No doubt you all have been asking yourself — who is Californian and Democratic Socialists of America Chair, Dolores Huerta, going to endorse in the VA-10 Democrat primary?
And who will Gloria Steinem endorse? Eleanor Smeal? These left-wing dinosaurs have arrived in the VA-10 race that is sporting at this rate about eight (yes, 8) Democrat candidates.
Their candidate? A California woman who just moved to the 10th District and brought with her the whole Obama team — pollsters, ad team, and endorsements. Her background? Obama State Department, San Francisco Office Director, California Policy Director, and Legislative Coordinator for People for the American Way, and was over in London the past year as a student.
Since when has math ever stopped a Democrat, you ask?
So will the progressive, Indivisible movement (that claims to be strong with VA-10 Democrats) be able to sell a “San Fran Nan” style candidate?
Now you may think just last year, Virginia’s 10th District rejected carpetbagger LuAnn Bennett, who moved from the D.C. Ritz Carlton into Virginia, didn’t they?
Yet Barbara Comstock — who has lived in the District for over 35 years — defied the pundits who have underestimated her every time and topped Bennett with a higher than predicted win of 53-47 (for contrast, Trump lost the District 41-51).
Since when has math ever stopped a Democrat, you ask? Rarely, as national-level Democrats with little to no VA-10 ties are throwing their hats into the race — or quite literally, moving into the District to run.
To give you a sense of how few ties any of the 8 candidates have to VA-10 — not a single one of them gave a dime to LuAnn Bennett in her race last year, even though it was touted as one of the most competitive in the country. State Senator Jennifer Wexton did give a small donation from her campaign coffers, but no personal money. The same goes for the 2014 race where none of these eight candidates currently in the VA-10 Democratic scrum donated a dime of personal resources to John Foust’s campaign — again in a campaign the Democrats touted as the most competitive in the country.
Now one of these “Deplorable Eight” with gobs of family fortune money is ignoring that history and counting on her close personal friends Dolores, Gloria, and Eleanor to help her to do what LuAnn couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do.
Meet Alison Friedman, a California transplant who came to Washington, D.C. for an Obama State Department mid-level position and lived in D.C. during her tenure. A few months ago, she moved into Virginia’s 10th District, hired the Obama campaign team, and had the top fundraising quarter of the eight Democrat candidates with $452k at the end of June for her first quarter. 91.5% of her money came from out of state — largely from her home state of California and New York.
Dan Helmer, of “the worst ad of 2018” fleeting fame, has only lived in the VA-10 for a couple of years and was (miraculously) 2nd in fundraising with $365K; Lindsey Stover Davis, a lobbyist from Texas and another recent transplant to the District came in 3rd for fundraising with $306K.
State Senator Jennifer Wexton, the Boss Connolly recruit, trailed far behind in a distant 4th place barely bringing in a scant $200k.
Sources tell The Republican Standard that when Alison Friedman went shopping for public office discussed running for Congress, her California friends and family recommended California as more suited for her politics, but she apparently has become enamored of her D.C.
Yet Friedman’s clique of friends in Kalorama, Georgetown, and Adams Morgan and didn’t want her to leave. So Friedman started looking around. VA-10 was open at the time and made the “sacrifice” of moving to the ‘burbs (oh, the horror for a California lefty) and she bought a house in McLean. As fate would have it, if Friedman had just waited a few more months, she could have moved into Maryland to run for the Democratic open seat of Rep. John Delaney, but alas by the time he announced his retirement, Alison had already purchased her 1.3m home in Virginia — you know, those ‘burbs.
Just for grins — Alison Friedman calls her campaign – ALISON FOR VIRGINIA! (yes, all caps) , presumably just in case the Californian native and recent D.C. resident occasionally forgets where she is — on just in case anyone from Kentucky wants to know what rhymes with Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Alison touts her work on human trafficking (in California). Yet Comstock has been a leader in Virginia, passing one of Virginia’s first human trafficking statutes in the Virginia General Assembly and continuing that leadership in Congress.
Alison wants you to know about all of her supporters — but amazingly enough, none of them actually live in Virginia (still trying to meet the neighbors no doubt) — but Friedman has been rolling out lots of endorsements all the same.
One true gem in all of this, actual capital-S Socialist Dolores Huerta claims that Alison can “work across the aisle” — because Socialists are well known for that, right? Or maybe that’s the far left aisle between Democrats and Socialists? Perhaps it’s best not to speculate too much (there’s a gulag for that).
Laughably, Dolores claims that Alison knows about the “booming new data farms” in VA-10 with the shocked surprised of a come-here. But Dolores didn’t tell them they are “booming” because of Rep. Comstock’s data center legislation that she worked “across the aisle” on (with Democrats, not socialists) and passed that top priority legislation.
Yet if Comrade Huerta’s socialism doesn’t convince you? Alison says she is inspired by Huerta’s work on “labor rights” — a fact that is certain to warm the hearts of Northern Virginia’s Chamber of Commerce (who reportedly broke with Northam over his wishy-washy refusal to support Virginia’s right to work laws).
But wait — there’s more!
Hear from Gloria Steinem who says Alison Friedman has “the life experience and credibility on the issues” for VA-10. Because you know, Gloira Steinem knows a great deal about real life issues. In Warren County. Where life happens.
Most folks would love to see how Gloria would go over at the Loudoun County Fair…. which Alison Friedman has never been to along with just about any other event in VA-10. Who knows? Maybe they might actually get to see a real cow (and not the sort the Deplorable Eight Democrat Michael Pomerleano likes to think about).
Alison Friedman has even engaged Dolores Huerta to help her with fundraising. Which just has to be a really fun and interesting sales pitch — from each according to their means and all that…
But don’t worry. If Dolores’ pitch doesn’t work out, Alison’s trust fund and family fortune will enable her to keep up with the pricey bills from her Obama stable of consultants.
Did we mention that Alison is not at all going to go quietly with the Jennifer Wexton plan for a convention instead of a primary?
Like Lindsey Stover Davis — who outed the Wexton convention plan — Alison is here to play with a lot of big name friends. Her mother is a long time California activist who knows (and actually likes) Nancy Pelosi. So the chances of Friedman getting rolled by the likes of Wexton and Boss Connolly are slim to none… and slim is wearing a Freidman t-shirt.
Either way, the scuttlebutt among the Democrats reaching out to Republicans outside of Virginia’s 10th District is fascinating to behold. Whomever stands atop the wreckage of the Democratic primary in June 2018 is going to have a difficult time explaining to a pro-business and center-right VA-10 why democratic socialism is the path of the future.
Good luck, Maverick.
