Weekly Recap: Sen. Chase kicked out of GOP county party, VA Republicans say their party is in shambles…
Chesterfield GOP kicks Sen. Amanda Chase out of the county party (Richmond)
The Chesterfield County GOP notified hometown state Sen. Amanda Chase on Monday that she was being kicked out of the local party following a series of controversies that upset other Republicans, including public attacks by Chase on Republican Sheriff Karl Leonard.
Chesterfield GOP Chairwoman Tara Carroll sent a letter to Chase on Monday saying that her refusal to adhere to requests the party made in a letter on Friday triggered Chase’s automatic removal.
The action is mostly symbolic. Chase remains the Republican nominee on the Nov. 5 ballot against Democrat Amanda Pohl, but can no longer be a voting member of her local Republican unit.
“We are disappointed that you have chosen not to take the required remedial actions outlined in our letter sent last Friday, Sept. 27, which notified you of the provisions of the Party Plan that trigger the automatic loss of your membership unless you disavowed the use of your name in support of, and ceased your in-kind contribution to, a candidate running against our Republican nominee for sheriff,” Carroll wrote to Chase.
Chase defended herself Monday in a telephone interview, saying Leonard opened up a quarrel with her, and she doubled down on questioning his Republican credentials.
“I will not back down,” she said.
The Friday letter told Chase there was a requirement that no member of the Republican committee publicly support any candidate running against a Republican nominee. Leonard faces independent candidate Rahn Kersey, a retired sergeant with the Virginia Division of Capitol Police.
The letter said Chase promoted Kersey’s candidacy through Facebook and public statements, including a comment from Chase in a Chesterfield Observer news story in which she said Kersey was “more of a Republican” than Leonard.
Chase was told to stop supporting — or appearing to support — the independent candidate, the letter continued, saying Chase “recently escalated the situation by introducing the independent candidate for sheriff to numerous people at a public event and by launching a social media attack campaign against our Republican nominee, Sheriff Leonard. These are actions that the Republican Party will not condone.”
On Thursday, Chase made a post on Facebook saying Leonard supported so-called sanctuary cities, a claim Leonard denounced as a lie.
The Friday letter to Chase made several requests of her, asking her to “take corrective action so we can resolve the matter privately and avoid public action.”
That included a request for her to remove posts from her Facebook page attacking Leonard, and a request for her to make clear she was not supporting the independent candidate.
“Please know that there are many members displeased by the current state of affairs,” the letter said.
The follow-up letter on Monday was shorter.
“Since you chose not to take advantage of this opportunity to remain a member of the committee, the loss of membership is automatic and now in effect,” it said, in part.
In the interview Monday, Chase said Kersey endorsed her, and her campaign paid to boost a Facebook post with an image of her alongside him. But she said Kersey was endorsing her, not the other way around.
Chase said that following coverage of a police report about an incident she had in March with a Capitol Police officer, she welcomed support from someone who had worked for the Capitol Police. That report said Chase cursed at the officer while demanding to park in a secure area, causing a traffic backup at the Capitol.
“We want people to know that I have a sergeant with the Capitol Police who’s endorsing me,” she said.
She said Leonard began the feud with her, saying he “made the first step on not endorsing me.”
Chase was referring to a Facebook post Leonard made this spring after Chase posted a photo of herself at an event with Chesterfield sheriff’s deputies.
“I want to make it very clear that the below photo is not an endorsement of Senator Chase by the Chesterfield Sheriff’s Office or myself,” Leonard wrote. “I will always stand behind the men and women of law enforcement who selflessly serve our communities.”
Chase put in another good word for Kersey in the interview on Monday, saying he is a “great Republican” and conservative Christian who opposes “sanctuary cities.”
She said she plans to “conduct a thorough investigation” of immigration policy in Leonard’s office.
Leonard said in a phone interview Monday: “That’s all part of her distraction technique.”
“On life support” — Virginia Republicans say their state party is in shambles (DPVA)
A month out from Election Day, Republicans in competitive districts admit the state GOP has no money, infrastructure to help them
RICHMOND, VA — With just over a month to go until November 5, the Republican majority in the General Assembly is in serious trouble. Republicans across the Commonwealth are being consistently out-raised and out-worked by their Democratic opponents. As their ship is sinking, a few Republicans are candidly admitting that their state party organization is a complete mess.
This week Senators Bryce Reeves and Amanda Chase have gone on the record to criticize the Republican Party of Virginia as a cash-strapped ineffective organization doing nothing to help them win their tough races.
“We’re all kind of on our own,” said Reeves during a radio interview on Monday. “Our party in the Commonwealth is not functioning at 100%. We’re on life support.”
Chase made the same point in an interview yesterday. “They’re bankrupt,” she said of the state Republican Party. “They don’t have any money. They have very little organization in place.”
Recent fundraising reports show Reeves and Chase aren’t exaggerating. The last time the state Republican Party reported its finances, they had less than $2,000 in the bank and raised just $36,385 compared to the DPVA’s $692,282. Without support from the state party, Republican candidates in competitive races are also falling behind. September fundraising reports showed Democratic House of Delegates candidates with a $1 million cash advantage.
“Just like a Trump business venture, the Republican Party of Virginia is tanking fast. Virginia Republicans agree that their do-nothing state party is going to sink their chances of winning key races this year. They’ve completely given up on fundraising, are getting out-worked in every district by our volunteers, and now their own members are admitting they’ve been left for dead,” said DPVA Press Secretary Grant Fox.
