With 90% of precincts reporting, Shannon Valentine has a huge lead that Mike Harrington can’t catch up with, even if he got every remaining vote. (The two remaining precincts are Democratic precincts, anyhow.) It’s a big big win, with Shannon probably ending up with around a 17% lead, once all the votes are counted. Shannon is now Delegate Shannon, Lynchburg’s newest representative to the House of Delegates.
Harrington is to be congratulated for tossing his hat in the ring, and for running a clean campaign. And Shannon is, of course, to be congratulated for her decisive victory, to say nothing of being the first member of our Sorensen class to be elected to office, barely a month after we graduated.
If I may state the obvious, this is yet another election in which Democrats have gained seats in the House of Delegates. We do it ever blessed time. This brings us up to 40 seats, or within an election or two of regaining the majority in the House, as we’ll inevitably do.
I said it a year ago, and I’ll say it again: the shift is underway. To centrist Republicans, let me be the first to say “welcome.” We’re a big tent party. We’d love to have you. I recommend that those considering joining do so as early as possible, as we’ll feel particularly indebted to those of you who make the jump now, rather than later. We look forward to working with you.
After a while, a bunch of elections that are decided “locally” become a statewide trend.
Congrats to Del. Valentine and those who worked for her. Must be some Sorensen magic ….
You might want to be careful about using the name “Delegate Shannon.” A certain Fairfax Delegate might be confused.
Of course, if you really want to confuse people, try “Delegate David” and watch Msrs. Bulova, Englin, Poisson, Toscano, Marsden, Nutter, and Albo all turn.
I’d say this has been a pretty good couple of weeks for Virginia Democrats.
The election WAS clean and civil until a last minute letter written by Steve Newman and sent to local voters appeared which distorted Shannon’s comments. Harrington approved and stood by the letter.This made Shannon quite mad and spoiled a pretty clean campaign for Harrington.
Shannon said that when politicians won’t honestly discuss the issues they resort to lying. I am pretty sure this comment was meant for Newman.
Harrington graciously conceded at our post vistory party at The Depot Grille in front of Shannon’s supporters.
More like a couple of good months. Or years even. We keep advancing, they keep retreating. What Virginia Democrats have been doing over the last 5 years or so will be a success story that is studied for years to come by minority parties in other states looking for a way out of the wilderness.
Repeated success like this isn’t an accident. It’s the result of a massive effort by grassroots Virginia Democrats in the trenches all over the Commonwealth. That and the fundamental truth of what we say and the fundamental success of our policies.
It’s been a long time since I’ve stopped to look back at how far we’ve come since I first got really involved in VA politics during Warner’s campaign for Governor. For the last 5 years we’ve run clean, honest campaigns and proved that it is still possible to win with honor. Years from now we’re all going to be very proud of having been part of such a remarkable and historic political war.