Tag: Individual

Recently released campaign finance numbers are showing a growing influence of wealthy Democrats. But this year something a little different is happening. Stephen Farnsworth at the University of Mary Washington says wealthy Democrats are emerging as a new force. “When you look at the individual recipients of funds you can see that some top donors are very interested in liberal Democrats," Farnsworth says. "They are looking to see the Democratic Party reshaped in a more liberal direction.” Two Charlottesville-area mega-donors are at the top of the list compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project. The other backed Tom Perriello’s ill-fated campaign the Democratic nomination for governor against Ralph Northam. Quentin Kidd at Christopher Newport University says that offers an irony. “These big wealthy donors are emerging in Virginia politics as a force when it comes to campaign finance, and the oddity is that they are trying to undo the influence or undermine the influence of the big associations,” Kidd says. Traditional interest groups are also at the top of the list, including beer wholesalers and trial lawyers. This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.

Edwin Meese III and Mike Gonzalez’s “Trump Can Help Overcome Identity Politics” (op-ed, Feb. 28) pinpoints what is happening to our country today and why so many people are missing the obvious while they obsess about the unimportant and inane. I’m in my eighth decade, have done everything I wanted to do and gone wherever I wanted to (except in segregated Mississippi where I was stationed at Keesler AFB in the 1950s). My race has never been a big deal to me, and if it was to someone else, that was their problem. When I started at Pitney Bowes in 1966 as the first salesperson of color in my part of the country it may have been meaningful to others, but to me it was simply a way to provide for my wife and four children and to escape the restrictive environment at the Detroit News where I had been a “ground-breaking racial pioneer” the previous two years. I did OK at Pitney for 14 years and worked another 10 at Viacom in unsalaried sales positions. The pitiful part of the entire scenario is that those of us this racial score-keeping is supposed to help are harmed the most. I can’t be the only African-American living a normal, stress-free existence, while the unusual, bizarre and cruel get the most attention. Let’s apply the Rotarian Four-Way Test. Is it the truth? The authors present an excellent idea to eliminate, perhaps, the identity politics that government has helped create by having national descent information rather than racial and ethnic information collected in the census and on EEO-1 forms, for example.

President Trump addresses a campaign rally for Pennsylvania special House election candidate Rick Saccone. In his speech, Trump hit back at Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters who routinely calls for his impeachment. "We have to defeat Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, a very low I.Q. individual," Trump said, eliciting boos from the crowd. But he hasn't done anything wrong. "But you have Maxine Waters, and you have plenty of others, and I mean Nancy Pelosi, you can't have that," Trump said of Democratic leadership in the House. Trump called Saccone's Democratic opponent Conor Lamb 'Lamb the Sham' for acting like a Republican to get elected. He won't give me one vote." He looks like a nice guy. He's okay," Trump said of Lamb.