To All Amherst County Democrats:
Dear Friends,
The Committee will meet at the Madison Heights Library (next to Lowe's), Tuesday May 10th, 7PM. Everyone is welcome. Doors open at 6:30. Seating is limited, so come early if you can.
Bert Dodson
We are pleased to welcome our special guest speaker, Bert Dodson, former Lynchburg City Coucilman and Vice-Mayor, President and CEO of Dodson Bros. Inc., and member of numerous civic organizations.
Bert Dodson
Mr. Dodson will bring us his insights on the effects of redistricting, with special focus on the new 22nd Virgina Senate District of which Amherst County is entirely a part.
Don't miss this special event. Invite your friends, family and neighbors to come. EVERYONE is welcome. A
question and answer session will follow as time allows.
A short business meeting will be held following Mr. Dodson's address. We will continue to focus on precinct operations in order to be prepared for 2011 and 2012 elections.
Your participation is crucial to our success. There are still leadership positions open in some precincts. We encourage you to get involved as much, or as little, as you feel comfortable with. Or just come by and watch the process.
David Burford says "You're Invited"
Remember - meeting is Tuesday the 10th, 7PM, at the Madison Heights Library.
Hope to see you there.
On behalf of your Democratic Party in Amherst,
David Burford
MEETING LOCATION:
Madison Heights Branch
200 River James Shopping Center
Madison Heights, VA 24572
Bert Dotson Extra Information
The Amherst County Democratic Committee is pleased to have Bert Dodson as our special guest so I wanted to post a little extra information about all of Bert's activities. Little did I know when I started compiling information that there was enough for a couple of books and a movie. Bert has devoted a great deal of his life and time in service to the citizens of central Virginia. I picked just a couple of items to highlight knowing that no matter which honors of Bert's I chose I couldn't do this man justice.
Bert Dodson and Joan Foster
Dodson Pest Control has received special recognition from the Family Alliance and Presbyterian Homes and Family Services for its contributions to family-oriented programs in Lynchburg, VA. Company President and CEO Bert Dodson, Jr. accepted the ‘Friend of Family' award from Lynchburg Mayor Joan Foster. The November 22nd event was held to celebrate National Family Week and to honor fourth grade Essay Contest winners throughout the Lynchburg region. The Family Alliance provides a Child Abuse Prevention Center, Child Care Resource Center and a Counseling Center. Presbyterian Homes and Family Services offer Residential Services for Children and Young Adults and Foster Care.
BHS Principal Bruce Abbott (left) with Scholarship Winner Kelsey Greene (center) and Dodson Pest Control
Pres/CEO Bert Dodson, Jr. (right).
Dodson Pest Control has presented a Brookville High School student the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Young Entrepreneur Award. Kelsey Greene received the NFIB/B.F. Dodson Family scholarship award in the amount of $1,000 from Dodson Pest Control President and CEO Bert Dodson, Jr. The National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation instituted the scholarship program to reward and encourage entrepreneurial talents among high school students. Award recipients can attend the university, college or vocational/technical institute of their choice with tuition assistance from the foundation. Kelsey Greene was among six award winners from Virginia.
The Lynchburg, VA Fire Department held its seventh annual Employee Awards Ceremony on October 10th, 2007 at Peakland United Methodist Church. The ceremony recognized many accomplishments that occurred throughout the year, including career achievement awards and medals of merit.
At the ceremony, an Advocacy Award was presented to Bert Dodson, Jr., the President and CEO of Dodson Pest Control. Dodson and the company were recognized for their continued support of the Operation Smoke Detector project. Operation Smoke Detector is a community service initiative that enables every home in Lynchburg to have a working smoke detector.Dodson Pest Control has its corporate headquarters in Lynchburg, and operates 34 offices serving Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Eastern Tennessee and the District of Columbia metropolitan area. It is one of the largest family-owned and operated pest management companies in the country.
Here at ACVDN we reviewed approx. 50 selections and picked the above three. There were hundreds more entries we could have reviewed but not enough time to do it. ACVDN salutes Bert Dodson Jr. for service to his community that is well above and beyond anything that can be reasonably expected of any man. Bert our collective hats are off to you.
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Other Happenings
Redistricting Could Cost Virginia $10 Million
Charles Judd, chairman of the State Board of Elections estimates that it would cost about $20,000 to equip each of the 500-plus new precincts.
Now that the governor has approved the General Assembly’s redistricting plans, the State Board of Elections must find millions of dollars to implement the new maps.
