Vol. 39, No. 7 www.arlingtondemocrats.org July 2014

Beyer wins all four jurisdictions

Brink retires after 17 years

What iceberg sank Eric Cantor?

continued on page six

continued on page eight

continued on page eleven

Don Beyer recorded an impressive primary victory June 10, win-ning in all four jurisdictions in the 8th Congressional District and run-ning first in 133, or 82 percent, of the 163 precincts.

Overall, Beyer got 46 percent of the vote in the district, not anabsolute majority but a very impressive total given that there wereseven candidates. Furthermore, he was 28 percentage points ahead ofthe Number Two candidate, Patrick Hope.

Beyer won in all four jurisdictions in the district, though by widelyvarying margins. Beyer’s margin was lowest in Arlington where hetook 39 percent and was chased closely by Hope with 33 percent.Beyer did better in Alexandria with 44 percent, chased by Adam Ebbinwith 21 percent. Beyer got an absolute majority of 52 percent inFairfax County and ran away with it in Falls Church where he got 72percent.

Hope came in second in both Fairfax and Falls Church, but avery distant second with 14 percent and 12 percent respectively.

Delegate Bob Brink announced last Friday that he was resigningfrom the House of Delegates effective Monday, June 30, after 17 yearsin office.

Brink, 67, is the senior member among the four delegates repre-senting Arlington.

He resigned after Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced his appoint-ment as the deputy commissioner for aging services in the Depart-ment for Aging and Rehabilitative Services.

“I’ve been honored beyond words to serve my fellow citizens asa member of the House,” Brink said in a statement. “But, ‘to every-thing there is a season.’ It’s time for a new person to have this privi-lege, and it’s time for me to move on to new challenges.”

A special election has been set by the speaker of the House forTuesday, August 19.

How did Eric Cantor lose????That is the question still being asked not just in Virginia, but all

across the country—and not just by Republicans fearful of a Tea Partysting.

It seems that just about every political commentator has an an-swer or two. But there is a huge range of explanations.

What toppled Cantor may have been a perfect storm. The defi-nition of a perfect storm is that many meteorological conditions rarelyseen at the same time all come together at the same time to produceone hell of a result.

VOTE!

SUNDAY

(This is no joke)

The Republican

speaker of the

House of Delegates

has fixed the elec-

tion to replace Del.

Bob Brink for Tues-

day, August 19, re-

quiring ACDC to

hold its caucus to

pick a nominee this

Sunday!

LOCATION: Yorktown High

5200 N. Yorktown Blvd.

DATE: Sunday, July 6, 2014

TIME: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.

ACDC will email notices of the

declared candidates—-or check

the ACDC website:

www.ArlingtonDemocrats.org

VOTE!

SUNDAY

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 2

Report from Chairman Kip Malinosky

Published monthly by theArlington County Democratic Committee

2001 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite #604, Arlington VA 22202Mailing address: P.O. Box 7132, Arlington VA 22207Tel: (703) 528-8588 Fax: (703) 528-2321

http://www.arlingtondemocrats.orgChair: Kip Malinosky — kipmalinosky@gmail.com

Editor-in-Chief: Warren L. Nelson —(703) 243-7867 (h), warnelson@aol.comDeputy Editor: Eric Wiener — (703) 524-6899 (h), wiener_eric@yahoo.com

Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the ACDC unless expressly approved by an appropriate committee resolution

Copyright ©2014, ACDC, All Rights Reserved

Jerry Botland

Computer Consulting

Troubleshoot and resolve computer and

computer related problems.

Perform upgrades, set-up wireless routers and print servers.

Transfer old files, address book and emails

from an old computer to a new one.

Phone: (703) 933-0558 — jbotland@msn.com

Passionate, detailed, electrifying and in-spiring are just a few words to describe Gov-ernor Terry McAuliffe’s address at the Rich-mond Jefferson Jackson Dinner. We all knowthat McAuliffe is never lacking energy, butnow that energy is being channeled into astring of progressive victories and a commit-ment to win the most important fight in Vir-ginia this year: Medicaid expansion.McAuliffe enumerated his accomplishmentsin the style of a President Bill Clinton Stateof the Union Address. And in his first fivemonths, what policies has GovernorMcAuliffe already acted upon?

McAuliffe campaigned heavily on cre-ating jobs and workforce development. Hewanted to ensure that everyone looking forwork could find a good job. And sinceMcAuliffe has become Governor, the Com-monwealth has added 74,000 new jobs. Luckalone is not responsible. After decades of jobsgoing offshore, McAuliffe has helped reversethe trend by finalizing a deal in which a Chi-nese company will create 2,000 jobs in theRichmond suburbs. Furthermore, he con-cluded several additional deals bringing new

Governor McAuliffe on firejobs to Bristol, Martinsville and Hopewellamong other cities and counties.

While McAuliffe campaigned on ex-panding jobs, he also campaigned ondownsizing standardized testing. Since Re-publican Governor George Allen, Virginia stu-dents have been subjected to a parade of 21standardized tests known as the SOLs. Thisyear’s bipartisan bill that McAuliffe proudlysigned into law cut five of these tests. He haspledged to go further to reduce the burden oftesting.

Anyone driving to Richmond from Ar-lington knows Virginia has a traffic problem.McAuliffe has taken on this issue with ag-gressive but flexible planning. In HamptonRoads, he helped create a commission thatwill allow local officials to invest $8 billionin transportation. He canceled I-460 expan-sion that didn’t help much with movingpeople, but has helped certain elected officialsget reelected. In northern Virginia, he hashelped invest $75 million in Metro to getpeople driving less and reduce traffic.

