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Virginia Democrats Working to Catch Second Wave

VCU CNS | September 17, 2019

Topics: 2020 election, abigail spanberger, Debra Rodman, Democratic debates, Democratic Presidential campaign, General Assembly, Henrico County Democrats, Rodney Willett, schuyler vanvalkenburg

From the General Assembly elections this November to the all-important 2020 election, Henrico County Democrats are creating a community around turning the Commonwealth blue.

When the ice cream came out, it felt like a party. 

But this wasn’t a party; it was a political event. 

Bursts of laughter peppered the air. The space on Parham Road that once served as headquarters for Abigail Spanberger’s 2018 congressional run bristled with excitement.

Henrico County Democrats hosted a gathering Thursday night at their “Blue Wave Office” to watch the third Democratic presidential debate. Campaign officials for Dels. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, Debra Rodman, D-Henrico and Rodney Willett helped organize the watch party. Willet is the Democratic candidate for the 73rd District House race.

A motley assortment of chairs was arranged around a projector and screen, snacks were neatly stacked at a table by the front door, and a cardboard cutout of former President Obama smiled from a corner of the room. Some onlookers sprawled comfortably on a couch during the debate, others stretched out on the floor.

If this sounds miles away from the typically staid and often buttoned up campaign events many have come to expect during election season, then that’s the point, said Molly Banta, campaign manager for Rodman’s 12th District Senate race.

“We canvas together; we phone bank together; we elect these incredible Dems together,” Banta said. “We are doing this, and we are in this fight together.”

During the debate broadcast, people cheered when their preferred candidates made a major promise on a particular issue or let loose a pointed criticism of Washington politics. On occasion there were murmurs in the crowd when a candidate flip-flopped or dodged a question, but for the most part the atmosphere stayed genial and at times downright fired up. 

David Aldridge, campaign manager for VanValkenburg’s 72nd House District race, addressed the group during a break in the debate. He thanked them for coming and talked about how their enthusiasm for national races can translate to Democratic wins at the state level. The audience clapped and shouted their approval.

November will see the first state Senate races since Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential win, and political experts believe the 2019 General Assembly races could be a barometer for trends in 2020. Voter turnout in Virginia is traditionally lower the year before a presidential election than the year after one. Voter turnout spiked in the state — the number of absentee ballots soaring to unprecedented numbers in off-election years — following Trump’s win. That helped generate a blue wave in House races that House and Senate candidates hope to catch again. 

Democrats plan to reach this goal by keeping volunteers and voters engaged and working together.

“People want somebody in office who is going to fight as hard for them as they would for their own kid, or for their own neighbor, or for their own community member,” Banta said. “That’s what people have seen from the freshmen that were elected in 2017, from these regular people stepping up to run.”

The party deliberately chose to run multiple campaigns from an office in the heart of Henrico County. 

“We were really hoping to build a community aspect, where every Democrat and every person who is Democratic leaning, whether they consider themselves a liberal or anywhere else, like a progressive or all the various kinds of labels out there, could feel like they had a home,” Aldridge said.

Will voters generate the second blue wave that barrels Democratic candidates into office again this election? 

Voter Arden Stevens believes Virginia Democrats are just getting started. 

“It is more important to have people who you can engage with on a personal level who are, like I said, making decisions that actually matter,” Stevens said. “That’s what matters to me.”

By Morgan Edwards, Capital News Service. Photos by Paul Greiner.

In Wake of School Shootings, Delegates Push for Comprehensive Safety Approach

David Streever | July 13, 2018

Topics: house of delegates, kirk cox, Mass Casualty Attacks, School Safety, School Shootings, schuyler vanvalkenburg, virginia state government

What makes a school safe? Three state delegates say it’s more than checkpoints and metal detectors, and that their colleagues in the Virginia House aren’t doing enough to keep kids safe.

