"A Life of Service"...and another Dem bites the dust!

By: Dianne
Published On: 2/26/2007 11:55:40 AM

Having recently watched Eric Cantor make a fool of himself on the Chris Matthews Show regarding his "understanding" of  the war powers of the President, I started delving into finding out about the Democrat who "might have challenged him" in the last election.  And then I remembered:  one of the members of my local Democratic county committee e-mailed me just one month before the election and said "Who is Dem Candidate for Eric Cantor's seat? ? or do we have one?"

Yes, that is correct.  A member, who attends every monthly county committee meeting, didn't know that our county had a Democratic candidate  running against Republican Eric Cantor in 2006!  Well actually the member's inquiry makes sense to me now, as to part of the reason, why Mr. Nachman lost. Looking back at the e-mails my committee sent out in 2006, I never received even one committee e-mail about Mr. Nachman running in the 7th District against Representative Cantor.

The challenger, Jim Nachman, certainly looked like a candidate that should have deserved a least one e-mail. 

Part of a biography from Mr. Nachman's campaign website --
http://www.jimnachma...
[...]
His career in politics began when he volunteered for the Hubert H. Humphrey's Presidential campaign in 1968. This marked the beginning of his commitment to politics, serving as campaign manager in numerous elections such as Joe Kaestner for Commonwealth Attorney, Dick Gillis for Hanover Board of Supervisors, Elmo Cross for Virginia State Senate and Shirley Cooper for House of Delegates. In addition, he volunteered and worked for Bill Clinton, Chuck Robb, Dick Davis, Aubrey Davis and Jackie Epps to name a few.
[...]
Public service to the community is a priority for Jim. He has been extremely involved with the Democratic Party as a member of the Henrico Democratic Committee, the Richmond City Democratic Committee, Democratic Club of Metro Richmond, 7th District State Central Committee, and has served as the Chairman of the Richmond City Democratic Committee for many years.

Comments



Nachman's a great guy. (phriendlyjaime - 2/26/2007 12:23:42 PM)
Unfortunately, Eric Cantor has fans here for some insane reason, and the race just never got onto the radar.  It's a shame too, bc Cantor is just despicable.


Nachman got.. (Terry85 - 2/26/2007 12:56:52 PM)
somewhere between 33 and 35 percent (and Brad Blanton got a very very small percent too, maybe 1-2 percent) of the vote here I believe - all that with what I'm guessing to be almost NO monetary contributions from the Democratic party.  I think Cantor could be beaten with a bit of effort.


Bingo...so why do you think there's a Democratic committee in that county? (Dianne - 2/26/2007 5:52:05 PM)
Terry 85, you are absolutely right.  But the kicker is your important phrase..."with a bit of effort"! If a committee doesn't care enough to even inform the other county Democrats that a Democrat is running for a United States Congressional seat, then I'm wondering why there is a Democratic committee in that county?

Too, I don't think it's entirely about the money either but of course it is extremely important.  Sure Cantor had $3 million to Nachman's $100,000 but look at the Feder(D)/ Wolf (R)race.  She had almost the same amount of money as Wolf had but she didn't do that much better than Nachman did. 

I think it's more about "not even lifting a finger"!!!



I'm gonna go out on a limb here (Chris Guy - 2/26/2007 3:00:22 PM)
and assume it's Spotsylvania Co. we're talking about.


Yup... (Dianne - 2/26/2007 5:21:00 PM)
and what a shame for what looked like a really good Democratic candidate -- one with a long history in the Democratic Party and someone who has  actively worked on and run campaigns.  And I'd bet he's a lot smarter than Eric Cantor.


Thanks Jim! (Shawn - 2/27/2007 1:50:08 PM)
Democrats accross Virginia should be thanking Jim Nachman. Having him on the ballot and keeeping Cantor tied up helped Jim Webb to victory in the Senate race 

VA-07 History
2006  34.41%
2004  0.00%
2002  30.46%
2000  33.00%
------------------------------------------
Jim Nachman - Democrat
88,194 votes
$97,541 total spending
$1.11 per vote
-----------------------------------------
Eric Cantor - Radical Right Republican
163,706 votes 
$2,428,538 total spending
$14.83 per vote
-----------------------------------------
THANKS JIM!!!