On the environment, McAuliffe hastaken a reality based approach, quite the op-

posite of the Republican majority in the Gen-eral Assembly. He is bringing back the cli-mate change commission and championingprotection of the Chesapeake Bay. Leadersfrom all states bordering the Chesapeake arecommitted to its conservation,

While Republicans have limited what thegovernor has been able to accomplish, on noissue have they proved to be a bigger brickwall to progress than on Medicaid expansion.McAuliffe met patient after patient inVirginia’s hospitals who told him they maynot live without more money for health care.McAuliffe said that this is “fundamentally amoral issue.” There are more than 400,000Virginians who are being denied health care.

It is an economic issue as well. Virginiahas lost out on more than $850 million fed-eral dollars as of last Saturday. McAuliffe iscommitting to move us forward on expand-ing coverage.

We now know we have a governor whois terrific at getting results, compromisingwhere he must, and unabashedly fighting forDemocratic values and policies. We shouldbe proud of our efforts last year to elect Gov-ernor McAuliffe, who both in his speechesand actions is on fire.

Catch up on all the doings in Rich-mond—and there certainly have been a lotlately—at July’s Second Saturday Breakfast.

The guest speakers will be SenatorBarbara Favola and Delegate PatrickHope with a report on the latest session ofthe General As-sembly, dealingwith the governor’svetoes and Medic-aid expansion.

The July 12breakfast begins,as usual, at 8:30a.m. in the usualplace, the Busboysand Poets inShirlington, with the usual admonition thatyou bring cash to clear the bill.

Breakfast withFavola, Hopeand vetoes

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 3

Next Monthly MeetingAll Dems Invited

Wednesday, July 2 at 7 p.m.

NRECA Building, 4301 Wilson Blvd.Corner of North Taylor and Wilson, just east of Glebe and Wilson

Free parking under building; enter from Taylor Street

Bumper Sticker of the Month

Get into gear for the next 2014 campaigns! We will hear

from our candidate for Congress, Don Beyer, as well as

from candidates to succeed Del. Bob Brink. And Linda

Lindberg, the Arlington County registrar, will fill you in on

the photo ID requirements for voting, a law that took effect

July 1. Finally, to get the campaign juices flowing, we will

cap the meeting with campaign stations for our four No-

vember races—School Board, County Board, Congress

and US Senate.

The Jefferson-Jackson Dinner was agreat meal and a great celebration of 24 yearsof accomplishments by retiring CongressmanJim Moran.

Three of his colleagues on Capitol Hillcame to Arlington to fete Moran and join inremarking on his 24 years in the House.

Gerry Connolly, from the neighboring11th District way out in Fairfax County, ob-served that one of the things about Jim is,“He’s Irish!” After the knowing laughs dieddown, Connolly elaborated by saying Moranhas the Irish sense of “fair play” and thankedhim for his unceasing passion for people inneed, emphasizing that Moran never stoppedcaring and advocating for his causes.

Maryland Congresswoman DonnaEdwards acknowledged that it’s often diffi-cult to get Marylanders to cross the river, butvowed that she would swim across to be withJim at the J-J.

She recounted that when she announcedthat she wanted to run for Congress, hermother’s only comment was: “Will you be asgood as Jim Moran?”

Edwards also exhorted Arlington Demsto get out and work for two non-8th Districtcongressional candidates who were in atten-dance—10th District candidate John Faustand 2nd District candidate Suzanne Patrick.

Rep. Xavier Becerra from Californiatook the rostrum and promised to tell JJersthings they probably don’t know about Jim

Moran, then added in a stage-whisper asideto Moran, “No, not that, Jim.”

Becerra said, “Jim speaks his mind,sometimes even saying more than he means.”

He then went on to detail several impor-tant votes (he and) Jim cast. He ensured con-tinued Saturday mail delivery. As a fighter forjust causes, Jim was one of 128 members whowarned against invading Iraq; now, 10 yearslater, everyone wishes they’d voted with Jim.He was one of 67 Democrats who votedagainst DOMA. He voted against the fiscalcliff “compromise” because it extended Bushtax cuts and added $4 trillion to the debt. JimMoran stands up to protect those who cannotprotect themselves, Becerra said. “We’ll missyou. You made us a better country.”

Moran took the stage and began by ask-

ing the wait staff to come out of the kitchen,then acknowledged their lives and familiesand thanked them for their hard work and fortheir contribution in making the evening asuccess. The wait staff got a resounding roundof appreciative applause.

In a reflective mood, Jim touched onseveral policy issues that still need to be ad-dressed. * The need to ensure that those on the ter-rorist watch list should be denied access tofirearms. The GOP, he noted, voted downeven this most reasonable of controls.* The need to emphasize equal opportu-nity. Without it, people’s aspirations are cur-tailed.* The need to stop the waste of humanresources, starting by giving everyone a fairstart early in life with universal pre-K.* The need to stop denying reality and startfixing climate change.* The need for election campaigns to in-form and even inspire.

Moran observed that today’s RepublicanParty is anachronistic and cannot last. Thetimes are changing, he commented. “It’s notjust about old white guys anymore.”

He closed by urging Arlington’s Demo-crats to continue to elect people of vision,saying that implementing policies that reflectDemocratic values will ensure the survivalof the planet.

J-J celebratesMoran careerof 24 years

Donkey EarsListening to the doings

of Arlington’s Dems

as overheard byas overheard by

as overheard byas overheard by

as overheard by

Dan Steen and Dan Steen and

Dan Steen and Dan Steen and

Dan Steen and Mädi

Green Green

Green Green

Green

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 4

In and out of the hospital: Multi-faceted volunteer and photog of many Demevents Jerry Long had what he calls a “mild” heart attack last week and washospitalized at Virginia Hospital Center. He’s back home now recuperating andsays he’s canceled his usual Fourth of July festivities.

