Tag: election 2016

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News

In brief: When elections get awkward, Bodo’s fires back and more

Awkward election night, part 1

After three University Police officers used their PA systems to broadcast “Make America great again” in the wee hours, Chief Michael Gibson says in a November 10 e-mail he was “disappointed” in the inappropriate use. UPD is investigating the incident and the three officers are on paid administrative leave.

Awkward election night, part 2

A posting on the NBC29 website that Donald Trump had won included a photo of Trump with the slogan, “Make America white again!” News editor Dave Foky calls it a “drag-and-drop mistake from someone in a hurry.” The station apologized and the slip “was horrifying to all,” he says.

Shootout on 11th Street NW

Residents tell the Newsplex they found bullet holes in homes and cars following the 8pm November 13 wounding of a woman and the police shooting of 25-year-old Joshua Lamar Carter, who is charged with malicious wounding and three gun charges. Carter is in stable condition, and the unidentified city officers are on leave pending investigation.

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photo Albemarle police

Father-son shooting

Former UVA police officer Donald Short, 84, will remain in jail after being charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of his son, 47-year-old Matthew Short. More than 20 people were in court to support the elder Short.

Enough of Jefferson

Enjoy a night of music and wine with Victory Hall Opera, lace up your sneakers to Run for Autism and wrap up the Tom Tom Fest at the community picnic. Photo: File photo
file photo

Nearly 500 UVA students, staff and faculty signed a letter to administrators—namely President Teresa Sullivan—to ask them to stop quoting the school’s founder in university-wide e-mails, because they are “disappointed in the use of Thomas Jefferson as a moral compass.”

NAACP chapter election

Albemarle-Charlottesville President Rick Turner deflects challenger Karen Waters-Wicks November 14. Turner has held the top post for more than 12 years.

By the numbers

Bodo’s tells it like it is

Everyone’s favorite bagel shop saw even more love than usual when it posted a 400-word memo on Facebook about the harassment employees and customers had experienced since the election, and that it would not be tolerated in a space where people from all walks of life are welcome. “Not in our house,” they said.

The post received: 5,700 likes  |  1,586 shares  |  413 comments

Bluer, redder

While Republicans swept Donald Trump to victory nationwide, Charlottesville and Albemarle went even bluer this election than four years ago. Some surrounding counties, however, got redder than in 2012, as evidenced below in our look at how Barack Obama and Mitt Romney did in the last election, compared to how Donald Trump did last week.

election

Quote of the week

“This is bigger than ‘Dewey defeats Truman.’”—Larry Sabato to UVA Today in his mea culpa about how pollsters and pundits got election results so wrong.

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News

Winners and losers on election night

Jane Dittmar was unable to overcome the odds in the GOP-heavy 5th District. Photo Eze Amos

As the presidential election played out across the United States, the battle for both the White House and an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives played out in Charlottesville on its own small scale.

At Carver Recreation Center near the Downtown Mall, afternoon voters were greeted by a pair of smiling volunteers from the Charlottesville Democratic Party who offered sample ballots. A uniformed sheriff’s deputy stood facing the street, watching for trouble that never materialized. Typical of city precincts, no Republican representatives were present.

Polling places throughout the city and in parts of Albemarle County were heavily manned by Dem volunteers. But as the results came in, the relative strength of the Democratic organization in Charlottesville was overwhelmed by the overall numbers throughout the 5th Congressional District.

“We’ve known for quite a while that our field effort, our ground game was very energetic and very extensive,” said Tom Vandever, a former mayor of Charlottesville and campaign manager for Democratic congressional nominee Jane Dittmar. As he waited for the polls to close among a throng of supporters at the Democrats’ celebration in the lobby of the brand new Residence Inn on West Main Street, the tone of the room was optimistic.

