Posted By TomInReston on August 2, 2010
The new chair of the Fairfax County Board of Elections is none other than Hans A. von Spakowski, and that means that a critical battle is about to be joined.
For those who don’t know this guy, here is a bit from his bio at the Heritage Foundation Web site:
Before joining Heritage in 2008, he served two years as a member of the Federal Election Commission, the authority charged with enforcing campaign finance laws for congressional and presidential elections, including public funding.
Previously, von Spakovsky worked at the Justice Department as counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights, providing expertise in enforcing the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
A former litigator, in-house counsel and senior corporate officer in the insurance industry, von Spakovsky worked on tort reform and civil justice issues there for more than a decade.
He also has served on the Board of Advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and on the Fulton County (Ga.) Board of Registrations and Elections. He is a member of the Fairfax County (Va.) Electoral Board and the Virginia Advisory Board to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
What that doesn’t tell you is that his specialty is figuring out innovative ways to prevent minorities from voting. He was one of those behind the “caging” activities in the Bush administration that attempted to have hundreds of thousands of legitimate voters purged from voter rolls and then challenged when they came to vote.
It’s going to be a tough few elections ahead.
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Posted By TomInReston on December 19, 2009
A year ago, I had hope.
Not that drink the kool-aid “Yes we can!” kind of hope, but a belief that those who asked me to work for them, asked for my money, asked me to stand outside a polling place all day in the cold February wind or stand in the hot August sun handing out walk sheets before knocking on a hundred or so doors myself, held the same fundamental beliefs I hold.
I emphatically did NOT expect to agree with everything they did or do. I’m probably the only person on earth who agrees with me all the time, and I wouldn’t wager that will always be the case. In truth, I hold a rather eclectic set of beliefs I’d not expect anyone to match entirely.
But I believe the present majority in the House of Representatives, the present majority in the Senate and the present occupant of the White House have either abandoned the principles of the Democratic Party for which I have worked (the principles, not the party), or never held them in the first place. In truth, the principles they demonstrate are just marginally better than those I despised in the first eight years of this decade.
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Posted By TomInReston on December 18, 2009
Tomorrow will be the second weeked out of three that I’ve been going door-to-door in a snow storm for a Democtratic state senate candidate in a special election in a district that’s not even my own.
I have no idea how many hours I put in during the past general election campaign here in Virginia, and don’t even ask me about 2008. Let’s just say I had to get reacquainted with family and friends afterward. In fact, for the past six or seven years, I’ve done little but work and politics.
So here I am — and what have I got?
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Posted By TomInReston on November 4, 2009
It’s morning on the day after a very tough election night. I’m exhausted and yet convinced that I — and all the volunteers who worked on Dem campaigns — left little or nothing on the table. Virginia Republicans have every right to crow this morning. They handed us our behinds — gift wrapped.
Kos’ analysis is spot on, but it’s only part of the story. Given a choice between Republicans and Democrats who seem to be humane versions of Republicans (and who they suspect are really true Dems just posing for votes), voters tend to choose Republicans, at least here in Virginia.
But there is more to it.
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Posted By TomInReston on July 3, 2009
From Nate Silver at 538.com, talking about the Senate and health care:
The insurance industry’s influence appears to swing about 9 votes against the public option. Whatever number of senators wind up supporting the public option, add 9 to it, and you’ll have a decent ballpark estimate for what the level of support might be if not for insurance industry contributions…
The single senator who’s position on the public option is most likely to have been changed by lobbying money is Mark Warner of Virginia, who has already raised $69,000 from insurance industry PACs in spite of having been in the Senate for less than six months. Absent industry money, the model estimates about a two-thirds likelihood that Warner would support the public option; with it, the model thinks the chances are very low. Indeed Warner has been mum on the public option to date.
Ranking next on the list is Harry Reid, who has taken some $78,800 from insurance industry PACs and who has also yet to articulate a position on the public option in spite of his status as Majority Leader. If the model is right, Reid’s noncommittal stance on the issue might be better conceived of as tacit, if somewhat soft, opposition. Following Reid is Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who has floated a compromise bill that would replace the public option with a co-op system, a version of which the Senate Finance Committee appears likely to adopt.
$69,000. In six months. No public option. No connection? Wanna bet?
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