Bigger playing field: Dave Leichtman, ACDC’s chief techie, is also the stateparty’s chief techie and now will be playing on the national stage. He is joiningMicrosoft as its strategic adviser for Democratic and progressive campaigns.That means he’ll be helping campaigns both small and large all across thecountry with their tech and software needs.

Out of blog: Ben Tribbett has been hired by Washington’s NFL team to helpguide the battle to defend the team name. As a result of the new post, Tribbett,34, has now shut down his very popular political blog, Not Larry Sabato, whichhe started way back in 2005 and where he broke the story of Sen. George Allencalling a dark skinned Democratic staffer “macaca” in 2006. Most recently,Tribbett was guiding Patrick Hope’s primary campaign.

Off to Big Sur: Karen Kelly, who has been helping Carol Fontein in precinctops the last two years, is leaving Arlington for the rough life in Monterey,California, where her husband has taken a new job at the Monterey BayAquarium. As one of her last taskings with ACDC, Karen organized a gatheringof precinct captains—at which her departure was announced. Karen laudedArlington Democrats for their enthusiasm and organization, saying it evenexceeded the enthusiasm and commitment of the volunteers with the environ-mental group she worked with previously in Alaska. Karen exemplifies thevolunteers who do so much to keep ACDC rolling along swiftly by doing thingsthat few notice. For example, she created the Poll Greeter schedule spreadsheetsto keep track of the hundreds of people who staff the polls on Election Day andpinpoint the holes that need to be filled. She also coordinated the apartmentbuilding database and reconciled it with the Messenger route maps so we haveaccurate door counts.

Appointee: Governor Terry McAuliffe has appointed Arlington’s Terron Sims, aveteran of the Iraq war, as a new member of the commonwealth’s Veterans Board.

Another voice: Another ACDCer joins ArlNow.com as the latest in a series of“progressive voice” columnists. In her first column, Krysta Jones wrote of thestatus of women and continuing inequalities. And Krysta has just been namedby Governor McAuliffe to serve on the Commemorative Commission Honoringthe Contributions of the Women of Virginia.

Passages: Long time Arlington Democrat, Lyla Shealy, passed away at the age of94 on April 6 at The Jefferson where she had resided since suffering a stroke in2010. She and her husband, Norris (who passed away in 1994) were avidsupporters of ACDC, as well as the Young Democrats, for many years. Theyfunded publication of the ACDC newsletter many times in the late 60s and early70s when postage and printing had to be paid for. They hosted YD parties,candidates and elected officials in their home on numerous occasions. Inaddition to being an advocate of Democratic causes, Lyla was a long timesupporter of the Smithsonian Institution, Friends of the National Zoo, TheAnimal Welfare League and many other worthy endeavors.

During July, many Arlingtonians gosouth to lie on the beach. Arlington YoungDemocrats are different. The summer monthsmark the beginning of a revved-up campaignand civic engagement season.

On June 18, AYD tapped fellow YDCarolyn Fiddler, who has a successful careerin Democratic politics, to host a Career andNetworking Caucus event to give new col-lege graduates advice on how to navigatethrough interviews, resume organizing andoffice happy hours.

One of the top 10-targeted congressionalraces is a few miles west from Arlington outI-66 where Democrat John Foust, a memberof the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors,is in a tossup race against Republican Bar-bara Comstock, a state delegate. AYD joinedwith Fairfax County Young Democrats June21 to knock on hundreds of doors in the 10th

District on behalf of Foust.AYD will host a phone bank for Sen.

Mark Warner June 25 at his regional field of-fice in Alexandria.

AYD also plans to sponsor a phone bankon behalf of Mike Hymes who is running forthe State Senate seat in Southwest Virginia inan August 19 special election to pick a succes-sor for Sen. Phil Puckett, who has resigned.Hymes must win the seat in order for Demo-crats to take back control of the Virginia Senate.

Philanthropy continues to be a major partof AYD’s role in the community. In July, Com-munity Services Director Maggie Davis willwork in partnership with Replay for Kids toorganize a toy drive for children in the Wash-ington, DC, area with mental disabilities.Davis plans to collect toys from AYD andACDC members as well as other progressiveand charitable groups. Toys will be collectedat the July 2 ACDC meeting.

During the week of July 28, OutreachDirector Michelle Woods will host a panel dis-cussion featuring Northern Virginia Demo-cratic women who have recently run for pub-lic office. The full panel is still being solidi-fied, but it will tentatively include former 86th

District House of Delegates candidate Jenni-fer Boysko, former 34th District House of Del-egates candidate Kathleen Murphy and 33rd

District State Senator Jennifer Wexton.

No beachballfor AYDsthis summer

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 5

Here are ACDC’s awards for 2013’s outstanding volunteers,as presented at the June 2014 Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.

NEWCOMER OF THE YEARMATT DE FERRANTI

CAMPAIGNER OF THE YEARPAUL CARVER

HERSELLE MILIKENPRECINCT CAPTAIN OF THE YEAR

NATALIE HALL

UNSUNG HERO OF THE YEARMARY DETWEILER

JEAN MARSHALL CRAWFORD AWARDMARJORIE SIGNER

MARY MARSHALL OUTSTANDING DEMOCRAT AWARDMIKE LIEBERMAN

Both Senator Warners campaign togetherSenator Mark Warner is out on the cam-

paign trail getting some help from anotherWarner—former Republican Sen. JohnWarner, Mark’s predecessor, onetime oppo-nent and now enthusiastic supporter.

John Warner’s case for Mark Warner isbased partly on seniority. John Warner saysit “is not a good time” for a “flip flop” of MarkWarner’s seat. “We need seniority, and we’llgo to lowest in seniority in the Senate if thisman is not re-elected,” John Warner said atthe Annual Virginia Political History Projectforum at the University of Virginia inCharlottesville.

