Back in 2005, the Democratic Caucus of the House of Delegates asked the Democratic Party of Virginia to not share its voter file with anyone challenging an incumbent. At the time, it only affected two people: Don McEachin and Keela Boose. McEachin, a former delegate looking to reclaim his seat, won his primary and Keela Boose, a first time candidate challenging Algie Howell, lost.
At the same time, the Republican Party made its voter file available to all GOP candidates. To my knowledge, neither of these rules has changed.
Right now, the Republican-controlled House of Delegates is unwilling to embrace non-partisan redistricting, preferring instead to protect its incumbents, and, thus, its majority. On the other hand, Democrats would like to see non-partisan redistricting, a part of which would be the removal from consideration of incumbency protection.
I find these positions – by both parties – inconsistent. If the Republicans want to be inconsistent, go for it. But we Democrats should not be.
So far, we have five races in the House and five in the Senate in which there will be a primary. Four of the house races are Democratic primaries and two of those include challengers to an incumbent: Mac McCadden challenging Onzlee Ware in the 11th and Henry Light challenging Johnny Joannou in the 79th.
How can Democrats expect to convince their Republican colleagues to do the right thing on redistricting when we are unwilling to do the right thing by our challengers? I believe we should be consistent. The Democratic voter file should be available to all Democratic challengers. Taking on an incumbent is hard enough – the system is already biased in their favor. To deny the voter file is to make an uphill climb even steeper.
Look – I have nothing against Onzlee Ware or Johnny Joannou. But as incumbents, they are starting out on third base. We Democrats talk about leveling the playing field in other areas. Access to the voter file – a critical component of any campaign – is a step in the direction of leveling the playing field in politics.
And it’s just the right thing to do.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian, a committee was formed after that election and the rules were recently changed. So far as I know, it is no longer an issue and everyone gets the file.
I’ll have to track this down because the issue came up last night (which is what prompted this post) and folks seemed to think it was still the case.
I’m with you 100% on what needs to happen. When this went on in 05, the Steering Committee got an earful from State Party Treas. Abbi Easter who is also McEachin’s aide. That’s when they formed the committee to make the new rules.
Some parts of the file are off limits to challengers, but I understand that does not include the important stuff like phone numbers, names and vote history. What is off limits is ID’s made by the incumbent. Basically you get everything except your opponent’s supporter list. Fair enough.