“They split over 500 precincts, and we have to equip them,” said Charles Judd, chairman of the State Board of Elections. He estimates that it would cost about $20,000 to equip each of the 500-plus new precincts. That would put the total price tag at more than $10 million.
“This is what you’d call an unfunded mandate,” Judd said.
He said federal funds may be available to help localities prepare for the fall elections, when all 100 delegates and 40 senators in the General Assembly are up for election. If the federal funds don’t come through, localities will have to raise the money themselves.
For the past month, legislators have been trying to redraw political boundaries to account for population changes reflected in the 2010 census. For example, because of population growth in Northern Virginia, that region merited an additional Senate seat and three more House seats.
Bob McDonnell
The General Assembly approved plans last month, but Gov. Bob McDonnell vetoed them, saying they split too many communities. So the assembly took another crack.
On April 28, lawmakers passed House Bill 5005, containing revised maps. The following day, McDonnell signed the bill.
“It is a great improvement over the previous plan that I vetoed,”
the governor said in a statement.
Voting on HB 5005 was delayed after the unexpected death of the House clerk, Bruce Jamerson. After memorializing Jamerson in a series of commendation bills and recessing until April 27, the House voted 90-8 to pass the bill. The next day, the Senate approved it on a 32-5 vote.
McDonnell names former Fla. elections chief to head Va. board
Thats Right, Everybody knows the best election people learned to do it in Florida.
Gov. Bob McDonnell has installed Florida’s former elections chief as the new secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections and made two other appointments that give Republicans a majority on the three-member board.
McDonnell today appointed Donald Palmer to a four-year term as the board’s secretary, putting him in charge of agency’s day-to-day operations. Palmer will succeed outgoing secretary Nancy Rodrigues, an appointee of former Gov. Tim Kaine, whose term expires Monday.
Palmer, who now lives in Williamsburg, is the former director of elections for the Florida Department of State, where he oversaw the 2008 presidential election and 2010 midterm elections. He’s also a former Justice Department lawyer who helped enforce federal voting laws and advised state election officials on civil rights compliance.
McDonnell also tapped Republican Charles Judd and Democrat Kimberly Bowers, both Richmond-areas residents, to fill the other two seats on the board.
Rodrigues’ last day is Monday, when the state board will take up a complaint against Montgomery County’s electoral board over irregularities that occurred in the Nov. 2 elections.
Virginia Senate Election May Be One Of The Most Competitive Contests Of 2012
Former Sen. George Felix Allen (R) and former DNC Chairman Tim Kaine start their high-profile race for Virginia's Senate seat in a tie, according to a new poll.
Both Kaine and Allen would take 46 percent of the vote if the election between the two political heavyweights were held today, according to a Washington Post poll published Sunday.
The poll suggests what many political observers have suggested for some time: that the race to succeed the retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) will be one of the most competitive and closely-watched races of the 2012 cycle.
Jim Webb
Both Kaine and Allen start the race with net-positive favorable ratings with Virginia voters. According to the poll, 57 percent of Virginia voters have a favorable impression of Kaine, while 52 percent have a favorable opinion of Allen.
Both men had served as governor of Virginia before moving onto the subsequent positions for which they're especially well-known. Allen served a term in the Senate before losing in the 2006 Democratic wave, a loss hastened by his use of a racial epithet against a Webb tracker on the campaign trail. Kaine served
most recently as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), a job which Republicans have sought to use against Kaine, describing him as President Obama's top "cheerleader." Allen has had his vocal chords surgically altered so that he can no longer make the ma-ca-ca sounds and removed the nooses from his offices.
Look for him to build a lead and keep it.
Kaine is a rather plain jane, blue dog type democrat who won't do well with the progressive base. Those progressives that vote will vote for Kaine but his ability to excite and motivate warm bodies to go to the voting booth is minimal. Kain is a friend and favorite of President Obama so after the election Kaine will get an ambassadors job and Virginia will be stuck with Allen again.
The Post poll offered other clues about the breakdown of the race. Allen leads Kaine by 10 percent among independents, the poll said, and Kaine has advantages in northern Virginia and in the Richmond area. In Virginia if you don't carry the independents you don't win.
The poll, conducted April 28-May 4, has a 3.5 percent margin of error.
Senator Newman Sells Out Republicans to help self.
I Did It My Way
The brand-new state Senate district that takes in half of Lynchburg attracted its first candidate Tuesday, while Republican leaders settled a dispute among themselves that had resulted from its creation.
