Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Out of the Mouths of Fund Raisers…

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by

James A. Bacon
in

From a McAuliffe campaign email blast sent out under the name of Senate Mark Warner comes a remarkable confession: “Terry is having a bad week, Jim.”

How bad?

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate “finished off July with strong fundraising numbers,” said pseudo-Warner (I can’t believe the Senator actually laid eyes on this email). “But he told me since August started, contributions have plummeted — in fact, they’ve almost completely stopped.”

Terry’s “Trump-endorsed opponent” Glenn Youngkin is planning to spend $75 million of his own money, warns the email. If Dems don’t help Terry get his fundraising back on pace, he’ll have no chance of catching up.

Now, I realize that no fund-raising letter lets on that its candidate is rolling in dough and doesn’t really need your help. But admitting that the money raise has dried up, even for a week, is not something you see very often. No candidate likes to show weakness. I wonder if McAuliffe really does have a problem.

— JAB

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33 responses to “Out of the Mouths of Fund Raisers…”

  1. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Maybe McAuliffe can donate his shares of GreenTech to his own campaign. Today, they are trading at … let me look it up …. oh yeah $0.00.

    I’m telling you, Jim – things are changing up here in NoVa. Trump is fading into the mists of memory. People are angry over the COVID restrictions, schools closed to in-person learning, CRT, closed school board meetings, the high cost of living and endless tax increases, protests and riots, etc.

    The Dems have lost a lot of Asian votes and I suspect they are on the verge of losing a lot of Hispanic votes too.

    It’s already happening in California.

    https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/newsoms-recall-problem-is-with-hispanic-voters/

    Could Gary Pan beat Kathleen Murphy in the 34th? Maybe.

    6 out of 100 races and the GOP retakes the House.

    C’mon Northam … let those big liberal school boards up here close the schools to in-person learning just one more time.

    1. Matt Adams Avatar
      Matt Adams

      Proximity in NOVA doesn’t overcome the cost of living that’s for sure.

  2. StarboardLift Avatar
    StarboardLift

    Common tactic in political fundraising. It makes recipients feel “insidery,” candor = sincerity, creating a sense of alarm about how fierce the opposition is. Factually accurate?

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      When done with this, would like to show you a bridge investment opportunity….I agree this remains a very possible R win, but it won’t be because the D’s lack $$$.

  3. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Did you never watch a Televangelist? “God told me last night that somebody watching today has money in a cookie jar. He told me that you should send $10 of that money to save the ministry from an upcoming economic disaster.”

    Remember Oral Roberts’ “God told me he was going to recall me unless…”?

    Politicians are one rung up on televangelists.

    1. Stephen Haner Avatar
      Stephen Haner

      Nah…Always had a soft spot for them. Especially old Ernest Angley. “Put your haaaaands on the television….”

      1. John Harvie Avatar
        John Harvie

        Osteen’s got ’em all beat … even Lynchburg’s and Virginia Beach’s finest

      2. DJRippert Avatar
        DJRippert

        Evil spirits …. get out!!!

        Used to watch ole Ernest late at night in the “tube room” of the fraternity house.

        Ernest died earlier this year (May 7) at 99 years of age.

      3. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        The guy who runs Eagle Mountain Ministries in Texas (the hand-punched hole in the Bible Belt) has ’em all beat.

        You should see his palace.

      4. WayneS Avatar
        WayneS

        If Ernest Angley was given healing powers by God, why didn’t he have God give him a neck?

    2. WayneS Avatar
      WayneS

      Up?

  4. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Latest Terry Letter…

    Nancy, (I use the name with them too)

    Last week, National Republicans announced they were pouring millions into Virginia to fund a massive field operation for Glenn Youngkin.

    Well, I just got out of a meeting with my team to try and figure out how we can match them. The good news is that we can do it. The bad news is that it’s going to cost us a lot of money.

  5. James A. Bacon Avatar
    James A. Bacon

    And then there’s this from the Youngkin campaign that just arrived in my inbox:

    Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, campaigning to recapture his old seat, took $100,000 from a billionaire who defended disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein.

    McAuliffe took the six-figure donation in April from Paul Tudor Jones, a billionaire hedge fund manager who was a close ally of Weinstein’s and a board member of the Hollywood convicted rapist’s production company, The Weinstein Company.

    Jones told Weinstein that he loved him in an email and said, “America loves a great comeback story” and the allegations “will go away sooner than you think,” the New York Times revealed in 2017.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Just saw the latest Youngkin ad on TV. He starts out talking about his Carlyle (no name used) career and within a second pivots back to working a construction job in college. The guy just can’t talk about anything since he turned 22.