“We haven’t seen the same evidence from [Republican Tom Garrett’s] campaign,” said Vandever, who noted that the Republican Campaign Committee dropped over a million dollars on his campaign. “That’s a lot of money to drop on a campaign and it’s certainly helped him,” said Vandever. “But we’ve known all along that getting our voters to the polls on Election Day was going to be critical. We’ve had hundreds of volunteers making phone calls and knocking on doors all over the district.”

At 7:30pm, shortly after the polls closed, expectations in the Democratic camp were high for Clinton and at least hopeful for Dittmar. Smiling volunteers laid out tins of homemade cookies.

“We’re hoping to see at least 65 percent for Jane in Albemarle County, at least 75 percent in Charlottesville,” Vandever said.

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A victorious Tom Garrett is flanked by state Senator Frank Wagner, who is running for governor, and state Senator Bryce Reeves, who wants to be lieutenant governor in 2017. Photo Eze Amos

A few blocks away, Charlottesville’s Republicans had gathered in a tightly packed crowd at Random Row Brewing Company to watch the results come in. Free beer flowed from the taps amid occasional chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump!”

“I woke up this morning knowing that I needed to go poll watch in whatever poll wasn’t covered in my city,” said Barbara Null, chair of the Republican Party of Charlottesville.

“Tom Garrett, I love,” she said. “He’s a great guy.” Null said the former Louisa commonwealth’s attorney will do what he says and he’s honest. “I worked very hard for his campaign and I’m really excited,” said Null. “He’s got all these great ideas, like letting people delay taking Social Security to pay off their student debt.”

Null would have liked more GOPers to work the polls in the city, but that’s always a problem, she said. “You don’t register by party so there aren’t a lot of Republican leaning people in the city but there’s a good core and we use them.” She added, “I think we did good.”

Vandever knew that his candidate had a tough fight outside of Charlottesville.

“The 5th District is a difficult district,” Vandever said. “We don’t know the impact that the Trump campaign is going to be. Jane is tied to Clinton, Tom is tied to Trump. Clinton has to stay relatively close to Trump in the 5th for Jane to catapult over. If Clinton goes down by five, six points in the 5th, it’s going to be a tough haul for Jane to win. But if it’s within three, then we’ve got the springboard to pull it off.”

Dittmar was crushed 58 percent to 42 percent. Charlottesville’s well-organized Dems brought her 79 percent within the city, while in Albemarle, she took 57 percent.

Frank Squillace embraces his wife, Jane Dittmar, after she concedes Tuesday night. Photo Eze Amos
Frank Squillace embraces his wife, Jane Dittmar, after she concedes Tuesday night. Photo Eze Amos

In the 5th District overall, Donald Trump received 53 points to Hillary Clinton’s 42.

As the night wore on, the Democratic gathering was reduced to a few dozen people who had given up on Dittmar but grimly hoped for the defeat of Trump. Empty wine glasses littered the stone tables where supporters sat watching MSNBC and CNN. A hotel employee announced that the remaining cookies were about to be thrown in the trash. Last call.

Back at Random Row, the Republican crowd had dwindled somewhat by midnight but grown no quieter as they watched the large television screens hung over the bar. Fox News called Pennsylvania for Trump. “USA, USA, USA!” chanted a group of men by the bar. Lagers and ales were served up in tulip-shaped stemware. They had run clear out of pint glasses hours ago.

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In brief: Angry administrator, unwise Facebooking and more

Courtesy Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone cries foul

Days before UVA former associate dean Nicole Eramo’s 12-day defamation trial is set to begin October 17, the magazine accused her of improperly releasing video depositions to ABC’s “20/20” to air October 14, and sought relief in an emergency motion. The judge ruled October 11 that Eramo can’t use leaked videos in court, according to the Daily Progress.

