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As
scheduled, Democrat Bruce Elder announced on
Saturday morning his candidacy for the 20th District
seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. The Blue
Dog's first thought: The bandstand on Memorial Day
weekend? These guys are brilliant. As H.L. Mencken
wrote, "The cynics are right nine times out of
10."
Saturday
is the worse press day of the week. On top of that,
Elder used the Gypsy Hill bandstand that George
Allen and Mark Warner couldn't fill. Like I said,
"Brilliant."
But
the unpredictable and impulsive local media was more
than attentive Saturday, as were the local Democrats
gathered for the announcement. The Blue Dog counted
50 faithful Valley Democrats, supporters and
onlookers for Elder's announcement.
Over
the holiday weekend, my friend the Valley Yellow Dog
had sent note to the Blue Dog, "Sorry to miss
the opportunity, but we are out of town that day. Be
nice to Bruce - he is a Democrat, after all."
Note
to Yellow Dog: Please bring large stick to beat the
Blue Dog at next our next luncheon meeting in
Staunton, or at the least, make him play doggie
fetch the stick for 30-minutes. The Blue Dog will
admit, it was not a bad effort by Bruce Elder.
Notable
local Democrats in attendance were Salome Baugher,
chair of the Staunton Democratic Committee and the
20th District Legislative House Caucus; Tom Long of
the Augusta County Education Association; David Cox,
24th District House of Delegates Democratic
candidate; Tracey Pyles, a member of the Augusta
County Board of Supervisors; Rita Wilson, a member
of Staunton City Council, Sherry Stanley, the Howard
Dean for President State petition-drive coordinator
and former Green Party challenger to 25th House
District Del. Steve Landes; and members of the
Virginia Public Service Workers Union, UE Local 160.
Who
ever said Valley government stiffs and slack-jawed
yokels don't mix? Ha ha, only somewhat serious,
surely I do jest. But hardly noticeable at first ...
were the locals who were missing in action, rather
than those attending the event, that alerted the
Blue Dog. Is the Dog's keen sense of smell for the
politically obvious, or was the political hat
tipped?
Last
week, Yellow Dog had said, "If your Red Dog
friend is still betting on what will happen in the
20th, take his money. Save some for me. And
remember, 'Taxes are the price we pay for
civilization.' Of course, there is another way:
deficit spending."
Blue
Dog note: "If you can dream it, Yellow Dog
Democrats can tax it."
Blue-collar
blues
Why
were representatives from the UE Local 160, Virginia
Public Service Workers Union, there to support Bruce
Elder's candidacy for the House of Delegates? Two
union members held their banner proudly next to the
bandstand as Elder spoke.
Union
field organizer George Waksmunski told the Blue Dog,
"I'm out here because I represent working
people, and I believe Bruce understands the plight
of working people, and he's going to represent
us."
Another
local union member, Tammy Kincaid, commented,
"I'm a member of UE 160. We support collective
bargaining in the state of Virginia. Collective
bargaining is one of the issues we will bring to the
public in the next year or so. ... In order to get
legislation passed so that we can have collective
bargaining for state employees in Virginia, we whole
heartily support Mr. Bruce Elder."
Touching.
But will candidate Bruce Elder wear the union
label?
Salome
Baugher handled the candidate introduction with
polish and poise, saying, "Sixteen years ago,
Bruce moved to Rockingham, active in his community
and in civic affairs. Today we thank him for
agreeing to become even more involved in democracy,
and the process."
She
stated that the Democratic candidacy was a
"huge commitment" and that Elder
"believes in grassroots democracy" and
"is a man who will take public service
seriously."
Just
for the record: Elder was born in Boston and moved
to the Valley from New Hampshire in 1989 to set up
antique-car business and raise his family. On the
other hand, Saxman was born in Pittsburgh and moved
to the Valley when he was nine. He's a graduate of
Staunton's R.E. Lee High in 1983 and Washington
& Lee University in 1987.
In
his announcement speech, Elder said he was
"truly humbled by the attendees [who were] an
inspiration to me. Spend this weekend each year to
celebrate freedom, and reflect on sacrifice of those
who gave everything for an idea."
Remembering
Memorial Day, Elders paid homage to our nation's
fallen war heroes. He said Virginians should
"not to back away from our
responsibilities," because our forbearers
"risk everything for an idea."
