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Charlottesville City Councilor Bob Fenwicks defeat in the Democratic primary this past Tuesday raises the stakes for progressives who are worried that if the two Democratic council nominees are elected, City Council will not do enough to alleviate poverty and prevent gentrification.

Fenwick said Thursday that the election was a referendum on his tie-breaking vote to remove the citys statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

While the statue vote may have negatively affected Fenwick, other candidates and political activists are looking at other issues and raising concerns about the direction the city could take if the two Democratic nominees newcomers Amy Laufer and Heather Hill are elected to office on Nov. 8.

Nikuyah Walker, an independent candidate for the council, said Tuesday that she anticipated Fenwick would lose because of his skepticism of high-density urban development, consultants and urban planning initiatives. Walker said Fenwick was the only candidate she voted for in the primary.

Later that night, another independent candidate, Nancy Carpenter, said on Twitter that Laufer and Hill will plaster the city with luxury high-rises and leave the working class and poor behind.

Though Carpenter filed to run, she did not qualify to be on the ballot. In addition, previously announced independent candidates Clifford Hall and Dale Woodson also ended up not qualifying.

That leaves Walker, Kenneth Jackson, Cassie Clawson, Paul Long and John Edward Hall as the independents who also will be on the ballot come November, seeking to fill two open seats on the five-member council. No Republican candidates have filed to run in this years council election.

The independents presence could heighten the drama going into the general election, as Fenwicks loss by more than 1,800 votes despite the endorsement of a local progressive group may have signaled that most voters will continue to look toward more moderate-leaning Democrats for leadership.

At least at this stage, the primary voters seemed to have made a pretty clear choice, Mayor Mike Signer said Tuesday after it became clear that Hill and Laufer would win.

Former Mayor Dave Norris, however, does not think Fenwicks loss should be seen as a referendum on the local progressive movement. Norris said the statue controversy might have played a part in his loss.

I think Bob lost because I think theres a lot of frustration in the city right now. They took it out on Bob, he said. Norris added that he thinks Laufer and Hill, who are more progressive than Bob on some issues, did a better job of campaigning and fundraising.

Its a heavily Democratic community, but it isnt monolithic, Norris said. November is going to be very interesting. Itll be the first time in many years, I think, there will be a chance for an independent candidate to break through.

In the 2015 Democratic primary for the City Council, three seats were up for grabs. Signer, Wes Bellamy and incumbent Kathy Galvin were nominated and went on to win in November while another incumbent, Dede Smith, fell short by 222 votes.

Hell probably see the same fate, Walker said of Fenwick on Tuesday as she was canvassing for commonwealths attorney candidate Jeff Fogel, a far-left candidate who fell short of the Democratic nomination Tuesday.

In the 2015 primary, Bellamy received 2,483 votes, nearly 30 percent of all votes. Signer, Galvin and Smith received between 1,600 and 1,855 votes a range of 19 percent to 22 percent of the votes. A fifth candidate that year, Lena Seville, received 651 votes, or 7.7 percent.

We know why Dede lost, Walker said. She was becoming more forceful she was becoming more concerned about environmental and housing issues.

[Democrats] want their people to follow the status quo, and she didnt do that, she said.

Earlier this year, Smith and several other progressive activists and former politicians, including Walker and Norris, helped to create Equity and Progress in Charlottesville. Norris stepped down from the groups steering committee about a month ago to focus on his personal life, he said last week.

EPiC quickly established a political platform focused on social and racial equity, economic opportunity and government accountability.

At a May Democratic candidate forum hosted by EPiC, organizers and observers were frustrated that Laufer and Hill declined to make commitments to building 1,000 new affordable housing units in the city and increasing the living wage for city employees to $15 an hour.

Progressives also were disappointed that the two hesitated to state outright whether they support the Black Lives Matter movement, and that they declined to answer a question about whether the citys Human Rights Commission should have more authority to investigate alleged human rights violations. At that forum, Hill and Laufer said Black lives matter after some pushback from the audience.

Other activists have been skeptical of how much money the two nominees raised.

According to finance reports, Hill and Laufer had outraised Fenwick who received just $4,047 by a ratio of about five to one by June 1.

Geoff Skelley, a political pundit with the University of Virginias Center for Politics, said Fenwicks admittedly lax attitude toward fundraising may have played a role in his loss.

Its hard in politics to win without competitively fundraising, Skelley said.

