Action Plan 2007: No District Left Behind...

By: doctormatt06
Published On: 5/3/2006 1:38:52 PM

Following the National Democrat's plan to leave no district unchallenged, the Virginia Democrats must make a plan to make sure every Senator and Delegate is challenged.  I'm going to get a bit personal here and say that I was going to run against Jack Reid in the VA Delegate for the 72nd District, I had gotten a group of interested activists, put myself out on the blogosphere, and had made my intents known to the local Democratic chapter.  Find out what happened next on the jump.
I was ready for a fight, I knew my chances were slim, myself being 21 the bare minimum age needed to run, and being an unknown in the area.  Not only that but Bush had won the district easily in the last election.  But it was my assertion that somebody was better then nobody.  So I was going to run, but was politely told by the local democrats that I was too young, too inexperienced, and too liberal, to actually make the race worth it.  That they would wait til 2007 to make their fight against Reid. They went on and DID NOT FIELD A CANDIDATE against Reid. This is the same Reid who went on to misfire his gun in his office in the VA House.  Hmm...it really did piss me off, that we let this guy get off one more year without a Democratic challenger.  But the VA Democrats do it all the time.  They say we must conserve our money, focus on important races only, wait for a better year.  It always sounds like the same story.  Well reform democrats.  I say...LEAVE NO DISTRICT BEHIND. 

Here are some republicans who could use the experience of a democratic challenger since its been so long.
(Courtesy of the wonderful folks at vpap.org)

House District 8:
H Morgan Griffith
Last Race with Democratic Opponent was 2003:
Margin: 59.3% to 40.8%

House District 14:
Danny Marshall
Last Race with Democratic Opponent was 2001:
Margin: 61.0% to 39.0%

House District 16:
Robert Hurt
Last Race with Democratic Opponent was 2003:
Margin: 61.6% to 38.4%

House District 17:
William H. Fralin, Jr.
Last Race with Democratic Opponent was 2003:
Margin: 62.1(R) to 31.8(D) to 6.1(I)

House District 18
Clifford "Clay" Athey, Jr.
Last Race with Democratic Opponent was 2001:
Margin: 54.0%(R) to 37.0%(D) to 8.0%(I)

House District 19 (Conservative Independent)
Lacey E. Putney
Last Race with Democratic Opponent was 2003:
Margin: 73.6% to 26.5%

House District 21
John J Welch III
Last Race with Democratic Opponent was 2003:
Margin:  61.9% to 38.0%

House District 22
Kathy J Byron
Last Race with Democratic Opponent was 1999:
Margin:  63.9% to 36.0%
Note:  Independent Challenger in 2001 got 44% to her 56%

House District 25
Steven R Landes
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
Last Race with ANY Challenger:1999
Margin:  76.6% to 23.4%

House District 27
Samuel A Nixon
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
Last Race with ANY Challenger:1999
Margin:  69.3% to 30.3%

House District 28
William J Howell
Last Race with Democratic Challenger: 2001
Margin: 64.0% to 36.0%

House District 29
Sherwood J Beverly
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
Last Race with ANY Opponent:2001
Margin:  78.0% to 21.0%

House District 30
Ed Scott
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 3 YEARS
Has NOT BEEN CHALLENGED BY A DEMOCRAT YET

House District 31
Scott Lingamfelter
Last Race with a Democratic Challenger: 2003
Margin:  55.0% to 45.0%

House District 33
Joe T. May
Last Race with a Democratic Challenger: 1997
Margin:  59.6%(R) to 32.7%(D) to 7.6%(I)

House District 34
Vincent Callahan
Last Race with a Democratic Challenger: 2001
Margin:  60.0% to 40.0%

House District 40
Timothy Hugo
Last Race with a Democratic Challenger: 2002 (Special Election)
Margin:  67.4(R) to 30.3(D) to 1.4(I) to 0.9(I)

House District 54:
Robert Orrock
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
No other opponents

House District 55
Frank Hargrove
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
Last Race with ANY opponent:1999
Margin:  80.1%(R) to 9.2%(I) to 10.7%(I)

House District 59 (Conservative Independent)
Watkins Abbitt
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2003
Margin:  67.1% to 32.9%

House District 60
Clark N Hogan
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2003
Margin:  66.4% to 33.6%

House District 61
Tommy Wright
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2001
Margin:  60.0% to 40.0%

House District 65
Lee Ware
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2003
Margin:  75.1% to 24.9%

House District 66
M. Kirkland Cox
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
No other opponents

House District 72
John 'Jack' Reid
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
Last Race with ANY Opponent: 1999
Margin:  82.7% to 17.1%

House District 78
John Cosgrove
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2001
Margin:  65.0% to 35.0%

House District 81
Terrie Suit
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2003
Margin:  69.6%(R) to 25.0%(D) to 5.4%(I)

House District 82
Harry R Purkey
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Last Race with ANY Opponent: 2005
Margin:  71.1% to 28.9%


House District 85:
Robert Tata
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
Last Race with ANY Opponent:2003
Margin: 73.5% to 26.4%

House District 86:
Tom Rust
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2003
Margin: 63.0% to 37.0%

House District 91
Thomas Gear
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 5 YEARS
Last Race with ANY Opponent: 2005
Margin:  59.8% to 40.2%

House District 93
Phillip A Hamilton
NO DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGER FOR LAST 10 YEARS
No recent other opponents

House District 94
Glenn Oder
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2001
Margin: 54.0% to 46.0%

House District 96
Melanie Rapp
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2003
Margin: 54.1% to 45.7%

House District 97
Ryan McDougle
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2001
Margin: 54.0% to 46%

House District 98
Harvey B Morgan
Last Race with a Democratic Opponent: 2001
Margin: 75% to 25%

Comments



I'll finish it later... (doctormatt06 - 5/3/2006 1:39:22 PM)
Gotta head out for awhile!!