Poorly spelled, as well

Bella owner and UVA lecturer Douglas Muir burned up Facebook with his post last week: “Black lives matter is the biggest rasist (sic) organisation (sic) since the clan (sic). Are you kidding me. Disgusting!!!” UVA’s School of Engineering and Darden scurried to distance themselves from Muir, now on leave from the university, and some locals have called for a boycott of the restaurant.

festysmokeFesty ends with a bang—literally

As if two days of rain weren’t bad enough, when the sky finally cleared Sunday, a food vendor’s propane tank exploded, sending one person to the emergency room and evacuating the Arrington site for several hours.

Epic fail

Gordon Goines’ call to Waynesboro police about a theft in 2014 resulted in him handcuffed and involuntarily committed to a mental health facility for five days. Goines, who has cerebellar ataxia, which makes it difficult to walk and speak, sued and the case settlement was announced October 6, according to the News Virginian.

m-obama-whitehouse-photoAmanda Lucidon
White House photo by Amanda Lucidon

Landscaping for Michelle Obama

The first lady called upon UVA landscape architects to spiff up the White House kitchen garden area, and a team led by Elizabeth Meyer added tables, benches and paths to accommodate hanging out in the garden as the Obamas prepare to exit.

Living the high life

5thSt-wallThere’s a beacon of hope for grocery fanatics hoping to move closer to Wegmans, and you may have seen it perched atop several layers of massive rounded retaining walls while heading out of town. A new upscale apartment complex by Castle Development Partners, called Beacon on 5th, will begin leasing in January with move-in this spring.

  • Rents start at $1,200
  • 207 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments
  • 34 two-, three- and four-bedroom townhouses
  • Located two minutes from 5th Street Station (aka Wegmans)

By the numbers

Voter swell

27,616

Active registered voters in Charlottesville as of October 3

Almost 1,900

Voters registered since September 1

60%

increase since January 1

October 17

Deadline to register for November 8 election

27,319

Voters on Election Day 2012

27,570

Registered voters in 2008

Source: Charlottesville Registrar Rosanna Bencoach

Quote of the week

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”
—State Senator Tom Garrett quotes Hitler propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in his October 10 debate against 5th District opponent Jane Dittmar about whether he was influenced by donations from uranium mining interests.

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Legal opinion: Don’t clutter the Constitution of Virginia

Bad idea: Constitution of Virginia author Dick Howard advises against amendments, especially for social and economic issues. Photographed here in 2006, when he warned against the now-unconstitutional definition of marriage amendment. JACK LOONEY

Virginia voters will notice two constitutional amendments on the ballot in November, and given past history, they’ll probably pass them, despite legal experts concerns that such amendments clunk up the state constitution.

The first amendment on the ballot enshrines an existing right-to-work statute that prohibits employers from requiring union membership. The second allows spouses of first responders killed in the line of duty to be exempt from property taxes if their localities agree.

UVA law prof Dick Howard drafted the current constitution, which was approved in 1971. “The constitution embodies fundamental law—the branches of government, local government, the bill of rights and individual rights,” he says. “The more you load the constitution with policy judgments, the more it’s like a code.”

Howard also says it’s a mistake to put social issues into a constitution, and points to Prohibition as exhibit A for bad amendment ideas in the U.S. Constitution. More recently, Virginia’s definition of marriage amendment in 2006 is another example of an issue upon which American public opinion quickly changed and which has been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

While Howard thinks the effect of the property tax amendment is inconsequential, he says, “In principle, that should not be in the constitution. Don’t use the constitution to rewrite the tax code.”

He calls the right-to-work amendment “highly controversial,” and notes there is no constitutional challenge to the statute. “It’s a non-issue,” he says. “Some are arguing the attorney general of Virginia, Mark Herring, is not to be trusted to enforce the statute. I think that’s a chimerical concern.” Some Republicans voiced concerns after Herring refused to defend the state’s same-sex marriage ban, which was being challenged as unconstitutional.

Delegate David Toscano (D-57) says there’s no indication the attorney general will not enforce the statute. “That’s a red herring,” he puns. The amendment “is a clear case of trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist” for a statute that has never been challenged in a state with few unions. Its main purpose, he says, seems to be “to get people to the polls.”