Controversy among Republican leaders arose in the Senate last week, but Sens. Steve Newman of Lynchburg and Tommy Norment of Williamsburg said Tuesday that differences had been brushed over. Senate Democrats chose the district’s basic location, Newman said, and let Republicans deal with its
impact on Newman’s district and other GOP-held territory in the Lynchburg region. Running from responsibility Newman blamed the Democrats even though he was absent from the negotations. Showing up is the first step in doing your job.
You Did Not See Me Stab Ralph Smith in the Back
As a result, first-term Republican Sen. Ralph Smith of Botetourt County lost his district, and accusations swirled that Newman failed to protect him. Protecting Smith’s district proved to be
impossible, since Newman was not present for the session and Smith said he had little choice but to accept the way the system works. Many still feel Sen. Smith was sold down the river by Newman.
Bryan Rhode, a Richmond city prosecutor who lives in Goochland County, cast his hat Tuesday into what promises to be a crowded ring in the new 22nd Senate District. Republicans are crawling over each other for a chance at the seat so Sen. Smith won't be the only one that gets his throat cut. Several Lynchburg-area Republican leaders say at least half a dozen potential candidates have put out feelers to gauge their chances.
The 22nd District has no incumbent senator within its borders. It leans Republican, and gave 63 percent of its votes to Gov. Bob McDonnell in 2009. If both parties field candidates in November, the race could be expensive because the district reaches into three television markets, including Charlottesville and the costly Richmond area.
The Republicans’ intraparty fight and misunderstandings about new district boundaries resulted from Newman’s absence, his being unable to attend the General Assembly session Thursday which was when it settled on a redistricting plan that McDonnell promised to approve. Actually showing up is a major part of doing the job.
Steve "No Show" Newman
Newman was absent for the final day of negotiations.
Newman said last week that he was disappointed because Norment, the Senate Republican leader, and Sen. Bill Stanley of Franklin County went along with last-minute changes that put some Roanoke County precincts in Newman’s 23rd District. Newman said they were sandbagging him with the new Roanoke County precincts.
Roanoke County is divided among three Senate districts, which isn’t good for me, Newman said. But on Tuesday, Newman said, he talked things over with Norment and Stanley who agreed to help him with his next election. All three of them got a better understanding of the population squeeze that the new District 22 placed on districts south and west of Lynchburg and agreed that they could elect a republican in the new district. Once satisfied he could retain his Senate seat Newman went along with the deal.
“Everything worked out well and I am pleased with the final redistricting plan,” Newman said.
“Had I been in Richmond, much of the misunderstanding would have been avoided. Particularly, it would have been clear that the changes in Bedford and Roanoke counties were driven by Senators Stanley and Norment and not me,” Newman said. "Sen. Ralph Smith would know it wasn't me that stabbed him in the back."
Norment and Stanley issued statements saying the Senate’s Democratic majority was responsible for splitting Lynchburg and several nearby counties between two or more districts. Stanley said, “I was very upset when reporters discovered that Norment and I had done it and not the Democrats.” "Norment and I both think Newman ratted us out."
Norment, who had asked Newman to oversee redistricting for Republicans in the western part of Virginia, said Tuesday that he had no idea Newman would let the job slide and even be absent from the sessions. Norment admitted he had made a mistake in picking Newman to oversee the job and accepted responsibility for the whole mess. He added he couldn't understand why Newman was unable to protect Smith’s district, maby being absent for the whole session led to the outcome. "Sen. Newman’s limited ability made it impossible to lend further assistance to our members,” Norment said.
The new district’s largest localities are in the Lynchburg area, with the northern part of Lynchburg and Amherst County accounting for 38 percent of its population.
22nd Senate District
Locality Population
Lynchburg (part) 41,719
Amherst Co. 32,353
Fluvanna Co. 25,691
Prince Edward Co. 23,368
Goochland Co. 21,717
Buckingham Co. 17,146
Appomattox Co. 14,973
Cumberland Co. 10,052
Louisa Co. (part) 9,166
Total 196,185
Ideal size: 200,025
Deviation -1.9%
BUSH and his Team want more Credit for the termination of bin Laden.
" I Did It"
If you look at it in just the right way Bush played a crucial role in President Obama getting Osama Bin Laden. If Bush hadn't fritted away 6 or 7 years forgetting about Bin Laden, if he had done the job and captured or killed him there would be no job for Obama to do. So without George W Bush and his lack of action President Obama could not have done the job. Now I know you people who want more credit given to Bush are happy. You're Welcome. Glad I could improve your spirit.
Amherst County Virginia Democratic News
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