 I grew up in Miami, a region dominated by Cuba politics, so I have some knowledge of how significant Joe Garcia's candidacy is in South Florida. It is a direct challenge to the pay-to-play foreign policy apparatus of the United States, one where sugar interests and right-wing politics determines that we should have a pointless embargo against the Cuban people. I'll get into Garcia's campaign more on Monday, because today I want to announce that we have another significant nomination for the Blue Majority page: Leslie Byrne for Virginia's 11th district.
Republican Tom Davis is retiring this year, and the district is a good pickup opportunity. Jim Webb won the district 55%-44% in 2006, Tim Kaine won the district 56%-42% in 2005, while John Kerry lost it by 50-49% in 2004. It is turning sharply blue; Tom Davis's wife, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, lost to Democrat Chap Petersen by 11 points in a race for state Senate.
With such a ripe pickup opportunity, the primary is ferocious. The Washington Post frames the primary fight within the Democratic party as follows:
Leading the pack are two of the state Democrats' biggest personalities: Leslie L. Byrne, a former congresswoman, state delegate and state senator with deep roots in the party's progressive wing, and Gerald E. Connolly, a Latin-quoting, pro-business Democrat who, as chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, represents one in seven Virginians.
Byrne is the long-time progressive movement candidate facing off against developer ally Gerry Connolly. Byrne's progressive credentials are first-rate; a liberal member of Congress from 1992-1994, she was an opponent of the war in Iraq from day one, endorsed Howard Dean in 2004, is a favorite of the local netroots, and endorsed fellow war opponent Jim Webb early on. That endorsement was critical and provided Webb's campaign with an early boost of legitimacy in his primary against lobbyist Harris Miller, who supported the war in Iraq and thought Bush's tax cuts were "a great idea". Webb defeated racist Republican George Allen narrowly because he presented a clear choice on economic inequality and the war in Iraq, and has turned around and endorsed Byrne's campaign.
Leslie Byrne has also been endorsed by Raising Kaine, Not Larry Sabato, Anonymous Is a Woman, 750 Volts, and Bryan Scrafford. To contextualize these endorsements, understand that the Virginia blogs are probably one of the most sophisticated group of progressive bloggers in the country; they helped put Tim Kaine and Jim Webb into office, and the state in play for 2008.
This is a nasty fight, with Connolly up by 22 in his polling and Byrne up by 10 in her polling. Connolly is generally seen as heavily tied to developers (see all the coming soon on his campaign's endorsement list), while Byrne's endorsement list is pretty impressive and shows her commitment to progressive values:
UAW Virginia, CWA, IUPAT, Ironworkers, Plumbers, Operating Engineers, Heating and Asbestos Workers, Washington DC Building Trades Council, AFSCME Virginia, Boilermakers, Operating Engineers, EMILY's List, UAW International, National Women's Political Caucus, and EMILY's List.
If she win the primary and the general, Byrne will be a great member of Congress. I emailed back and forth with her over our standard set of questions focusing on key moments of progressive leverage in Congress; the war funding vote in 2007, the FISA vote in 2007, and retroactive immunity for the telecommunications industry. Here are her responses.
1) How would you have voted on the war funding bill that the Democrats passed in May?
I would have voted against the war funding bill. I have been on record since January,2003 as being against the war and the occupation of Iraq when a dozen former members of Congress and I sent a letter to President Bush not to embark on this foolhardy war.
2) What is your position on the Protect America Act that went through Congress in August, the bill that extended the President's eavesdropping power3?
I would have voted against it. Warrantless wiretapping, cutting courts out of the process and giving the power to the administration, under any fair reading of the Constitution should be illegal.
3) What is your position on retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies?
I'm against immunity. The telecommunications companies who complied (not all did) have some of the highest priced legal talent available. They should have asked for a court ruling before handing over their customers records. I was very pleased that the US House found their voice on this issue.
Byrne has also signed on to the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, showing leadership now as a candidate for office and facing withering attacks because she spoke out substantively to change the conversation on national security.
Even though many of us are political junkies, we don't get many chances to really impact politics in this country. Primaries, though, are the moments when our influence is felt most keenly, because it is at those times when Democratic activists and Democratic voters really shape the party's direction. It's hard to have a clearer choice than the one presented in this primary in Virginia, so if you want to put money to where it will really matter, give $50 to Leslie Byrne, and let's send another progressive Democrat to support the fight we started years ago.
Give to Leslie Byrne through Blue Majority
Leslie Byrne for Congress
UPDATE: Right now, Blue Majority is at 5534 donors. Since we started the page, here's what our candidates have done: Donna Edwards won a primary, Bill Foster is a member of Congress who was pivotal in the FISA fight, Al Franken is winning his primary, Joe Garcia is presenting a fundamental challenge to the fruitless embargo against Cuba, and Darcy Burner and Eric Massa have presented a substantive and responsible plan to end the war in Iraq. I'd say we got our money's worth.
One point to note is that these are the salad days of progressive change, with Republicans dropping like flies. We will not face an environment like this for years, so it is right now when your money matters. We've seen the change that our candidates are already making.
It's time to support them, so throw in $75 if you can. Blue Majority is setting a goal of getting to 6500 donors by the end of the quarter. If you haven't given, now's the time. I just threw in $100. And now, courtesy of Actblue's new feature set, you can store your donation history. Here's mine.
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