Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Running Hard for the State House--And Maybe a Chance Now

Michael Abraham on the campaign trail.
My pal Michael Abraham, who is running against an incumbent Republican for the Virginia House of Delegates (Montgomery County) has gone, I think, from a guy with a snowball's chance in hell of taking the seat to one with a snowball's chance in heck.

Michael, an outspoken liberal in a district that is something else, could well benefit from both the sudden revulsion of anything Republicans and a statewide ticket that could well be a sweep. It is increasingly looking like the Repubs' 2-1 margin in the House will shrink significantly. Michael could benefit because his opponent is colorless, clueless, thoughtless and comfy with his corporate donations.

Here's Michael's take in a facebook post:

"Speaking of crap tons of money, let me tell you what it's really like out there. I'm running for the Virginia House of Delegates, 7th district. My opponent is a one-term incumbent who ran unopposed in his first race. So it was just handed to him. This time, I decided to challenge him.
Virginia has no caps on what can be given or from whom. but it must be reported and it is displayed for all to see at www.vpap.org

 
"Last time I looked at the top 25 donors,, all my opponent's money came from corporations, PACs, organizations, or special interest groups and all of it came from outside our district. All of it! All of my top 25 were people. Real, breathing people (as opposed to corporations, which are people my friend, according to some). He will outspend me 3-1 or more. I am not in anybody's pocket. But I can't work for the people if I can't win.

 
"Would I like to have some of his money? Sure. I need to compete. Much of his money came to him solely because he is an incumbent. Many organizations apparently have a vested interest in the status quo. But the system is broken. Badly. And this is just the money side of things. We haven't even begun speaking about gerrymandering and voter suppression. 

 
"Let's start committing ourselves to elected officials who will fix this. 

 
"Thank you. Now then, back to campaigning. Less than two weeks left."

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