Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

So many bastards, so little time.

Republicans do not trust women.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

So very ready.

We will not go back.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Final Push for our 2 Virginia House Candidates!

Final Push for our 2 Virginia House Candidates!

by | 77 Comments

This post is in: 

We have one more Balloon Juice angel!

He will match donations up to $25 per person, for a total of $500!

⭐️

The fundraising numbers for September were just released, and as promised, we are assessing whether to hold tight where we are or to try to raise a bit more funds Michael Feggans and Kim Pope Adams– both are young, up-and-coming African-American progressives in the swingy Hampton Roads area.

Thanks to our Balloon Juice angels and all who donated, we’ve raised over $20,000 for our two Virginia House of Delegates candidates!   Michael and Kim are challenging very vulnerable and ideologically extreme Republicans –  one-term incumbents Kim Taylor and Karen Greenhalgh.

There’s a lot of money flowing into Virginia for this election, especially into the handful of toss-up races.  And it’s hard to predict some of these races:  there’s no polling, and the districts were all re-drawn last year.  There’s a lot of guesswork.  But the Republicans are clearly worried about the two shaky Republican incumbents we are challenging on Balloon Juice.

So where do things stand?

At the end of September, dark Republican money poured into the Republican Greenhalgh and Taylor campaigns:  Hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Republican Commonwealth Leadership PAC and Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC were dumped at the end of the month.  Roughly  two tenths of one percent were donations under $100 for these Republicans.  That’s less than 1%; – hell, that’s less than half of a half %!  They have no grassroots support.  But they have panicky dark money.

Our candidates have done well with grassroots fundraising, and they held their own in bigger donations as well, but they are not sitting on the financial cushion their opponents have from the last minute influx of dark money.  So let’s direct a bit more money to our two candidates.  We’re at $20,500,  have a final $500 angel match, so that will get us to $21,000.  

Can we try to get the thermometer to $25,000?

We looked at the other race in Virginia that is considered a toss-up (white guy vs. white guy) and both are really well funded) so our money wouldn’t make a difference.

We also looked a slightly lean Democrat – or “tilt” Dem, as they say in Virginia!   He was most interesting of the other Democrats we have been watching, but he is over-performing in fundraising, and looks to be in good shape.  So at this stage, tossing a few thousand dollars to him would be superfluous.

The Republicans are clearly worried about the two shaky Republican incumbents we are challenging on Balloon Juice, and the last-minute dump of Republican big money agains our two candidates tipped the scales in terms of whether to try to get them a bit more funding  So let’s give our all to our two promising up-and-coming African-American progressives!

This election is so important – we all know that this is not just a local race –  and Balloon Juice peeps have stepped up!  I like to think we made a difference with our targeted fundraising.

I think our two candidates here have bright futures – let’s do our best to get then started NOW!

I hope you guys will all share your thoughts on Virginia!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

77Comments

  1. 1.

    Almost Retired

    Excellent!  Will donate when I get home this afternoon.  I really, really want to spoil Youngkin’s day.  Or year.  Or career.

  6. 6.

    Mousebumples

    Quick drive by comment to say –

    1. Postcards to Voters has Virginia addresses for Kimberly Pope Adams! I sent off 5 on Monday.
    2. I enjoyed this article about Virginia and Kimberly!

    #VoteBlue2023

  7. 7.

    eversor

    I don’t think Youngkin is interested in running for president.  Now’s really his time and he can’t do it because of Trump.

    He seems smart enough to realize it’s not happening and even if it were to happen the party is ungovernable and largely unrulable as well.

  10. 10.

    Redshift

    At the end of September, dark Republican money poured into the Republican Greenhalgh and Taylor campaigns: Hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Republican Commonwealth Leadership PAC and Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC were dumped at the end of the month.

    Yeah, I got an email from Russet Perry (running for the 31st Senate District in Loudoun County) that her opponent’s got a quarter mil from Youngkin and $900,000 from his dad, which tells you a lot about who he is.

    I agree with you that it’s panicky dark money, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it won’t do them much good at this point. It’ll be interesting to find out (if we ever do) if it’s going to anything but running TV ads a few hundred more times after everyone has already tuned them out.

  12. 12.

    superdestroyer

    The Democrats seem to be running a horrible candidate for  Russet Perry.  She seems to be running a single issue campaign on abortion much like McAuliffe ran a single issue campaign on Trump.  When  Russet Perry’s  opponent (Juan Pablo Segura) attacks her on crime, she remains silent.  It seems that Perry is so beholden to core constituencies in the Democrat Party that she may be too far to the left to win.

  13. 13.

