Tag: Elizabeth Alcorn

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Putting up a fight: Rural Dems band together in deep-red districts

Democratic General Assembly candidates Jennifer Kitchen, Elizabeth Alcorn, and Tim Hickey are sharing resources to help make inroads with rural voters. Photo: courtesy of subjects

Ten Dems running in solidly red General Assembly districts—like the ones that dissect Albemarle County—are doing what rural folk have always done: banding together to help each other out.

They’ve formed a coalition called Rural Groundgame, hired a few staffers, and are sharing resources on how to reach the voters who face the same rural issues.

“We were shocked to learn something like this didn’t already exist,” says Jennifer Kitchen, a community organizer who is challenging Republican Chris Runion in the 25th District, which includes Crozet and western Albemarle. The seat, long held by Steve Landes, is up for grabs this year because Landes decided to run for Augusta clerk of court.

Kitchen got involved in the coalition when she realized her race was not going to get money from state Democrats, who are going to be feeding cash into races they believe are more competitive and can flip the General Assembly.

The 58th District, firmly held by incumbent Rob Bell since 2002, is not one of those.

Elizabeth Alcorn decided to challenge Bell because she felt it was important to protect the democratic process and not have uncontested races. The way politics work in Virginia, she says, if a candidate is not in a targeted race, they don’t get the resources from the Democratic Party of Virginia and the Democratic House Caucus.

“They got a little surprise in 2017 when some unsupported candidates won anyway,” Alcorn points out. That year, Dems came close to controlling the House of Delegates when they picked up an unexpected 15 seats.

The 58th District includes Greene and parts of Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Rockingham counties. With the rural/urban divide that’s going on across the nation, she says, “It’s more important for Democrats to step up and get their message out in rural areas.”

Rural Groundgame is not a PAC, says Kitchen. The group has an ActBlue page where donations will be split evenly between the 10 candidates.

By sharing resources, the coalition was able to hire a consultant to develop and coordinate their field programs.

“It’s a very grassroots collaboration that arose among a number of us running for the House of Delegates,” says Tim Hickey, an educator who lives in southern Albemarle. He’s running for the 59th District seat, a district that stretches down to Rustburg, where incumbent Matt Farris lives.

“I don’t view these districts as red or blue,” he says. According to the candidates, the issues throughout the rural districts are the same: underfunded schools, health care affordability, and access. “Access to broadband is an issue we all see,” says Hickey.

The Dem candidates are going up against some sizable war chests—Bell was sitting on nearly $370,000 at the last filing—and they say that major corporations and utilities number among their opponents’ donors.

“One of the first things I’m going to do as a delegate is ban corporate political donations,” says Hickey. “We spend hours fundraising from individuals and then a candidate gets thousands from Dominion. I don’t think it’s right to take money from the corporations you regulate.”

The rural Dems are knocking on thousands of doors, some of which haven’t seen a candidate from either party in years. “They felt forgotten by Richmond,” says Kitchen. “They’re so glad to see someone.”

Kyle Kondik at UVA’s Center for Politics points out that the three districts around Charlottesville were carried by Donald Trump in 2016 by double digits, and Democrats are prioritizing more competitive districts as they try to win a House majority.

“So Democrats running in these districts need to be creative in how they try to score upsets, and banding together in such a way may be such a creative way to tackle this problem,” he says. “But their odds remain long.”

The Rural Groundgame Dems are undeterred. “We’re all in passionate agreement this is how we win rural America back,” says Alcorn. “Maybe not this year, but in 2021. Focusing on the needs of your district was extremely effective in 2017.” She points to Danica Roem, who ousted longtime incumbent Bob Marshall in northern Virginia. “Danica Roem focused on traffic,” she says.

Says Kitchen, “Our larger goal is to create a blueprint for the re-prioritization of rural America that can be used in any community, so they understand they have not been forgotten.”

Correction September 26: the RGG hired a consultant to develop and coordinate its field programs, not a field coordinator as originally reported. 

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In brief: Frat reprimand, Northam’s numbers, SNL target and more

Kirsten Hemrich

Bad choices

  • Photos appeared February 3 of Kappa Sigma fraternity members wearing American Indian headdresses (pictured above), and a since-deleted social media post captured Zeta Tau Alpha sorority sisters in sombreros and carrying maracas. UVA’s Inter-Fraternity Council condemned Kappa Sig’s “cultural appropriation” as being “prejudiced and culturally insensitive.”
  • Governor Ralph Northam, in his first televised interview in over a week, told CBS’s Gayle King that it’s the 400th anniversary of “the first indentured servants from Africa” arriving in Virginia.
  • The Bomb, Virginia Military Institute’s yearbook, included blackface photos while state Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment was managing editor in the 1960s. Norment says he was one of seven working on the yearbook and “cannot endorse or associate myself with every photo, entry, or word on each page.” He adds that he is not in any of the photos, nor did he take them.
  • The University of Richmond joins in the racist imagery with a photo from its 1980 yearbook of a man with a noose around his neck surrounded by people in KKK garb.
  • And VCU’s yearbook included blackface photos as recently as 1989, WTKR reports.
  • Attorney General Mark Herring admitted February 6 that he applied brown makeup and a wig to go to a party dressed as rapper Kurtis Blow in 1980 while he was a 19-year-old UVA student.

Quote of the week

“What if the blackface was just part of your costume of a black person?”—“Saturday Night Live” skewers Virginia and white cluelessness

 

In brief

Drop the cellphone

Both houses of the General Assembly passed bans on the use of handheld communication devices while driving. The measure to thwart distracted driving is expected to be signed into law, and Virginia will join neighboring Maryland and the District of Columbia in prohibiting holding a cellphone while on the road.

