Great Event and Big Endorsement for Leslie Byrne

One of the events I attended in Richmond on Saturday was a reception hosted by Leslie Byrne, who is running for Congress from the 11th. The gathering attracted about 80 people, including several bloggers (Raising Kaine’s Lowell, Eric, and Brian Patton; Kenton Ngo from 750 Volts; Ben Tribbett from Not Larry Sabato; Karen from Anonymous Is A Woman; and me). Even though this wasn’t going out and knocking on doors or making phone calls, the fact that so many bloggers attended the reception hints at how bloggers are willing to do more than simply sit behind their keyboards in order to show their support for Leslie’s campaign.

After some good conversation among the various people at the event, there were some speeches given. Leslie’s speech focused on how she believes that;

“Politics doesn’t have to be divisive. It doesn’t have to be that you tear the other person down to build yourself up. What it has to be is an exchange of ideas, an exchange of policies, an exchange of issues, and an exchange of vision with the voters.”

To illustrate this point, she spoke about how the four candidates in the 2005 Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor all came out of the race as friends. Sen. Chap Petersen, for example, has already endorsed Leslie for Congress and was present at the reception. As Leslie pointed out, Chap has made it known that a significant part of the reason why he endorsed Leslie is that she is honest with voters and won’t change her position just to say what she thinks that particular person wants to hear.

To further illustrate this point, she talked about how some people during her bid for Lieutenant Governor didn’t always agree with her position on gun safety. But when she went down to Southwest, she would talk about how she wanted to solve economy so that they don’t have to sell their guns to put food on the table. In other words, she didn’t try to hide the fact that she her opinions on gun safety might have differed from the crowd. She simply focused on the fact that she wouldn’t put that divisive issue prevent her from working on important topics where we all hold similar goals.

I found this to be impressive because I truly believe that it is when elected officials spend less time trying to divide our country that the government will be able to truly represent the best interests of the public. Leslie’s approach proves she will be able to do that. As Leslie pointed out in her speech, however, the President Bush and the Republicans who have decided to implement Karl Rove type politics seem to have a history of trying to divide us instead of focusing on all the common goals that we all share.

With both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton scheduled to appear at the program later that evening, the primary discussion throughout the weekend was the presidential campaign. Leslie rightfully pointed out in order to truly tackle issues such as economic justice and having some idea of getting universal health care in the United States, we will have to depend on the next Congress. Although it appears as though we’re going to have a lot more Democrats in Congress, we also have to have public officials who “won’t only say the right thing, but do the right thing.” She finished by saying that people who know her will tell you that her commitment is to do the right thing.

After Leslie finished her speech, there was some more good news from the crowd. Representatives from National Organization for Women Political Action Committee (also known as NOW) were there to officially announce that the organization was endorsing Leslie’s Congressional Bid. Like I said when I wrote about Leslie receiving an endorsement from EMILY’s list, this really goes to show that various important groups recognize the fact that she would make an excellent Member of Congress. The crowd seemed to agree as it loudly cheered after the announcement.

Leslie Byrne’s reception was a great part of the JJ Weekend and everyone at the event had a fabulous time. The presence of so many grassroots activists, elected officials such as Sen. Chap Petersen and Sen. Donald McEachin, and several candidates was a prime of example of how there is such a diverse group of people supporting her candidacy. I look forward to continuing to see how Leslie’s campaign continues to grow and was most definitely pleased that I was able to attend the reception.