Voting for Bush at age 44? We don't need him.

I didn’t know about Northams past party history. Voting for Bush in 2000 is bad; in 2004 is inexcusable.

How strong of a candidate will Fairfax be in 2021?

the top post in 2018, but now if the LG becomes governor, he would have 2 years to prove how effective he can be, which could make him more electable in 2020, even for the scaredy-cat party leaders.

And it's proof that not all Democrats are liberal despite their rhetoric.

Right Here. 100...

I believe this is genuine and informed by his experience as a physician. That left him with only one party if he wanted to enter public life. In the 1970s things were different. A majority in Roe were Republicans. Since Reagan ...

Check "votesmart.org"

His Public statements are passionate and unequivocal. MAGAts can stomach a lot of things but abortion isn’t one of them.

Rehnquist was near death and there was a potential of another Supreme Court Justice. Had Kerry won rather that Roberts and Alito we would have had 2 pro choice justices.

not to mention that is just one issue.

... if he defiantly switched parties now.

The Republican tut-tutters would suddenly change their tune, Mr Trump would become
his biggest defender, the hypocrite would be in the correct party, & he would then
get waffle - stomped in the next election.

Ain’t going to happen.

nt

I'm sure that the people of VA and Democrats will support Justin Fairfax should he assume the governorship.

Being as he ran as a Democrat for convenience. But no one knew of the yearbook photo then.

and copy Steve King's belligerence in keeping his job? The gop tolerates racists, look at their "leader"

Not going to happen.

Last edited Sun Feb 3, 2019, 05:24 PM - Edit history (1)

I see and talk to them all the time. I'm from Massachusetts. Where I come from, a Republican can never win, so everyone runs as a Democrat. However, I'm on the Democratic city committee and I keep track. I even know some "Democrats" who have had Trump stickers on their cars who want to run in Democratic primaries.

Like I said, I keep track.

And keep track. And take notes - and names.

About 3/4 of the office-holders in our area are Faux News junkies.

Well done MM.

He is like an empty wind sock with emphasis on empty

I read his Wikipedia page ... says he was apolitical until 2007 ...

Huh?

Then he thinks he is entitled to run the show ... a freaking know nothing

He needs to go and be what he always was ... nothing

Well Said!!!

and when they get their signal from the head honchos (trumputine?) they'll act as if they are repuglicons (or good soviet citizens.)

I say it's more like clarifying muddy waters.

the only difference between a blue dog and a Republican is their district's location and which way the wind currently blows. In a country governed by centrist Democrats and radical reactionary Republicans, progressives (if you'll bear with my usage) are few and far between. I know a lot of Dems want to call themselves liberal or progressive, but they're mostly just centrists. Liberals in American government are like a blue moon...pretty rare.

Or weren’t you paying attention to tha abortion debate two days before the Yearbook Fiasco. That isn’t ‘Convenience’ Huh?

Ever.

I know what's happened in the last couple of days says a lot, but voting for Bush completes it all. I do not think he is a true democrat.

A shortened version of the No True Scotsman story would go something like this:

I was not aware of that.

Of course, only the person voting knows how they voted. Here's a link that attributes the information to Northam himself:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democratic-candidate-for-virginia-governor-says-he-voted-for-george-w-bush-twice_us_58b48eb9e4b0780bac2c68d5

Prior to entering politics, Northam voted for Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, a fact that opponents raised in later Democratic primaries.[21][22] Northam says that he was apolitical at the time and regretted those votes,[22] saying: "Politically, there was no question, I was underinformed."[13]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Northam

The Lt. Governor becomes Governor. Then the republican legislature will select a new Lt. Governor that is so far to the right he makes Mike Pence look like a transgender atheist. Then they will ratfuck the new Governor and the new Lt. Governor becomes Governor. Then they flood the state with anti abortion and voter repression laws.


I hope I am wrong.

Black voters, pissed off at his racism, will no longer support him and may not turn out in 2020 to vote for Democrats. In Virginia, that's a big deal. Northam won because 87% of African American voters voted for him. Had they not, he would have lost.

