Help Leslie Byrne defeat Bush Dog Gerry Connolly
By Howie Klein Friday May 30, 2008 8:00pmA week from Tuesday (June 10) Virginia holds its primaries and the one we're watching most closely is between the progressive Blue America-endorsed Leslie Byrne and a reactionary Joe Lieberman/Zell Miller-type Insider, Gerry Connolly, who worked for a major war profiteer firm, a story I broke at DownWithTyranny a few days ago. Friday, it hit the Washington Post and suddenly the Blue America donations for Leslie Byrne have gone through the roof.
We're in the middle of a contest with Air America and to vote which candidate gets an Air America check, all you have to do is add one penny to your donation on our Blue America page. Leslie and Gerry Connolly are in a neck and neck race that will go right down to the wire. It's a case of "More Democrats" or "More and Better Democrats." Connolly is far from better. He's trying to pose as a progressive but his record conforms to the worst stereotypes of the corporate Democrat and threatens to cost the party a long-awaited takeover. Connolly has been mired in questions about his employment with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), one of the worst of the major defense contractors, his cozy relationship with business developers and his general affinity for what most of us would call pay to play politics.
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Great Reporting. Thanks.
Doug Denneny is an Iraq War Veteran and would be a better candidate than either of them.
Just google his name.
Alright Howie! Great reporting and glad to see the MSM pick up the ball and run with it.
As a former resident of Mclean VA, just about everyone that lives there works in some capacity for the war profiteers or their lobbyists, BushCo or specifically the CIA. Full disclosure: I worked for a space contractor whilst I lived there.
I live in VA - 11th, in Prince William County. I like Leslie Byrne a lot, and I intend to vote for her. She is a strong liberal and, from talking with her and hearing her in debates, she'll stand up for the little guy. Her opponent is trying to paint her as a has-been who can't be elected. Surprisingly, most of the Democratic elected officials in the PWC part of the 11th are supporting Connolly. Wish I knew why.
The local electeds are supporting Connolly because he has a clue about what he's doing. Leslie is a nice person-- reasonably smart, a long-time party cog and a serial campaign loser. She got blown out by Tom Davis after serving a single term in Congress, got blown out by Mark Warner in her bid to grab the nomination to run against John Warner, and even managed to lose a Lt. Government race in which a Democrat won the Governor's mansion. That the Dmeocrats can pick up VA-11 is ovious; that Leslie is the best chance for us to lose it is equally obvious.
As for her career, as Connolly's has been brought up, Leslie's Quintech Corporation, an HR firm she founded, always enjoyed very lucrative contracts with Lockheed Martin, United Defense Technologies, Raytheon, and others. Gerry has indeed worked for SAIC-- as a community affairs guy, mainly putting SAIC money into local charities and NPOs. As another poster said, it's Northern Virginia-- defense tech is one of our biggest employers.
This idea that Connolly is some kind of "corporate Dem" or, and this is pretty damned funny, a "Bush dog", is ludicrous. He's been the most progressive county exec Fairfax has likely ever had (my experience here only goes back about a dozen years), he's heavily into mass transit and environmental issues in the county. Look past SAIC (or Quintech) and you'll start seeing the real story, rather than the assinine, simplistic "He work's for the man" crap that so often kills our party.
If Gerry wasn't in the race, Leslie might indeed be the best we could field, but the reality is that he is and she isn't. Supporting her is a mistake.
Your accusation that all government contractors are war profiteers is insulting.
I work as a software engineer for a government contractor and my client is the EPA. Does that make me a war profiteer.
Also, suppose I developed software for submarines. Is that bad? We need submarines to protect us - regardless of who is in office. You think when Obama is elected he will stop the development of software for submarines? No, because it's not innately evil to work as a government contractor.
Don't assume all government contractors support Bush and his disastrous presidency.
Leslie Byrne and Gerry Connelly are both long time "insiders" to local Fairfax politics. Neither of these candidates had the fortitude to run against Davis when we needed it the most. Local democrats know that its been clear the district has been ready for two election cycles to flip. Other challengers with extremely small budgets gave Davis tough runs. Byrne and Connelly could have easily taken out Davis in the last two elections, but they chose to stay in their comfortable zone of running Fairfax County. As soon as Davis annouced his "retirement" from politics (right after his ding-bat wife was spanked in her bid to remain in the state government), both these opportuntists jumped into the race. SHAME ON THEM. This is just another example of insider politicians using incumbancy to gain power.
Doug Denneny jumped in long before Byrne and Connelly when it was not politically safe. He is a bona-fide outsider, an Iraq experienced war veteren, and a much better candidate for those people that want real change in Washington politics.
Just say No to politics as usual and vote for Doug.
I worked for Leslie Byrne in her 2005 Lt. Governor campaign. She's smart, dedicated, and liberal. She's also the victim of almost every GOP trick in the book, from the redistricting-down-her-street to being outspent 2-1 and losing by 2 percentage points. I hope she makes it.
I second the objection that calling all gov't contractors warprofiteers is insulting. Its also an uneducated and knee jerk position to take.
As far the Byrne/Connolly race goes, Byrne has shown a talent for one thing in the past several election cycles: Losing.
I will give Bryne one thing: she has a great ally in the "Virginia WOMEN VOTE" PAC. Not a day goes by that I don't recv a mailing from VWV PAC nailing Connolly for being the wrong candidate for the wrong reasons. I have yet to recv anything from Connolly in my mailbox, you'd think he wasn't running a campaign at all. Perhaps he thinks name recognition will be enough. I don't vote for lazy candidates, so Leslie gets my vote. Doug Denneny sounds interesting but I haven't heard anything about him yet.
Sparky @ 7:
Good to see others can figure out that Doug is the beter candidate.
Didn't SAIC screw up a big post 9/11 contract w/ the FBI? Just askin'.
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