However, Delegate Rob Bell (R-58), who is running for attorney general next year, says right-to-work is “fundamental” to Virginia’s business competitiveness, and by putting it into the constitution, “it’s less subject to change by subsequent legislatures.”

Bell says he’s “puzzled and concerned” by people who don’t think right-to-work is an issue, and that the constitutional amendment is like seat belts in cars: “We want to have protections in place.”

The property tax break for surviving spouses of first responders has a much smaller impact, says Bell, but without the constitutional amendment, localities can’t offer that break if they choose to do so.

To get an amendment on the ballot, the General Assembly must pass it two consecutive years with a House of Delegates election in between.

Recent amendments have tended to give property tax breaks to veterans or the elderly with disabilities. Bell carried an eminent domain amendment that passed in 2012. As for cleaning up now-unconstitutional amendments like definition of marriage, says Bell, “I’m not on that committee.”

For Howard, amendments typically are “good examples of how people misuse the constitution.” He mentions the right to hunt and fish amendment. “If ever there was a practice in no danger,” he says. “A lot of these are feel-good issues.”

And they almost always pass, he says.

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Opinion

Off the rails: The Trump train goes over a cliff

Donald Trump now faces members of his own party, like Virginia’s U.S. Representative Barbara Comstock, calling for him to step aside. Photo by: Amanda Maglione

Wow. Just wow. We have been following politics for a very long time (too long, perhaps), and we honestly have never seen anything quite like the insane gyrations currently rocking the presidential race. We always knew that the triumph of Donald J. Trump over a field of hapless Republican losers in the primaries was going to be the gift that kept on giving, but never in our wildest dreams did we expect things to get as truly unhinged as they are right now.

With so many choice events to choose from, it’s hard for us to pick our favorite recent political development, but there’s definitely one thing that perfectly encapsulated the volatile, unprecedented position the elephants find themselves in. It happened outside the Republican National Committee headquarters, where Trump’s Virginia campaign chair Corey Stewart recently staged a protest against the RNC for purportedly failing to support The Donald. The Trump campaign responded by immediately firing Corey Stewart.

Think about that. Trump’s state chairman actually organized a protest against his own party’s national committee, even though RNC chairman Reince Priebus is one of the few GOP talking heads still offering unqualified support for the unstable, foul-mouthed, misogynistic rage machine who sits hunched atop the Republican ticket like a coked-up King Kong, unwilling (or unable) to admit that he’s mortally wounded. And Trump rewarded Stewart’s initiative by throwing him off the campaign’s swiftly sinking ship.

Although we have never wavered in our conviction that Hillary Clinton will be our next president, we would be lying if we didn’t admit to a few moments of nervousness leading up to the first presidential debate. The negative narrative that the press has long loved to spin around Clinton seemed to be hardening, and Trump’s relentless hammering of her was dragging her down to his subterranean level.

But then came Clinton’s masterful debate performance. And Trump’s meandering meltdown. And his unhinged attacks on a former Miss Universe. And his 3am tweets telling the world to check out a fictional sex tape. And the leaked “Access Hollywood” audio of Trump bragging that he likes to sexually assault women. And the second presidential debate, which Trump kicked off by appearing with women who had accused former president Bill Clinton of sex crimes, and capped off by threatening to abuse the power of the presidency by sending his political opponent to prison.

The result? A stampede of Republican rodents fleeing the S.S. Trumptanic as fast as their little feet could carry them. It began as a trickle, with Virginia’s very own U.S. Representative Barbara Comstock, who is locked in a tight race to retain her congressional seat, taking to Facebook to urge Trump to quit the race in the wake of his hideous “locker-room talk” scandal. It swiftly ballooned, however, until even Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, in a conference call with colleagues, declared that he would no longer defend his party’s pumpkin-hued, presidency-seeking pustule, and informed members fighting for political survival that they were free to run as far and fast as possible from Trump’s dumpster fire of a campaign.