Of the $21,376 contributed to Laufers campaign, nearly $8,400 came from the real estate and construction sector, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Her largest donors included her husband, Aharon Laufer (who donated $2,015), and Barbara Fried (who donated $2,500). Both are involved in local real estate development.

Hill received $22,838 in campaign contributions about $8,000 came from the retail and service industry nearly a third of which was in in-kind contributions from Robert Radifera Photography. She also received about $4,000 from family members.

Last month, EPiC announced its endorsements for Fenwick and Fogel in their respective races.

All three of the candidates for City Council seemed fine to me. My decisions were based on Bob Fenwicks endorsements, primarily, said Kevin Rose, a UVa graduate student.

Similar to Democrat Ross Mittiga, who lost in the primary to incumbent David J. Toscano in his bid for the nomination for the 57th District House of Delegates seat, Rose is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Rose said he became involved with the local DSA chapter after moving to Charlottesville last year.

Toscano received 5,300 votes Tuesday, or 65 percent of the vote. It was the first time Toscano had faced a primary challenger since he first ran for the seat in 2005.

After casting his ballot at Johnson Elementary School on Tuesday, Rose said he was primarily interested in the vision Mittiga has been trying to attach to the primary to move the Democratic Party in Richmond further left in a more progressive direction.

Although he said he voted for Tom Perriello, who lost in his populist-style gubernatorial primary campaign against Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam on Tuesday, Rose said Perriellos endorsement of Laufer was not a big factor in his decision to vote for her.

Doing research about Laufer and Hill, I found that Laufer had more concrete plans on her website. Thats what it came down to for me, he said. She outlined specific plans based on her experience in the school system.

Laufer, a member of the citys School Board, was the top vote-getter Tuesday, securing nearly 50 percent of the vote.

Though Perriello lost, receiving 44 percent of vote statewide, he did well in the Charlottesville area, where he is from, claiming as much as 80 percent of the vote.

Skelley said the Perriello endorsement certainly didnt hurt [Laufer]. He credited her primary win to her campaigning and fundraising efforts.

Skelley added that the frustration with the status quo on the City Council also may have given her and Hill an edge over Fenwick.

While Hill and Laufer have been cast by some progressive activists as too moderate, Laufer said in an interview last month that she feels her School Board record and campaign proposal to offer free tuition to Piedmont Virginia Community College for qualified Charlottesville High School students exemplify her progressive policy-making.

In my opinion, what I was talking about really resonated with people, Laufer said.

Laufer and Hill also have said they will work to address affordable housing issues. Hill said she wants to work with more individuals and groups to find ways to develop more affordable housing in the city for low- and middle-income earners.

Hill said the community needs to work together to make sure that the citys 2018 Comprehensive Plan and future zoning changes will be drafted in a way that will protect neighborhoods and encourage the development of affordable housing.

Effectively balancing these needs of the community is not an easy task, she said, but it is certainly one I am committed to if elected.

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With primary past, city progressives set sights on upset - The Daily Progress

HOLLYWOOD In the immediate aftermath of Hillary Clintons stunning Electoral College loss to Donald Trumpfor the presidency last November, Democrats took to writing think pieces and conductingheated arguments about how they lost working-class white voters.

Questions like: Was it too much of identity politics? Were they too elitist?

Joe Biden has heard and read about those discussions, and hes sick of them.

This phony debate going in the Democratic Party, theHobbesian choice that were given we either become less progressive, and focus onworking folks, or forget about working folk. and become more progressive, he said while giving the keynote speech to more than 1,200 Democrats at the partys Leadership Blue Gala at the Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood.

There is no need to choose, they are not inconsistent, he said to a cheering crowd.

Easy for him to say. Bidens unique political persona as a longtime member of the Senate representing Delaware has been one of representing the working class whites that Clinton lost to Trump last fall.

Biden himself thought hard about running for president, but with no clear daylight and so much of the Democratic Party establishment supportingClinton (including PresidentObama), he opted to stand down during the last election cycle, but made the case on Saturday that the party could win back those voters, with anobvious inference being that he could be that candidate to do so in 2020.

Citing congressional ratings that showed him to be among the top ten liberal senators in the nation in his 36-year career, Biden said he has been a progressive and someone who could capture the working class vote, so Democrats should know that they could get those votes as well.

These folks were talking about who left us they voted for a black man named Barack Obama!

