Apparently, Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s camp has decided it doesn’t want to cede the fundraising rich soil of Albemarle County and Charlottesville to Obama’s biggest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. With New York Senator Hillary Clinton coming for a Paramount fundraiser September 23, Obama will also appear for a Charlottesville event slated for October 29, The Daily Progress first reported last week.
Likely their stops are less about winning primary votes than about filling war-chests with local cash. After all, Virginia’s February 12 primary, while just a week after Super Tuesday, has been made even less important this go around by states like Florida and Michigan moving up their primaries to January.
The local fundraising appearances of presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may signal that Virginia is in play for Democrats—or simply that we have rich people in these hills.
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Charlottesville’s cache instead is probably our local celebs with Democratic inclinations. John Grisham will host Clinton’s event. Obama hasn’t announced yet who will help him draw in the thousand-dollar-hors-d’oeuvre crowd, but considering the enthusiasm that met him when he spoke at the State Democrats’ Jefferson-Jackson dinner in February, he surely is positioned for success.
That isn’t to say it doesn’t have something to do with Virginia’s votes.
"Virginia’s very much in play," says Mo Elleithee, a spokesperson for the Clinton campaign. "The state has proven in recent elections that it welcomes the Democratic message. The changing demographics of the state show that it’s increasingly winnable for Democrats."
Some aren’t so excited about these big names showing up locally.
"Albemarle does have quite a bit of money, but I think this is way too soon for any of this to be going on," says Christian Schoenewald, vice chair of the County Republicans. "They’ve accelerated the campaign season so much this year that any candidate on either side coming in and doing big fundraisers like this distracts from the very important local elections we’ve got going on this year."
Schoenewald points out that the deadline for petition signatures to get on the Virginia primary ballot comes three weeks after the November 6 election. "Having to do that kind of organizing for all that eats into these local elections we have this year, and in Albemarle that’s fairly significant." At least two of three races for the county Board of Supervisors appear to be tight.
"When you get a presidential fundraiser [Democrat or Republican] going on in an active local election, there may be some spillover press for local candidates," says Schoenewald, "but ultimately, that’s money going for presidential fights that could have been used in local fights."
Additional reporting by Scott Weaver.
Previous Obama coverage: Obama, where art thou?
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