What ifs are, well, iffy...

He cannot run for a repeat term as Governor.

who becomes the Lt. Gov that replaces him.

Do you have a link to this?

It does not provide for the replacement of a Lt. Governor in the event of a vacancy. The only way the Constitution provides for the installation of a Lt. Governor is through a general election at the time the Governor is elected.

Instead, if the Governor seat subsequently becomes vacant through resignation, etc., and there is no Lt. Governor, the Attorney General becomes Acting Governor.

Section 16 of the Constitution states:

then the Attorney General would become Governor. Am I reading it correctly?

Ive thought the same.

I don't always think every Democrat is the ideal person, though. Where I live, the Democrats are progressive. Other places, not so much.

On the General Election ballot, the Democrat will always get my vote, even if I don't like a Democrat's positions on some things. However, in primary races, I vote for the Democrat who most closely matches my priorities. That one doesn't always win the primary, however.

Maybe she is also a Democrat for convenience.

She apparently did that on economic grounds, but Reagan's "trickle down" economics are and were a complete disaster.

If Warren chooses to run again, I think she will have to answer for her support of Reagan.

Don't you agree?

However, I have hardly any concern, because her policy positions as an elected Senator prove she is now a strong liberal on economic matters.

People do and can change their opinions over time.

This thread is about Northam. Let's talk about him.

and was admonished here on DU to support Democrats. He essentially was saying he was OK with the Bush administration's torture policy. How did we, as Democrats allow this man to be our nominee. Let it sink in, he voted for the candidate that OK'd the torture of prisoners. To all those on here who are currently outraged by his black face, where were you in 2016? Did you support him then?

Did I support him? I did not express any opinion about someone running for Governor of Virginia. That's a state issue, and I don't live anywhere near that state. So, I did not have an opinion about his candidacy, either in the primaries or the general election, other than to want people to vote for Democrats in every general election.

Had Northam been running here in Minnesota for Governor, I would have had many questions for him, the Bush votes among them, during the primaries.

a resident either but i would think his support of Bush and Cheney should have been a red flag. It's hard to believe there wasn't another candidate available with a better track record than his.

So, I can't comment intelligently about that. Northam won the Democratic primary for that office and ran as a Democrat. Beyond that, I paid no attention to him or Virginia's politics at all.

I won't in the future, either. There is more than enough to do in my own state.

but focus primarily on my own districts, both state and federal. I'm also interested in statewide elections, but only here in Minnesota. While I sometimes comment on things in other places, I don't study local politics anywhere but where I live.

out why he became "The Guy" so we don't make the same mistake again in Virginia or anywhere else.

And finally by the democrats of Virginia because they liked him and thought he had the best chance to win a very competitive seat.

Which he did. There was no conspiracy. He won the way all our candidates win.

Since his successor is a democrat he probably should resign.

But unless he has higher ambitions, which are now shot, I suspect his decision will be guided by what he is hearing from the state party rather than national figures.

I do not consider him to be one, any more than he does.

whether they were anomalies or in keeping with his political choices in the past.

Beyond that, I don't really know his political positions. I don't follow Virginia politics at all.

sure that a black candidate couldn't win the top post there. But if he resigns now, Fairfax would be governor, and if he does a good job, he might well be easily reelected in 2020.

If he takes over, I'll learn more, i suppose, but I don't really follow Virginia politics, except to watch the results for presidential elections there. There's just not enough time to keep up with every state.

They say they are Democrats and do embrace a few principles BUT.
-Can't vote for Hilary because of her Emails and Benghazi.
-We cant afford single payer (support Lieberman).
-Canadian drugs are dangerous (support Booker).
-Low lives don't deserve healthcare.
-Homeless people don't want to work.
In essence they have incorporated many right wing points into their world view many which are not the core of the Democratic party. The Booker and Lieberman examples are significant also.
-Airplane

as long as they vote with the Democratic Caucus most of the time. That's because Republicans never vote with the Democratic Caucus on important issues.

Manchin, in West Virginia, is the prime example.

