Desperate Dems (northern Virginia observations)
By relantel Posted in 2006 | Spotlight Blogs — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
This morning while driving in to work, I noticed a subtle change in the campaign signs in the median and along the side of the road.
No, both candidates for Virginia's 11th district were still represented, but the Dem candidate's campaign, Andrew Hurst, had added small signs next to Tom Davis's signs saying "With Bush 90%". Clearly tacky, and clearly desperate. It is yet another sign that the Dems are running against Bush and not for anything.
(More below)
Received a phone call from a live pollster on Tuesday evening from someone that had to be calling on behalf of the Dem candidate in VA's 10th district (Frank Wolf's seat). Wolf's signs have only started to appear in the last week or so, and I have not seen any signs for the Dem opponent, only a couple signs for one of the third-party candidates for the seat. There must have been five or six questions specifically about the Dem candidate, starting with a series of "have you heard of" and "favorable/unfavorable opinion of" type questions including George Allen, Webb, Wolf and the Dem, who until that call, I had never even heard her name.
A stark contrast having a live pollster compared to Rasmussen's automated one a few weeks back. Rasmussen's seemed straight-forward, whereas this live poll loaded the questions in a way to get their desired responses from less-informed voters.
It is a strange mail media race this year - getting little to nothing from Allen even though I gave to the campain, nothing from Webb, nothing from Wolf since 2004, and nothing for the Dem. Only mail we have been getting is a flurry of info in support of Jackson Miller, Manassas city councilman and GOP nominee to fill the remainder of Harry Parrish's House of Delegates seat.
With that seat, I kept wondering if I had missed the primary, having last voted in the City Council elections back in May. Went to the Manassas GOP Website and had discovered there had been a nominating convention. A small relief, considering that dating back to the 1992 election (my first) I had never missed a chance to vote in any primary or general election.
I have opted to vote Absentee this year, as travel the weekend before the election leaves us returning late the night before. It had been since the 1992 election since I had last voted absentee (punch cards in Pennsylvania, woohoo), and I was impressed by the verification safegards the City had chosen.
First, their request form (should be noted the PDF is generic to all virginia) requires the voter's signature and registration address, presumably to match with the voter registration card on file.
The outer envelope comes addressed to the full voter name, and contained a set of ballot instructions; a pamphlet explaining the state constitutional amendments (marriage, etc.); an outer return envelope, preaddressed to the City board of elections, and containing a voter-specific return address label that matched the outer envelope address label; an inner ballot return envelope with voter certification of full name, address and signature, along with a witness signature on the back side of the envelope (to be written after ballot is sealed inside); and the sealed ballot envelope itself.
The instructions clearly state that issuance of the ballot means you cannot vote at your polling precinct, unless you return the ballot envelope unopened to the Secretary of Elections. It also gives the deadline of 7pm election day for return of the ballot. It is important to note that they will not count the ballot if the inner ballot return envelope certification is not completely filled out, with both voter and witness signatures.
I put my absentee ballot in the mail last night, backing up my monetary contribution with my vote. Allen, Wolf, Miller and the Marriage amendment are one vote richer for my effort, not that it was ever in doubt. My wife's ballot should arrive today, and then it will be two of each.
When I signed up for my absentee ballot I recieved mail from Allen, Tom Davis, and Jim Webb.
Allen sent a letter bulleting five points about how he has helped Virginia and stood firm on the War on Terror, family values etc.
Davis sent a letter and a pamphlet which basically listed all the pork he has procured for Fairfax County.
Webb's letter I didn't really read, but the Democrats sent a yellow paper instructing in large bold type how to vote on the three ballot issues (No, Yes, Yes).
I mailed my ballot out a few weeks ago which will bring Allen's total to three and Davis' to one.
I was driving along the Fairfax County Parkway toward Herndon last week and saw Frank Wolf signs along the median. A coulple days later, the majority of Wolf signs were gone (while the stakes were still in the ground) and Judy Feder (the Dem nominee) signs were all over the median, many of them put directly in front of Wolf signs, effectively "hiding" them.