License reform killed

A Senate bill to repeal Virginia’s automatic suspension of driver’s licenses for nonpayment of fines, which has been called a “modern-day debtors prison,” died in a House subcommittee February 11, with Delegate Rob Bell one of the 4-3 votes to not let the legislation move forward. A federal judge has said the current law is likely unconstitutional.

Speaking of Bell

Greene County Democrat Elizabeth Alcorn, a retired dentist and former county party chair who resigned after a dispute with Leslie Cockburn’s 5th District campaign last year, says she’ll challenge Bell for this 58th District seat. Bell will seek his 10th term in November.

Northam’s numbers

Virginians are pretty evenly split about whether Governor Ralph Northam should resign after a photo depicting people in blackface and in KKK garb appeared on his 1984 yearbook page, according to a Washington Post/Schar School poll. Overall, 47 percent say he should resign and 47 percent feel he should stay. Among African Americans, 58 percent think Northam should remain in office and 37 percent want him to go.

Blackface numbers

In the same poll, 11 percent of the Virginians surveyed have either worn blackface or know someone who has.

 

Candidate conundrum

Charlottesville police sent an officer to Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania’s office February 7 for a reported disturbance in which City Council candidate John Hall was being “verbally aggressive.” Hall wasn’t there when the cop arrived, and no charges have been filed.

UConn/UVA pipeline

courtesy UVA

Executive VP and Provost Thomas C. Katsouleas has been named the next president of the University of Connecticut. Former UVA prez John Casteen served as UConn president from 1985 to 1990 before taking the top spot here.

School absences surge during flu season

Thirty-three fewer students and staff were present at Venable Elementary School on February 11, and they have the flu to blame.

Charlottesville schools spokesperson Krissy Vick, who’s been “washing her hands like crazy,” says a letter went home to parents to acknowledge the illness, which also kept 14 people home from Greenbrier and 13 from Walker Upper Elementary on February 8. 

It’s no surprise that county schools have been hit, too.

“It’s been a challenging time,” says spokesperson Phil Giaramita. More than half of the 25 schools in Albemarle have had “significantly higher absence rates due to illness,” and though he couldn’t give any specifics because they don’t log every absence, he says, “it’s a reasonable assumption that flu has been a major contributor.”

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In brief: Taking back their streets, Cockburn controversy, Cantwell returns and more

Skyclad AP.com

Calming effect

“That’s the reason we did this—people fly down the street,” says Shawnee West as she watches a car drive through the intersection of Little High and 11th streets.

West is standing at the edge of the circular traffic-calming mural she designed with the help of one of her neighbors. Last fall, West and dozens of her neighbors painted the geometric eight-petal blue flower with pink-and-white butterflies surrounding it. The color scheme was inspired by the mural on the adjacent Charlottesville Day School. Some of the children who helped signed their names along one of the outer rings.

West, who spent about a month gathering signatures from neighbors for a project petition she then submitted to the city, says this intersection is a particularly dangerous one because it’s a main thoroughfare for both city and school buses, but is only a two-way stop. Neighbors asked for four stop signs but were denied. She says they’ve also tried to garner enough support to petition for speed bumps on both Little High and East Jefferson streets.

“Of course we dread the worst thing that could happen,” she says. “People wait until there’s a serious crisis before anyone does anything and we’re trying to prevent that.”

West and her fellow Little High residents will give the mural a second coat of paint in May, to ensure their efforts have a lasting effect.

“When you do something, people want to help, they want to be part of something,” she says. “And to be part of a community of people who say, ‘What can I do?’—it’s great.”

“Local news comment sections prove that SATAN IS REAL, Y’ALL.”—Congregate C’ville’s Brittany Caine-Conley on Twitter in response to the web comments on C-VILLE’s story, “Still here: White supremacy strikes again.”

Dem caucusers

Localities in the 5th District held caucuses last week that gave Leslie Cockburn enough delegates to secure the nomination at its convention in Farmville May 5 to challenge Representative Tom Garrett in November, according to an unofficial tally.

Leslie Cockburn at the Charlottesville Democratic caucus April 21. Photo Natalie Jacobsen

Dem discord

The chair of the Greene County Democrats, Elizabeth Alcorn, announced her resignation April 21 and cited violation of campaign rules by Cockburn staff, who were asked to stop campaigning at the Madison County caucus, where Alcorn was an official. One of them was black and Cockburn accused the Madison caucus officials of a “racist incident,” according to Alcorn’s resignation letter.

TMI

Some Western Albemarle parents were hot and bothered over Laci Green’s video.

After the Sexual Assault Resource Agency showed a video on male sexual pleasure to Western Albemarle High School students, upset parents complained, and the school axed its years-long relationship with the nonprofit. County schools spokesperson Phil Giaramita says the video wasn’t reviewed first, but SARA documented the approval of its sex ed curriculum by the head P.E. teacher.

Crying in his beer?

Chris Cantwell, aka the Crying Nazi, was arrested March 31 in Loudoun County for public intoxication. Cantwell was out on $25,000 bond for alleged use of tear gas at the August 11 tiki torch march through UVA. He’ll be back in Albemarle Circuit Court April 26 for a judge to reconsider his bond.

Coach convicted

Charlottesville High School track coach Melvin Carter was sentenced to 180 days of suspended jail time April 20 when he pleaded guilty to assault and battery of a juvenile. The incident did not take place on school ground, according to Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania.

Pilot identified

Kent D. Carr, 51, of Staunton was the pilot of the Cessna that crashed into Bucks Elbow Mountain in Crozet on April 15. Says his obituary, “He loved aviation and was flying home at the time.”