End of the reporting period tomorrow! A reminder of how the candidates stood on the most recent reports

Money raised during the last reporting period, and cash on hand for each current candidate as of the end of the last reporting period, listed in order of cash on hand; links to VPAP included. Candidates without reports from last period will be listed at the very bottom.

What I find most interesting about this is that some of the top fundraisers are not the ones with the biggest war chests three months out from the election.

• Barbara Comstock (R): Raised, $112,235. COH, $229,915.
• Mark Herring (D): Raised, $125,738. COH, $183,473.
• Jill Holtzman Vogel (R): Raised, $25,387. COH, $166,296.
• Caren Merrick (R): Raised, $136,031. COH, $153,499.
• Barbara Favola (D): Raised, $130,413. COH, $112,909.
• Randy Minchew (R): Raised, $123,744. COH, $111,362.
• Tom Rust (R): Raised, $70,105. COH, $106,901.
• John Stirrup (R): Raised, $100,152. COH, $81,726.
• Tag Greason (R): Raised, $29,043. COH, $64,738.
• Dick Black (R): Raised, $22,339. COH, $60,525.
• David Ramadan (R); Raised, $120,793. COH, $60,211.
• Pam Beck Danner (D): Raised, $78,203. COH, $53,439.
• Patricia Phillips (R): Raised, $61,595. COH, $44,434.
• Eugene Delgaudio (R): Raised, $9,407. COH, $43,093.
• Jim LeMunyon (R): Raised, $46,009. COH, $42,599.
• Jaime Areizaga-Soto (D): Raised, $233,816. COH, $41,137.
• Dave Butler (D): Raised, $51,656. COH, $39,956.
• Suzanne Volpe (R): Raised, $48,266. COH, $36,776
• John Whitbeck (R): Raised, $53,640. COH, $31,267.
• Ralph Buona (R): Raised, $13,620. COH, $31,196
• Tom Bellanca (D): Raised, $32,681. COH, $30,527
• Mike Kondratick (D): Raised, $26,203. COH, $29,525.
• Joe May (R): Raised, $4,200. COH, $29,460.
• Bob FitzSimmonds (R): Raised, $34,545. COH, $28,279.
• Scott York (R): Raised, $12,130. COH, $27,863.
• Steve Simpson (I): Raised, $24,365.00. COH, $26,141.09.
• Jim Burton (I): Raised, $18,945. COH, $20,219
• Cara Townsend (R): Raised, $23,980. COH, $18,612.
• Kelly Burk (D): Raised, $4,486. COH, $18,454.
• Ken Reid (R): Raised, $25,423. COH, $18,124
• Matt Letourneau (R): Raised, $25,312. COH, $16,068.
• Jo-Ann Chase (R): Raised, $19,820. COH, $15,331.
• Shawn Mitchell (D): Raised, $20,854. COH, $14,929.
• Jennifer Wexton (D): Raised, $11,615.40. COH, $14,057.07.
• Andrea McGimsey (D): Raised, $14,930. COH, $12,275.
• Geary Higgins (R): Raised, $19,221. COH, $12,246.
• Malcolm Baldwin (D): Raised, $11,800. COH, $11,161.
• Jim Plowman (R): Raised, $6,596.67. COH, $11,101.23.
• Janet Clark (R): Raised, $41,002. COH, $10,404.
• Al Nevarez (D): Raised, $10,375. COH, $8,288.
• Mike Chapman (R): Raised, $11,179.00. COH, $5,693.71.
• Roger Zurn (R): Raised, $4,371.03. COH, $5,611.53.
• Shawn Williams (R): Raised, $7,560. COH, $5,327.
• Bob Wertz (R): Raised, $8,376.97. COH, $4,922.22.
• Eric Hornberger: Raised, $7,081.84. COH, $4,558.90.
• Cliff Keirce (I): Raised, $5,988. COH, $4,340
• Kevin Kuesters: Raised, $4,000. COH $4,000.
• Jeff Morse: Raised, $5,956.61. COH, $3,479.67.
• Valdis Ronis (D): Raised, $9,095. COH, $2,573.
• Priscilla Godfrey: Raised, $1,444.07. COH, $2,135.10.
• John Ryan: Raised, $1,487. COH, $1,127.91.
• Chris Souther: Raised, $300. COH, $1,101.96.
• Tom Marshall: Raised, $1,000.00. COH, $363.40.
• Margaret Michaud: Raised, $1,067.94. COH, $301.67.
• Debbie Rose: Raised $3,936.16. COH $234.63.
• Jennifer Bergel: Raised, $0. COH, $87.74.
• Larry Roeder (D): Raised, $2,569. COH, $68.
• Jill Turgeon: Raised, $0. COH, $0.