John endorsed Mark back in January.But in the last few months, the seniority ar-gument has taken on unusual import. Withthe retirements of both Reps. Jim Moran andFrank Wolf, Virginia is losing both its seatson the House Appropriations Committee. Andwith the primary defeat of Eric Cantor, it haslost a voice in leadership ranks.

Altogether, 72 years of seniority havebeen wiped out of the Virginia delegation.

John Warner said, “Seniority helps thisstate. [After Cantor’s defeat], you’re losing itin this state. That should be the factor thatpeople should consider in the voting box.”

Mark Warner’s GOP opponent is EdGillespie, a former chairman of the Republi-can National Committee and long time po-litical operative. He is basing his campaignso far almost entirely on opposition toObamacare. That foundation to his campaigntook a big hit a few weeks ago when peoplenoticed that in a 2006 book he wrote he en-

Carla de la Pava has announced hercandidacy to succeed Frank O’Leary, whois retiring as treasurer of Arlington County—an election that is still almost a year-and-a-half away.

De la Pava, who holds a Harvard MBA,has been the chief deputy treasurer since 2008and seeks to move up to the top spot in theNovember 2015 elections.

De la Pava has already started callingdoor-to-door around the county. It isn’t yetknown if she will face opposition in a caucusnext year.

De la Pava iscampaigningfor treasurer

dorsed the individual mandate as the right wayto go, riddling his current stand againstObamacare’s individual mandate.

The two Warners appeared together pre-viously in 1996, when the younger Democratchallenged the veteran Republican. MarkWarner vastly outspent the incumbent, result-ing in an unusually close election. But JohnWarner prevailed with 52 percent of the vote.Still, in 2008, when the Republican an-nounced his retirement after five terms in theSenate, John Warner backed Mark Warner.

“This fine man came along and I felt likehe had done his duty as best as he could,”John Warner said. “He has shown the abilityto cross that aisle and work time and time

again for what was best for America and Vir-ginia. I felt like he was entitled to it.”

Standing next to each other last month,Mark Warner said, “What we need is recog-nition in Congress that we’ve got to have awillingness on both sides to control some ofthe extremes.

“The Democrats ought to open up theamendment process; the Republicans oughtto not filibuster. The insanity of shutting downour government last year just because youdon’t get 100 percent of what you want, thatis politics of a different breed,” he said.

Mark Warner said that on every piece oflegislation, he starts working with a Republi-

continued on page twelve

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 6

continued from page one

continued on next page

So, it may well be that Cantor was upsetbecause a large number of political conditionsnot normally seen at the same time all cametogether June 10 in Virginia to produce onehell of a result.

And Cantor wasn’t just edged out. Hewas whipped, winning only 44 percent of thevote to Dave Brat’s 56 percent—a shellack-ing.

The Voice does not claim to have theanswer. But here are a number of explana-tions that have been put forth by commenta-tors across the state and across the nation—and even from across the Atlantic.

IMMIGRATION POLICY – Cantor’sopponent, Dave Brat, made a major issue ofimmigration in his campaign, which, however,was underfunded so it isn’t clear how manyvoters even heard what Brat was saying. Heattacked Cantor as supporting amnesty, whichCantor has not done. Cantor, like many Re-publicans, has been concerned that the GOPhardline on immigration was driving awayLatino voters. He, therefore, supported a pro-gram of legalization for those brought hereas youngsters who have grown up withoutaccents and knowing nothing but Americanculture. Immigration should not, therefore,have been an overriding issue. Some say theimmigration explanation is only being madeby a) opponents of immigration reform whowant to use Cantor’s defeat to kill immigra-tion reform and b) Democrats who believeGOP opposition to immigration reform is sui-cidal and who want to push the GOP in thatdirection. Republican Sen. Lindsay Grahamwho has faced criticism in South Carolina fornot being a hardliner on immigration reform,said, “I don’t think Eric got beat because ofhis stand on immigration. I think he got beatbecause of his lack of defining himself onimmigration.” In other words, he let criticsdefine him on immigration, and failed to re-spond.

BANKING INDUSTRY – Cantor waswidely seen as a friend—or a tool—of WallStreet and distant from Main Street in theRichmond suburbs that make up the bulk ofhis district. Brat made a point of saying thatCantor was buddy-buddy with the “crooks upon Wall Street.” Brat said, “I’m pro-business,so I’m just talking about the crooks. Theydidn’t go to jail. They’re in Eric’s Rolodex.”

NATIONAL FIGURE – Some peopleperceived Cantor as a national figure whospent all his time jetting around the country

ERIC CANTOR. . . the victim

DAVE BRAT. . . the victor

to GOP events. There were complaints hedidn’t spend enough time in the district. Can-tor says he was normally in the district everyweek. No one has produced a schedule so itreally isn’t known how much time he spentin the district, but the perception is often moreimportant than the facts. George Mason Uni-versity political scientist Mark Rozell says theperception that Cantor was more interestedin the national stage than the problems ofpeople in Virginia was at the center of Brat’supset. Jeff Schapiro, writing in the RichmondTimes-Dispatch, said Cantor was an out-of-touch figure. He said Cantor views electivepolitics as “a technical exercise. One raisesmoney—buckets of it....One spends it—lav-ishly.” He said Cantor “isn’t one to slap backs,kiss babies, knock on doors, or work the room.Not everyone got to see him. Campaignevents were by invitation.” This invitational-campaigning has been commented on by anumber of people who find it unusual, to saythe least.

