Robert Grey just learned brutal truth about the real political physics of Richmond

Robert Grey never saw coming when it got into the race as he failed to understand the real politics of Richmond. Poor Grey, he forgot the basic rules of Richmond politics. The reason the McCain-Gilmore-Pantele forces are united to stop Dwight Jones, and why Robert Grey has been roped into being part of the stop-Jones coalition.

By Paul Goldman, for the blog


Poor Robert Grey, he never saw it coming, neither did his mother, a super lady, such a terrific person and as I have said, that is one reason we need a Women's Monument to Richmond's women on Monument Avenue, to recognize the great contributions of the city's women. But in Richmond, is it really a surprise that I have gotten more calls from around the country from people who read about my proposal than from women in Richmond !

Robert Grey just never got it. As I I said in my endorsement of Dwight Jones, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand the basic laws of political physics here in Richmond. Or if you prefer, Bob Dylan said that you didn't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind was blowing.

How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?

Robert Grey found out the answer this morning.

Two years ago, the RTD thought Bill Pantele's record and involvements were of such little moment that they urged voters to kick him off City Council. That's right: they backed his opponent saying that Bill didn't get it and his performance didn't merit your vote. They urged voters to vote for the proverbial anyone-but-Pantele candidate, a virtual unknown.

But back then, Bill had not, as Francis Ford Coppola might have said, "made his bones" with those that Dr. Crupi discussed in his report.

Remember the great opening scene in Godfather 1, when we are first introduced to Brando's character and Tom Hagen? It is in many respects, the most important scene in the movie. The undertaker had come to seek the help and blessing of the Godfather.

What a scene.

But to be fair to Bill, he has only done in the last few years what the legendary henchman of Boss Tweed's gang, George Washington Plunkett, predicted would happen.

Bill understood what Robert did not.

So now, Robert Grey, as predicted here, has been relegated to the role he has been chosen to take, as Bill Pantele's tag-team Tonto, assigned this role in the anti-Jones tag team by the usual suspects.

So it comes as no surprise to me that in entire RTD editorial endorsing Bill, THEY DO NOT MENTION ONE ACHIEVEMENT OF HIS.

NOT ONE!

They do not mention a single problem he has solved.

They say that it is "clear to us that Pantele is best suited to become a problem-solving mayor."

Yet the RTD says: "Pantele's tenure on the council means he already has identified the problems facing Richmond -- and they are legion -- and knows which lever to pull (or whom to call) to start making fixes. He recognizes the city's strengths and how to build on them." .

Say what? If the problems are legion, and Bill has been on City Council for 7 years, and yet the RTD can not cite a single achievement in solving any of these problems, what is really going on here?

"We believe Pantele can advance Wilder's call to treat taxpayers' money with more respect" says the RTD.
Say what? According to the Mayor, Mr. Pantele has been the most wasteful city councilman of them all! According to the Mayor, because of Bill's failure to follow the law, the Mayor says we have a $6 MILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT in the city budget!

So how can Bill "advance Wilder's call" when Wilder is saying that Bill is the reason we are going backward!?

But the most amazing RTD statement is this one: "Pantele has battled often with Wilder, which proves he can play in the big leagues."

Say what?
This is one for the record books. Why would bickering with Doug Wilder qualify anyone for the big leagues whatever that is suppose to mean.

SO WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON HERE?

Since the RTD seems to feel that Doug Wilder can help define the answer, let me leave you with one of the Mayor's favorite political sayings [cleaned-up], which I am quite sure Bill Pantele has heard before:

Even Ray Charles can see what his really happening here.

Because I like Robert and so greatly respect his mother Barbara, it does sadden me to know that they probably didn't see it until they read this morning's RTD editorial.

But he is stuck now, knowing that he is being used by the McCain-Gilmore-Pantele forces to stop Dwight Jones from becoming the Mayor.

Robert has a lot to offer Richmond, and hopefully he will get his chance in the future.

But he has now learned the brutal truth at the political physics of Richmond and why some of us have been working so hard for years to change it.

