Get Out The Vote

Well, all the words have been written, the literature mailed or hung on door posts, the phone calls made, the polling done, and the canvassers knocking on doors. All the many hours of dedication and hard work have now come down to the wire. Today is election day for those participating in the Virginia Primary. We had a spirited campaign, sometimes nasty, but mostly civil.

To reiterate my endorsements very briefly:

For Governor: Brian Moran

For Lt. Governor: Mike Signer

For House of Delegates for 35th District: Mark Keam

For House of Delegates for 47th District: Miles Grant

However, whoever wins, I know that after the primary we will be united. We will go, as Democrats, into the general election proudly supporting our candidates for election

Now, go vote. Tonight, win or lose, go party, relax after the hardwork many of you have done for your candidate, and know that in the next few days wounds will heal and we all will work together to continue turning Virginia blue!

AIAW Endorses Mark Keam for 35th District HOD

In the 35th District House of Delegates race, I strongly support Mark Keam, and I proudly endorse his candidacy.

Mark has a compelling personal narrative. He was born in Seoul, Korea, where his father served as an Army chaplain deployed to Vietnam. Mark’s mother struggled to raise the family alone back in Korea. Then, during a temporary ceasefire, Mark’s father brought the family to Vietnam, where he established the only Korean Christian Church.

One April morning, in 1975, as Mark Keam himself described it, his childhood “abruptly came to a halt,” when he, along with his mother and his siblings, caught the first airplane they could out of Vietnam as the South Vietnamese regime was falling to the communists. His father remained behind to care for his flock and to ensure that as many of them as possible were able to escape the war torn country. As a man of the cloth, he was quickly imprisoned by the newly established communist regime. After months of negotiation, he was finally freed to join his family. Before coming to the U.S., Mark and his family also lived in Australia. So, he thoroughly understands the immigrant experience and has grown up in a multicultural and international environment.

Mark learned the lessons of sacrifice, responsibility, and caring for both his family and community from these early life experiences. After graduating law school, he immersed himself in public service for most of his young career.

He came to Northern Virginia and settled in Vienna, where he went to work at the Federal Communications Commission as a lawyer. He went on to serve as policy council to the Small Business Administration during the Clinton administration. Once the administration ended, he went to work for Illinois Senator Richard Durbin and served as chief counsel on the Judiciary Committee, where he fought the Bush administration’s rightwing agenda.

In 2007, Keam joined Verizon as a vice president and counsel to the Public Affairs, Policy, and Communications Department.

In addition, Mark Keam has been active in Democratic politics for most of his life. His love of politics began in 1988, when he served an internship for the Democratic National Committee and worked at that year’s Democratic Convention in Atlanta. In Virginia, Mark was one of the organizers of Fairfax for Obama and played a key role as a grassroots activist, who helped deliver Virginia for the first time in 44 years to the Democratic ticket.

As a delegate, Mark would concentrate on economic issues. With his background in the Small Business Administration, he would bring a wealth of understanding to the unique problems of small business owners and a commitment to solutions. Mark understands that two thirds of all new jobs are created by small businesses. They are the true economic engine that runs this country and if they do not succeed, then our economy will not recover.

Additionally, in an area where roads are jammed and commuting is a nightmare, Keam would use his telecommunications background to push for more telecommuting opportunities and flexible work schedules to ease rush hour congestion. He also will fight for Northern Virginia to receive more of its fair share of transportation and education funding from Richmond. He supports K-12 educational investment and is committed to excellence in our public schools. Furthermore, he favors use of alternate energy standards, creation of green jobs, and bringing state government buildings into compliance with LEEDS standards.

For all these reasons: His extraordinary personal story and background, his history of public service, his experience as a grassroots activist, and his vision of how to improve the lives of ordinary Virginians, I urge you to vote on June 9th for Mark Keam for the House of Delegates from the 35th District.

Sierra Club and Gerry Connolly Endorse Mark Keam

Congratulations to Mark Keam, HOD candidate from the 35th District, on this very important endorsement from the Sierra Club. It was a dual endorsement that they gave to both Keam and Roy Baldwin.

Here is the press release I received from the Keam campaign:

Mark Keam For Delegate Campaign Announces
Endorsement by The Sierra Club

Vienna,VA – Today, the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club endorsed Mark Keam for Delegate from the 35th District. The Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club has over 17,000 members and is dedicated to building healthy, livable communities, and to conserving and restoring our natural environment.

“I am very pleased to have received the Sierra Club’s endorsement,” said Keam. “Protecting the environment while conserving our natural resources is a top priority of mine, and I look forward to working with the Sierra Club to preserve Virginia’s natural resources and beauty.”

Keam has emphasized environmental and energy issues throughout his campaign. Keam even held a roundtable forum with local environmental leaders to discuss the urgent need to address climate change issues. “I was impressed by Mark’s knowledge of environmental law and his outreach effort to citizens on these issues,” said Bob Pearson, Political Director for the Great Falls Group of the Sierra Club. “The Sierra Club endorsed Mark because of his progressive environmental platform and his understanding of current issues such as renewable energy, open space protection and Smart Growth initiatives.”

As Delegate, Keam will focus on making Virginia a leader in green technology and bringing new jobs to the area.