OVER-CONFIDENT INCUMBENT –A frequently heard criticism is that Cantor wasjust over-confident and never saw what wascoming, that he ignored the primary cam-paign. Many news stories point out that he

was on Capitol Hill for a political breakfastthe very day of the primary. But that missesthe huge campaign Cantor mounted in theprimary. Up through May 21, Cantor hadspent $4.9 million to Brat’s $123,000. Can-tor did see a threat and moved resolutely tosquash it—by 39-to-1.

OVER-REACTION – Others whowatched Cantor’s campaign said his effort tosquash Brat was over-done and offensive anddrove many Republicans into Brat’s corner.Cantor filled mail boxes with fliers and TVscreens with 30-second spots branding Bratas “a liberal college professor.” Bob Raynerof the Richmond Times-Dispatch said, “Theclaim was absurd, easily proven absurd and,once proven absurd beyond any reasonabledoubt, an insult to the intelligence of anyoneexposed to it. And, boy, were we exposed toit.” Many in the district argued that the mainway voters even knew that Brat was challeng-ing Cantor was by seeing Cantor’s fliers andhearing his TV spots—that it was Cantor whomade Brat’s campaign. And, says Rayner, “italso made Cantor look like a cynical D.C.bully at a time when many on his right flankwere expressing that very concern.” Rayner

Why did the voters squash Eric Cantor?

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 7

continued from previous page

said, “I spoke to a shocking number of formerCantor supporters,... all of whom said theydecided to vote for Brat because they wereoffended and insulted by the ‘liberal profes-sor’ ads.” Tom Bliley, who was Cantor’s pre-decessor in Congress and who anointed himas successor, said, “They made a tactical er-ror in attacking Dave Brat. To the majorityof people in the 7th District, Dave Brat was anunknown six weeks ago. The advertisingchanged all that.”

ANTI-SEMITIC VOTERS – Cantor isthe sole Jewish Republican in the House ofRepresentatives. Some theorize he was un-done by incipient anti-Semitism. This is nota theory heard so much in his district, but ithas been propounded in some Jewish publi-cations. Cantor himself dismisses such talk.Others note he won election to Congress seventimes with no indication of any anti-Semiticundercurrent. A few commentators have sug-gested that Brat, an unabashed evangelical,might have had an easier time appealing toevangelical voters than Cantor. In other words,there may have been a synergy between thefeeling that Cantor was distant, his Jewishfaith and Brat’s declared Christianity in a waythat reflected—not overt anti-Semitism—butthat classic polling question, “Does the can-didate relate to people like you?”

DEMOCRATIC VOTERS – Some be-lieve a horde of Democrats turned out to vote.There was no Democratic primary in the 7th

District. So Democrats lost nothing by vot-ing in the GOP primary. And the chance todo damage to a leading light of the nationalRepublican Party could quite reasonably en-courage such voting. There was also an openletter from Ben Jones—who played Cooteron the “Dukes of Hazard” television showdecades ago and was the Democratic candi-date against Cantor a dozen years ago—ac-tively encouraging Democrats to vote againstCantor. But that letter seems to have gottenmore attention after the election than before.Yet, the voter turnout was remarkable.Cantor’s 7th District and Northern Virginia’s8th District have the same population. Thereare more Democrats in the 8th District thanthere are Republicans in the 7th District. Yet65,022 people voted in the Cantor-Brat race,two-thirds more than the 38,847 people whocame out the same day in a heavily contestedseven-candidate race to nominate a succes-sor to Jim Moran. That suggests that morethan Republicans voted for Brat. Cantor’s

pollster, John McLaughlin, had Cantor ahead62-28 two weeks before the primary. Hepolled only among people who had voted inat least one of three previous GOP primaries.He asked those people for their party affilia-tion and 64 percent self-identified as Repub-licans, 31 percent as independents and only 3percent as Democrats. After the primary,McLaughlin said he went back to a samplingof 400 voters in the June primary. In that case,54 percent identified as Republicans and 32percent as independents, while 13 percent saidthey were Democrats—10 percentage pointsmore. That wasn’t enough to topple Cantoron its own, but in concert with other perfectstorm conditions likely contributed to his de-feat.

REPUBLICAN REVOLT – Only fourweeks before the GOP primary, Eric Cantorattended the 7th District Republican Conven-tion. When he spoke, he was booed. Thiswas an audience of Republican activists andinsiders. Yet, they booed their congressman.What’s more, they voted his close confidant,Linwood Cobb, out of the chairmanship ofthe 7th District party. Very clearly, there wasdissatisfaction sizzling at the very top of theGOP among the very people one should ex-pect to take delight at the thought that theircongressman might soon be the speaker of theHouse. If they booed Cantor, it would just bea short step for them toencourage people in theirprecincts to vote againsthim. Statistically, itshould be noted that Can-tor received 37,369 votesin his 2012 primary,which was a yawner, butonly 28,902 votes in thisyear’s primary. Clearly,Republicans desertedhim in droves.

TEA PARTY SUP-PORT FOR BRAT – TheTea Party organizationsdid not mobilize behindBrat and essentially ig-nored the race. However,two major figures onconservative talk radiowere very vocal allies ofBrat—Laura Ingrahamand Mark Levin (notMark Levine with an “e”who ran for the Moranseat). Ingraham evencame to Virginia and

campaigned for Brat. Ingraham told a rallythat Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi wantedCantor to win because “Cantor is an ally ...[in] the fight for immigration amnesty.” Therewas also a lot of complaining on the rightabout Cantor’s vote to raise the debt ceiling.But note that Cantor has received the veryhighest rating given by the American Con-servative Union while Virginia GOP congress-men like Scott Rigell, Randy Forbes and BobGoodlatte—all rated as less conservative thanCantor—faced no primary challenges. Theyalso have better reputations for tending toconstituent demands.