Candidates who hadn't filed candidate papers in time to file a report last period:

• John Andrews
• Anjan Chimaladinne
• Bill Fox
• Eileen Murdock
• Denise Moore Pierce (D)
• Tom Reed
• Brenda Sheridan
• John Stevens

Candidates who do not fund-raise:

• Bob Ohneiser

Candidates who neglected to file:

• Debbie Piland

From my Inbox (links added by me)

Jennifer Wexton Calls on Jim Plowman to Investigate Sheriff Allegations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jennifer Wexton
(703) 779-4896 - office

votewexton@gmail.com

Leesburg, VA (August 4, 2011) – Jennifer Wexton, candidate for Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney, called on Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman today to investigate allegations of “pay to play” campaign donations to Loudoun Sheriff Steve Simpson.

On August 3, 2011, the Washington Post published an article exposing questionable campaign donations to Simpson from organizations with contracts up for renewal the Sheriff’s Department, and from a local nonprofit agency. The article also cited an instance where a major Simpson campaign donor, convicted felon Osama El Atari, served less than 1½ hours of a four-day sentence at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.

“Either all of these events have been taking place under Jim Plowman’s watch, and he knew nothing about them, or he knew what was going on and did nothing. Either way, it’s unacceptable for Loudoun’s top prosecutor not to act.” said Wexton. “That is why I delivered a letter to Mr. Plowman’s office today, officially requesting that he investigate the allegations in the Post article, to determine what, if any, violations of criminal or campaign finance laws have taken place. These are allegations where the taxpayers of Loudoun County deserve answers.”

Mr. Plowman has shown a pattern of launching politically motivated investigations and has not hesitated to pursue his chosen political targets in the past, notably his Susan Van Wagoner conflict of interest opinion, which was ultimately reversed by two courts, and his prosecution of Virginia State Senate candidate Mark Tate for campaign finance violations during the 2007 election cycle.

A little birdy just told me... (UPDATED)

That Ron Speakman, who lost the LCRC endorsement to Mike Chapman a couple of weeks ago, will be seeking the LCDC endorsement at tomorrow night's meeting.

I don't know if this rumor is true. [Rumor confirmed. It's on the agenda for tonight.]

I don't know what the LCDC would do if it is true.

All I know is Loudoun County never ceases to be an amusing place for the political junky.

Input please

I've noticed that, in general, the School Board candidates haven't got campaign websites. They've got facebook pages, and government pages (if they are already serving), and blogs; but only a third have campaign websites.

Which means that my campaign websites page seems woefully incomplete.

However, I'm not really willing to widen my definition for that page, since it would be a holy mess to keep up-to-date if I count every fb page and blog that anyone had (if I were running, for example, I'd be able to list 5 or 6, that's ridiculous.).

I could create a new tab for School Board Candidates only and ask each for the ONE and ONLY ONE link that they would like included.

But treating School Board candidates differently from the other candidates really bothers me. One particular candidate complained to me recently that School Board races are treated as less important than all the other races; that they are after-thoughts; that people think of it as a "starter" race. Well, my friend, it doesn't make your case when you're not putting up a campaign website. Domains are cheap, and a website doesn't have to be expensive to create.

So, dear readers, what do you think? Do I create a separate and DEFINITELY unequal space for SB candidates? Or do I treat them as at least one has asked to be treated, as equal members of the candidate pool?

The adventures of an Obama 2012 bumper magnet

I've got one, as seen in this picture:

and my husband had a matching one, up until Saturday night, when we were parked in the lot at Clyde's (excellent smoked duck, but I don't recommend the Smurf cupcake). When we returned to the car, the magnet was gone.

I'm pretty sure I know who took it, and think it was pretty petty. But no matter, we have more! BTW, person who took it, if you had asked? We would have given you one.