  6. DJRippert Avatar
    DJRippert

    Younkin better hit the speaking circuit. Oregon is now revealing the actual plan behind “equity”. As suspected, “equity” will be defined as the same outcomes for all groups of students. And how will Oregon implement “equity”? By removing the math, reading and writing tests that had to be taken to graduate from high school. While the Democrats in Oregon call this a suspension it looks like the suspension will last until at least 2027.

    Why eliminate the competency tests? COVID? Oh no!

    Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed the bill to “suspend” testing.

    Charles Boyle, the deputy communications director from Brown’s office, told the paper in an email that staff from the governor’s office informed legislative staffers about the bill’s signing on the day it was passed. He also said that the new standards for graduation will help benefit the state’s “Black, Latino, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”

    I’ve read a lot of reports on Oregon’s testing by race and economics. Every example I’ve seen show Asians outperforming all other groups, including Whites.

    Yet this dingbat Charles Boyle continues to contend that the testing is somehow unfair to Asian students.

    More importantly, when the tests prove that the teachers and schools are failing minority students the answer is to end the testing, not improve the education.

    This is what’s coming to Virginia. Using COVID and CRT / Kendi-speak to eliminate any accountability for teachers, administrators and teachers’ unions for the education of minority students.

    You can’t be accountable for what isn’t being measured.

    Youngkin better get busy.

    Education will be the issue this Fall.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I’ve tried to find out Youngkins stand on issues and it’s not an easy thing!

      And talking about transparency and accountability – the reason WE DO KNOW there are significant disparities in public schools is precisely because we do have SOLs and every schools results are made available , not just on paper, but in a database anyone can access. Quite a few of Mr. Sherlocks blog posts are based on the plethora of data that VDOE makes available.

      Many states including Maryland have deferred standardized tests until now but my understanding is that both Maryland and Virginia plan to conduct SOL testing this fall to ascertain where the kids are , how far behind they are, and from that what curriculum changes need to be made to try to get them back on grade level.

      As far as minorities and others jumping to the GOP on public education – I’m a skeptic. We know what the GOP and Conservatives don’t like – in SPADES ad nauseam, but the main thing they have a reputation for being in favor of is tax-payer-funded private schools where there is almost zero transparency and accountability of academic performance.

      I think if Youngkin and the GOP are going to win on public education, it’s going to have to be on more than boogeyman scare tactics about “equity”. Most minorities know full well what the problems are with equity, and I’m thinking they’re not buying what the GOP is selling to fix it.

      Might be interesting though.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        There’s a reason he was co-CEO, and all he touts is his time in college. The guy hasn’t a clue. Empty suit is the best description of Youngkin.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          I think the GOP partisans want Youngkin to dive into the culture war including CRT. But his website, so far, depicts him as a family man and entrepreneur with almost nothing about most policy issues.

          Supposedly, he has considered supporting getting rid of the income tax but not about how to replace the revenues or cut spending.

          I’ve read that he said approval of Medicaid Expansion was ‘sad”.

          McAuliffe ads I see try to tie him to Trump but new Ads are are just re-hash of earlier ads apparently because there is not that much on the record that show Youngkin loving Trump unless McAuliffe has some and is holding them for right before the election.

          What the GOP/Youngkin are really after are the swing votes and the “leaners” left and right. Those folks don’t have deep allegiance to either party and vote more for the person and the trick is that often the more they find out about the person, the more some votes fade.

          So how do you win over these votes?

          Well you stay away from controversy for one unless you think if you get involved, you will win more votes than you lose.

          Can he do that with culture war wedge issues? Would he win more votes over CRT than he’d lose or if he didn’t play in the CRT issue at all?

          So, some of this is not really about just Youngkin but his staff and handlers.

          Who Youngkin is or is not – is not the thing – it’s how people perceive him.

          That’s the real politics. The inclinations of some of the partisans will lose the election for him IMHO.

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            “I love low-information voters…”, or words to that effect.

        2. DJRippert Avatar
          DJRippert

          You progressives are funny when you think you might lose.

          Younkin was the co-CEO of Carlyle Group. McAuliffe was Chairman of GreenTech.

          Younkin has degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Management from Rice University. McAuliffe went to Catholic University.

          Younkin got his MBA from Harvard. McAuliffe got his law degree from Georgetown.

          McAuliffe’s first “job” was working for Jimmy Carter’s 1980 re-election campaign. The electoral vote tally in that doozy was 489 for Reagan vs 49 for Carter (with Carter as the incumbent).

