Former Del. Mitch Van Yahres has endorsed Barack Obama from the dead, reports Bob Gibson of The Daily Progress today on his blog. The Democrat and former Charlottesville mayor died Friday after complications from surgery for lung cancer, but Van Yahres’ family members placed this note in his obituary: “His friends, who nearly included everyone who met him, are asked, in lieu of expenditures on flowers and the like, to make a healthy and significant contribution to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama or, if they insist, the charity of their choice.”
“I knew Mitch well and discussed his support of Obama with him last month,” writes Gibson, “but this still is a surprising endorsement from a guy who slipped up to heaven three days ago.”
 Mitch Van Yahres |