Since some states are very conservative, it can be impossible for a progressive Democrat to win an election in them. So, we take what we can get and hope for the best.

We have only two nationwide offices - President and VP. And those are actually state elections, too.

Once someone like Lieberman on Medicare and Booker on importing drugs from Canada betrays us on something we really need to move forward on they are on my No Way for the Primary but if they are the candidate for the General Election they have my vote. We must promote the best in the Primary and support the Democratic candidate in the General. I am not a one issue voter and I realize that there are all shades out there actually I an a kind of wait and see but weight social progress issues more heavily, electibility is also an important issue.
-Airplane

. . .what they wished for.

Because the next one up to take Northam's place is Lt Gov. Justin Fairfax; and he's dynamic, young, progressive Democrat who also drew in droves of Democrats who called themselves centrists.

I might have to start watching Virginia politics a little - something I don't bother with now.

Until this Northam thing became a national story, I couldn't have told you the name of Virginia's Governor without using Google.

Those of us who grew up there, born to parents from elsewhere, are a huge bloc of voters in the Washington suburbs. When I was born, the area where I spent most of my childhood was dirt roads and long car rides to ANY store, let alone D.C. My parents were looking for a place to live decently on my dad's rather modest salary as an experimental Washington correspondent for a newspaper in a rural one-horse town out in Nowhere, USA. Of the three kids, My brother is the only one who returned to settle (via Japan) in northern Virginia. My sister ended up in the NY area, where our parents were born, I ended up back south (one of my dad's grandfathers was from Charleston, SC), before my wife-to-be said "come live with me on the banks of the Rhein (the proverbial offer I couldn't refuse)."

Now, 60 years later, with the explosion of the Federal bureaucracy, Dulles Airport (finally direct flight overseas without having to go to New York) and clever wooing of huge companies with their tens of thousands of high salary employees (VA has a state income tax), northern Virginia is practically a State in itself. The dirt roads and empty farms of my childhood are now interstates, condos and malls ("been away so long I hardly knew the place" ). The right-leaning old Virginians have basically been outnumbered (and slowly outvoted) by the more liberal new arrivals. They are not going anywhere any time soon, and their children will most likely inherit their left-leaning voting patterns. Despite the suburban sprawl, some fabulous nature is relatively accessible (Great Falls, the Shenandoah Valley, coastal everything), and conservationists enjoy an audience there.

Then there is coastal Virginia, which is, to oversimplify, naval bases, resorts, and horse farms. There must be SOMEBODY left on DU who read "Misty of Chincoteague" as a child.

Finally, there is the rest. "Old" Virginia, if you like. Shenandoah, the Appalachians, Richmond, Roanoake, with the island of Charlottesville (UVA, Monticello, Jefferson is still revered there) in the middle.

State politics in Virginia has become, predictably, the old, conservative, "traditional" Virginia butting heads with the new, progressive influx, and the money and jobs they have brought in have escaped exactly nobody. There are a LOT of former Republicans around who have no problem admitting that they have seen that their past politics will forever remain in the past, have no relevance in today's America, and that the future--and THEIR future--lies with us.

having said that, he is not MY governor, so I don't get to make that decision.

I do have major problems, though, with any "Democrat" who voted for GWB. The choice was clear, and Bush was always the wrong choice. It shows poor judgment, at the very least, to have voted for him.

I'd have voted for Northam's primary opponent, I'm sure.

At least in my estimation.

Not everyone agrees, though.

and insist on staying as Governor. He should have already resigned, and it looks like he is not bowing to pressure.

It could be about several others, I suppose. Often it has to do with the politics of their state. Some, like Gabbard, could only have been elected as Democrats; others couldn’t have won as Democrats unless they took some conservative positions. Northam can take moderate or even conservative positions, if that’s what it takes to be a Virginia Democrat (I don’t rightly know), but his casual attitudes about race are a deal-breaker for me.

Every state is different, and the Democrats who can win in each state must match the general political climate in that state. So, this thread is about all those Democrats who many might not recognize as Democrats they'd vote for.