This, of course, sparked a huge backlash from Republican base voters who still love Trump, and think Clinton is the devil incarnate. And thus does one of America’s most successful and durable political parties find itself coming apart at the seams, with a monster dragging it steadily into darkness, and a horrified host of now-regretful enablers struggling fruitlessly toward the light.

But for Donald Trump’s Republican Party, that light is fading fast.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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Tom Garrett on job creators tour

Phil Wendel and Tom Garrett don't break a sweat at today's ACAC tour. Staff photo

Congressional candidate Tom Garrett is back in Charlottesville today a week after he debated Dem Jane Dittmar at the Senior Center. The two are vying for the 5th District seat currently held by Robert Hurt, who decided not seek a third term.

C-VILLE caught up with Garrett, a state senator, at ACAC, where owner Phil Wendel, a reliable political contributor who usually leans Republican, showed him around the facility.

“We’re meeting job creators,” says Garrett, who notes that Wendel employs between 700 and 800 people in the Charlottesville area.

“What we’re constantly hearing is that the regulatory climate keeps businesses from doing things that create jobs,” says Garrett. Earlier at Gaston & Wyatt, he says he was told its owner spent between six and seven hours a week complying with OHSA.

He points to Lane Furniture in Altavista, which closed its doors because of the burden of meeting OHSA and EPA regulations for safety and health, according to Garrett. Lane had been in business for nearly 100 years, he says, “with no history of Lane employees getting hurt.”

flanna & tom garrettGarrett’s wife, Flanna, is campaigning with him, and said she could beat her husband in tennis, an assessment with which he disagreed. The couple resides in Buckingham.

Next on the job creators tour: gun store Woodbrook Sports and Floors R Us.

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Let the 5th District debates begin

Jane Dittmar and Tom Garrett answered questions moderator Bob Gibson chose from the audience. Photo Eze Amos

Congressional candidates Jane Dittmar and Tom Garrett met August 10 for the first of four forums, and the two agreed on several issues—and disagreed on many more. Around 200 people crammed into the Senior Center for the event sponsored by the Senior Statesmen of Virginia (no relation to the center).

Democrat Dittmar, a mediator, is the former chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and Republican Garrett is a former prosecutor serving his second term in the state Senate. Both touted their credentials for working across the aisle.

Both opposed the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the route of which runs through Nelson County, and both said they’d defy their party’s whips and vote for the interests of the district in Congress.

Dittmar said she was “appalled” at what GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said about the Khans, a Charlottesville Gold Star family whose son died in Iraq.

“I think Donald Trump is a smart man who sometimes picks dumb words,” said Garrett of his party’s standard bearer.

Garrett used the word “shameful” to describe the Affordable Care Act, the Veterans Administration and the rhetoric on gun safety. “You’re four times more likely to be killed by a knife,” he said. “The problem is not guns, it’s violence.”

Dittmar said that she supported the Second Amendment and universal background checks to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, those prone to violence and terrorists.

When asked what specific project they would take to Washington, Dittmar’s No. 1 issue is Internet service in rural areas. “I’m like a dog after a bone on that one,” she said.

Garrett said he’d work on economic development for the 5th District. And he used several opportunities to bring up Deschutes Brewery, which wanted to locate in Albemarle but the county, under Dittmar’s watch, refused to rezone as much land as the Oregon company needed.

He noted several times the lack of cell phone coverage on Route 20 south, which is in Dittmar’s Scottsville district. “It strikes me as brazen to say that we can have Internet service when we can’t get cell service on 20 south and in North Garden,” he said.

Garrett drew groans from the audience when he expressed doubt that climate change is caused by fossil fuels. “I believe climate change is real,” he said. “I believe as long as there has been a climate it’s been changing.” That response got applause, while protests came when he said, “There is debate about whether it’s man-caused.”

And on the national debt, he proposed that young people be given the opportunity to defer receiving Social Security benefits in return for forgiveness of student loan debt.