These five freshman congresswomen changed history by becoming unlikely leaders on impeachment (CNN)
When a group of moderate House freshmen Democrats moved from hard no to hell yes on starting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, they changed the dynamic for House Democrats, and indeed — the course of history.
The reason they made their announcement and explained their reasoning as a group, in an op-ed in The Washington Post, is because they had already formed a bond over their national security background — especially the five women: Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, both ex-CIA officers; Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania who was in the Air Force; Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia were Naval officers.
They met on the 2018 campaign trail as first time candidates who kept bumping into each other at events with mutual donors and supporters.
When they got to talking, these five would-be congresswomen realized that they had a lot in common, despite being from different parts of the country: they all had careers in national security they were trying to parlay into elected office.
They became fast friends, and called themselves the “badasses.”
“I think badasses kind of came organically from the group since we all had either served in the military or in the CIA,” Houlahan said.
They are now a band of sisters who bonded while storming the unfamiliar terrain of politics.
“Being able to text folks and say, ‘you know, I’m really getting hit up on this issue, how have you been handling it?’ ‘I’m not sure how to translate my service into something that’s relatable. How do you guys do that?’” Slotkin said she frequently asked the others.
“We have a lot in common,” said Spanberger. “We all were working to flip seats to be elected in places where voters may not typically vote for people like us or with our backgrounds.”
Making their mark in an unlikely way: impeachment
When we first talked in mid-September, none of the five congresswomen women supported an impeachment inquiry. Then, after hearing Trump admit that he spoke to Ukraine’s leader about Joe Biden, a potential 2020 political rival, they changed their minds. There is no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe or Hunter Biden, and Trump himself has denied any wrongdoing.
“Having the sitting President of the United States, use leverage over a foreign leader to get dirt on an opponent,” Slotkin said. “That very basic idea, I think cut for us, as national security people, just close to the bone.”
The op-ed the women penned, along with Gil Cisneros and Jason Crow, two freshmen male veterans, opened the floodgates for others who had been resistant, and gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi critical political cover as she announced a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday.
They say it was all for one, and one for all.
“A great example of the power of teamwork,” Houlahan said.
“I think we all sort of came to that conclusion together,” Sherrill said. “We text each other as you know, and I think we were all going, okay, I think this has all changed. This is a bright line.”
Still, it was a big leap for people still trying to find their sea legs in politics.
“I’m supervising the operation nuclear reactor,” Luria recalls of her time before being in office. “I never turned the reactor operator and said, are you a Democrat or Republican?”
“It was new to jump into such a partisan environment,” she added.
To read the full article, click here.
Democrats’ push to win Virginia legislature could mean Fairfax County goes all blue (Washington Post)
A broad Democratic push to win control of Virginia’s General Assembly is affecting local elections in Fairfax County, with left-leaning groups trying to flip the last two GOP-held seats on the Board of Supervisors.
Virginia’s largest jurisdiction has not been governed by just one party in at least four decades, according to election records dating to the mid-1960s. An all-blue board would punctuate the county’s decades-long shift from a swing jurisdiction to one that is strongly Democratic and, activists say, open the door for Fairfax to become Virginia’s leading voice on liberal issues.
With President Trump deeply unpopular in Fairfax, and with union and gun-control activists blanketing parts of the region to support Democrats in key state legislative races, political analysts say it is getting harder for any Republicans to win in the county of 1.1 million residents.
To read the full story, click here.
Flip VA Blue with Senator Warner Event
An enthusiastic audience (including Hemingway) was excited to hear from Senator Mark Warner and Ghazala Hashmi at our Flip VA fundraiser last week. The energy to flip the General Assembly was through the roof!
Democrats are fighting hard in races up and down the ballot this year!
Chairwoman Susan Swecker joined Kannan Srinivasan and Phyllis Randall at an event in Loudoun County earlier this week.
Volunteer Spotlights
Thank you to all of the amazing volunteers out knocking doors, making calls, and talking to voters — we couldn’t do it without you!
New merchandise now available on the DPVA web-store!
Shop the Every Election Matters and more merchandise at store.vademocrats.org.
Upcoming Events
To get your event added to the DPVA website and the newsletter, email digital@vademocrats.org with event details!
10/2 Daily Canvass for Boysko, Suhas and Gooditis
10/3 Richmond City Democratic Committee Meeting
10/5 Suhas Subramanyam and John Bell South Riding Canvass!
10/5 Amelia County Democratic Committee Annual Fish Fry
10/5 Norfolk Democratic Committee Monthly Breakfast Meeting
10/5 Moms Demand Action Canvass for Del. Bell & Suhas Subramanyam
10/5 Saturday Canvass for Jennifer Caroll Foy
10/5 Saturday Manassas Door-Knocking for Lee Carter and other Democrats
10/5 Bayview Meet and Greet with Phil Hernandez
10/8 Debra Rodman and Rodney Willett Meet and Greet in Tuckahoe
10/16 Norfolk Democratic Committee Monthly Business Meeting
11/2 Norfolk Democratic Committee Monthly Breakfast Meeting
11/20 Norfolk Democratic Committee Monthly Business Meeting
12/7 Norfolk Democratic Committee Monthly Breakfast Meeting
12/13 Norfolk Democratic Committee Annual Holiday Reception/Legislative Sendoff
There are also hundreds of events easily searchable across the Commonwealth on our Mobilize page — link below!
