Peter Schmidt announces candidacy for 82nd House district
By Joel McDonald • Jan 10th, 2009 • Category: Blog, Lead Story
Peter Schmidt, president and vice president of two firms that provide materials used in the manufacturing of concrete products, announced his candidacy for the 82nd House district this morning at the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee breakfast at Mom’s Kitchen in Virginia Beach.
This is Schmidt’s second attempt at running for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. He ran in 2005 as a Republican and lost to current Delegate Bob Purkey in the primary race. His announcement at the VBDC and his appearance at events such as the December reception for Brian Moran indicates that he’s running as a Democrat this time around. He could face primary challengers for the Democratic nomination.
Schmidt served on the Virginia Beach City Council from 2002 to 2006, and did not seek reelection. He also is the fomer director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and Co-Chair of the Virginia Beach Green Ribbon Committee.
Schmidt explained that he’s decided to run against Purkey, a 23 year veteran of the Virginia House of Delegates, now due to his belief that Purkey is vulnerable due to current political shifts, even if the 82nd is a difficult district for Democratic candidates. He’s also pushing the idea of having a Democratic majority for the delegates representing Virginia Beach in connection with the party’s plans to pick up six seats in the House to form a statewide Democratic majority.
Related posts:
- Peter Schmidt launches campaign in Virginia Beach
- Peter Schmidt: The Bipartisan Progressive
- Peter Schmidt’s new ad
- Del. Purkey asleep at the wheel
- Bill Fleming Running Grassroots Campaign for the 8th Senate District
Joel McDonald has been following Virginia politics since February 2008, starting with the Democratic Presidential Primary. Since then, he has been the primary new media contact for progressive district and statewide campaigns.
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How repugnant! A REPUG running as a dem to unseat the loser he couldn’t even beat in the other party’s primary 4 yrs ago.
What the hell is going on the the Democratic party? Haven’t we learned our lessons from running ideologically weak candidates? I guess not.
Please tell me we are going to have a primary challenger. PLEASE!
This is typical for the House Democratic Caucus. They already have one Gilmore department head (Marsden was head of Juv. Justice under Gilmore). Why not two?
As I have been saying since 2005- when does this stop?
Schmidt is a moderate voice whom I think might gain some traction with voters in the 82nd, which is seen as being pretty conservative. The Democrats are up against a House veteran here, and the district has been putting a check next to his name for so long, it probably is second nature by now. The reaction from those attending the breakfast, including House members Bobby Mathieson and Joe Bouchard were very warm. It looks like he has their backing.