Dittmar said it was essential to send different people to Washington. “We sent these warriors to Washington and they don’t know how to govern.”

The candidates will meet three more times before November, and two of those—September 28 and October 10—will be in the Charlottesville area.

tom garrett- eze amos
Republican state Senator Tom Garrett at the Senior Statesmen debate August 10. Photo Eze Amos
jane dittmar-amos
Jane Dittmar seeks the 5th District seat that hasn’t been held by a Democrat since Tom Perriello won it in 2008. Photo Eze Amos
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Rescinded: Felons who registered to vote do not pass go

DeShon Langston got out of prison in 2005 and could vote in Michigan, but not in Virginia. PHOTO EZE AMOS

For DeShon Langston, having his right to vote restored—and then unrestored—was like having a really nice dream and waking up to reality. That’s his reaction to a 4-3 Supreme Court of Virginia decision July 22 that the state constitution did not give Governor Terry McAuliffe the authority to restore voting rights en masse, as he did April 22 for more than 200,000 felons.

By July 29, the Virginia Department of Elections had placed all of those names back on the prohibited voter list. This week, people like Langston, who had registered to vote, will get letters advising them their registration has been canceled.

When he got out of prison in 2005 for drug distribution charges, Langston, 41, returned to his home state of Michigan, where felon voting rights are restored automatically upon release from prison. “The first time I ever voted was in 2008 in Michigan for Barack Obama,” he says. “I was on probation.”

But he returned to Virginia, which doesn’t make it so easy and requires felons to petition the governor to get their voting rights back. Encouraged by Virginia Organizing’s Harold Folley, Langston previously tried to get his voting rights restored online, but was told he’d need to provide more information. “I’ve got a wife, two young kids, two jobs,” he says. “I got other things on my mind.”

When McAuliffe signed his blanket restoration, “it felt like a step up for the future, where I can participate in my local government,” says Langston.

He wonders about the GOP-led opposition to him voting. “Is that how Virginia really feels about felons working to get their lives together?” he asks. And he’s convinced the restrictions on felon voting are racially motivated because the majority of felons are African-American. “Whatever their motivation is, it’s not benefiting me,” he says.

curtis-gilmore-eze
Curtis Gilmore Jr. wants to give back and not be seen as a second-class citizen. Photo Eze Amos

Curtis Gilmore Jr., 55, felt like he earned having his rights restored. He, too, was convicted of drug charges and has been out of prison since December 22, 2009. Gilmore works at Blue Moon Diner and is trying to be a productive citizen, and “not feel like I’m second class,” he says.

Now he wants to live a more conventional life, where before, “I always lived in the dark world—a life that could get you killed or get you locked up,” he says. He has seven grown children. “None of them turned out like me, thank God,” he says, putting his hands together in a prayer gesture.

It took Gilmore more than five years to pay $5,000 in fines so he could get his driver’s license back.

“I’m being restored,” he says. “Getting my rights back is one of the things I have to do. I was excited about getting to vote,” although he says he wasn’t disappointed when he heard the court had reversed the governor’s measure. “I know how politics work,” he says.

Delegate Rob Bell, a Republican who is running for attorney general, says it’s no secret he was one of those who challenged McAuliffe’s order and who helped expose those who were ineligible on the restoration list.

“We had policy concerns about treating everyone the same, and we had constitutional concerns,” he says. Under McAuliffe’s order, “there will be some very bad characters who qualify,” he says.

Bell, a former Orange County prosecutor, interviewed lawyers to take the case and checked in with other commonwealth’s attorneys. Jim Fisher in Fauquier County ran the names of a few people he knew wouldn’t qualify, and found a guy serving a life sentence, says Bell. He reached out to other prosecutors who checked high-profile cases and “the dam broke.”