In fact, exit polls that approximately 12 percent of voterswho supported Obama turned around and chose Trump in 2012.

The former Vice President talked about the working class voters that the Democratic lost in the crucial Rust Belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. He said it wasthings like digitalization and automation that are putting people out of work, in what he called this fourth industrial revolution which is causing real anxiety and fear among many Americans.

Theyre worried that they wont be able to keep up, he said. So we saw of playing to their fears, their lesser angels, their basic instincts, rather than their better angels can still have a powerful impact as a political tool.

He then dug deep into what he said was the hopelessness of some of these Americans, mentioning the statistic that white men aged 45-54 who are dying at a quicker rate than any other demographic right now.

Highest rate of drug abuse. Not the hood. There, he barked.

And Biden talked about how that anxiety can play out by lashing out at the others, such as undocumented immigrants, Muslims and the transgendered. Anyone not like you can become the scapegoat.

It was a compelling speech, marred only by a detour into how cutting tax loopholes could free up money to pay for the community college being the only soft spots in the 51-minute address.

He also chastised Democrats for failing to think big, going for an incremental change instead.

What the hell is happening?! he asked. We build new things by breaking old things.

No, no. Im being deadly earnest, he followed up, one of half-dozen times he would point out his previous comment, making sure everyone knew he wasnt joking.

While his intensity came close to yelling at the audience at points, a few times he dropped down to a whisper, where the audience had to literally lean in to hear him, such as when he described a conversation with his father, who once told him: Joey, I dont expect government to be able to solve our problems, but I do expect them to understand them. Just understand them.

Remainingsotto voce, Biden admitted: That slice of people that Barack and I had, Democrats have always had, that dont think we understand them anymore. Its not a lot, but it was the difference in the election.

The former VP also asked for more civility in our politics, without mentioning the current presidents name. We have to treat the opposition with more dignity, he said, then boasted that there wasnt a single Republican on Capitol Hill who doesnt trust him or wont talk to him.

The 74-year-old Biden recentlylaunchedAmerican Possibilities PAC, a political-action committee that will keep him engaged to help other Democrats, but immediately sparked more discussion about a possible 2020 run, when he would be 77.

Then again, Donald Trump is already the oldest president in our history, having turned 71 last week.

Though there will be plenty of other Democrats in the mix, two of the leading lights Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren will also be in their 70s in three years. Sanders would be 78; Warren would be 71.

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At Florida Dems Leadership Gala, Joe Biden argues progressives can still win working class vote - SaintPetersBlog (blog)

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, June 16, 2017, 10:49 AM

Earlier this week in Virginia, two men who each voted for George W. Bush twice to become President of the United States won their primaries in the governor's race there.

Ed Gillespie, a lifelong Republican, won the Republican primary and Ralph Northam, who has a record of voting Republican, won the Democratic primary.

No, that's not a typo. It is, perhaps, the most relevant example, though, of why progressives and liberals in America are struggling to find a home in the same big tent.

Ralph Northam, 57, was no young man when he voted for George W. Bush to become President in both 2000 and 2004. He was a mid-life doctor whose political views were fully formed. In 2013, Northam openly said "I don't consider myself as a liberal."

KING: Every Democrat in America should support Medicare for All

That isn't me putting words in the man's mouth. He said that. He was 40 years old when he first voted for George W. Bush, 44 years old when he somehow believed enough in the man again to vote for his reelection, and 53 when he made it abundantly clear that he's not a liberal.

Yet he is the Democratic nominee to run against Ed Gillespie, the former head of the Republican Party, to become the next Governor of Virginia.

Hear my heart I know politics are local and I know Virginia has some conservative leanings, but that the choice for governor in the state is now an open conservative and a closeted one bothers me particularly because the Democratic establishment enthusiastically supported Northam.

Do I prefer him over Gillespie? Of course. At least Northam publicly speaks out on Donald Trump, but his values simply don't line up with that of most progressives, including my own.

KING: Donald Trump's presidency is a dumpster fire

I don't know of any better illustration for the current dilemma of American progressives than this race and its result. The Democratic Party is moving to the right.

Dave Wasserman, of FiveThirtyEight, observing the results of the Virginia primaries, said it like this: "There's a new name for the voters most people thought of as VA's moderate Republicans a few years ago: Democrats."

Maybe that's true. Ralph Northam represents that shift as well, but I don't think it's because they've changed their values as much as the invisible line defining who's a Republican and who's a Democrat has shifted.

