Anyway, Bolling's comments fly in the face of reality and history, and we'll deal with them here.  Anyone want to take a first crack?

Despite the claims that the focus should be on 2007 races.

...also sounds like he's gearing up for Mark Warner, what do you think?

He certainly had a ready answer ;)

Bolling and Georgie will be duking it out in a primary; and the former senator will win.  In the meantime, Deeds will win the attorney general seat.

That's what I see ahead in my crystal ball.

we've got a surplus and Va has been named best state to do business, twice. Maybe Bolling's a fan of fiscal mismanagement.

I think you may be onto something here! :)

Of course we keep a very watchful eye on these GOPpers in particular and we continue to explore and reveal every seedy nook and cranny of their extreme agenda. But let's not for a single moment aid and assist their messaging and provide them in any way a platform on which to speak. 

She's the Democratic co-host on the Bearing Drift radio show.  Personally, I see absolutely nothing wrong with giving Bolling or McDonnell or whoever a platform.  The main thing is to ask them tough questions and see what they have to say for themselves.

If you, as a candidate or as a political party, let an attack, a lie, a negative comment, etc. go unresponded to, then you can only reasonably expect to lose ground.

Candidates and political parties are talking to the Virginia electorate who are mostly uninformed, busy, and wanting to be told what conclusions to come to.  It is our job, as Democrats, to let the electorate know the facts, to respond quickly fully and precisely to untruths, etc., to expose the opposition's errors, and to reveal the opposition's position clearly so the electorate can understand why Democratic candidates are best for Virginia!

 

A look at the new RPV website clearly shows they mean business when it comes to campaigning this year.  The first three " stories" on their home page are three attacks on Democrats and Governor Kaine!  They hit you right in the face! 

Conversely, on our new website you have to find and click on "GOP Watch" to find only one story .... the one I read was on Thelma Drake.  I have said it before and will say it again, the DPVA is not providing the Virginia Dem grassroots, neither through their website nor regular e-mail updates (we still are not receiving Demo Memos), the talking points, the tools, the news, the stories, etc. to the grassroots, who they expect to work for the Party. 

The RPV's website provides or states they will be providing:  opinion pieces (talking points), white papers, unit manuals (tools...presumably local operations manuals), state party-level meeting dates, internships at RPV (talk about partybuilding!!), etc.

We need to do better at getting out, to the electorate, what the Democratic Party represents.  That means communication and contact.  I live in Spotsylvania County and am an "SCDC Affiliate".  I, and presumably all the other Affiliates in the county, do not receive notification of meetings (neither date nor agenda), what went on at meetings (minutes), information about what the committee might be doing, who all the candidates might be that Spotsylvanians should be working for in the county and in the District, what activities that the committee might be doing and which we could be participating in....just dead silence. But this has been what has been going on for the years I've lived here and the DPVA's lack of communication only explains to me why we are in the minority. 

Sooner or later the DPVA will have to embrace the basic tenets of grassroots activism, the netroots activism, and speaking to the electorate....Virginians. 

As a long-time reader and rare poster, I felt compelled to respond, especially given your history of comments.  I'm not sure what the source of your constant hostility toward the state party is, but would you mind sharing it with the rest of us, so that we can objectively assess your comments?

I'm looking at the "GOP Watch" page that you alleged only had one story, and I actually see many, many stories:
http://www.vademocra...

I must confess, I actually like the state party website.  And in the limited interaction I've had with the state party through my local committee, I've found them fine to work with.

With all due respect, it really, really sounds like you have an ax to grind with the state party.  I'd be willing to wager that although many of us can find room for improvement with the state party, few of us share your vehemence and seemingly uncontrollable compulsion to speak out against the party in every way you can find (including things that just aren't true).

I take issue with your characterization of the state party.  And I would also politely ask that you disclose whatever ax you have to grind against the state party, because I don't feel as though any of what you have said merits the overblown responses I've been reading.

If you've read all my posts, hopefully, you've read the ones about the phony reorganization by my local committee in order for the current officers to get themselves re-elected (they hid the date of the reorg until the very last moment, never discussed it at a single meeting, and refused to notify Spotsy Democrats who weren't members of the commitee by e-mail prior to the reorg).  Although I formally complained to the DPVA, the only response I got was "Thank you for your comments." 

