From the Archives: State Senate candidate TJ Aldous wants people to ‘achieve their dreams’

State Senate candidate TJ Aldous wants people to ‘achieve their dreams’
August 2, 2011 9:24 PM MST

Voters in Charlottesville will see the name of only one Republican candidate on the ballot when they go to the polls on November 8.

That will be TJ Aldous, an Albemarle County attorney who is running against incumbent state Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Hot Springs) in the 25th state Senate District, which stretches from Charlottesville in the east to Bath County, touching the West Virginia border.

The 25th district also includes 19 precincts in Albemarle County (and parts of three others) as well as Alleghany, Highland, Nelson, and Rockbridge counties, plus the cities of Buena Vista, Covington, and Lexington.

Aldous announced his candidacy on June 28 in press conferences held in both Charlottesville and Buena Vista. In an interview with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner on July 2 in Crozet, Aldous said that he began considering a run for office about a month prior to his official announcement.

‘More efficient and more responsive’
What motivated him to run, he said, were his concerns about the economy and “the direction that our country’s headed.”

In order to succeed in an election campaign against an incumbent who is seeking his third full term, Aldous said that “we need people to come together from all walks of life to see the changes that need to be made in our system in order to be better and to be more efficient and more responsive to the people.”

Aldous said that he has observed how people “are expressing that they’re tired of where we are and they want to see something change in how our system works.”

Asked to name the top three issues he will emphasize as he campaigns, Aldous provided a single-minded reply.

“Right now,” he said, “the thing that’s on everybody’s mind is jobs. Jobs and the economy. Say top three? Jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy.”

He added, however, that “there are other things that are important to people. There [are] social issues that are important to people. There are other things that are important such as providing an environment where people are free to be able to explore the things that they want to do in their lives, where they aren’t subject to regulation, where they aren’t subject to someone always telling them that they can or can’t do something. So I think those are the things that are most important.”

‘Liberal establishment’
To earn the votes of libertarian voters in the 25th Senate District, Aldous suggested that “we all ought to come together [and] work together to be united in moving against the liberal establishment.”

That can be accomplished, he said, “by finding common goals and common interests. There are a lot of things that I think we all agree on. You look at libertarians, you look at a lot of friends are libertarian, you look at people who are involved in the Tea Party, they have a lot of things in common with what the libertarians want, they have a lot of things in common with what some people would call RINO Republicans want.”

What is needed, he noted, is “to pull those same common things together and move forward in doing something that will be that will change the liberal thought that’s in Richmond, especially in the Senate.”

Although his campaign had just begun at the time of the interview, Aldous said that he had already traveled throughout the district.

“I’ve been over to Bath County, I’ve been over to Highland County, I’ve been over to Covington and Alleghany County,” he said. “I’ve been to Buena Vista and Lexington and Rockbridge and Nelson County. I’ve been all over.”

Aldous concluded by summarizing the central vision of his campaign.

“What we really need,” he said, is “to be focused on helping people achieve their dreams. We can do that by reducing regulation, by making government simpler, by making it more responsive to the people. That’s what I want to see.”

TJ Aldous has an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University and law degrees from the University of Kansas and New York University. Raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania, he has also lived and worked in Richmond and Denver, as well as serving as a missionary in Argentina for two years.


Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on August 2, 2011. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016.  I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

From the Archives: At UVA debate, Creigh Deeds calls libertarians ‘Republicans with guts’

At UVA debate, Creigh Deeds calls libertarians ‘Republicans with guts’
October 27, 2011
11:28 AM MST

“Libertarians are Republicans with guts,” said incumbent state Senator R. Creigh Deeds when asked how he plans to earn the votes of libertarian-minded constituents in his bid for reelection to the 25th district seat he has held for a decade.

Deeds, a Bath County Democrat first elected to the General Assembly in 1991, spoke to the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner moments before the start of a debate with his Republican challenger, Albemarle County tax attorney TJ Aldous. The October 25 debate, sponsored by the University of Virginia Student Council, was the only such head-to-head event scheduled during the 2011 election campaign.

No special platform

Explaining his view of libertarians as “Republicans with guts,” Deeds said that “They honestly believe in less government but also less service because lots of people want the services [but] they don’t support efforts to pay for services all the time."

As to how he’ll win the votes of this portion of the electorate, Deeds added that he does not have “any special platform for any certain group of people. I try to speak truth about what I think we ought to be doing in government.”

