Yvonne Miller, and Louise Lucas; Delegates Joe Bouchard, Bobby Mathieson, Lionell Spruill and Kenny Alexander; and 2nd CD congressional candidate Glenn Nye. Sounds like a great event!
*Jon attended the 25th Annual Pungo Strawberry Festival in Virginia Beach. Besides strawberries, there apparently is some excellent tasting popcorn at that festival, and Jon enjoyed some of that. No report as to whether strawberries go well with popcorn. :)
Anyway, sounds like a fun weekend. Jon's now on his way back to Russell County, but he'll be back traveling around the state in the next few days.
P.S. On another note, according to Vivian Paige, Del. Brian Moran "overwhelmingly won the gubernatorial straw poll" over Sen. Creigh Deeds at her Memorial Day party.
UPDATE: Brian Moran's gubernatorial campaign notes that this was the first straw poll for 2009, and that the results (a nearly 2:1 margin for Moran over Creigh Deeds) represent an "encouraging level of support in Hampton Roads."
A really solid candidate, I'll be looking forward to seeing more of him here in Hampton Roads.
Hampton Roads is a phenomenal region and an important part of what makes Virginia the best state in the nation.
What affect does the Wise County plant have on his business?
involves natural gas - not coal - as I understand it.
That seems to conflict with upor comments posted on VB Dems.org:
Randy:You are exactly correct about the primary focus of Jon's business being natural gas from coal seams, which was being vented to the atmosphere before companies began collecting and marketing it.
However, he is very much against Mountaintop Removal. I am not sure he has made any "on the record" statements about it, other than if he may have discussed it with Eileen. From my conversations with him, he understands the importance of the mountains and wants them to be right here for his kids to enjoy, too. He has often said that the beauty and culture of our region was some of the main reasons he decided to make his home here after bouncing around the country after coming to the U.S. from England.
So it appears it business is very much tied to the coal industry in southwest Virginia.
So if we stop using coal as a fuel, does that also kill his business?
And again, does he support the Wise County plant? This is a very important political question. If he doesn't support it, he will lose southwest Virginia - and if he does, what does he bring to the ticket? And if he does support it, how does that square with the support he recives from many on ths blog who adamantly oppose the Wise County plant.
Lowell, you are consulting for John and are adamantly opposed to the Wise County plant? What is john's position on the plant, as you know it? Is he against the plant?
With regard to the Wise County power plant as currently conceptualized, I am against it and have said so many times. Unfortunately, given support from people like Gov. Kaine, my guess is that it's going to be approved in the next few months. Given that -- and I still hope this outcome can be avoided -- I'd say that what we need to do is demand as many concessions (e.g., a huge push for energy efficiency, closing down other dirty plants, making this plant as efficient and "clean" as possible, compensating Southwest Virginia to the maximum extent possible, moving quickly away from mountaintop removal coal mining, etc.) from Dominion Power as possible. We also need to make the Wise County plant a research center for carbon capture and sequestration. And we need to make sure we never need another plant like this again. But that's just my opinion, I'm not sure where Jon's at on all of these points (although I'd certainly be surprised if we agreed on everything, just as I didn't agree with Jim Webb on everything when I worked for him).
Anyway, you seem to have a lot of questions on this subject, and on Jon Bowerbank in general. That's cool; hopefully we can have Jon on here to live blog sometime soon and he can discuss his vision for Virginia's energy future and other matters. So far, I've been positively impressed with Jon overall on energy/enviro issues. But there's no need to believe me; here's what Eileen Levandoski, who works for the Sierra Club and is a huge environmentalist, had to say about Jon after meeting him this past weekend:
I found Jon to be very much a Mark Warner style of Democrat. He is a caring compassionate individual at heart who also has a strong head for business. And with his understanding particularly of the energy industry, we have a leader who will offer reasonable solutions to our energy issues in Virginia.
That's pretty much my read as well.