A chance for us Dems to gain traction
The fight over the reassessments in Augusta County that I and many others here locally think are out of whack with economic reality isn’t about partisan politics. That’s what we keep hearing, anyway.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you ask me. Because the reason this isn’t about partisan politics is that we Democrats aren’t doing anything to make this about partisan politics.
Let’s analyze where we are with this situation right now. We’ve got on the one side six of the seven members of the Board of Supervisors, four of them Republicans, and a fifth a Republican-leaning independent, on the side of government banning petitions for redress from the county libraries and effectively shouting down any notion that there could be any real redress by claiming that their hands are tied by the State Code. And on the other side we’ve got the area’s lone elected Democrat saying, Whoa, hold on here for a second, this whole thing makes no sense.
Tracy Pyles’ stand should be something that local Democrats would respond to as manna falling from heaven, a chance for us to redefine ourselves locally much in the same way that Mark Warner has redefined the Democratic Party statewide in the same vein, as the party of fiscal discipline and management common sense.
I would think that the local candidates getting themselves organized for runs at the House of Delegates, for example, would be interested in tapping into what Pyles is doing for us. And not just because it would boost their own electoral chances in the fall. Think about it – if you’re thinking about running against Chris Saxman in the 20th or Ben Cline in the 24th or Steve Landes in the 25th, and from what I’m hearing at least two of those three will face viable challenges, don’t you want to have introduced yourself to the electorate by having taken a stand on behalf of the voters and taxpayers whose support you will be asking for in November?
And then there’s this – getting our candidates on the record on the issue would force Saxman, Cline and Landes to take their own stands. What would it be, then – backing their fellow Republicans on the Board, or bucking the local party and siding with Pyles? Either way, our side wins, and wins big on a potentially campaign-defining issue.
The local party structure could also stand to benefit. Let’s face it, we’ve been irrelevant here outside of Pyles since the dawn of the Reagan Democrat. Pyles is now in his fourth term representing Western Augusta on the Board of Supervisors. Outside of that, well, we almost put Lee Godfrey in the Beverley Manor seat in 2007, but almost means barely-old-enough-to-drink Republican Jeremy Shifflett is the Beverley Manor supervisor instead.
And that’s it, folks. We’re to a point where we’re just happy to be able to find a living, breathing, coherent candidate to run. And we’ve got to figure out a way to ramp up seriously from there to being a viable force on the local political scene again. The Republicans here are in disarray, and if you don’t believe me on that, look at their power structure right now. Love him or hate him, and most Dems decided early on that they hated him, former Augusta County GOP chair Kurt Michael built a social club into a party machine in the 2000s before running afoul of prominent elected Republicans including State Sen. Emmett Hanger and losing his bid for re-election last year.
The party that exists now post-Michael is a shadow of its former self. That’s one point to ponder. A second is looking out there in the public-seating area at Board of Supervisors meetings at who is out there to tell Board members to their faces that they’re upset about how the reassessments are being handled. We’re not talking about masses of latte-sipping liberals here. We’re talking about the GOP base.
In political-science circles, we call this a realignment in the making. The Reagan Democrats have been coming home in droves across Virginia and across the South in recent years. The movement hasn’t quite come to Augusta County, as evidenced by the fact that not even Mark Warner could win a majority in his Senate race against the discredited Jim Gilmore last fall, and Warner only won 128 of the state’s 134 localities in the ’08 election.
This is our chance to be relevant again, and it might be our last best chance for a while here.
And we’re letting it slip away.
If we do, shame on us.
- Column by Chris Graham
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[...] over the county Republican Party. The Augusta Free Press, an open Democrat advocate, calls this “A Chance for Us Dems to Gain Traction”. They have already cost taxpayers thousands of dollars, preach disobeying state law, and are [...]
I haven’t lived in the area long, but it’s hard for me to visualize our supervisors through a partisan lens. And when you think of protesting taxes, it seems the GOP is the brand you choose.
Even if the Democrats could grab the tax and assessment issue here, it doesn’t fit well with where the state and national party would be standing.
Some areas are solidly Democratic and some solidly Republican. Augusta stays solidly Republican, no matter who the assessment battle comes out.
“And when you think of protesting taxes, it seems the GOP is the brand you choose.”
Except in this case. The guy leading it here is a Democrat. A lone wolf Dem, sure, but the GOP has been crickets-chirping silent on this.