REDISTRICTING – In the redistrictingafter the 2010 census, Cantor sought and gota district that was more conservative. Thethought was to make him more immune froma Democratic challenger. But it may havebackfired. New Kent County was given toCantor under redistricting. But it only gaveCantor 37 percent of its primary votes.

DIVINE INTERVENTION – A sur-prised Brat attributed his victory to a miraclefrom God.

Eric Cantor was asked for his explana-tion of his loss. “I came up short in terms ofthe number of votes,” he said on CNN. “ButI really don’t think there is any one reason forthe outcome of the election. There are a lotof things that go through the voters’ minds.”

The Perfect Storm that struck Cantor

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 8

At the precinct level, the picture showedHope and Ebbin didn’t really break out of theirlegislative districts.

In Arlington, Ebbin won four precincts—all of them in his senatorial district. He camein second in nine of his other precincts andthird in the last.

Hope represents 22 Arlington precincts.He won 17 of those and came in second inthe five others. Hope won only a single pre-cinct he does not represent (Jefferson) and hetied Beyer in another he does not represent(Fillmore).

But the bottom line was that Beyer won30 of the 53 Arlington precincts—an abso-lute majority.

In Alexandria, Beyer also dominated,winning 23 of 27 precincts. Two others wentto Ebbin and two to Mayor Bill Euille.

In Fairfax County, Beyer had a runaway,winning all but three of the 79 precincts.Those three—Fairfield, Pinewood andLorton—all went to Lavern Chatman.

In Falls Church, Beyer won all the pre-cincts by more than two-thirds majorities.

While Beyer dominated in FairfaxCounty, Fairfaxians did not turn out in largenumbers while Arlingtonians andAlexandrians voted out of proportion.

The table below shows the percentageof the 8th District’s population in each of the

four jurisdictions and the percentage of theprimary voters from each jurisdiction.

Pop. Votes Diff.Fairfax 45% 33% - 12Arlington 33% 37% + 4Alexandria 20% 27% + 7Falls Church 2% 3% + 1

In other words, while Arlington rankssecond in terms of population, it came in firstin terms of voting percentage in this primary.Proportionately, however, Alexandria turnedout the most—producing almost a third morevoters than one would expect based on popu-

lation. That, of course, might have somethingto do with the fact that six of the seven candi-dates in the primary—all but Hope—originatein Alexandria.

The hometown impact showed up in thefact that Hope came in next-to-last in Alexan-dria, coming in behind all of the Alexandriansexcept Derek Hyra. Hope got only 4 percentof the vote in Alexandria. Hope came in sec-ond in Arlington, Fairfax and Falls Church,but sixth in Alexandria.

There were seven candidates running but10 names on the ballot; three candidates with-drew after the ballots were finalized. Noticeswere placed in precincts telling voters thatCharniele Herring, Bruce Shuttleworth andSatish Korpe had all pulled out. In the end,most voters got the word. Together, thosethree only polled 0.65 percent of the votes.

Of the 30 out of 163 precincts in thedistrict that Beyer did not win, 18 went toHope, six to Ebbin, three to Chatman andtwo to Euille with one ending in the Beyer-Hope tie.

Some questions were raised about thetotal turnout of 38,847 voters with seven can-didates running in a contest that drew a lot ofattention and an immense amount of campaignmail. The only exact comparison was to the2012 primary, when, like this year, only the8th District House seat was on the ballot (withthe same boundaries as today) and Bruce

FINAL SEVEN — The seven candidates for the Democratic nomination for Congress are seen intheir final debate before the primary. From left: Patrick Hope; Lavern Chatman; Mark Levine;Derek Hyra; Adam Ebbin; Bill Euille and the eventual primary winner Don Beyer.

Beyer wins 82% of 8th District precinctscontinued from page one

continued on next page

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 9

Shuttleworth challenged incumbent JimMoran in a race that did not draw nearly asmuch attention. A total of 31,024 voters cameout then, and only a quarter more voters turned

continued from previous page

GAY PRIDE — Gov. Terry McAuliffe (center) proclaimed Juneas LGBT Pride month in Virginia, a first for the commonwealth.Here he shows the formal proclamation to State Senator AdamEbbin (right) and Delegate Mark Sickles.

Beyer wins all four jurisdictions in 8thout this time.

Furthermore, compare the turnout thisyear in the 8th District with the turnout in the7th District GOP primary, the one Eric Cantorlost. That race drew 65,022 voters, two-thirdsmore than voted in the 8th District.

Both districts have the same population,but the 8th District is even more heavily Demo-cratic than the 7th District is Republican, soone would expect more voters in the 8th pri-mary. Turnout is also traditionally higher inNorthern Virginia. And with seven candi-dates, one would expect a bigger turnout inthe 8th. Furthermore, there was much moremedia attention given the race in the 8th andfar more campaigning. That all begged thequestion of whether a lot of Democrats in the7th District turned out to vote against Cantorin the GOP primary.

After the primary, Beyer told the FallsChurch News-Press, “I am planning to be atjust about every event I can over the next 20weeks.” He said his first goal was to “banishcomplacency” because “we have to take seri-ously the Cantor example.”

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 10

Mame Reiley, who spent a lifetime build-ing up the Democratic Party of Virginia asone of the best political minds in the com-monwealth, died June 2 after a four-year battlewith breast cancer. She was 61.

Reiley was closely involved with thepolitical rise of retiring Rep. Jim Moran, Sen.Mark Warner and Sen. Tim Kaine.

Mary Anne Reiley was born ChristmasEve 1952 in Newport News, the daughter ofan Air Force pilot. She was reared in FairfaxCounty in the Mount Vernon area.