One found a sex offender who was a fugitive noncitizen who had his rights restored. Another discovered 132 sex offenders who were civilly committed. “It got worse and worse,” says Bell. “It underlined the benefits of [restoring voting rights] case by case.”

Bell insists his opposition to McAuliffe’s order is not to disenfranchise black voters, and he points to a PolitiFacts investigation that says Virginia’s ban on felons voting is not a Jim Crow-era law. It notes the ban on felons dates to 1830, when only white men were given the right to vote.

Bell says he doesn’t object to felons getting their voting rights back, but he doesn’t want it an automatic process. “If someone turns their life around, everyone is delighted,” he says. “When people approach and ask me about this, I always ask if they’ve applied. For nonviolent felons, it’s not this big application.”

On August 4, registrars in Charlottesville, which had 86 felons who registered to vote, and in Albemarle, which had 82, received lists of names of those who had been unregistered.

McAuliffe has vowed he will sign letters restoring rights to the nearly 13,000 felons who registered to vote under his executive order.

Both Langston and Gilmore say they’ll register to vote if their rights are restored again. Langston is more interested in participating in local and state elections, which affect his family. “That’s what I care about,” he says,

And Gilmore wants to not be seen as a second-class citizen. “If I can vote my one vote, I can make a difference,” he says. “And I can talk about politics.”

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Opinion

Doom and gloom: Trump bets big on fear at the Republican Convention

Donald Trump has his moment in the sun in Cleveland last week. Wikimedia commons user MontanaIsForMe

First off, before we dive into the current parade of political lunacy, we would like to pause for one moment and express our gratitude to Donald J. Trump, who has made this the single most entertaining political season that most pundits can remember. Of course, we should also make it clear that we fully believe this pumpkin-haired clown will never assume the presidency of the United States, and that the alarming wave of extremism, racism and disturbing nationalism he has unleashed will fade (along with his egomaniacal buffoonery) in the months following the November election.

Is there a chance we are wrong? Of course. But if that’s the case, then we are living in a nation we no longer recognize, and so are determined to remain in a state of absolute denial until the words “President Trump” improbably shift from a ludicrous punchline to a horrifying reality.

In the meantime, we shall continue to treat The Donald’s presidential bid as a pathetic (if dangerous) joke, even as we acknowledge that the economic insecurity and societal discord that have fueled his rise are very real and important problems that will need to be addressed during the coming Clinton administration.

Luckily for us, Trump continues to flail about like a deranged prep-school monster who forgot to take his Ritalin, lashing out in all directions while simultaneously mismanaging every single facet of his campaign. And there is no better illustration of this than the recently concluded, Trump-branded Republican National Convention, which was without a doubt the most gaffe-ridden, hate-filled political event we’ve ever seen. (Then again, we’ve never attended an Ayn Rand Objectivist symposium or a Klan rally, so our experience in these things is limited.)

Veering between boring speeches by rich friends and employees of Trump (billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel, Trump Winery General Manager Kerry Woolard) and frothing-at-the-mouth indictments of Hillary Clinton (former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump lackey and current New Jersey Governor Chris Christie), the convention was notable mostly for how poorly it was managed, which is in and of itself a scathing indictment of Trump’s supposed competence.

The tone was set the very first night when, following a head-scratching warm-up performance by Scott Baio, Trump’s wife, Melania, delivered a poised and practiced speech that contained several sections blatantly lifted from Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech. But the pinnacle of this cavalcade of incompetence came on the convention’s third night, when Trump’s primary opponent Ted Cruz, who had been given a coveted prime-time speaking slot, refused to mention Trump’s name during his speech, and told the assembled throng to “vote their conscience” in the upcoming election. Parts of the crowd became so enraged by this apostasy that Cruz’s wife Heidi, who was seated near the Virginia delegation, had to be quickly hustled out of the hall by Ken Cuccinelli (a high-profile Cruz supporter who had previously maneuvered to get as many Cruz delegates seated as possible).