"We
face challenges in health care, education,
transportation and economic development. The real
question is whether we solve these problems now, or
pass them on to our children. The answer is an easy
one for Virginia. We must work together to leave
this Valley better for us being here, after all, our
ancestors confronted far tougher problems and found
the courage to heal them."
Elder
had a good message about responsibility and
accountability of government. And it's good to
remember the memory of our fallen soldiers, although
I don't necessarily agree with his patriotic linkage
to state funding for health care, education,
transportation and economic development.
Sorry,
Bruce, but you lost the Dog's attention there.
Democratic
Barbarians at the Valley Gate?
There's
no political leveraged buyout yet. At this time,
Elder has no campaign manager. But he does have a
campaign Web page,
and I hesitated to mention the Dan Quayle moments I
discovered... Sorry, I'm dogressing about using
spellcheck. Rest assured, it's a trivial matter, and
the errors have been fixed. Yet I fully expected
Valley Democrats to demand a new leash law for the
Blue Dog on the pages of the AFP.
The
Blue Dog did advise Elder to insert a campaign
acknowledgement on the Web site, i.e.
"Authorized and paid for by Elder for
Delegate," and sent him the Virginia stand by
your ad Web link as well. (Yellow Dog note:
"You see, the Blue Dog can be a nice
doggie.")
For
the record: The media allows Dems to make those
kinds of errors because they are focused on much
larger and important social issues. When 'Pubs do
it, they are blasted for being unworthy of the
intelligentsia's blessing.
Did
Mahatma Gandhi run for the Virginia House of
Delegates, or am I barking up the wrong karma tree
again? Because Elder's Web site features a quote by
Mahatma Gandhi. Blue Dog advice: Bruce, for every
penny you throw away here and there on Web pages and
such, these efforts really never come back to pay
the nickel or dime political admission to the big
show at the General Assembly. Only the hard work of
knocking on thousands of doors in the district and
spending endless hours talking about the issues
one-to-one will do the trick. Money is nice, but
there's no tradeoff for old-fashioned campaigning.
Later
that same morning, the Blue Dog also questioned
David Cox about his House of Delegates campaign in
the 24th District against Ben Cline. Cox was a tad
removed from his district and campaign.
Doth
thee Democratic candidate protest too much? The
wiseth candidate, Cox, doth sayeth unto thee Blue
Dog, "Things are just great. We've got lots of
enthusiasm, lots of ideas, people are responding
wonderfully."
Cox,
a retired Episcopalian minister from the city of
Lexington, went on to say, "We had a tremendous
parade at the Effinger Volunteer Fire Co. Firemen's
Carnival last night, we had loads of people, loads
of fun, and I think what we are conveying is that
not only are we the party of ideas. We are also the
party of the people and we are going to have fun.
"Not
only are we going to win, we are going to have fun
doing it. And that's important."
Cox
is very enthusiastic about his upcoming campaign,
and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to meet him.
He's extremely optimistic and a kind-hearted fellow
who came out to support his fellow Democrat on the
Memorial Day holiday weekend. Hopefully, the
experience of running for office doesn't politically
jade him like it did the Blue Dog.
Cox
commented on the Bruce Elder campaign, saying,
"We're thrilled that Bruce is running. We need
more people like him in the legislature. People that
have experience of life among the common people, you
know he did a great job of building a business from
nothing.
"He's
an artist of cars, but I think more than that, he
really understands life from the perspective of
where people are living."
While
at the podium, Elder talked frankly about his
candidacy: "I stand here before you, a
reluctant candidate. I did not seek this job out and
have no political career ambitions. My fellow
citizens approached me and appealed to my sense of
responsibility."
Elder
said, "I wondered if we could win. But I
wondered if we could make a difference. Months of
study have convinced me that with your support, we
can do both.
"The
campaign we are launching is akin to pitting a
lemonade stand against Pepsi Cola. We are up against
wealth and power and privilege.
"We
are up against people that wish to reduce us to red
and blue. They want to reduce us to demographics and
poll numbers. I ask you today to vote for your
hopes, and not for your fears."
Ouch!
The Blue Dog says arguments over wealth, power and
privilege are classic Democratic class warfare.