    Redshift

    In other news, there was a wingnut group spreading election lies egregious enough that Virginia’s relentlessly partisan GOP AG actually smacked them down.

    The fliers contained warnings to recipients that failure to vote “may result in a loss of: Social Security Income, Medicare Eligibility, Unemployment Benefits, Child Tax Credits and Child Custody Rights, Concealed Carry Permit.”

    They further stated: “Failure to vote may also result in seizure of personal assets, including but not limited to firearms, bank accounts, cars, and real estate.” Another message states that “[g]etting an absentee ballot … may prevent the loss of government benefits, tax credits, and seizure of your personal assets.”

    The group “Look Ahead America,” which has also promoted vigils for the jailed insurrectionists, “considers itself nonpartisan.”

  15. 15.

    Geminid

    @superdestroyer: I don’t think the core constituencies of the Democratic Party are very far left at all. At least, not in Virginia. Ideologically, most Democrats here run the gamut from Mark Warner to Tim Kaine.

    So I think that if Russet Perry is running a bad campaign it must be for a reason other than the one you suggest. But she might not be running a bad campaign, even though you seem certain she is.

  16. 16.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @superdestroyer:

    The Democrats seem to be running a horrible candidate for Russet Perry. She seems to be running a single issue campaign on abortion much like McAuliffe ran a single issue campaign on Trump. When Russet Perry’s opponent (Juan Pablo Segura) attacks her on crime, she remains silent. It seems that Perry is so beholden to core constituencies in the Democrat Party that she may be too far to the left to win.

    “Democrat” Party, eh? 🤨

    I seem to remember your name from OTB blog comments (Outside The Beltway for those that don’t know) back in the day. You were a troll then

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    @superdestroyer: If that’s the case, that’s unfortunate.

    That race is absolutely swimming in money, so there’s not a thing we can do to contribute to the outcome – unless there are opportunities to write postcards or to phone bank or text bank for that campaign.

    Have you looked into those opportunities?  Maybe you can report back.

  22. 22.

    superdestroyer

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  Still did not address the question of whether Perry is running a bad campaign by focusing on a single issue and without addressing any other issue.

    In a public forum Perry brought up the issue that her opponent has only lived in the district a year.  Yet, that is not mentioned on TV or radio advertising.

  25. 25.

    superdestroyer

    @WaterGirl:  If the campaign is swimming in money, they why run the same TV ad over and over.  Her ad along with her opponent’s ads on crime are making local news or local programming impossible to watch.

    It also appears that Democrats in other districts are using the same strategy of making the general election a referendum on abortion while ignoring all other issues.

  26. 26.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl:

    If that’s the case, that’s unfortunate.

    It is not the case. The troll is just spouting the Republican party line and isn’t giving any indication of knowing anything about the race that couldn’t be found by skimming news headlines. (The Republican is “attacking” the Democrat on crime by running cookie-cutter ads with made up claims she’s in the pocket of Big “defund the police”, look at all the scary criminals, be afraid boogity boogity!)

  27. 27.

    superdestroyer

    @WaterGirl: All one has to do is read what is on Perry’s web page.

    In 2021, one of the issue in Loudoun County was the proposal to end AP/IB classes and force all students into the same track.  Instead of address the issue head on (and pissing off the teachers unions) Perry just uses some vague language that is in support of ending AP/IB classes.  One of the other issues was the sexual assaults of two students in Loudoun County Public High schools.  Yet, Perry just states that she wants safe schools with zero details.

    russetperry.com/on-the-issues

  31. 31.

    H.E.Wolf

    Reproductive freedom is a winning issue for Democrats: at least 20 elections/referenda have been victories for the pro-choice side, in the year since the Dobbs decision.

    Ms. Perry is running a savvy campaign by making reproductive choice her signature issue.

    I bet it really torques the jaws* of forced-birthers, too, which is a bonus. :-)

    * Hat tip to a former co-worker who was ex-Navy. He had a nice line in picturesque idioms, many of them uttered at top volume in staff meetings.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    @Redshift: Thanks, but I don’t need to pie people. Although, I  sometimes wish this site had a pi filter so I could screen out people making circular arguments.

    Overall, I have found the “Clear Comment” button to be a good friend. I think I probably don’t use it enough

    Ed.

  34. 34.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Alison Rose:

    Geminid probably means the commenter that says something stupid should use the delete button, I’m guessing

    ETA: or the Update Comment button, now. Delete used to be an option on WP for commenters

  37. 37.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Anyway, back on topic, I’ll be in for $25. I’ll donate when I get back from work tonight. Is that okay, Watergirl?