He believes, he said, “that government is a tool to be used to level the playing field and give everybody an opportunity to succeed, an opportunity to advance, [and] an opportunity to live the American dream -- not a promise that they’re going to live the American dream or a promise that they’re going to succeed, but an opportunity.”

Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party

Related to that, Deeds said he thought the Occupy Wall Street movement, and its offshoot, Occupy Charlottesville, was born of its members’ frustration.

“It’s frustration with the system,” he said, “the political system and the economic system.”

Deeds pointed out that “the Tea Party is the other side of that,” having its origins in “that same sort of frustration.”

The Tea Party, he went on, “launched in one direction” while “you’ve got the Occupy group in the other direction.”

At the same time, he said, “there’s significant crossover” between the two movements.

Deeds added that, “to a large extent, the Occupy movement is looking for direction but I think it’s grown out of frustration that a lot of people feel in our political and economic systems.”

Getting to know new voters

Creigh Deeds

Since the decennial redistricting, Deeds has represented portions of Albemarle County that until earlier this year were represented by Senator Emmett Hanger (R-SD24). He said he has spent the last several months becoming acquainted with his new constituents.

“I’ve spent a lot of time knocking on doors out in Crozet and [its] environs,” he said, “getting to know people out there and getting to know the countryside and the issues that they’re talking about.”

The people there, he said, are “basically talking about the same kind of issues everybody else is talking about.”

Summing up his experience with the new parts of the district, he concluded: “I’ve really felt at home in Crozet and Free Union and that area.”

Elections to the Virginia General Assembly will take place on Tuesday, November 8.


Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on October 27, 2011. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016.  I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

Election Day 2009 Photos

What a long, long day!

We just finished counting up the write-in votes in Charlottesville at 10:35 p.m. Considering that I've been awake since 4:00 o'clock a.m., I'm going to forgo analyzing those results until a more conscious moment, perhaps tomorrow after the canvass is complete.

To whet your appetite, however, I will mention that "Bernard Madoff" earned a vote for Commissioner of the Revenue and "Scrooge McDuck" was someone's preference for Charlottesville Treasurer. Over 800 write-in votes were cast, mostly in the uncontested races for School Board, Commonwealth's Attorney, Commissioner of the Revenue, and Treasurer -- though there were also write-in votes in the triple digits for City Council. By contrast, the statewide races and the contest for the House of Delegates received only a handful of write-in votes.

Here are a few photos I took during the course of the day.

The day began with a smell of smoke in the City Hall Annex, where the Office of Voter Registration and Elections is located. A call to 911 summoned the fire brigade, who found nothing hazardous but who agreed we did the right thing by reporting a possible emergency.

Andrew Williams, a write-in candidate for City Council, seemed to be everywhere during the course of the day. I found him first in the early morning light outside Tonsler Precinct.

A mysterious hot-air balloon hovered over Charlottesville during the morning of Election Day. I caught this photo near Venable Precinct, on Fourteenth Street.

Walker Precinct had a steady stream of voters throughout the day and, as usual, reported the highest percentage of voter turnout among Charlottesville's eight precincts.

Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris, seen here campaigning outside of Clark Precinct, won re-election to City Council handily, with over 6,000 votes.

Independent candidate Robert Brandon Smith III challenged incumbent Delegate David Toscano in the 57th House district. Here he's campaigning outside of Recreation Precinct. He eventually earned about 21% of the vote in the two-way contest.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds stopped in Charlottesville as he made his way from Bath County to Richmond. He greeted supporters, including Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman, outside Recreation Precinct at 11:30 a.m.

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Creigh Deeds, Millionaire Philanthropist?

Is Democratic gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds a secret millionaire?

A comment by one of his campaign spokespeople in a Charlottesville newsweekly suggests that this may be the case.

In an article by Caitlin Speaker on how the election of a new governor might affect the University of Virginia we find this statement:

Deeds, meanwhile, stands by his existing record of University support, says Deeds spokesperson Jared Leopold. “He has already invested millions in higher ed and it’s something UVA has seen,” Leopold says. “He has a particular affinity for the University.”

Now, a look at Deeds' personal finance reports (something required of candidates for public office and elected officials) indicates that he is a man of modest means. There is no suggestion that he has the wherewithal to invest "millions" in higher education.

