McAuliffe Back in Limelight with Email to Supporters

Terry McAuliffe retured to the spotlight after a two month break since his loss in the democratic primary for the Virginia governorship.  During his six month campaign bid as the Democratic gubernatorial candidate McAuliffe often said that he was “more worried about keeping Democrats in power in Virginia than about his own candidacy.” He proved this to be true by supporting Barak Obama as soon as Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic primary race; and McAuliffe did it again when he threw his considerable political muscle behind Creigh Deeds, after conceding to him their party’s nomination.

Since the June 9th primary McAuliffe has been on the sidelines, that is until early August when he sent an e-mail to all his contacts on his national list of donors and supporters to get behind Creigh Deeds against Bob McDonnell who is the Republican choice for governor of Virginia. A second e-mail followed soon after urging McAuliffe’s supporters to support Democrats running for the Virginia House of Delegates.

McAuliffe wrote, “I’m asking you to join me in helping House Democratic Caucus Chairman Ken Plum raise money to support Democratic House of Delegates candidates throughout the Commonwealth. These candidates need our help.”

McAuliffe Off to Harvard

Terry McAuliffe, who ran the presidential campaign for Hilary Rodham Clinton as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee last year will be visiting Harvard University this coming October. The Institute of Politics, which is part of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has invited McAuliffe to be a Visiting Fellow along with several other well-known figures from the world of politics.

As a Visiting Fellow McAuliffe will meet with a variety of student groups; facilitate group discussions on current issues; discussing personal experiences in political and public service; contribute to and participate in classes in public policy alongside students attending the Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Among those visiting fellows such as McAuliffe are also Resident Fellows for the fall semester. Some of those include Peggy Noonan, speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and Brett McGurk, special advisor to the National Security Council.

Runoff Voting Could Improve Democracy in America

Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds recently faced-off in the Virginia primary to choose the Democratic candidate for governor. Although Deeds received less than the majority of votes, since he did receive more votes than any of the other candidates he was declared the winner.

In the United States there is a distinct dislike for our leaders to be picked by virtue of receiving the “most” votes. We want ruling mandates to be bestowed by “majorities.” If not we feel we are not really choosing our representatives, rather they are being picked “for us.”

There is a relatively simple solution to this problem, by conducting runoff elections.

There are two ways of conducting runoff elections.

Less financially efficient, not to mention prolonging the time we are engaged in the unpleasant communal pastime of “election season” is to have a runoff vote at a later date after the initial elections. Not a pleasant prospect, its enough to dissuade most people from promoting such a solution.

However, it is possible to conduct what is known as “Instant Runoff Voting”, or IRV, which has already been tried in San Francisco and Vermont in 2004 and 2009, respectively.

In IRV voters rank the candidates according to their first, second and last choices. Not only will this allow two candidates to go head to head for the majority of the voters, but it has been shown that IRV actually increases voter turnout by giving the feeling that what the voters want and do really can make a difference.

Ruling Minority is Rule of the Day

In the recent primary election in Virginia to choose the Democratic Party’s candidate for governor, none of the three  candidates, including Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran and even the winner Creigh Deeds, received the endorsement of the majority of voters.

Winning by only a plurality, or the most votes, Deeds was indeed not picked as the majority of Democrat’s first choice for governor.

In this particular case our discomfort level is minimized due to the fact that Deeds received almost 50% of the voters’ approval, and the losers, McAuliffe and Moran only received a bit more than half the votes between them. But what about a case where the “winner” only wins with 35% of the vote? This could happen if the two other candidates split the 65% of the remaining votes between them. There is an instinctive aversion to having our leadership given mandates based on the votes of only 35% of the people voting. And if you factor in the people that don’t come to the polls at all, well, we get a lot less than the ideal of democracy’s clarion call “majority rules.”

One solution to this problem could be to have runoff elections.

More about this in a future post.

Plurality Rules Sometimes in the US of A

One of the more “taken for granted” beliefs of democracy in the United States is that our elected leaders are able to lead based on the notion that they were chosen by a majority of the voters.

