As I wrote a long time ago:
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.
That rule was changed in 2006. Over the last couple of weeks, though, I’ve been made aware of a similar denial of access to the Democratic Party’s voter file, this time by the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee.
Access to the voter file by local candidates, who all run as independents, is dependent upon the local committees signing off on it. Due to a tiff that has developed between two candidates, the VBDC has decided to not grant access to any of them. I think that is ridiculous.
The party voter files contain enhanced information that is not available in the file any candidate can purchase from the State Board of Elections. One piece that is missing is phone numbers, which makes phone banking impossible. I understand that it costs upwards of $5,000 to purchase just the phone numbers for a city the size of Virginia Beach, which is out of reach for most of the local candidates. So the entirety of Democratic candidates in Virginia Beach will be mostly flying blind.
That’s no way to win elections. If the VBDC doesn’t want to endorse, that’s fine. But handicapping those who would like to represent the citizens of Virginia Beach is pretty un-democratic in my book.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian,
I would hope our committee would not deny access to indivduals running for local offices in Newport News, however as you have stated they are running as independents as required and it becomes very hard to determine who actually has democratic ideals. we have found in Newport News that some of the candidates team up with the others regardless of political backgrounds so we have to judge if we are really putting the voter access list into a candidates hands with Democratic ideals. If we would have given it to candidates this year in Newport News it would easily have ended up in the hands of some right wing nutcases with all the interpolitics within the city councils and school board races. I suppose the best option would be to vet the heck out of the candidates make them sign a pledge to commit to democratic ideals and then let all that want to run have access.
I would think that having them be members of the committee (which requires signing the pledge, right?) would be enough.
Regarding Virginia Beach, their are candidates who have been a member of the Va Beach Democratic Party for years. Black members of this party do not receive the same support as other folks. The Virginia Beach Dem Party makes Palin looks like a friend. They have the appearance of adding folks to races to create a divide and ultimately prevent folks who have supported them solidly for years from winning a race. What a disappointment.
I’ve heard that as well.
What would be the point of that? Adding folks to the races? What would they ever gain from doing that?
Beyond that, didn’t they support a black candidate in the 2008 Presidential race? I mean, who didn’t…?
The point would be power & control.
And supporting a candidate for president versus a local candidate is comparing apples & oranges.
Power and control over what?
And if presidential candidates vs local candidates is apples and oranges, what about the folks they’re “adding to these races”? Can I assume these are white folks?
The republican party made the A list voter file available to one candidate only. The B list was older and less up to date.
So here’s the thing: I absolutely understand how there could be some criticisms about the VBDC not being racially-inclusive enough. And I could further see how the element of truthfulness behind that sentiment (specifically that blacks are underrepresented among dues-paying members) would in turn lead some to speculate that the local Democrats are actively trying to discourage black candidates from running.
Hand to God, though, I can’t believe it’s true — anyone who does should attend a couple of their meetings and come back and tell me whether they honestly believe they have the organization and expertise necessary to actively stymie black candidates.
(Hint: no.)