  40. 40.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl:

    SPOIL YOUNGKINS PRESIDENTIAL HOPES AND CAREER FOR ALL TIME.

    And as a bonus, stomp all over his Super Genius Plan for Republicans to stop losing on abortion, which consists of:

    1. Getting Republicans to agree on a 15-week ban and insisting it’s a “compromise,” and

    2. Making up lies about Democratic positions to claim they’re the real extremists

    #1 will fail because post-Dobbs has made clear that every “compromise” proposal is a stepping stone to further restrictions, and his fellow state Goopers can’t stop themselves from opening their mouths and admitting it.

    And conservatives have been running #2 forever, and it hasn’t worked yet. Youngkin’s only innovation is to throw even more money at it.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    If I haven’t responded to your “donation” comment, that means I missed it by accident.  Please bring it to my attention if i have.

    Also, if anyone is annoyed by a troll on a VA fundraising thread, please feel free to make a statement about that by making a $5 donation that you hadn’t intended to make. :-)

  44. 44.

    Redshift

    @Geminid: Sure, it’s your choice. Personally, I find the pie filter convenient for trolls who don’t say anything interesting; I don’t need to read regurgitated GOP talking points. If they’re not putting any effort into it, I’m going to save myself the effort of noticing it’s a troll and ignoring it.

  45. 45.

    Alison Rose

    @Dagaetch: I’ve been gently nudging my mom toward getting a kitty. After my father passed in February, it was really difficult for her to get used to living alone. She thought for a while about getting a dog, because she adores dachshunds but hasn’t had one since I was very young. But she said when she thought more about it, she wasn’t sure if she was up to caring for a dog, having to do walks in all kinds of weather and such. So I said, “Welllllll you know, a kitty is a lot less work” and she made some semi-committal mouth noises. Maybe I’ll send her that article. I think she would like having a little companion, especially one that doesn’t need to be walked when it’s hot or cold or rainy.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @Dagaetch

    : Final Push for our 2 Virginia House Candidates!

    “I bought three ears of corn and a cantaloupe that came to $2.99, and they agreed that an extra penny should cover the cost of taking the kitty,” she added.

    Super dusty in here.

  52. 52.

    Trucmat

    I just donated $50 to split between the two candidates. This site provides a lot for nothing and obviously you all aren’t in it for the money. I don’t usually see much point in sending my own money so I really appreciate the explanation of your rationale for choosing these races. Also thanks to the person that is matching donations.

  62. 62.

    BlueGuitarist

    In for 25 for this match, thanks angel and WaterGirl, and BJ peeps.

    Having done some Ohio postcards, I’m going to write a few more for Virginia.

    Virginia is for voters!

    As Mousebumples said, you can get addresses from Postcards to Voters for Kim Adams

    postcardstovoters.org/

    Also addresses available from Postcards4VA as MazeDancer has pointed out previously for 25 candidates including Kim Adams and Michael Feggans

    Postcards4VA/

    Also Virtual Phonebanking opportunities:

    for Michael Feggans Today, 5-8  mobilize.us/michaelfeggansfordelegate/event/583076/

    for Michael Feggans Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6-8  mobilize.us/michaelfeggansfordelegate/event/561062/

    for Kimberly Pope Adams: today and Wednesday Oct 25, 6-8 pm  mobilize.us/mobilize/event/583683/

    Candidate websites vary in how easily you can find this kind of information. You can find some opportunities by going straight to searching at mobilize.us

    mobilize.us/

  70. 70.

    Czar Chasm

    At this stage, money and strategy are focused on GOTV:  Mailings, texts, ads & robocalls.  There are industries built around just these items, & none of them are cheap.  As an example:  In my local campaign, just 759 postcards are $1000, and that’s a scaled-back version of my original plan (it was going to be 1500, but I don’t have enough scratch for it).

     

    The Republican dark money is also going to local races.  County supervisor races this cycle, which normally have $5-6 grand spent on them, are being bankrolled to the tune of $20-25 thousand.  I’d more afraid if they weren’t also pulling stupid stunts in the past week, being high on their own supply.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: I do so love to see how various people choose the details of their donations.

    Some like to have an odd number, and then someone comes along and makes it even again.  Not an accident!

    Right now it’s $22,222 and I know that’s not an accident, either!

    💕 to all who are donating to our candidates in VA, and to all who have donated.

  74. 74.

    There go two miscreants

    In for $100 again. Happy to take advantage of the matches!

    Posts like this, or just reminder posts w/o a match, are soooooo much better than the nagging emails from various Dem party sources. Those are getting irritating. I am happy with the more targeted approach that Balloon Juice is taking.

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