A new progressive PAC aims to help candidates and more from VA politics
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Thank you so much and the first newsletter of the day is below. Part 2 will be coming later today with our interview of Republican gubernatorial candidate, Winsome Sears, where she and Marques Jones clash over critical race theory.
A new PAC aims to support progressive incumbents and primary challengers
A new PAC has been established with the stated goal of supporting General Assembly candidates who “stand up to corporate corruption and fight for racial, environmental, and economic justice.” Commonwealth Forward says they will be supporting House primary challengers Pamela Montgomery (HD-02) and Nadarius Clark (HD-09), as well as helping Del. Elizabeth Guzman (HD-31) defend her seat against a primary challenger.
“Commonwealth Forward will work to level the playing field, put people ahead of corporations, and give a fighting chance to candidates who have been systemically marginalized or excluded from the democratic process,” said Kiera Hall, Commonwealth Forward’s executive director.
Commonwealth Forward has received $25,000 from the Clean Virginia Fund, which is funded by Democratic mega-donor Michael Bills. The Green Advocacy Project also contributed $25,000 and Leonard Bennett donated $10,000. Sources associated with the PAC say that they have also received over 100 grassroots donations, but those won’t be reported until the next campaign filing deadline.
Guzman, Clark and Montgomery are just the first round of endorsements according to the executive director. “We felt for our first round of endorsements these three candidates really embodied what it means to be reform champions and anti-corruption,” Hall said.
Guzman is facing a tough primary challenge from Rod Hall in Prince William County. Guzman was one of the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination to run for lieutenant governor before she dropped out of the race to focus on her House primary. Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn and other House Democratic leaders have endorsed Guzman, but Hall has also racked up big endorsements from members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.
Montgomery is primarying Del. Candi King, the freshman Democrat that filled Jennifer Carroll Foy’s vacant seat in January of this year. King and Montgomery faced off in the December nomination process, with King winning the drive-thru caucus handily.
Clark is primarying Del. Steve Heretick, one of the most conservative Democrats in the House — known for opposing the removal of confederate monuments in Virginia and pushing back against his party publicly in 2018 by voting against their redistricting bill and supporting the Republican version instead.
Additionally, one of the PAC’s goals moving forward will be to provide an additional resource for future candidates to prepare for a potential run — outside of the party establishment system. “Our mission is to provide resources and support to candidates who are often excluded from the traditional institutions that would recruit and support candidates,” Hall said. Part of that process will include leadership training, cutting-edge digital and direct voter contact programs and direct financial support.
The primary election for each of these races takes place on June 8, a day that Democratic voters across the commonwealth head to the polls to choose a nominee for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and any House districts that have more than one candidate seeking the nomination.
Virginia GOP nominee’s independence from Trump up for debate
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
If Glenn Youngkin was looking to pivot back to the political center after winning the GOP’s nomination for governor in Virginia, Donald Trump made it a little tougher by giving the nominee a big bearhug of an endorsement.
“Glenn is pro-Business, pro-Second Amendment, pro-Veterans, pro-America, he knows how to make Virginia’s economy rip-roaring, and he has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Trump said in a written statement issued the day after Republicans declared Youngkin the victor in their May 8 nominating convention.
Jennifer Carroll Foy Launches New TV Ad
With big money behind progressive challengers, 2021 could be test case for Charlottesville donors’ influence - Virginia Mercury
by Graham Moomaw
As lawmakers prepare to study the prospects for campaign finance reform in Virginia, the sheer size of some checks flowing to Democratic candidates for statewide office has renewed debate about the boosts offered by a wealthy Charlottesville couple topping charts as the biggest donors in state politics.
Though they backed opposing candidates in the 2017 Democratic primary for governor, donations connected to Michael Bills, a hedge fund manager and primary backer of the advocacy group Clean Virginia, and Sonjia Smith, a philanthropist and former lawyer married to Bills, are working in tandem this year in a big way.
Assembly likely to meet by early August, as House casts wider net for appeals court candidates - Richmond Times Dispatch
by Michael Martz
The General Assembly will not meet its own July 1 deadline for filling seats on the expanded Virginia Court of Appeals, with a special legislative session likely in late July or early August to elect appellate judges and decide how to spend billions of dollars in emergency aid from the federal government.
The special session will be the third since the COVID-19 pandemic began 14 months ago, but it could be the first conducted entirely in person, with the House of Delegates likely to return to the Capitol in Richmond, according to a legislative source.
In debate Jones hits Herring on blackface apology; Herring accuses delegate of flawed legislation - Richmond Times-Dispatch
by Andrew Cain
Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk, charged in a Democratic primary debate Saturday night that Attorney General Mark Herring only apologized to the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus for having worn blackface as a teenager in order to salvage his political future.
During the hourlong face-off at WTVR TV 6 in Richmond Herring asserted that Jones had proposed flawed legislation to create a civil rights office, as well as a bill that would have let “predatory lenders” charge customers high interest rates.
As GOP restricts voting, Democrats move to expand access - Associated Press
By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE
Last year, for the first time in more than a quarter-century, Democrats in Virginia took control of the statehouse and the governor’s mansion. Since then, one priority has become clear: expanding voting rights.
Once home to the capital of the Confederacy, Virginia has made Election Day a state holiday, repealed a voter identification law and allowed no-excuse absentee voting. Earlier this year, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam approved a sweeping voting rights act, reinstating election rules once required by federal law to prevent racial discrimination.
Dominion Energy-Linked Group Launches $300K Ad Blitz After Texas Storm - VPM News
by Ben Paviour
A group connected to Dominion Energy has spent at least $300,000 on TV and Facebook ads in the last two months warning consumers against deregulating the state’s utility market. The ads warn blackouts that blanketed Texas in February could come to Virginia if the state changes existing electric providers' monopolies, a claim that some experts say is misleading.
Information on the leadership and structure of the group, Power for Tomorrow, is not available on its website. But it is funded at least in part by Dominion, according to the utility, and chaired by three politically-connected public relations consultants.
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