          Terry McAuliffe has a long history of smarmy, crony capitalist, rent seeking deals with many ending in bankruptcy. Somehow Terry comes out with full pockets while the other suckers he has lured into those deals end up losing everything.

          I’ll give McAuliffe credit for one thing – he had enough sense to invest in the Carlyle Group.

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            Well, he better start playing on his work experience… because all of these “when I was in college” ads for a guy in his 60s ain’t gonna cut it.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            McAuliffe always came across to me like a used car salesman. But Youngkin not much better but in a different more sneaky way.

            Will the Asians jump to the GOP? keep dreaming! The TJ Asians are NOT low-income Asians and low income Asians have no better chance of getting into TJ than low income blacks or Hispanics.

      2. DJRippert Avatar
        DJRippert

        I actually agree with you on Younkin’s campaign so far. Like I wrote, “Younkin better hit the speaking circuit”. However, McAuliffe is spinning like a top on issues like right to work too.

        Contrary to progressive dogma there is no such thing as “minorities”. There are Americans of African descent, Asian descent, Spanish descent, Mexican descent, etc. The liberal attempt to lump them all into the “people of color” bucket has failed for the very good reason that it is an intellectually bankrupt concept.

        The GOP needs to win 6 seats to take back the House of Delegates. In my district (34th) a lily white woman with a history of tax issues is running on the Democratic ticket. The Republican candidate is Gary Pan, an Asian-American entrepreneur with an engineering degree from Lehigh and an MBA from Virginia Tech.

        Asians represent a major voting bloc in Northern Virginia.

    2. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Youngkin is claiming that his college experience on a loading dock will help him bring manufacturing back to Virginia… the guy is OOT and uses stock photos taken in Thailand.

      https://bluevirginia.us/2021/07/youngkins-new-ad-touts-manufacturing-things-right-here-in-virginia-but-contains-stock-photo-from-a-thai-photographer

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7fi4hP_y80

      Which of these robot’s jobs will Virginians do? Maybe Steve can sew foam chunks up in a My Pillow.

      Or is he using the Bush43 definition of “manufacturing”, where putting the patty on the bun is a manufacturing job.

    3. Matt Hurt Avatar
      Matt Hurt

      Virginia has been doing their own version of this for the last few years. In 2019, the state Board of Education significantly decreased the cut scores for the math SOL tests, and miraculously, the pass rates went up. They significantly lowered the cut for the reading cut scores this spring, and you’ll notice that the reading scores will decline the least of any content area when comparing pre-Covid (2019) scores to 2021. When you lower the bar, more kids can get over it, which has nothing to do with increased learning. Moving the goal posts closer does no good for our kids. What’s more, the through year “growth” assessments that are to be administered this fall will only make things look good on paper. In reality, those tests will do nothing positive, and will only serve to eat up valuable instruction time this fall, when we need that time to be spent on making up all the time we lost over the last 18 months due to our educational response to the pandemic.

      Our policy decisions will certainly make things look good on paper, but I would bet any amount of money that in real terms (such as NEAP results, and other standardized measures which are not state specific) our kids will actually lose ground to their peers in other states.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        re: ” our kids will actually lose ground to their peers in other states.”

        why?

        are other states not as much affected like Virginia is?

        1. Matt Hurt Avatar
          Matt Hurt

          The other states aren’t affected by the actions of the Virginia Board of Education. If other states maintain the rigor of their standards and don’t implement measures which will whitewash their data, they won’t likely suffer the ill effects of Virginia’s policies.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            So Virginia has not done what other states have done to maintain their academic performance?

            I truly don’t know.

            I just assumed that COVID was causing a lot of similar problems across the states… and Virginia was little different.

            Not true?

          2. Matt Hurt Avatar
            Matt Hurt

            All of this was put into motion before Covid. The cut scores for Math was reduced in 2019. The cut scores were intended to be cut for Reading prior to Covid as well.

    4. StarboardLift Avatar
      StarboardLift

      Sounds like summum of the soft bigotry of low expectations.

  7. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    DEFUND THE POLICE MASKING SCHOOLS!

    Well, maybe Tommy Tuberville would have had more national titles if he could think strategically.

  8. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    DEFUND THE POLICE MASKING SCHOOLS!

    Well, maybe Tommy Tuberville would have had more national titles if he could think strategically.

  9. WayneS Avatar
    WayneS

    Broken down into its simplest terms:

    The other guy sucks!

    I’m great!

    Now please send me money!

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