The Richmond-based Virginia League of Conservation Voters indicated Tuesday that its PAC has launched a $2 million field campaign in support of Democratic candidates on the 2025 state ballot.
None of that money is going to the Dems running in our part of the Shenandoah Valley.
Shocker!
I wrote about this issue last week – about how Democratic activists are crowing about fielding candidates in every House of Delegates race, making Republican incumbents in safe districts in the Valley, Southwest and Southside at least have to defend their home bases, but our side isn’t supporting the candidates in the tougher-for-Democrats races, like the ones representing the Augusta and Rockingham areas.
ICYMI
The LCV is actively involved in backing 56 Democratic House candidates – 46 incumbents and 10 challengers.
Two – Katrina Callsen and Amy Laufer, in Charlottesville-Albemarle – are unopposed, and don’t need any help.
A third, Sam Rasoul, down in Roanoke, is facing a third-party challenger, and the reason a Republican isn’t challenging him is, he beat the last R challenger by nearly 30 points, back in 2021.
I’m not going to pore through the list of the others getting LCV help, but I’m assuming there are others on the list who don’t need help any more than Callsen, Laufer and Rasoul.
Whereas we have Makayla Venable in House District 36, which encompasses Staunton and Waynesboro, and parts of Augusta and Rockbridge, Jena Lisa Crisler, in HD 35, which goes from Rockingham through Augusta into Highland and Bath, and Andrew Payton, in the 34th, which is Harrisonburg and the western half of Rockingham, getting bupkus.
Tell us you don’t give a sh*t about us without telling us you don’t give a sh*t about us, right?
Anyway, the LCV folks gave us a quote in the press release touting whatever they think they’re accomplishing here.
“Virginians want leadership who will work to lower household energy costs, cut harmful pollution, and hold big corporations accountable for making our air and water dirtier instead of giving them a free pass,” said Michael Town, the LCV’s executive director. “A Spanberger administration working with a conservation majority at the General Assembly will get this done, and we’re committed to doing everything we can to win this fall and secure a clean, affordable energy future for the Commonwealth.”
We’ve gotta do more than put token candidates on the ballot and act like that’s reaching out to rural voters.
This is embarrassing.