The Charlottesville Webb for Senate office opening late yesterday afternoon was a big success, with an enthusiastic crowd of about 200 people - including State Sen. Creigh Deeds, Del. David Toscano, and Albermarle County Democratic Committee Chair Fred Hudson - frequently breaking in to Webb's speech with enthusiastic chants of "We Want Webb, We Want Webb!!" The crowd energy yesterday was tremendous, and Webb was in top form getting them fired up. For instance, Webb talked about how we had raised more money over the internet during the 24 hours after the Meet the Press debate than we had available during the entire primary!
Still, Webb admitted that the Allen campaign would have more money than
he did, which is one reason he's running out of a "condemned building" in Arlington. (Note: the office in C-ville is in a fantastic location, prime real estate right on the downtown pedestrian mall - tons of foot traffic and visibility; great choice!) Webb explained that Allen can have all the money in the world, but that he doesn't have the huge number of volunteers that we've got. In addition, Allen doesn't have "the kind of energy" that comes from "connecting with people" who agree with Jim Webb that it is time "to bring true change to our country."
Webb ran through his famliar three themes. First, Webb spoke about the need to reorient our national defense and foreign policy, currently in complete disarray under Bush and Allen. Webb noted the classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), reported in yesterday's newspapers, indicated that the Iraq war had actually increased international terrorism.
Second, Webb talked about economic fairness and social justice. Webb noted the disparity between huge salaries for corporate CEO's on the one hand, and the lowest-ever wages and salaries for workers as a share of our national wealth on the other. Webb told the crowd that if he's elected to the U.S. Senate, he'll be talking about this stuff every day.
Third, Webb got a TON of agreement that it's time to rein in the "abuse of Presidential power" we've been seeing in the Bush Administration. Webb cited leaders like Barack Obama, Russ Feingold and Chuck Hagel as "people who will fight back," and declared - to hearty cheers - that if elected "we WILL fight back!"
Webb noted that, as he traveled around Virginia, he was "seeing people I've never really seen before" in terms of coming back to the Democratic Party. Webb stressed the significance of this, not just for 2006, but also for 2008, "as we go out into Red State America" and "bring people back to the Democratic Party." Webb declared that we can "start a process right here [in Virginia] that will change the American political system." And, most importantly, on election night there will be a great party and "there will be beer!" :)
"We Want Webb!" "We Want Webb!"
Jon Sheridan here: It was nice meeting you at the Webb office yesterday. Via our conversations about the changing voting trends in our area, a lot can be attributed to Fred Hudson: he has been doing a fantastic job of organizing. Like I said we have been flipping our voter trends in our precincts. Albemarle county is quickly becoming reliably Dem.
Also, I can not say enough about the energy of yesterdays events People leaving the fundraiser were just absolutely giddy, there is no other word for it.
It is especially exciting considering the mood of the last federal election: "Anybody But Bush". This time it is "Nobody But Webb".
As the huge crowd was doing the slow march out of the theater I overheard one man saying, "that former Republican just articulated what it means to be a Democrat better than any Democrat I have ever heard".
Not bad for a bunch of Cville liberals.