Tuesday was big. President Obama captured Virginia again, on his way to reelection, and Tim Kaine won the battle of former Governors to become our junior Senator. Our country and the Commonwealth face big challenges – continuing the economic recovery, supporting our schools, ensuring a safety net and dealing with climate change, as examples – for which we need the vision and abilities of these two men.
Electing President Obama and Senator Kaine, especially with the millions spent in Virginia by Karl Rove’s American Crossroads and other Super PACs on harsh, misleading attack ads, took a lot of work. I have never seen so many citizens of the Commonwealth putting so much of their time into an election – a reflection of the abilities of our candidates and the stark choice that confronted voters. Thank all of you who worked so hard this fall.
Unfortunately we were not able to elect Brigadier General John Douglass to represent us in Congress. He ran a vigorous, issue-oriented campaign, but was unable to overcome the demographics of a district stretching from Danville to Warrenton, gerrymandered to protect the Republican incumbent. But General Douglass did a great job and laid the groundwork for future Democratic success in the 5th district, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Thank you, John.
Virginia is on its way to becoming a reliably Blue state (to see election results for your precinct visit the Virginia Board of Elections website). The work we did this year will pay off in 2013: we will reclaim the Governor’s mansion and begin to take back the House of Delegates.