Wrong analysis Chris; since the beginning of your paper your liberal leanings have showed, but since your failed run for Waynesboro city council you seem to want to go deeper. One thing I have to say you have always stuck to you ideals.; As a Pastures District resident I have known Tracy Pyles since day one when he was voted in office. I as a strong conservative DO NOT consider him a liberal by any means. He may be a Democrat in name but if you look into his voting record and actions he would be considered an OLD SOUTHERN DEMOCRAT or in plain terms a CONSERVATIVE. He does not fall into the category of the new age liberal, socialist Democrats. There is a huge difference between the two. If you can convince the socialist Democrats of today to turn around and become OLD SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS then I am all for it, but to claim that Mark Warner is anything other than a tax and spend socialist is going to far. If it wasn’t for our liberal Emmit Hanger, Warner would have never pushed the largest tax increase this state has ever seen through.
As far as the rest of the bums on the Augusta County BOS the only reason they are Republicans is to ride the coat tails of the winning party. I know many of them from my campaign and I wouldn’t give you 2 cents for the lot of them. They are no more than the same crooked good old boys that these people keep voting in. I can tell you many stories about what goes on behind closed doors in this county and it isn’t very pretty. I have been fighting it since 2003 behind closed doors and one day it is going to bust open and many people that think they are untouchable are going to find themselves in deep trouble. It won’t be in local courts either. Just look into some of the drug busts in the Craigsville area. The only reason the sheriffs office knew anything about them is that they received a courtesy call when the Feds. were kicking in the door. Most of the defendants have gone away for a LOOOONG time in Federal Court in Charlottesville.
Interesting what one person can do when they know the right people.
I know SWACgirl.blogspot.com has been pushing this hard, and she’s a very good Republican. If the GOP “leaders” aren’t leading, then other rank-and-file Republicans will pick up the flag.
This column, to talk some inside baseball, was based on some conversations with good Republican friends of mine. That gets me in trouble with my Dem friends, I bet, that I even have good friends in the GOP. The Republican friends were telling me that a viable Democratic Party voice in local matters could make local government more responsive to the people. Right now, the party leadership in the GOP, which is run largely by the elected Republicans on the Board of Supervisors, can dictate from above instead of being dictated to from the ground. A Dem counterforce could change the alchemy a bit. My interest in the end is just good government.
And I love how I get defined as a liberal just because I’m also a Democrat. I’d love it people at least paid attention. Not all Republicans are Mussolini, and not all Democrats are Mao.
So the Republicans are saying if one party is too strong, it can be harmful to good government. Sounds like what I’m hearing from Republicans in Washington, too.
You’re not going to see me disagree on that general point. Republicans in Washington and Democrats in Augusta thus need to work harder and smarter to make themselves viable forces to provide an effective alternative viewpoint. Neither of the above is doing well to that end.
Tongue-in-both-cheeks:
Re “Not all Democrats are Mao.” You are correct.
Some are “Castro/Che”. Others are Brezhnev, Putin, Gorbachev, Tito, Kim-Mentally Ill Jong, Ortega, Hugo Chavez, and Morales.
Singing, “We’re having a party, swaying to the music” or “It’s my party and I’ll run it as I want to.”
An independent Democratic group is a rare as a White Rino and belongs on the Endangered Species List.
Good luck trying to break the hold of Kaine, Warner, Webb, Pelosi and Reid. Their reach is long and powerful.
I’ll remember this the next time you submit a column.
You’ll love my next column which takes on corrupt/crooked Democrats.
However, I have, in the past, ripped the Republicans for being cowards, stupid, blind, lemmings, leaderless, clueless, and just plain not with it.
There: I am back in the good graces of AFP? Remember Chris, I haven’t called you a socialist, marxist, or worse. You have explained your position very clearly and it is not any of those, and I don’t always disagree with you. It is just that I’m older than you and have seen what the far-left of the Democrat Party has done to this country from here in DC to Vietnam. I am the loyal opposition, but I will slay any “sacred cow” of either party if it starts destroying our country.
I take on any and all who are wrecking my country, at least in the areas of which I have knowledge and experience. Those are mainly leftist Democrats, not the rank and file “democrats”. However, it is the leadership who leads and they are the ones I aim at. There were damned few Republicans at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and those Democrats who were leaders, were up the Democratic Party’s rump and some still were as recently as the last election and immediate post-election period.
I don’t hear Obama demanding that Franklin Raines give back ANY of his $90 Millions that he got in bonuses for wrecking Fannie Mae. That would build some bridges, fix schools, book school books and hire more teacher, wouldn’t it?
If the CEOs of the large banks and investment companies who ripped off the investor with, bad judgment, inflated and unearned bonuses, and golden parachutes are being demanded to give much of these ill-gotten gains back, then I want ALL CEOs of quasi-govt entities who got bloated bonuses to give them back to the taxpayer.
The party affiliation is not relevant; their misdeeds are, and they should ALL pay. That’s my position and I’m sticking to it.
Looks like Jim Patrick up in Shenandoah is another anti-populist. Me, I think government has enough people doing its bidding for it. Somebody needs to stand up for the little guy for a change.