From Roz Helderman at the Washington Post:Gov. Tim Kaine's office reports that it has now received a copy of a letter from Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, indicating that he will resign from the state Senate on Jan. 12, in preparation for his inauguration as state attorney general Jan. 16.Now, the questions are: 1) who will the Democratic and Republican nominees be; and 2) who will show up in the middle of January for a special election that almost nobody cares about?
Kaine plans to call the special election to fill Cuccinelli's Fairfax County seat for that same day, said Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey.
By the way, I'm confused about this. In general, I strongly believe that Democrats (and Republicans for that matter) should make it as easy as possible for people to vote. In this case, I'm not sure how having just one voting location and a 3 1/2-hour window in the middle of rush hour in a bustling county like Fairfax does the trick. And no, I don't have a particular "dog in this fight," beyond wanting Democrats to pick the best, most progressive, and most electable nominee possible. However, I do have an interest in encouraging as broad a participation level by citizens in the process of choosing their representatives as possible. Does anyone know how the decision is made regarding the number of polling locations and the time period in which people can vote?
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I'm not claiming to be an expert, but as I understand it, these primaries are internal, and thus the parties themselves run them. Because the state electoral board isn't involved, means no obvious location and no staffing. Thus, you are often struggling to find a public meeting place last minute, and asking for members of the party (in this case, the Fairfax County Democratic Committee) to do the staffing for the Democratic primary.
Last year, after Sharon Bulova was elected to Connelly's seat and we had to fill her seat, we had a firehouse primary around the same time. It was two days, about the same hours listed here, and generated high turn out. There is real committment to making sure this is a real primary, with meticulously checked voter lists and actual secret ballots -- but it is tremendously time consuming and rather exhausting.
Still, as crazy as firehouse primaries can be, they are better than the alternative of simply nominating candidates.
A serious mental health intervention is urgently required over at NLS: Ben has finally and irrevocably jumped the insanity shark.
What are the residential requirements for running? Are there any progressives in the district who will run, or will one need to be located and convinced to move into the district? If somebody doesn't figure this out quickly, one of Cooch's clones will capture the seat.
Babe -- I can't speak to the residential requirements, but the 37th is a pretty large and diverse district. It's a district that isn't exactly hurting in money and professionalism and connections. I'm sure there are plenty of progressives who live here. (I live here.)
The dilemma that anyone without the support of the party infrastructure faces is simply getting people to the polls. (Or, in the case of the firehouse primary, poll.) Breaking into a race like this one, which will have practically no media coverage and very little time to build any kind of on-the-ground movement is extremely difficult for someone without name recognition. Not that it can't be done, but it's hard. And officially or unofficially, once a candidate has been tapped by the powers that be, it becomes that much harder for anyone else.
I think Gretchen hits the nail on the head: in a very low turnout election with very little time to campaign and build name ID, having a current-elected official is a huge advantage for the Dems. Add in the fact that Marsden represents about a third of the district already and he quickly becomes the most viable candidate, by a longshot. The only other person who might have as much name ID is Chuck Caputo, whom I haven't heard is interested and comes with the added baggage that he lost his House seat. Another possibility is Janet Oleszek, whom I really like personally, but who couldn't take this seat when she had a strong wind at her back. It's hard to see how she would be preferable.
Putting NLS' craziness aside, Marsden is a good Dem, has fought hard to gain seats in the House for Dems by supporting Democratic candidates around the state, and is taking this on because he's our best shot at taking this seat and holding on to a Senate majority.
He has supported a great number of really excellent progressive causes from David Englin's tax reform bill to raising the minimum wage, to Chap Peterson's clean energy legislation. He's probably more moderate than some would prefer, but we're also talking about a district that elected and re-elected Ken Cuccinelli for pete's sake! This is not a bastion of progressivism, much as we might like it to be. Marsden represents our core values and is not afraid to fight back against the Republicans, be it in the House or the Senate.
I think the important thing here is to select the most electable candidate, progressive or not. The State Senate is the only thing standing in the way of total Republican domination of the state, and with McDonnell looking to pick off Edd Houck, Dems need to pick up this seat to hold their majority.
Is there a need for a primary? Is someone running against Marsden?
Candidates need to file by this coming Friday. If there is no other candidate who files other than Marsden, then the primary would be cancelled, as I understand it.
Yes, but what are the residency requirements, if any, and does does Marsden satisfy them? I've seen some inferences that Marsden will have to move his residence to be eligible. Maybe he already has. If so, the Coochers in the district will be quite excited and their base will be quite enthused.
Nice to finally hear some good political advice from some comonsense, pragmatic, progressive Democrats.
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