Unfortunately this is a misconception and all too often it is a mere “plurality of voters” that actually picks the winner. This was the case in the recent Democratic primary race for governor of Virginia. In this election Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran and the ultimate winner, Creigh Deeds all finished with less than 50% of the vote.

Yes, Deeds got the most votes of the three, which is what winning with a plurality means, but he did not get the “yes” from a clear majority. Therefore he is not leading by virtue of the wishes of the majority.

The problem with this can be made even starker when we examine what happened in the Tazewell County primary held  for Board of Supervisors which took place on the same day as the gubernatorial election. In this race the two losers received 63% of the vote between them. That left only 37% of the voters supporting the ultimate winner, David R. Woodward II.

In the fiercely democratic United States most people would feel uncomfortable with the fact that their leaders are leading by virtue of only 37% of the vote.

“Minority Rule” Chooses Democratic Candidate for Governor of Virginia

Democracy can certainly mean different things to different people, and “majority rule” is usually one of those things. In the recent Democratic primary race for the governor of Virginia none of the three candidates, Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran or even the winner Creigh Deeds reeled in a majority of the votes.

That’s right. Together, the losing candidates actually received more votes than the winner.  Therefore, although we don’t like to admit this in the world’s “greatest democracy,” the winner in this race did not receive his mandate from a majority of voters.

And you should not think this is a fluke or an unusual event by any means. Or that this only happens in party primaries. Not at all. In the year 2000 George W. Bush was elected by a minority, and Bill Clinton led the country by virtue of a minority in both 1992 and 1996.

Something to think about, yes?

Terry McAuliffe’s Contributions

Terry McAuliffe has a strong history as one of the driving forces behind many campaigns that the members of the Democratic Party when they served as candidates for various positions including the presidential candidacies of Carter, Gephardt, Bill and Hillary Clinton and most recently President Barak Obama. McAuliffe has contributed tremendously to the Democratic Party and the country.

With his past record of successes, Terry McAuliffe will most certainly be able to contribute more in the future, and it is most certainly in the best interests of his state, Virginia, as well as the whole country that he continue his public involvement on a state and national level.

Encouraging Green Energy Growth

It is crucial that Virginia have a strategy to encourage and increase our use of renewable energy sources while simultaneously creating jobs. At the moment Virginia encourages use of renewable energy sources through with a voluntary standard for power companies to produce 12% of their power from green energy sources by the year 2022. As part of Terry McAuliffe’s plan to increase use of renewable energy sources while also creating jobs, as Governor,  McAuliffe would make this standard mandatory.  McAuliffe believes this extra push is crucial to assuring job creation, improved environment and in the end the energy companies will make money, too.

McAuliffe Will Create Jobs the Green Way

Terry McAuliffe believes that now is the time to begin planning for the inevitable future of substantially increased use of renewable energy sources.  Since agriculture and forestry are Virginia’s foremost industries Virginia has a huge potential for growing biofuels which can create new markets for farmers. Terry McAuliffe is determined to establish partnerships with the federal government, colleges, universities and the private sector to make Virginia an example of how renewable energy can benefit our country economically as well as environmentally.

Less Than a Month to Go and “Its the Economy” for Virginia

With the election for Governor of Virginia less than a month away, it is time to really focus on what Terry McAuliffe stands for and why McAuliffe is the best person to be the Governor of Virginia. Perhaps the issue of most concern to Virginians, along with the rest of Americans, is the economy. There is fear and worry about the future, and what we do to get the state up and running is not a partisan issue. In the face of rising unemployment, foreclosures of homes and erosion of life savings, an answer must be found which goes beyond Democratic, Republican or Independent.

McAuliffe does not believe that Americans, and especially Virginians, want only a short-term solution which covers over the problem like a band-aid without really solving anything in the long-term. Just as any business needs goals and a vision of where they see themselves in 10, 20, and 30 years along, so too the Commonwealth of Virginia must create a sound business plan to see us into a healthy and prosperous future. McAuliffe sees this plan encompassing all aspects of state government which will get all Virginians back on track.