By Heather Michon
Correspondent
Persistent rain did not keep local Democrats from gathering at Pleasant Grove on Saturday (Sept. 27) for their annual Justice Jamboree.
This year’s menu? Barbecue, pie, and a sense of urgency over the upcoming November elections.
“You don’t want to wake up on Nov. 5 and wonder, could I have done more?” said Delegate Amy Laufer (D-55th).
She urged support for Democrats Abigail Spanberger for governor, Ghazala Hashmi for lieutenant governor, and Jay Jones for attorney general.
“Our only action at this point, besides protesting, is our vote,” she said.
State Senator Creigh Deeds (D-11th) amplified the importance of turnout by recounting his 2005 race for attorney general. “I lost the election by about 360 votes,” he said. “Not 360 votes in one locality–360 votes of our 2 million.”
School board at the center
While the statewide races were at the top of everyone’s minds, there was a single drumbeat through the event – it was the future of Fluvanna’s schools.
Four out of five seats on the Fluvanna County School Board are up for election this November.School Board member James Kelly called this election a rare chance to flip the board’s majority. He endorsed three Democrats: Andre Key in Rivanna, Sean Brennan in Columbia, and Sarah Johnson in Cunningham.
Brennan is running to succeed outgoing member Andrew Pullen, while Johnson is taking on incumbent Charles Rittenhouse.
She argued the county treats education as “an afterthought” and pressed for volunteers to knock doors, phone bank, and turn out on Election Day.
“I can’t out-family my opponent—he’s related to half of Scottsville,” she said. “What I can do is out-work him.”
Beyond Fluvanna
The rally also drew candidates from higher up the ballot. Angela Chainer, running against incumbent Delegate Tom Garrett (R-56th), told the crowd that her campaign had started in anger over the political climate.
After the elections last November, “I looked up my representative, read two articles, and said, ‘ I can take this guy,’” she said.
A former Atlanta police officer, homicide detective, and U.N. peacekeeping adviser, Chainer described her campaign as lean but relentless. “We’re on a shoestring. We’re doing a lot with a little bit of money. We’re meeting people. We’re changing hearts. We’re changing minds.”
She contrasted her grassroots donations with Garrett’s reliance on corporate checks, noting two $20,000 contributions from Dominion Energy. “Without that money, he’s raised about $10,000.”
Community effort
The rally was co-sponsored by the Fluvanna Democrats and the Lefty Lunch Ladies.
Jennifer Richardson, president of the Lefty Lunch Ladies, told attendees that the sense of community mattered as much as the fundraising. “Every week is another week to write postcards, to attend meetings, to do activism locally, on a state level, the national level…That’s what’s going to get us through this.”
The day concluded with the announcement of pie contest winners and the sale of boxed meals to fund the campaigns.
By the end of the afternoon, with rain dripping from umbrellas and volunteers packing up tables, the message was clear: vote early, bring friends, and don’t look back with regret.