The local committee leaders remain in office and the Chair states that he has been asked (won't say by who) to "run" this committee.  Oh, by the way, this committee had no bylaws until March of 2006 when we pressured them into it.  However, the membership wasn't allowed to vote on the bylaws (written by "the in crowd") article by article....you had to take it as a whole or leave it.  Needless to say, there was a mass exodus of disillusioned Democrats.  I hung on hoping the state party would help but no one answers e-mails or returns phone calls...  Recently ran into a former member and he said to him all it was was a "social club". 

I would have hoped better from the DPVA...

Now tell me about your committee....and does the "back" button work for you on the new website?  Today, I only see the Tom Davis story under the tab GOP Watch.

Let's be clear, it's common knowledge that there are problems.  Do you not support asking that something be made better?  Do you think the communication to the average Virginia Democrat, from the DPVA, is good?  I never got an e-mail even telling me about the new website.... 

This isn't rocket science. Are you a staffer?

We, as Democrats, need to be open to improvement at all levels of the Party.  The State Party has been aware for a very long time that there are problems in this committee and for some reason, maybe it's a good one, they choose to let sleeping dogs lie.  But if you look at the SBE to see how this county is performing, you'll see that, although it should be turning blue, it is turning redder (did I spell that right?) Kaine did worse than Warner and Webb did worse than Kaine.....

I am not a staffer, do not work in politics, and certainly not for the state party.

It sounds like you took your local party dispute to the state level, and when they weren't having any of that, you've been taking out your frustration on them publicly.

In 2000, we lost the last of all three statewide seats to George Allen, and since we have elected three Democrats statewide and made gains in a terribly gerrymandered state legislature.

Before you lament the downfall of Democrats in Virginia, consider that Tim Kaine actually won by a larger margin than Mark Warner, and that Jim Webb knocked off the Golden Boy of the Virginia Republican Party, and a rising star of the national Republican Party.

I may take a much more optimistic view of how Democrats are doing in Virginia, but I think that the hard work of Democrats on all levels -- from the grassroots to the state party -- have really been paying off.  I suppose all I meant was a friendly suggestion that if we are going to make things better, let's formulate our suggestions more constuctively and less antagonistically.  Please don't take it as anything else.

I find it curious that you said that "you took your local party dispute to the state level, and when they weren't having any of that....".  There is a Party Plan (which our local leaders never provided us until someone from another committee told me about it and I called the DPVA and they sent me a copy) is our set of rules and I assume exists for a reason.  So I made a complaint.  Are you saying that they were right in "not having any of that (ignoring my complaint about broken rules)"?  I find your immediate dismal of a valid complaint odd.  I would have though a Democrat would have been more inquisitive. 

I expected my local committee to abide by the rules, especially when it came to a legal reorganization (one of the most democratic things we do) and allowing members to have a say in their bylaws (oh yes, the leadership refused at a meeting to put parliamentary order (ROR) in the bylaws...so there's no democracy at meetings).  So when the local leadership broke the rules, I complained.  Let's ditch the Party Plan, then.

As to taking it out publicly, well yeah...  What's the problem with trying to fix a problem (you know that's what marches on Washington, letters to the editor, political debates, and blogs are all about)?  Are people in Spotsylvania just supposed to go away and be happy that their county is getting increasingly Republican (and yes, Noonan, in Spotsylvania Kaine did worse than Warner, and Webb did worse than Kaine). 

I haven't criticized the hard work of Democrats of Virginia.  I've worked for candidates running for state office, whom I wasn't even able to vote for!  I believe I have a right to complain.  Frankly, I wish that my county committee were like all the other hard working committees in Virginia.  I even just wrote a diary about three area committees that are doing a great job!

Oh and by the way, until I and others complained to the DPVA, there were no bylaws (although we weren't allowed a proper vote and say in them).  I know that the DPVA and Democratic candidates (past and potential) would prefer and deserve better results from this county. But for some reason, as I said before, the DPVA had remained mute on this.  Strange but I can live with this.  But let's be real about this, if the State Party is unable (I'll give them the benefit) to act (they could have stepped in and held another and proper reorganization), then I'm going to speak for the rest of the Spotsylvanians who are too timid to complain in public.

To me, that is what democracy is all about.  And tell me if I'm wrong, but isn't "taking your frustation out in public" what RK is all about?

And when we have viable, hardworking, democratic committees, we can defeat people like Bill Bolling.  That is what it is all about.  Anything else, to me, is fantasy.