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‘Progressive energy:’ Hudson, Payne wins signal generational shift

Millennials Sally Hudson and Michael Payne were the big winners in the June 11 primary. photos Amy and Jackson Smith, Eze Amos

In the end, the 57th District race pitting a millennial and a baby boomer for the open House of Delegates seat wasn’t even close. Thirty-year-old Sally Hudson crushed two-term City Councilor Kathy Galvin with 66 percent of the vote in the June 11 primary.

The same dynamic played out in the Democratic primary for City Council, where there are three open seats. Michael Payne, 26, led the pack of five candidates. In November, he’ll supplant outgoing councilor Wes Bellamy, 28 when elected, for the title of youngest person to sit on council.

“I think it’s a big turning point for our small community,” says former councilor Dede Smith, who is a Hudson and Payne supporter. “We’re coming into a new era with our leadership.”

For former mayor Dave Norris, Hudson’s margin of victory “indicates local voters are ready for a new direction.”

Hudson says, “It was striking we won every precinct in the district.” She’s unopposed in the November general election, and she says she’ll spend time helping other Dems get elected because “the Republicans in Richmond are so unsupportive of what we want to get done.” The GOP holds the House by a slim, two-seat majority.

In the City Council race, many had predicted well-known lawyer and top fundraiser Lloyd Snook, 66, would bring in the most votes. He came in second behind Payne.

“The order surprised me,” says Smith. And Sena Magill’s taking third place was also a surprise for Smith. “I thought Brian Pinkston was emerging.”

Former city councilor Bob Fenwick, 73, trailed in last place.

“I think it’s a generational shift,” says Smith. “Being a candidate in the fairly recent past, most voters were baby boomers or older. It was shocking. I think we’re beginning to see a wake up to this maturing [millennial] generation that voting matters.”

For Payne, co-founder of Indivisible Charlottesville, leading the pack is a sign “the community wants to see bold, progressive change on affordable housing, racial equity, and climate change.”

“One of the qualities Michael and I share is a sense of the fierce urgency of now,” says Hudson.

Primary winners Payne, Snook, and Magill will face independents Bellamy Brown and Paul Long on the November 5 ballot, and while the odds are in their favor in Dem-heavy Charlottesville, in 2017 Mayor Nikuyah Walker became the first independent to get on council since 1948.

Statewide, UVA Center for Politics’ Kyle Kondik saw “some progressive energy,” but that didn’t always prevail, notably in the 35th District race in which incumbent Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw eked by his challenger.

“If Democrats win the House and Senate, it will be the most liberal state government in Virginia ever,” says Kondik. Hudson, he says, is to the left of outgoing House Minority Leader David Toscano. If Dems take the General Assembly and get a chance to govern, he says that could result in policy change—the same message Hudson was hammering.

The other trend in local Democratic primary races is that women prevailed. Chief Deputy Chan Bryant defeated RMC regional director Patrick Estes with 63 percent of the vote to secure the party’s nomination for Albemarle sheriff. She’ll face independent Ronnie Roberts, Lousia police chief, in November.

And in the Rivanna District, Bea LaPisto Kirtley edged out Jerrod Smith with 54 percent of the vote. She does not have a challenger for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors in the general election in November.

The other General Assembly primary that includes part of Albemarle is the 17th District, where former Charlottesville School Board member Amy Laufer’s 79 percent of the vote obliterated Ben Hixon. Laufer will face incumbent state Senator Bryce Reeve, who easily fended off challenger Rich Breeden with 82 percent of the vote in that district’s Republican primary.

Correction June 17: Jerrod Smith was misidentified in the original story.

 

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Progressive setback? Laufer, Hill, Platania move on; Fenwick, Fogel out

Heather Hill and Amy Laufer are the Dem nominees for City Council, and Joe Platania is most likely the new commonwealth's attorney. Submitted photos

The heavily watched June 13 primary in Virginia offered several surprises, most notably record-setting Democratic turnout and Corey Stewart’s near upset of Ed Gillespie in the GOP gubernatorial race. Conversely, hometown favorite Tom Perriello’s race against Ralph Northam for governor was expected to be much closer than Northam’s 12-point win.

And in city Democratic primary races, challengers Amy Laufer and Heather Hill handily unseated incumbent Bob Fenwick, and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney candidate Joe Platania blew out progressive, Equity and Progress in Charlottesville-endorsed opponent Jeff Fogel.

The energized progressive element of the Democratic party fielded House Minority Leader David Toscano’s first primary challenger, UVA instructor Ross Mittiga, in the 57th District in a dozen years.

And yet when the dust settled, establishment Dems were still firmly entrenched, and the upset threat came in the Republican Party, with former Trump Virginia campaign manager Stewart nearly toppling expected shoo-in Ed Gillespie in the GOP governor’s race.

‘It was certainly the closest of the races and the biggest surprise of the night,” says UVA’s Center for Politics analyst Geoffrey Skelley. Gillespie, who nearly unseated Senator Mark Warner in 2014 and was expected to be the GOP standard bearer, squeaked by Stewart with slightly more than a point.

Stewart’s message was “‘I was Trump before Trump,’” says Skelley. “It’s hard to dismiss his play to cultural conservatives and attaching himself to the Confederate monument issue.” Stewart made several visits to Charlottesville over City Council’s vote to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee. “He got his name out there,” says Skelley.

On the other hand, Dem turnout could be unsettling for Republicans in the fall. “The Democrats were clearly animated,” observes Skelley. “They had record-setting turnout for a non-presidential primary.”