By the time Trump’s angry, despair-inducing address finally arrived, it was far too late to win over anyone but the true believers. And true to form, Trump didn’t even try, painting a picture of America so relentlessly bleak that we’re surprised convention-goers didn’t simply file out of the venue and immediately apply for asylum in the far-more-appealing republic of Syria.

And thus the stage was set for this week’s Democratic National Convention, where Hillary Clinton and her newly chosen running mate Tim Kaine (maybe you’ve heard of him?)—along with current cheerleader-in-chief Barack Obama—will undoubtedly conjure a much sunnier and more optimistic vision of this great country of ours.

So stay tuned, folks — this roller coaster ride is really just beginning.

Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.

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News

Political season: Locals head to conventions

In between interviews, the Center for Politics’ Tim Robinson, Larry Sabato and Geoffrey Skelley snap a photo from the convention floor in Cleveland. Courtesy Geoffrey Skelley

 

While most of us followed last week’s Republican shindig in Cleveland on TV, several locals were there on the ground. And Charlottesville sent four people to Philadelphia as delegates for the Democratic convention this week.

UVA had a major presence in Cleveland with political pundit Larry Sabato and his Crystal Ball team from the Center for Politics on hand. The Miller Center, which specializes in presidential studies, sent Barbara Perry, co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program, and assistant prof Nicole Hemmer. Even UVA Today had a rep there—videographer Mitch Powers recorded the UVA experts behind the scenes.

The Crystal Ball team live tweeted the convention and provided real-time analysis, as well as interviews for the 15,000 credentialed press, whose numbers far exceeded the 2,470 delegates and 2,300 alternates. Sabato seemed to do nonstop interviews, judging from his Twitter feed.

Among the notable moments: former attorney general/Ted Cruz supporter Ken Cuccinelli throwing his credentials on the floor. “It was a moment that showed the divisions in the Republican party,” says the Center for Politics’ Geoffrey Skelley.

Charlottesville native Gray Delany was there working with the Republican National Convention caucus operations, and he witnessed those divisions firsthand. Delany had been campaign manager for 5th District candidate Michael Del Rosso’s unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination, and a high point for Delany was seeing Del Rosso at the convention talking to caucuses as a vetted RNC speaker.

The Virginia delegation “went rogue all week,” says Delany. “They were horrible.” Cuccinelli, he says, “burned a lot of bridges. The takeaway: He’s done.”

Charlottesville School Board Chair Amy Laufer is a Clinton delegate. She works with Women Leaders of Virginia, and thought, “Heck, I don’t have to just work on the state level. I can go to this historic event and see Hillary nominated.”

Former Newsplex anchor Bob Beard is an alternate delegate, and he, too, “thought it would be fun to experience this historical event,” he says. After years of working in the news business and having to be objective, he says, “Now I have a chance to be a citizen, not an observer.”

Beard spoke with C-VILLE before Clinton announced Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her vice presidential pick, but he already was reading the tea leaves from hotel bookings, and noted the Virginia delegation was staying in the same hotel as the New York caucus.

Kimberly Stevens and Nic McCarty crowd-sourced their trip to Philadelphia as Bernie Sanders delegates, and they were not ready to fall in behind Clinton when they spoke to C-VILLE before the convention. “We are very passionate about electing Bernie Sanders as our next president,” says Stevens. “And we’re very concerned about Hillary Clinton’s numbers polling against Trump.”

McCarthy was eager to push for issues on the Democratic platform that are popular with Sanders supporters, such as campaign finance reform.

But unlike the Republican convention, says Stevens, “At this time there are no plans for a revolt.”

All of the Charlottesville Dem contingent are first-timers to a national convention, and Skelley, a veteran, advises them to wander around as much as possible. While the Cleveland convention was downtown, the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia “is a little more isolated, and probably will have a different vibe,” he says.

“Take in all the sights and sounds,” he says. “You’ll see some crazy stuff, bizarre things.” And where else will you find a Donald Trump whoopee cushion?