Please don't go there, Bruce! The Blue Dog says both
Elder and Saxman are hard-working, blue-collar
politicians.
Short
takes
With
the local press fawning over an uncomfortable
candidate, I waited my turn to question him.
Several
weeks ago, I noted that Elder had turned down a TV
interview. Who does that while running for office?
Last weekend, I met Elder for the first time at the
Equality Virginia event, and he's just learning how
to handle the media ... ever so slowly.
Regardless,
he is a nice, likable and very tall fellow. He's
going to do just fine. But the Blue Dog really
wanted to know where Elder stood politically - after
all, the flowering Deaniacs (Howard Dean cultists)
were in full bloom in the Staunton park that
morning. I wanted to gauge Elder politically by his
support for president in the 2004 Democratic
primary.
And
I soon satisfyingly discovered, like the Blue Dog,
Elder was a supporter of Wes Clark's presidential
primary candidacy. Elder is also is a future
supporter of Evan Bayh potential candidacy for
president. Bruce had also read that I was an Evan
Bayh fan within the pages of the AFP Blue Dog Tales.
Elder
said, "His dad, Birch Bayh, was a hero of
mine."
Blue
Dog note: Evan Bayh's father was the legislative
originator for the 1970s Equal Rights Amendment for
women, which didn't exactly pass the 50-state
constitutional smell test, but we both agreed on the
son's potential and the possibilities.
"I
really think Evan Bayh is a remarkable guy. I think
he and Barak Obama are the future of the Democratic
Party," commented Elder.
In
that case, does that make Bruce Elder a
moderate-to-conservative politician? After all,
Democrats in Indiana put forth a resolution to call
for impeaching Bayh because he voted Bush's war,
taxes and whatever else they didn't support.
Elder
commented on where he stood politically: "Being
a self-employed person, from that standpoint, in
order for a business to survive, you need to be
careful with money. I have an unusual business, so I
haven't been able to have the banks throw money at
the venture. You have to be well-centered individual
for this kind of thing."
Losing
my Religion
Lately,
the Blue Dog's e-mail box has been way too inside
politics for the public's limited grasp of
Virginia's political reality. I take much as gospel
truth, and the rest is deleted as demented e-mail
and spam. Sometimes I filed the stuff away on the PC
as Virginia political fodder.
After
all, the 2005 Virginia election wedge issues are
gays, guns and god. Here's a sensitive topic: Please
don't be offended or alarmed. But the Blue Dog
requested comment from my Valley evangelical cheat
seats on the following statement about Elder in
order to debunk any urban legends, rumor mongering
and campaign mythmaking... Because over the past two
weeks, a number of Valley conservatives have
contacted the Blue Dog to say "there's no way a
'Democratic atheist' like Bruce Elder can win an
election in the Shenandoah Valley."
Bruce
laughed off the "Democratic atheist"
suggestion, but his tone turned serious soon after.
Elder told the Blue Dog: "I'm far from an
atheist, but I am from a place where we do not make
a person's religion an issue. That we know more talk
about religion than talk about how much money a
person is worth because it's considered deeply
impolite."
At
one time, the Blue Dog believed that only the
Republican press machine comforts itself with
stereotypical rubberstamps and labels, but I've seen
the light, so to speak, because there are plenty of
rude surprises from the Democratic left field as
well. After receiving mail from
Democrats claiming they have grown tired and annoyed
of "modern Republicans who were killers of
Christ's enemies" - and these "cynical
pursuers of the New Pharisees, the Christian
Right."
More
of the same e-mail arrived over the weekend stating:
I shudder to imagine Axe-man in the House of
Delegates for another term.... Goodbye to Valley
supporters of the Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell's
right-wing.... I would love to tell the Valley
fundamentalists and evangelicals that they should
love American values or move out, but who would want
to take them in?...
The
Blue Dog questioned, what is "annoyed enough
to sound like a modern Republican" mean? Err
... I meant to say, some modern Democrats are being
really mean.
Saxman
replied: "I have a very strong record of
accomplishment for the 20th District. I look forward
to running on it. I would again caution the liberal
Democrats to refrain from the personal attacks that
they are leveling against me and my family. ... The
only way we move the Commonwealth forward is through
vigorous debate based on the facts."
--
June 6, 2005
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