While it’s not surprising that Perriello claimed 80 percent of the votes in Charlottesville, in the state’s major metropolitan areas, he trailed Northam by 15 points in Northern Virginia, and even more in Richmond. And in Northam’s home base of the Hampton Roads area, Northam led by 40 percent, says Skelley.

In Charlottesville, many predicted Laufer’s victory and saw it as a battle between Fenwick, who was endorsed by EPIC, and Hill. Laufer took a hefty 46 percent of the vote, while Hill picked up 34 percent and Fenwick nabbed a meager 20 percent.

“First of all, [Fenwick] was wildly outspent and arguably out-worked,” says former mayor Dave Norris, an EPIC founder who is no longer on its board.

“My sense is among the general population, there’s a lot of frustration with what is going on in the city and a lot of them took it out on Bob,” adds Norris.

EPIC also endorsed civil rights lawyer Jeff Fogel for commonwealth’s attorney. Fogel garnered 32 percent of the vote, but Norris doesn’t see that as a resounding defeat.

“Jeff played an important role in bringing attention to systemic racial inequity in the criminal justice system and the failure of the war on drugs,” says Norris. “His presence forced his opponent to take bolder positions.”

Unknown is what factor Fogel’s June 2 arrest for assault, stemming from a confrontation at Miller’s with an associate of whites-righter Jason Kessler, played in the voting booth.

“My position is progressives did great,” says Fogel, who says he got far more votes than expected because of the surge in turnout.

With progressive candidates like Perriello, Mittiga and Fogel being shut out of Democratic nominations, what does that bode for the fall?

“I think the progressive candidates and the progressive community has its work cut out for it,” says Norris. “It’s going to take a lot of mobilizing, maybe smarter strategy and more resources to prevail.”

On City Council, he says, “I think this is the year [independent] Nikuyah Walker could pull off a victory,” although she faces an ever-growing pool of independent candidates, as well as Dem nominees Laufer and Hill, in the November election.

Far from being disheartened by progressive candidates’ lackluster showings, Norris says, “Everyone understands change takes time. It’s important to get people into the debate. We may not have won this election, but we certainly influenced the debate.”

And in other state primary races, Justin Fairfax took the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, while state Senator Jill Vogel edged out state Senator Bryce Reeves in an acrimonious contest that included a defamation suit.

A Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial opined that Reeves was unsuitable for office after he criticized Vogel for supporting “the first openly gay judge in Virginia.”

Skelley is skeptical that the piece impacted Reeves, who took 40 percent of the primary vote, in a GOP contest where “Corey Stewart nearly won.” Says Skelley, “I don’t think gay bashing is going to hurt you in that situation.”

Correction June 15: Dave Norris said “smarter strategy,” not “harder strategy” would be needed for progressives. And Amy Laufer won with 46 percent of the vote.

Updated June 19 with Fogel comment.

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GOP loyalty: Primary pledge draws mixed reaction among local Republicans

Donald Trump has tweeted his objections about the affirmation that must be signed to vote in Virginia's March 1 Republican primary. Photo: Amanda Maglione

Virginia has a history of parties requiring primary voters to affirm they’re loyal Democrats or Republicans. However, three African-American pastors who are Donald Trump supporters filed a lawsuit claiming the pledge required by the state GOP—“My signature below indicates I am a Republican”—will discourage minorities and the poor from voting in the March 1 primary.

Just ahead of absentee ballots going out, federal Judge Heather Lauck refused to issue a preliminary injunction January 14 to halt the pledge, a requirement Trump has loudly lambasted.

On December 27, he tweeted, “It begins, Republican Party of Virginia, controlled by the RNC, is working hard to disallow independent, unaffiliated and new voters. BAD!”

“If someone refuses to sign the Republican affirmation, they can’t vote in the Republican primary,” says Charlottesville Electoral Board member Rick Sincere.

State code allows parties to use pledges, says Sincere, and both Democrats and Republicans have used them in the past.

At the polls on primary day, voters will be asked in which primary they want to vote, says Sincere. Once a voter has asked for a Republican ballot, “it’s a matter of public record,” he says.

Because Virginia has an open primary, there’s nothing to keep members of one party voting in another’s primary, says Geoffrey Skelley with UVA’s Center for Politics. In 2000, the state GOP “had a pledge for voters to sign promising to not participate in the nominating process of another party in the hopes of discouraging such behavior,” he says.

Reaction among city Republicans has been divided, according to Barbara Null, chair of the Republican Party of Charlottesville and co-chair for the Ted Cruz campaign in the 5th District. “This whole thing could be avoided if we registered by party in Virginia.”

“It’s not an oath,” says Albemarle County Republican Committee Chair Cindi Burket. “It’s an affirmation that people voting in the Republican primary are Republicans.” She says she’s telling party members it won’t inhibit their right to vote.

Bedford developer Jim McKelvey, who is the 5th District co-chair for the Trump campaign and a candidate for the congressional seat, is not a pledge supporter. “I simply think [the Republican Party of Virginia] is attempting to manipulate the system against a couple of candidates they don’t want,” he says. “I think we’ve got a couple of candidates that scare them to death.”

It’s tough to say whether the pledge will have any outcome on the primary in Virginia, says Skelley. “My understanding is that the pledge is not legally binding, so there’s little to stop someone who doesn’t consider herself a Republican from signing it and voting anyway,” he says. “However, it could dissuade some people from voting because they don’t want to sign something that might be viewed as a lie.”