Appropriately, her funeral was held themorning of the primary to pick a successor toMoran. Her funeral was attended not just byDemocratic luminaries, but by many Repub-licans, including former Gov. BobMcDonnell. But their link was personal, notpolitical. The Reiley and McDonnell child-hood homes were on the same street.

Mame’s political career started in thethird grade when she organized classmates tosupport the 1960 presidential candidacy offellow Irish Catholic John F. Kennedy. Buteven then, Mame showed not just politicalenthusiasm, but political smarts. At the ageof eight, she knew her classmates could notvote; she organized them to go home and

Mame Reiley passes away at age of 61

VICTORY SMILES — Campaign Manager Mame Reiley andcandidate Jim Moran just after they won the election of 1990that sent Moran to Congress for 24 years.

badger their parents to vote for Kennedy.Her sister, Liz Reiley, told The Washing-

ton Post a nun at St. Louis Elementary Schoolsent a note to her mother saying, “If Marywould concentrate on arithmetic as much asshe does campaigning, she’d be a straight Astudent.” Actually, she was very good at arith-metic—counting votes.

Mame had a commanding voice, a mas-tery of one-liners, sometimes off-color, and aperfect sense of timing with her humor, whichhelped her to engage with other Democrats.But it was her command of the ins and outs ofpolitical strategy and tactics that quicklybrought her to the top of the political pyramid.

She was a key adviser to many Demo-crats over the last third of a century, but espe-cially Moran, Warner and Kaine. She becamechair of the Democratic National Committee’sWomen’s Caucus in 2003 and served for fourterms from 1992 as Virginia’s DemocraticNational Committeewoman, which put her onthe national stage.

In the Eighth District, she was the cre-ator in 1992 of the annual Kennedy-King Din-ner to honor the legacies of Martin LutherKing and Robert F. Kennedy.

She was named to the board of the Met-

ropolitan Washington Airports Authority byGov. Warner in 2002, spent two years as chairand left in 2012 to focus on her battle againstcancer.

Early in her career, she was an eventsplanner at the Watergate Hotel, an experiencethat helped her organize many a party in suc-ceeding decades. She later had her own firm,The Reiley Group, which was a consulting,fundraising and events planning business.

She helped to persuade then AlexandriaMayor Jim Moran to run for Congress in 1989,served as his campaign manager during the1990 campaign and was his chief of staff from1991 to 1996. Beginning in 2001, she servedas political director of Gov. Warner’s PAC,One Virginia, and later as a senior adviser toGov. Kaine.

Beyond politics, humor and business,Mame was known for partying—and for ahearty laugh that could fill any room. Whenpolitical meetings with Mame in attendanceended, the call went out, “Where’s Mamegoing?”—and the crowd would head to thenearest bar for tall drinks and tall tales.

Many Democrats across Virginia de-scribed her not just as a friend, but a mentorwho could always be counted on for support.One mourner wrote on Facebook that Mame“would find a way to have your back even ifit was up against a wall.”

Mame found fun with the mechanics ofpolitics. But she knew it had a purpose be-yond elections. As Fr. Gerry Creedon said ather funeral, Mame tried to inspire everyoneto “do our part for a better world where theweak are safe and the strong are just.”

Mame’s final political appearance, justweeks before her death, was to speak at a din-ner paying tribute to Moran.

At her funeral, Moran paid tribute in re-turn. He spoke of how she took him to lunchin 1989 and “convinced me to run for Con-gress when no one in their right mind thoughtI had a chance.”

Warner said of Mame, “She could beyour strongest ally and your most demandingcritic at the same time.”

Jim Ryan, a lifelong friend and figure inthe hospitality industry, told The WashingtonPost that Mame admitted on a party question-naire that she fantasized about being ma-rooned on a desert island with actor TommyLee Jones.

Ryan said he once asked Mame whomshe thought she most resembled. Mame’squick response was: “Elizabeth Taylor—dur-ing her heavy period.”

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 11

Brink said, “On a personal note, a fewweeks before I was sworn into office in 1998,I was in Richmond for freshmen orientation.One night I took a walk around the Capitoland stopped outside the House chamber. Thecurtains were open and the lights were on.,and for the first time I saw the vote board withmy name on it.

“I’ve looked up at that board thousandsof times since that night. Some days it seemedlike the only vote where I was in the majoritywas the quorum call. But every day, theknowledge that I’m one of a handful of Vir-ginians whose numbers include Jefferson,Madison and Patrick Henry made me thinkthat I must be the luckiest guy on earth.”

Brink’s 48th Delegate District runs fromCrystal City up along the river, taking in mostof north Arlington and extending throughFairfax County out to McLean.

Brink was first elected in 1997 with 58percent of the vote and has had no trouble win-ning re-election every two years since thenand had no opposi-tion last fall.

He leaves the1 0 0 - m e m b e rHouse ranking 13th

in seniority andwill have to give uphis license platewith the Number13.

He said thatamong his proudestachievements hasbeen his work onthe FAMIS pro-gram that provideshealth coverage tochildren of theworking poor, aswell as efforts tomaintain the healthcare safety net forvulnerable Virgin-ians.

State Sen. Phil Puckett has resigned,turning the State Senate back to GOP controlafter just five months under Democratic con-trol.

The Republicans wasted no time re-or-ganizing the Senate to put committee chair-manships back in the hands of Republicansenators—although five months ago they ar-gued it was improper to make such shifts inthe middle of a term.

A special election has been set for Au-gust 19—and that is a must-win race forDemocrats in order to take back control ofthe chamber, which is now comprised of 20Republicans and 19 Democrats with Demo-cratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam as the tie-breaking vote—when there is a tie.

This will be a tough race. Puckett’s dis-trict is in southwest Virginia’s coalmining re-gion nestled up against the West Virginia bor-der. This is a region that used to be solidlyDemocratic but where Democratic supporthas eroded dramatically in recent years overconcerns that Democrats are anti-coal.