Delegates Schuyler VanValkenburg of the 72nd District, Mike Mullin of the 93rd District, and Jeff Bourne of the 71st District have issued a set of policy proposals to Virginia Speaker Kirk Cox and a newly-formed Select Committee on School Safety advocating a broader approach than their current focus on school shootings.

Reached by phone yesterday, VanValkenburg, a public school teacher, said the Department of Education defines school safety by several components, listing, “bullying, discrimination, day-to-day violence, the school climate.” He said he’d never downplay the tragedy of a school shooting scenario, but that school safety is too important to focus on only one issue.

“It seems to be the status quo for a lot of these committees to define a narrow focus around school shooters and how you can keep them out,” he said. “Fixing how you enter a school is an appropriate step, but it’s not adequate [on it’s own].” The safety committee has refused to consider gun policy or behavioral health according to a statement by Cox that referred to other considerations as “partisan.”

The delegates want Cox and the committee to increase support staff and provide mental health services, all in line with Department of Education guidelines. “You need to be looking at the behavioral and emotional needs of children,” VanValkenburg said. State spending on schools has fallen sharply since the recession of 2008, resulting in a $1 billion dollar shortfall. One consequence of that funding gap has been a reduction in support staff. The other consequence has been insufficient infrastructure spending, which has exacerbated the physical deterioration of Richmond public school buildings.

Following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, safety committees have sprung up in localities and states across the country, all focused on mass-casualty shooting attacks. VanValkenburg pointed to statistics on violence that show most children find safe refuge from guns in school. A 2015 report by Erin Nekvasil and Dewey Cornell at the University of Virginia showed that children were 200 times more likely to be the victim of homicide outside of schools, supporting VanValkenburg’s numbers, and calling into question the “hardening” mindset that the state committee is solely considering.

“School safety isn’t just homicides,” he said. While making students safer is good on its own, he argued that a broader focus offers even more benefits. “If you’re being holistic in looking at school safety issues, the knock-on effect is that you’re improving education, period.”

Despite Cox’s initial statements, VanValkenburg was hopeful that their proposals would be included in the final safety committee report, due before the House begins its fall session in November. Some forty-five groups have signed letters making similar policy requests, including the Legal Aid Center, Richmond Academy of Medicine, and Moms Demand Action. “There’s a coalition of people who want this,” he said. ”Hopefully as we move to the subcommittee hearings, we’ll be able to get those ideas out and to the committee.”

Congressman Dave Brat Skips Gun Violence Town Hall, Disappoints Students

David Streever | April 10, 2018

Topics: abigail spanberger, dan ward, Dave Brat, gun control, March For Our Lives, Parkland Students, schuyler vanvalkenburg, Town halls

On what’s normally a vacation week, four local high school students were hard at work organizing Town Hall for our Lives meetings around the area. The meetings, inspired by the Parkland student movement, are opportunities for students to talk to their elected officials about gun control and gun violence.

Chaz Nuttycombe, a senior at Hanover High School, put together the most recent event this past Saturday at Libbie Mill Library in Henrico, part of Congressman Dave Brat’s 7th Congressional District. He invited Brat, but the congressman declined to attend via an email sent to one of Nuttycombe’s co-organizers. “It looked like a form email,” he said, describing the email as one that characterized past town halls as rude and disrespectful.

“I was willing to work with him to make sure it would be a civil event,” Nuttycombe said. He even went to Brat’s D.C. office to invite him in person, an experience he described as disappointing. “I went to his office, I was polite. His staff was friendly, but it was clear from the looks on their faces that he wouldn’t attend.”

A seat was saved for Brat between challengers Spanberger, Ward

After Brat declined, Nuttycombe invited the Democratic challengers, former CIA operative Abigail Spanberger and 25-year Marine veteran Dan Ward. “That’s the etiquette. You invite your representative and if they decline you invite the competition,” he said. Both accepted his invitation, joining the 80 or so people in attendance.