The Democratic Party has shifted to the right. It's not anti-war. It's not strong on the environment. It's not strong on civil and human rights. It's not for universal health care. It's not strong on cracking down on Wall Street and big banks or corporate fraud. Ralph Northam was and is weak on all of those core principles of the progressive left, but we're expected to get behind him, and candidates like him, as if we're just a few small details away from seeing eye to eye with him. We aren't. He's not a progressive. He's not a liberal. He's hardly even a Democrat.

KING: Don't blame Sanders for congressional baseball shooting

Millions of us who ultimately voted for Hillary Clinton felt the very same way about her. On issues ranging from war, to corporate fraud, to campaign finance, to universal health care, and so much more, her positions were not discernibly different from the most basic Republican talking points.

Was she better than Trump? Of course she was. But I'd literally rather have a Kardashian sister or Curious George be President of the United States over Trump. Someone being better than Trump cannot be our key metric for choosing candidates.

I'm hearing more and more of my progressive friends talk seriously about the need for us to form our own political party. I get it. At the very best we are slightly tolerated guests in the Democratic Party. We are as different from establishment Democrats as those establishment Democrats are from everyday Republicans.

Being begrudgingly tolerated is a terrible feeling. We are an enthusiastic, organized bunch, but I certainly don't feel welcomed.

KING: Trump is scary, but his few remaining fans are even scarier

MSNBC's Joy Reid all but confirmed as much in a widely shared tweet earlier this week in which she said, "Bernie and his followers are like that college friend who stays at your place for weeks, pays $0, eats your food & trashes your aesthetic."

That Reid, who makes a living as a political commentator, came to this conclusion about Bernie Sanders and his millions of followers was deeply disappointing, but revealing. Bernie Sanders is the most popular politician in America. He has done far more for the Democratic Party than it has for him.

When the new head of the Democratic Party, Tom Perez, went on a speaking tour recently with Bernie, the enthusiastic crowds of thousands didn't show up at every single venue to hear Tom they were there for Bernie. Tom didn't do Bernie a favor, Bernie did Tom a favor. Bernie got behind Hillary Clinton and campaigned for her all over the country and asked his supporters to follow his lead.

I was one of those people who did just that. I've been a Democrat all of my life and have campaigned for and donated to so many Democratic candidates across the years. That the millions of us who support Bernie and his values have been reduced to bad guests who don't pay our way, eat up all the food, and trash the place, is a terrible insult rooted in something other than reality.

Democrats lost the House, the Senate, the presidency, the Supreme Court, and the strong majority of state houses and governorships across the country. I agree that it sure does look like somebody trashed the place, but it damn sure wasn't Bernie and his followers. Anybody saying that is delusional.

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KING: Why progressives and liberals continue to feel like unwelcome guests in the Democratic Party - New York Daily News

The defeat of Tom Perriello, who ran as a populist with the backing of Bernie Sanders in Tuesdays gubernatorial primary in Virginia, marked a loss for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

But the results had more to do with timing and the strength of the states party apparatus than ideology, analysts say.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who handily beat Perriello for the Democratic nomination by 12 points, had the backing of nearly every Virginia Democrat elected to state and federal office - the result of years of cultivation. And he outspent Perriello by $1.4 million on advertising, allowing a heavy television presence - especially in the costly metropolitan Washington market - in the last weeks before the election.

Perriello, a former one-term congressman, jumped into the race in January and hoped to overcome Northams structural advantage by riding a wave of anti-Trump and national progressive energy, bolstered by endorsements from Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D).

[To shake up Democratic Party, progressives turn to Virginia primary]

But it was too little, too late.

The lesson here was you cannot get in a race very late and underfunded against a candidate who has been raising money and organizing for a long time and who has every meaningful endorsement from the Democratic Party, said Jennifer Duffy, who monitors gubernatorial contests for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. I dont think this has anything to do with progressivism.

Perriello was unable to raise millions in small donor donations, even with the help of national progressive groups that sent fundraising pitches to millions. He relied on a few wealthy donors to write six-figure checks, and loaned himself $150,000 in the campaigns final days.

Meanwhile, Northam was airing ads touting his endorsements from unions, abortion rights groups and other progressive organizations, showcasing his background as a doctor and a veteran and referring to Trump as a narcissistic maniac.

