Primary day is tomorrow, and I’m a little bit nervous. It should be a fairly low pressure day for me because, as precinct captain, all I really have to do is be a presence at the polls and recruit volunteers out of the committed Democrats who come out to vote in the Democratic primary. I expect we’ll probably see heavier than usual turnout for a primary, given the rather acrimonious Senate primary between Harris Miller and Jim Webb, but still pretty light in absolute terms, as primaries always are. But really I have no idea: this is the first time I’ve worked my own precinct for a primary.
I just made a couple of phone calls to set up a tentative arrangement for an older lady to get a ride to go vote. Unfortunately the person who told me last week they could do it, may now have to back out if his work schedule changes – he’ll know by this afternoon. If it does turn out he can’t do it, then I’ll have to scramble to find someone else.
The real reason I’m anxious is that I haven’t been able to do as much as I wanted to do in preparation. I just haven’t had time. Working full time, going to school 3 nights a week, volunteering with a campaign, chairing the Women’s Rights Committee, AND being a precinct captain is really wearing on me. It’s the school that’s put me over the edge more than anything, and I wish I hadn’t had to sign up for summer classes, but at least I’ve made arrangements so that I will not have to do summer classes next year. It is an off year, but in Virginia we have elections every year – it will be state senate and some local races – and I’ll have a chance to get out there and do a lot of canvassing to ID Democrats and build my volunteer base. Ah, next year.
It’s all a learning experience. Right now, I know what I need to put in my kit, and I know how to recruit volunteers, and that’s what I need, for tomorrow.
As for the primary itself…
I’m supporting Andrew Hurst over Ken Longmyer in VA-11 (Tom Davis’s seat). Andy’s become a friend of mine over the course of the campaign and I have canvassed with him a number of times. I consider him a full ally in the struggle for women’s rights. And apart from that, we agree on so many issues (everything we’ve ever talked about!) that it’s wonderfully refreshing to support someone who I know isn’t going to sell out women, or gays, or the poor, or nonwhites, or anyone else based on the kind of crud that passes for politics these days. Andy’s other advantage is that he’s serious about this election: it’s hard, when you’ve got an entrenched incumbent, to find a candidate who can and will do the difficult work of fundraising and organizing and working the phones and pounding the pavement. But Andy can and does and will.
In the Senate primary, I’m hoping for Harris Miller over Jim Webb. There are a number of reasons for this. First and foremost, I simply do not trust Jim Webb to protect women’s rights – from the way he dismissed questions from me and a friend of mine at a meet and greet event, and his various answers to other questions over the course of the campaign, I don’t think he really cares about women or our concerns or our rights.
I don’t trust Webb on a lot of other issues as well. He seems unwilling to admit to ever being wrong or even just changing his mind on anything. I don’t have a problem with the fact that he once was a Republican and now isn’t – that’s great. But the fact that as recently as 2004 he was trying to tear down what we Democrats were trying to build, when he publically slammed John Kerry in the press with attacks on his record during and after Vietnam – that’s a problem for me. I don’t care if Kerry did endorse him. It’s still a problem, because I don’t trust Webb to value the Democratic Party, to uphold its principles, to vote with our caucus… I don’t trust him.
Harris Miller, on the other hand, has been committed to the Democratic Party for a very long time. He’s intelligent and thoughtful and when I asked him where he stood on women’s rights, he answered my questions forthrightly and without being a jerk. And his answers satisfied me. He’s performed extremely well in the debates and earned the endorsement of the Washington Post. He’s solid on the issues that matter to us.
Here’s the thing: these “Crash the Gate” types like to tell us that it doesn’t matter what a candidate’s positions are, as long as he’s another mark for the D column. The trouble is, though, that only works if the newly elected senator votes with the Democratic caucus. If not, what have you won? Nothing, because you’ve elected another Joe Lieberman who’ll “break with his party” and go on the news to tell all about it for his own self-aggrandizement.
That’s the other reason this primary makes me nervous. If Webb wins, my responsibility as committee member and precinct captain will be to support him. But that won’t be easy, because not only have Webb and various members of his staff been personally nasty to me (and this was well before I made a decision on who to support in the primary) I just don’t trust him to value what I value, either the important issues that I’m fighting for or the party itself, which I want to build and transform, rather than tear down.
But that’s a question to be dealt with on Wednesday – if it’s even relevent, then. For now, a deep breath, and I prepare for tomorrow.