However, the Democratic nominee tosucceed Puckett is Mike Hymes, who is a thirdgeneration coal miner and a Tazewell Countysupervisor since 2006. He is now director ofhuman resources at the James River Coal Co.Virginia Republicans have nominated Del. A.Benton Chafin Jr. for the post.

Hymes coal background helps greatly,

but the district is no longer an easy one.Puckett had no opposition in as recently as2007 but won re-election with only 53 per-cent of the vote in 2011.

And in the last two years, since the Sen-ate districts were re-drawn, the fates of otherDems have been bleak. The district went 67percent for Mitt Romney, 65 percent forGeorge Allen, 68 percent for Mark Obenshain,64 percent for E.W. Jackson and 64 percentfor Ken Cuccinelli—a complete shutout forDemocrats.

Hymes should be helped, however, byhis base in Tazewell County, which includesalmost a quarter of the district’s population.

It has often been said that Democratshave done better in recent years because ofthe growth in urban and suburban areas. Theflip side of that is that Dems are doing worsein rural areas, which is what Puckett’s Senatedistrict is. The Richmond Times recentlylooked over the mailing addresses of the 140members of the General Assembly and reportsthere are only three Democrats with rural ad-dresses—Sen. Lynwood Lewis, recentlyelected from the Eastern Shore, Sen. CreighDeeds, from Bath County, which Deeds likesto point out has only a single stoplight, andDel. Rosalyn Tyler, whose district has an Af-rican-American majority.

continued from page one

Bob Brinkretires fromDelegates

State Senate outta control

MIKE HYMES. . . . third generation miner

OLD AND NEW — This is the Brink House district.The pink areas were removed from it after the 2010Census and the blue areas were added. The maroonareas were and are in the district.

House District 48 (Brink)

ACDC Voice, July 2014, Page 12

continued from page five

can. “If you start from the center and buildout, that’s how you get things done,” he said.But Mark Warner admitted he had been “putin time-out a few times” by Senate MajorityLeader Harry Reid for not following the partyline.

“I wasn’t naive, but I was shocked whenI got [to the Senate] in 2009 [to see] how muchof it was a red-shirt, blue-shirt team issue,”he said.

The latest polling shows Warner with acomfortable lead at this point in the campaign.The Rasmussen poll, taken June 11-12, showsWarner with 53 percent to Gillespie’s 36 per-cent. That shows Warner’s lead has increasedby 3 percentage points since Rasmussen’sJanuary poll, shortly after Gillespie an-nounced, suggesting Gillespie’s campaigningto date is not helping him.

That GOP campaign has emphasized op-position to Obamacare and Warner’s 2009vote in support of Obamacare.

In a news release March 24, the Demo-cratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) said theGillespie attack is hypocritical since Gillespiehas supported the individual mandate that isat the heart of Obamacare. Gillespie’s 2006book, “Winning Right: Campaign Politics andConservative Policies,” not only promotes theindividual mandate, but recommends it be en-forced by the IRS through the income taxcode.

Politifact Virginia, the journalistic fact-checking outlet, decided to look into theDPVA claims.

First, it went to Paul Logan, Gillespie’scampaign spokesman, who answered in an e-mail, “Ed never supported the individual man-date.”

Politifact also found that Gillespie him-self made a similar statement to the Washing-ton Examiner last December, before he an-nounced his candidacy. “If I run against Sen.Warner, my critique of Obamacare will beconsistent with my past positions in opposi-tion to an individual mandate and too muchgovernment intrusion in our health care sec-tor,” he said.

But DPVA cited a book passage in whichGillespie wrote that health care reformsshould ensure that uncovered adults gainhealth care insurance so they won’t remain“free riders” who get care at others’ expense.“A more rational approach is to ensure thatevery emancipated adult capable of provid-ing for his or her health care do so,” Gillespie

wrote. “One way to accomplish this is to usethe tax code to gain compliance. Annual fil-ers would have to attest that they have someform of health coverage or else the ‘standarddeduction’ on their income tax would be cutin half.”

Politifact then spoke to two health careexperts. Ted Marmor, a professor of healthpolicy at Yale University, said the policyGillespie described is “the functional equiva-lent of an individual mandate without usingthe words ‘mandate’ and ‘fine’.”

And Michael Tanner, a senior fellow atthe libertarian Cato Institute, read Gillespie’spassage and told Politifact: “Absolutely, that’san individual mandate.” Tanner said the pas-sage sounds like an endorsement of the Mas-sachusetts health care reforms that then-Gov.Mitt Romney signed a few months beforeGillespie’s book was published.

Gillespie’s 2006 support for the indi-vidual mandate really shouldn’t be any sur-prise. The individual mandate was popularin Republican circles more than 15 years be-fore Obamacare was drafted. In 1993 someRepublican senators signed onto a bill that

would have required everyone to buy insur-ance. That legislation was billed as an alter-native to President Bill Clinton’s single payerhealth care plan.

When Clinton backed a single payer sys-tem, that was evil to Republicans and the in-dividual mandate was good. When Obamaembraced the individual mandate, that sud-denly became evil to the GOP. Now Gillespiemust square the circle.

Robert Sarvis, who ran for governor asa libertarian last year, has qualified for theballot to run for senator this fall againstWarner and Gillespie.Sarvis, a software devel-oper from NorthernVirginia, pulled in 6.5percent ofthe vote forgovernor.

Both Senator Warners campaign together

TOGETHER — Former Senator John Warner (right), a Republi-can, has endorsed his Democratic successor, Senator Mark Warner(left) and J. Warner recently campaigned with M. Warner.