Sooo... (doctormatt06 - 5/3/2006 4:48:53 PM)
Anybody feel like running in a district that's not going to be competed in???

I figure if all you do is end up making them spend some of their dough, its still less dough they can give to other campaigns!!



Excellent diary! (Lowell - 5/3/2006 1:42:51 PM)
I couldn't agree more.  We must fight everywhere, challenge EVERY SINGLE REBPUBLICAN.  I am sick of excuses and b.s. cost-benefit analyses by the "Beltway Mafia," as Waldo and Jerome call them.  What the Democrats need to do is to fight this pernicious "conservative" philosophy, fight it hard, and fight it everywhere.  If they're not willing to do that, they need to get out of the way and let someone who WILL fight do the job!


Front page worthy, I'd say. Great research. (Rob - 5/3/2006 2:20:48 PM)


How Many Districts? (Teddy - 5/3/2006 6:16:31 PM)
I kind of lost count, but it looks like at least 36 districts without a challenger. Holy smoke, that's control of Congress if other states are like that.

On the other hand, if the Dems did mount a challenger in each district, what are the odds it would be some local party hack who's getting his/her ticket punched, and "deserves" a turn, as if it's all a smarmy little fraternity with no relevance to the general public?



Well.. (doctormatt06 - 5/3/2006 7:48:35 PM)
In some places that will be the case...

But seriously...letting these guys off the hook to just raise HUUUUGE warchests is naive in my opinion.  Let's make em' spend it at the least.  Instead of just floating the money around to who's ACTUALLY being challenged



We have the same goal (Rebecca - 5/3/2006 9:10:01 PM)
Democracy for Virginia has the same goal so why don't we work together? At present we are reorganizing and will be updating our website soon.

http://www.democracyforvirginia.com

In the meantime take a look at the Fairfax DFA site. We are also affiliated with Democracy for Virginia.

http://www.dfa-fairfax.com

Please contact me if you would like to work with us. You can send me an e-mail at the bottom of this post.



I would... (doctormatt06 - 5/4/2006 12:25:19 PM)
But between two jobs, school, and my position on the Mason District Democratic Committee as the youth chair...and my chairman is trying to get me to me to take over another committee spot...

I do believe I'm going to overbooked with work...

But i will always wish you guys good luck

And I'm going to be working on a youth conference and would love to have some people from your organization attend.

I'll keep in touch

-Matt-



BTW (Maura in VA - 5/5/2006 4:44:01 PM)
Democracy for Virginia did a tremendous amount of research for all of the House races last year.  Before I had to resign from DFV to come up here to Connecticut full-time to take care of my elderly father (who died in April), I had built a great spreadsheet with historical data for each house seat, including money raised by both incumbents and challengers, years that incumbents had gone unchallenged, etc.  I'd be happy to share that .pdf with anyone who's interested. 

Someone really smart could even take the data and build it into some dynamic tables, so it could be updated regularly on races for '07 and we could have a living document online on the new DFV web site...

My hat's off to all of you who are continuing this important fight to leave no Republican unchallenged in Virginia!!!



I'd love to see that. (Lowell - 5/5/2006 4:48:56 PM)
Hope all is well up in Connecticut, my (sort-of) home state. :)


This is a great post. (summercat - 5/4/2006 9:42:49 AM)
Needs to be shouted out to the state party.  I think there need to be major changes in the stuff the state party is doing (or not doing, in most cases.).


Nobody can't beat anybody (ScottCoDemocrat - 5/5/2006 11:46:14 AM)
I grew up hearing that every race should be contested:  "On any given day, Anybody can beat Somebody, but Nobody never beats Anybody." and "It's a long time from June to November."

In the 1st Legislative District, Rex McCarty has let it be known that Terry Kilgore will have opposition in 2007.  We're also beginning to plan for the Constitutional Offices, which are also on the ballot in 07.

Has anybody heard of a potential challenger to Bill Wampler for the 40th District Senate seat?

We can't overlook this year's elections but we do need to be laying the groundwork for 2007 NOW



I mean... (doctormatt06 - 5/5/2006 3:19:12 PM)
Aren't there enough partisan democrats out there that we could at least get a token opponent, just so democrats have a DEMOCRAT to VOTE FOR!!!


I agree. There's no excuse for leaving... (Lowell - 5/5/2006 3:31:51 PM)
any district behind.  Even if the candidate only spends $20,000, it still puts a "D" on the ballot next to the "R" and - as Markos and Jerome point out in "Crashing the Gate" - forces the Republicans to spend money everywhere.  Spread out the field, in other words.  Finally, it sends a message to voters that there IS an alternative to Republicans, and that anyone can get involved and make a difference...