Bill Fleming Running Grassroots Campaign for the 8th Senate District
By Joel McDonald • Dec 31st, 2009 • Category: Blog, Lead Story
Heard of Bill Fleming? If you haven’t and live in the 8th Senate District in Virginia, you likely will soon.
Fleming is the Democratic candidate running for the seat to be vacated by Ken Stolle, who was elected as the next Sheriff of Virginia Beach. He’s running against Republican Jeff McWaters, who won the Republican nomination.
McWaters has had the time, money, and name recognition; however, Fleming believes that he can pull off a Democratic win in the district, which has been held by Stolle since 1991, by activating the the grassroots in Hampton Roads.
In his campaign launch on Monday, Bill said to his supporters, “I’m asking you for a little bit of your time over the next two weeks to help rally support.” Volunteers will be enthusiastically reaching out to voters for the next two weeks, right up to election day on January 12th.
Part of Fleming’s homepage reads:
In 2008, we came together and resolved to vote for change. Working together, we made history and elected Barack Obama as our President. We felt the power of our votes and it felt good. However, in the 2009 statewide elections, Virginians saw a different change, one moving us backward. That didn’t feel so good.
The Special Election on January 12 is the first of the New Year. As Democrats, this is our call to arms, our opportunity to champion change once again. Virginia Beach voters have an important opportunity to set the stage for the all-important 2010 elections — to signal our renewed resolve to push forward, rather than slide backward.
On education, energy, the environment, and much of transportation, Bill Fleming gets it right. On top of that, Fleming is an ethical small businessman who sincerely cares about the needs of the people in the 8th District. Because of this, I endorse him wholeheartedly and ask that you support him as well.
If you can, sign up to volunteer for Bill Fleming’s campaign, or contribute toward the costs of reaching voters in the 8th district.
Related posts:
- Bill Fleming, thank you for putting up a fight
- From the Virginian-Pilot: Bill Fleming is Democratic Nominee in the 8th
- Fleming Campaign Responds to Virginian-Pilot’s Information Freeze
- McWaters to Face Democratic Challenger in the 8th!
- McWaters Pens Virginian-Pilot Endorsement of Himself
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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A few members of the VCDL leadership team have said that they were disappointed that neither of the Democratic candidates in the Special Election, returned their questionnaire.
My opinion of those campaign questionnaires is pretty low, since they are often loaded with rhetorical land minds designed to hamstring a candidate, rather than to ferret-out the truth.
However, in the case of the VCDL, their questions are pretty straight-forward, in the genre of, “Are you with us or against us.”
I have found that Bill Fleming and Dave Marsden are very open minded when it comes to gun safety issues and both of these Democratic candidates have positions that favor supporting our Second Amendment rights. In fact, most Democrats who I know, when presented with the facts, nearly always support private sales of firearms, and do not support increased restrictions or registries for privately owned, legally purchased firearms.
The gun issue is one in which the Republican side has received unearned support from gun rights groups for years, when it should be the Democratic Party that is seen as the more effective defender of individual rights. It is unfortunate that high profile figures in the Democratic Party have received national attention for their anti-Second Amendment positions, while at the same time, mainstream Virginia Democrats, who strongly support our Constitutional rights, have their support for the Second Amendment issues drowned out by the national media and a few, high visibility candidates.