Additionally, Lowell is reporting that Congressman Gerry Connolly has endorsed Mark Keam. Here is Rep. Connolly's quote, thanks to Lowell's reporting:

"Mark Keam is a standout," Connolly said in a statement tonight. "He has the experience, energy and character to be an effective leader in the House of Delegates. He will fight for Fairfax and Vienna in Richmond, helping us get our fair share of transportation and education funding. I fully endorse his election."

So much for any charges that Mark has not been active in his community. The truth is he has been a dedicated, progressive activist in Virginia who was instrumental in winning Northern Virginia for Obama. And he continues to show his progressive street cred!

Mark Keam Responds to Unfair Accusations

My good friend, Ben Tribbett, over at NLS, recently ran a piece that he himself termed "opposition research dump." He also claims that it is "fully cited" and "investigated thoroughly."

I agree with Ben completely - it's an opposition dump all right. But it's certainly not good journalism - no, not even good amateur journalism. This is something that has been bugging me about bloggers, including some of the best in Virginia, for a very long time. For all that we criticize the mainstream media for its biases, there are some fundamental rules of real journalism that we toss aside as casually as dirty socks. But with the old media crumbling, we have to get better at truly being fair, accurate, and balanced. That's even true of advocacy journalism. It's one thing to advocate passionately for your candidate and even to do real research and write negatively about an opponent. It's another thing to simply be the tool of a campaign, running with anything they feed you.

Ben's piece was not at all well researched because he never got a statement from his subject. Even if that subject lies or refuses to respond, a real reporter has an absolute obligation to get the subject's side of the story. Sure, you can counter his claims with others' statements disproving it if those other facts don't exist. If the subject refuses to comment, you can say so in your article. In fact, reporters regularly go out of their way to make sure readers know that they have contacted the subject, asked the right questions, and gotten a refusal to answer.

Here, Mark Keam seems very accessible and very willing to answer. I am going to reprint in its entirety Keam's response:

Hey Ben, I don’t recall that we’ve ever met personally, but I’m glad to have made your acquaintance on this blog. I look forward to meeting you sometime.

It seems that you’ve been writing about me and my campaign for the House of Delegates lately. If you have any specific questions, please don’t hesitate to call me directly at 703-999-2782 or email me at mark@markkeam.com and I would be happy to tell you whatever you want to know about my various jobs or about my involvement with any Democratic campaign in Virginia or elsewhere.

As for this latest round of accusations about my work at Verizon, let me respond so there won’t be any further confusion or comments from various folks who might not be aware of all the facts.

First of all, I don’t know who provided you these charges, but I find it curious that no one seems to be taking credit for these accusations leveled against me. Maybe whoever gave you this set of talking points realizes their “facts” are based on nothing but guilt by association.

Let me give you the real facts as only I can know them.

I’m a former FCC attorney who has specialized in telecommunications law. After working in the government for over a decade, I joined the Government Relations office at Verizon for about two years. My job was to work with Senate Democrats. Among other Democratic initiatives, I worked on expanding broadband access to underserved and rural areas, as well as to keep consumers from paying taxes for accessing the Internet.

I never lobbied on this wiretapping issue. In fact, I never had security clearance to discuss such national intelligence issues. My name is listed as a lobbyist on a wide range of bills that were active in Congress while I was at Verizon because my company listed the entire lobbying team for a Congressional office on lobbying disclosure reports.

I enjoyed working at Verizon and learned a lot. It was valuable opportunity to see how Congress works from the outside, instead of the perspectives I had when I was Senator Dick Durbin’s chief counsel for six years. In fact, when I was on Capitol Hill, I spent everyday fighting extreme Bush administration policies. So I find it somewhat incredible that anyone would suggest that I had anything to do with the Bush administration other than trying to stop their agenda.

Anyway, I hope this helps debunk any confusion that might have been caused by the anonymous charges against me. As a candidate, whenever anyone asks about my work experiences, I always tell them what I did and did not do. I specifically recall a meeting of the Brigades in early February of this year when one of the other candidates in our House of Delegates race and I jointly addressed a group of about 30 people. During Q&As, someone asked me about my lobbying work on behalf of Verizon and I told her as well as everyone else in the room about what I did and didn’t do. Among other details, I recall specifically mentioning that I did not lobby on this wiretapping issue, so at least one of my primary election opponents knows the facts as well.

If you still have any questions, again, please feel free to contact me directly and I’m happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for your interest! Mark Keam

In the interests of full disclosure, I support Mark Keam. But even if his campaign tried to do an "oppo research dump" on me, I would go to whomever was the subject of it and get their response to the accusation. Otherwise, I wouldn't run it.

For more on the subject, check out Lowell's post at Blue Virginia.

Results of Providence District MayFest - Moran, Wagner, and Keam Win

Today, Providence District Democrats held their MayFest celebration, with live music, auctions, and a straw poll. Although I did not attend, here are the results of their straw poll:

Gov - 75 ballots cast
Creigh Deeds 17%
Terry McAuliffe 34%
Brian Moran 48%

Lt. Gov.-68 ballots cast
Mike Signer 26%
Jody Wagner 74%

House of Delegates 35th District-36 ballots cast
Esam Omeish 8%
Roy Baldwin 8%
John Carroll 15%
Mark Keam 69%