Congrats to Connolly Campaign
Posted by Chap at 6/10/2008 9:19 PM and is filed under uncategorized 
It was a hot as hell day today. As predicted, turnout was light (I'm guessing 5%) in the primary.
I haven't seen the final numbers, but it's clear that Gerry Connolly won by a large margin, at least 20 points. Congrats to Gerry, James Walkinshaw, John Jennison and the rest of the Connolly team. They weathered the storm and won a major victory. They will be the presumptive favorite in November, and Democrats should unify behind a Warner/Connolly ticket in Fairfax County.
One thought crossed my mind ... is it time to combine our primary dates? Turnout continues to dip for these primaries.
With constant media attention on the presidential campaign, the other campaigns get overshadowed. A combined primary would help, but the real problem is information.
I tried yesterday (I know last minute) to do research on the primary hopefuls...I was unseuccessful. Amazingly the hopefuls' websites were NO HELP. I did however get responses via email from their campaigns, which helped me make a decision.
Chap, i know you are a democrat and you have to work with your party, but I do not see any good coming out of Connoly in the Senate.
um... good thing Connolly will be serving in the house or reps after he is elected this November.
correct, my mistake, slip of the fingers.
Regardless, I am not thrilled about the possibility of him "representing" us in the House, b/c I know he does not represent me.
The reason so few people voted in this election is because we make it inconvenient. Can somebody please do something to advance Virginia's elections out of the stone age? I know, it's not just Virginia. But: It's in the middle of a workday. You have to go out of your way to the one polling place you're allowed to use. The polls close at 7:00pm, which is far too early.
If we want people to be more involved in the democratic process -- and there's evidence from the Presidential contest this year that people are more interested than ever -- we have to make it *easier* on them to vote. How about being able to visit any polling place in the district? (or county, or state) How about a 24-hour election "day"? How about early voting for a week prior, like many states now have? How about voting online? OK, that last one is a stretch for many people, but let's do something, please!
Chap: How can we get started on this? How set-in-stone are the Commonwealth's election rules?
Chap,
There is no question that in presidential years, the presidential and congressional primaries should be held at the same time. Not only would this increase participation, it would save the state and local governments the cost of running two or more elections.
THanks for the good comments. I sit on the Elections Committee in the Senate, so we have jurisdiction over these issues. On the other hand, party nominations are usually controlled by party bylaws, not state laws, so it may be necessary to revise those. With the Presidential election staying competitive til late May, we could have had the primary then -- and ditched the June 10 walk of death.
Speaking of that presidential primary earlier this year, I was NOT happy that voters weren't given extra time at the polls to ensure they could vote. I was one of many stuck in traffic that day due to icy roads and freezing rain. The decision to not extend polling was made by both the Clinton and Obama campaigns (according to WTOP). Later on, when Clinton was behind and everyone prodding her to quit she claimed she had to stay in the race so as to not let down "those 18 million people who voted for me". If she really cared for the people who voted for her, it sure didn't show in Feb when I was stuck in traffic trying to get to my polling location before 7pm! I did not vote that night, I would have arrived at 7:20 had the polls remained open.
Yes Chap, our voting does have some flaws. Here in NoVA we are commuters, as such we don't have time to vote in the morning (last time I tried it was very crowded) and we must scramble to make it to the polls in the evening. This needs to be fixed - extending poll hours to 9PM would be a great start. I don't care if we can't get our "instant winner" on the 11PM news. I'm more than happy to see the results in the morning.