Does Deeds have a hidden source of wealth that he, in turn, pumps into college and university budgets?

I already anticipate the comment that Jared Leopold meant that Deeds, as a member of the General Assembly, supported or introduced legislation to appropriate tax dollars to higher education projects.

But that is not what Leopold said. He did not say that Deeds "took other people's money and reallocated it to education programs that he personally favored."

No, Leopold said "he" (meaning Creigh Deeds as an individual) "invested millions in higher ed."

The only conclusion one can draw from this plain language is that Creigh Deeds is a multimillionaire philanthropist who has kept his generous eleemosynary activities under wraps for many years.



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Cascade of Ifs

State Senator R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County has been nominated to be the Democratic Party of Virginia's candidate for governor this year. Deeds represents the 25th Senate District, which includes Charlottesville and Albemarle and extends from that area to the West Virginia border. Deeds has represented this district since a special election held in December 2001, after the death of Emily Couric created a vacancy. Prior to that, Deeds served in the House of Delegates.

Should Senator Deeds win his bid for governor over Republican nominee Bob McDonnell, he will set in motion what could be a flurry of special elections. At Tuesday night's victory party at the Omni Hotel in Charlottesville, state Senator Donald McEachin and Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw were already referring to 57th District Delegate David Toscano as a future Senate colleague. (See the video below.)

Here's what could happen in the weeks after November 3:

If Deeds wins on November 3 and resigns his Senate seat shortly thereafter, Governor Tim Kaine will order a special election to fill the seat on Tuesday, December 19. (Virginia law requires that voting equipment be locked up for at least 30 days after an election, so in most cases a special election cannot be called before then.)

If the likely Democratic nominee for the Senate seat, David Toscano, wins the special election, there will be a vacancy in the House of Delegates. Governor Kaine can then order a special election to fill that vacancy as early in January as possible, probably the Tuesday after the General Assembly convenes.

If a member of the Charlottesville City Council seeks to succeed Toscano (the seat has been filled by former City Councilors for at least 28 years) and wins in the overwhelmingly Democratic district, there will be a vacancy in that legislative body. So a special election would have to be called for February to fill that seat. (Unlike some county boards of supervisors and other city councils, Charlottesville's council lacks the power to appoint a new member to fill a vacancy; it must be filled by election according to the city charter.)

Finally, if a current member of the Charlottesville School Board decides to run for City Council, and wins, there could be a special election to fill that School Board seat. (I say "could be" because it may be possible for either the School Board or the City Council to fill the vacancy by appointment. Perhaps somebody could look it up.)

Barring the unlikelihood that a Republican could win one of these post-November elections, if all these "ifs" line up, that would mean Charlottesville voters would go to the polls in as many as five consecutive months: November, December, January, February, and perhaps March, as well.

As an Electoral Board member who would have to supervise those elections, this scenario gives me the strongest personal reason to root for Bob McDonnell this November.

(For more photos from the Creigh Deeds victory party in Charlottesville, look on Facebook. For video of Creigh Deeds' speech on primary night, go here.)

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Creigh Deeds Wins Democratic Nomination

The New York Times headline reflects how outsiders viewed today's Democratic gubernatorial primary in Virginia: "State Senator Beats McAuliffe in Virginia Primary."

For seasoned observers of Virginia politics -- those inside the Commonwealth -- the lopsided victory (nearly 50% of the vote in unofficial returns) of State Senator R. Creigh Deeds (D-25) does not seem quirky. Indeed, in recent days it became expected. The only real surprise was the size of Deeds' margin of victory.

In addition to defeating former Democratic National Committee and FOB Terry McAuliffe, Deeds also roared past former Delegate Brian Moran of Alexandria. McAuliffe and Moran split half the vote while Deeds took the other half, even winning in their own backyard of Northern Virginia.

Deeds and his supporters gathered for a victory party at the Omni Hotel in Charlottesville, where the new nominee was introduced by Congressman Tom Perriello, who was himself elected in an upset last November over longtime incumbent Representative Virgil Goode (R-VA5).

Deeds delivered a short, but enthusiastically received, victory speech before diving into the crowd to shake hands, kiss cheeks, and talk directly to the news media, including Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne.

Let's go to the video:

For more photos from today's Democratic primary election, look on Facebook. As for me, I have to get some sleep: the election canvass begins early in the morning.

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