Ward described the focus on school safety and gun control as central to his campaign. “We were the first to back the assault weapon ban,” he said. Ward said he’s running to address shortcomings in political leadership, adding,“We’ve abdicated our responsibility as the government to the NRA, and it’s been disastrous.”

He characterized Brat’s tenure in office as symptomatic of what he called a bigger problem; representatives who worry more about re-election than about serving constituents. “Everyone is taking the political temperature on issues that are clearly right or wrong, and we need people of courage to take the moral positions,” he said.

Reached by phone, Spanberger was full of praise for the students, and said it was an easy decision to attend their town hall. “Absolutely. It’s incredible how engaged and involved these local students are, I’m happy to be part of anything they are putting together.” She described the students as polite, mature, and “impressively well-organized.”

Both of the candidates thought Brat should have been in attendance, and pointed to what Ward called a pattern of not showing up. “That’s who he is. It’s his biggest problem, that he doesn’t come out and talk to his constituents.”

Spanberger said the problem was bigger than this meeting, but thought the absence was especially notable. “Of all the events that he hasn’t attended and all of the times he hasn’t made himself available, I think this one was particularly disappointing,” she said, noting that Brat hasn’t held a town hall since last spring.

While school safety was the focus, Nuttycombe also asked the candidates to sign a pledge to hold at least four town hall meetings a year. Both signed.

“We’ve done 79 meet and greets in the last nine months. Four town halls sounds easy,” Spanberger said about the request, before adding in a more sober tone, “I think it’s only fair to make sure that we’re accessible to every county in the district.”

Also in attendance was Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, a high school teacher first elected to represent the 72nd district this past November. “I think it’s important to show them support, and I agree with their cause,” he said about attending the meeting.

He said the meeting was important, but stressed that elected officials need to also work to address the more common incidents of gun violence across the nation instead of just the tragic outliers.

“My fear is that we get too narrow, we start talking about bulletproof glass and arming teachers,” he said, “but we should be looking at the front-end and asking how we can make our communities healthier and safer.”

Like Spanberger and Ward, VanValkenburg found the student work encouraging. “We’re already seeing a shift in the dialogue and the narrative, and the organizers should feel optimistic and motivated,” he said, adding, “But it is early days, people have to keep that momentum up.”

Asked to weigh-in on Brat’s absence, he described it as a missed opportunity for the congressman to hear from his constituents, adding, “Sometimes [town halls] can be unruly or unfriendly terrain, but as he noted when he ran against Eric Cantor, that’s part of your responsibility.”

RVA Mag tried to reach the congressman to ask him about his absence. As with the last time we reached out to his office, we received no answers to our specific questions, however, his communications director Mitchell Hailstone only provided what he called ‘background’ on Brat. The short response described him as a loving father who is concerned about school violence, and noted that he held “a roundtable discussion with school security officers, mental health experts, superintendents of schools, law enforcement officials and school board members,” which he noted was not covered in RVA Mag but in the Culpeper Star Exponent.

According to that newspaper, Brat proposed no specific legislation to address trauma, but was in favor of placing professional security at the front doors of schools and addressing mental health issues through a “holistic approach.”

Nuttycombe wasn’t surprised by Brat’s absence at the student-run event, he said, noting that he wrote two speeches; one for if Brat attended, and one for if he didn’t. He described the absence as proof that the congressman is out of touch with voters, saying, “He’s still voting like the tea party insurgent he ran as when he beat Cantor, and he hasn’t realized that the district has become more moderate. His constituents want sensible regulations on gun ownership, not someone who takes big donations from the NRA.”

Despite the lack of support from the district congressman, Nuttycombe is moving forward with his work. His next step is a town hall with Rep. Donald McEachin and Sen. Tim Kaine on Apr 21 at the Adult Alternative Program, an ex-offender re-entry program in Richmond, and a major rally the day before on Brown’s Island connected to the national walkout starting at 12 AM.

The rally will take place at noon with music, speeches, and a march to the State Capitol where Gov. Ralph Northam will speak following student leaders speeches from the steps of the state building.

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