This campaign season brought many newcomers into the political process, but when it came to big-dollar giving, the old guard held serve. In Charlottesville, only one new breed entered the upper echelon of donors, and they share a last name. Otherwise, these eight types are familiar.
Activists
Spot them at IY, bagging their own Tofutti in their sunset-splashed reusable grocery sacks. With Prius their car of choice, they were first on the block with their “01.20.09” bumper stickers. Mostly employed at nonprofits, activists have left city stress for small town living and a chance to make a difference on pollution or rates of minority incarceration. They send their kids to public schools unless the tikes are “exceptional.” Then it’s hello, Peabody and Tandem. Favorite Supreme Court Justice: David Souter.
Artists
They follow their morning yoga with two hours of writing, painting or browsing the Anthropologie catalog in the radiant-heated, 1,400-square-foot “studio” out back. Their weekly deliveries from Foods of All Nations include Wheatabix and San Pellegrino. This crowd is big into buying surrounding properties and putting them into easements—what more environmentally friendly way to ward off nosy fans? They keep Republicans at bay, too, giving not a cent to the GOP this time out.
Doctors and professors
Gray beards look good with tweed jackets and white lab coats, which is a good thing since the University keeps plenty of people like this busy around here. Check out their clean Volvos in front of houses on Thomson Road or, for the more conservative crowd, the Meadowbrook Heights neighborhood. Workplace politics are more prominent than electoral ones, though they did help out Dems, the GOP and the independents this time around.
Hedge fund, private equity and investment managers
Millions of dollars per month routinely churns in and out of these guys’ low-profile offices, typically tucked away on Court Square or above Downtown retail shops. Presumably most of these donations were made before Lehman went bust and hell broke loose. Farms—really big farms with elegant names—provide outbuildings for Range Rovers, Porsches and the little lady’s STAB-stickered Tahoe.
Lawyers
These folks don’t make as much as they used to, and their showing here matches that reality.
Area business owners
This is the visible money class in town, what with the health clubs, music halls, car dealerships and concrete businesses they run. Many have been around Charlottesville for a long time, and they have the low (two-digit) member numbers at Farmington to prove it. “Landed gentry” is another term for these folks, who find themselves backing many of the prominent real estate deals in town and keep attorney Steve Blaine’s number in the Rolodex, often right next to Virgil Goode’s.
Relatives of Tom
The personal is political for this crowd. But all the generous kin in the world (there are a lot of them in this Catholic family) lays impotent before the mighty State Board of Elections now counting not every penny but every vote in the statistically improbable tight race for the Fifth Congressional District.
Unknowns
These people embody the affluent eclectic class that overruns Charlottesville and seems mighty light on work, mighty heavy on dough. Among them count retirees, homemakers, students and, ’natch, at least one millionaire “golf professional.”