[Why this Democratic doctor calls Trump a narcissistic maniac]

Perriellos internal polling showed him plunging 12 points in the last week of the campaign, mostly in vote-rich northern Virginia, after Northam won the endorsement of the Washington Post editorial board and outspent Perriello on advertising 2-1, according to Ian Sams, Perriellos spokesman.

In what became a high-turnout, low-information election, the spending disparity made a real difference in giving voters just enough information about Ralph to help him win, Sams said. It was a competitive advantage we couldnt overcome.

Democratic primary voters also seemed disinclined to rebel against the party establishment. Outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are all beloved by Virginia Democrats. And they all backed Northam.

The real story, at least on the Democratic side...is people are generally happy with their leadership, said David Turner, Northams spokesman.

Perriellos campaign found it an enormous challenge.

Its hard to break through against an entire unified state Democratic Party operation, and we knew that from the beginning, said Sams.

In the primary, Perriello did exceptionally well with rural voters, sweeping the southern and western parts of the state, while Northam claimed the more populated urban crescent of northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. He also did well in jurisdictions that are predominantly African American - a key constituency in the Democratic party.

Throughout his campaign, Perriello argued Virginia Democrats need to retool their approach to win more rural, young and minority voters after squeaker races for governor in 2013 and U.S. Senate in 2014.

But that message was undercut by the partys winning streak. Democrats hold all five statewide offices and triumphed in the last three presidential contests - Virginia was the only Southern state to back Hillary Clinton last fall.

Perriellos embrace of the progressive agenda - increased taxes on the wealthy to fund free community college, universal pre-kindergarten and paid family leave - made him a darling of the movement, as well as a favorite among some mainstream national Democrats. He slammed the corporate influence in politics and refused to accept donations from Dominion Energy, the states largest political donor and a contributor to Northam.

Northam embraced programs he believed can win support from Republicans, such as state funding for technical apprenticeship programs. A pediatric neurologist who championed reproductive rights and gun control, Northam could not be easily cast as an establishment villian.

Because Northam and Perriello shared similar views on policy, voters were left with a nuanced choice between styles: pragmatic or aspirational.

They were both what I would call mainstream progressives, one may have been more progressive on economic issues, one may have been progressive on guns and choice, said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic operative with roots in Virginia.

Perriellos defeat seemed to call into question the power of the Democratic Partys progessive wing, which has been trying to push candidates leftward as the party navigates the Trump era.

[Democrats unitied, GOP appears in disarray after Va. primary]

Progressive have lost other high-profile races this year, including special Congressional elections in Kansas and Montana and in the races to chair the Democratic National Committee and California Democratic Party.

Their bark may be worse than their bite, said Geoffrey Skelley, an analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. They have a lot more work to do if they want the reality of their influence to match what they think their influence is.

Progressive activists say they left a mark even though Northam won.

There would have been an unquestioned victory for progressives had (Perriello) won, said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is aligned with Warren and backed Perriello. But big picture, unlike several years ago, its now very hard to find a Democratic primary where there is not competition to claim the mantle of progressivism and one-up each other on strong positions like $15 minimum wage. And thats what we saw in Virginia.

Perriello supporters seem to be coalescing around Northam, although some environmentalists are withholding support unless he denounces two gas pipeline projects, as Perriello had.

Entering the general election against Republican Ed Gillespie, Northam is Virginias first Democratic gubernatorial nominee to support the $15 minimum wage, some form of free higher education, drivers licenses for immigrants living in Virginia illegally, among other priorities.

The GOP is already attacking Northam as too extreme. A $5 million PAC funded by the Republican Governors Association started spending on digital ads the day after the election, setting up a website called tooliberalralph.com.

Northams spokesman disputed that Perriello nudged the lieutenant governor to the left.

He has always advocated for an increase in the minimum wage, and hes always advocated for working families, said Turner. What voters wanted...is someone who had a proven record of getting stuff done in Richmond.

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Was defeat of Sanders-backed candidate in Va. a loss for progressives? Not quite - Washington Post

CNSNews.com (blog)

Rev. Graham: Leftist Progressives 'Want to Destroy the President' CNSNews.com (blog) Commenting on the shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.) and three other people by a left-wing Bernie Sanders-supporter on Wednesday, Reverend Franklin Graham said "leftist progressives" will not "let go of losing the election" and "they want to ...

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Rev. Graham: Leftist Progressives 'Want to Destroy the President' - CNSNews.com (blog)