Although Hal Pal won in Manassas, his hometown, he was unable to receive as many votes as our Democratic City Councilman Ken Elston did when he won. Ken received 53 more votes in 2014. One more fact shared with me by a very reliable source: Approximately $4 million was spent on the District 29 Virginia Senate race between Hal Pal and Jeremy McPike. There were a total of 30,759 votes cast with the cost per vote at $130!
Another interesting issue to consider is gun control. Down south of here where the other important senate race took place in Powhatan County (10th Senate District), the folks don’t like any kind of control of their guns. These are the “Obama is coming to get your guns, boys and girls” crowd. Apparently, those scare tactics were more persuasive than than death and gun violence. Notwithstanding the Hal Pal local loyalty factor, Manassas probably has more pro-gun violence voters that the more urban voters in the county. Do I think that everyone who voted for Hal Pal favors gun-violence? Nope. But it is a concern that Jackson Miller has already voted to support giving guns back to convicted felons. I call it the support Bob McDonnell law. I wonder what other laws have been passed by the GOP to help out their golden boy. But I digress.
The fact is: We need to get Democrats out to vote. If they can’t make it to the polls on election day, they should be educated about in person absentee voting. Although getting over 30% of Manassas registered voters out to vote is nice, everyone should vote. The goal should be 100%. We know that the GOP is the force against any reforms to make voting easier because it puts their control in jeopardy. I heard a Republican suggest that if an expired driver’s license is used as photo ID at the polls, it should not be accepted if the license is expired for more than 90 days instead of one year. But this Republican seemed ignorant to the fact that an photo ID WITHOUT any expiration date is an acceptable form of photo ID. In fact, the photo ID any registered voter can obtain from a local Registrar’s office has no expiration date and it’s free. This is how the GOP thinks.
The GOP aggressive ugly tactics must cease. More to come…..