Goldman, Jones to hold press conference Today, October 21, at 11:00 AM in front of City Hall

Goldman to shake-up Mayor's race tomorrow, October 21, with major announcement

With two weeks to ago, it is now game time.

Date: Tuesday, October 21

Time: 11:00 AM

Location: 9th Street entrance to City Hall.

Richmond faces growing fiscal crisis as City Hall, City Council, media fiddle

Goldman for Mayor - 20 October 2008 - For Immediate Release - 804-833-6313

Whereas Emperor Nero when you need him?

"The failure of the Wilder-led Administration and the Pantele-led Council to be straight with the people of Richmond about their failed budget and financial policies is one thing: but the failure of the local media to understand the importance of these matters as to their impact on the next Mayor is quite another."

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, said today that "it is a sad day for Richmond when George Bush "gets it" and Mayor Wilder, City Council President Pantele, and the local media don't."

"Last week, the city finance director conceded that Richmond has to be prepared to deal with what could be it's biggest budget and financial mess in memory: and yet, neither the Mayor, the head of City Council, indeed the Council itself, not to mention the local media or business community, show any real urgency in dealing with this growing crisis, nor seem to truly understand the potential problem that could be facing the most vulnerable city residents as a winter recession approaches."

"From the local campaign finance reports, it is clear who has pledged to help make sure key private, special interests get a piece of the public treasury.

But who is going to look out for the public interest and insure that there is a level playing field in Richmond, who is going to protect the public treasury during a time when some of the toughest budget and fiscal decisions, along with social policy decisions, will almost surely have to be made?"

Did Grey, Pantele make private promise to bailout Arts Center, hide fiscal truth, to gain support for their campaigns?

Occasional Column: By pure luck, we now understand what had previously been a major hidden factor in the funding and policy aspects of the Mayoral campaigns of Robert Grey and Bill Pantele.

By Paul Goldman, for the blog

Call me slow, real slow even. The hidden truth didn't hit me until last Tuesday night, as I was standing there on the stage for the last mayoral debate, with myself in the middle, Robert Grey to my extreme left and Bill Pantele to my extreme right.

Like so much else in politics, there was nothing really hidden about it, the self-evident was always right there for all the world to see. Truth is, something Robert and Bill said a few weeks ago had been puzzling me, and had popped into my mind on occasion while jogging. It was a small thing - part an aside, part an inflection - but it struck me that both of them were on the same page the same way in a way that made it seem they both had thought long and hard about it.

But why would they? Again, this puzzling thing had entered my brain, rattled around while I was running in circles around Mary Munford School, and then had receded from the ole frontal lobe.

In all likelihood, I never would have gone back to it had something not occurred Tuesday night that instantly got me thinking right then and there about the puzzle: then, just like that, it was as Tom Cruise might say, crystal clear.

One thing I have learned in politics over the years: listen to what your opponents are saying, for they often reveal more than they realize if you pay attention to the time, place and context.

So there I was, participating in the Virginia Historical Society debate, having just provided some honest and accurate factual data about my role in exposing the flaws in the failed $110 million dollar Center Stage project and how the City of the Future plan that I had helped develop - praised by Grey and Pantele I might add - showed the way to how to modernize the Carpenter Center in a fiscally responsible manner, an approach likewise adopted by Mr. Grey and Mr. Pantele more than a year later. On this particular question, I was the first-up to bat, and my answer was basically the same as it had been at other times over the course of the campaign, this was not a new question in that regard.

Having finished my answer, Dwight Jones went next and the Richmond lawmaker basically gave his usual answer to the question in the allotted 90 seconds.

So I was thinking, "well, this is just going to be the usual round of answers to this usual question, new to this particular audience perhaps but old hat to the mayoral candidates."

Robert Grey was up third, and I was standing there, my mind actually running through his usual pitch. where he uses a clever tactic that Obama's uses and that I have learned to use listening to Senator Obama who is very effective in that regard in my view.

Robert usually praises me for having come up with the City of the Future plan - which as I say is a good tactic since it makes him look above politics and very sincere to the audience - and thus sets-up everyone for his punch line when he says that of all the City of the Future projects, he led the charge on the one project that actually has a firm finish date, the modernized Carpenter Center to open as the Center Stage project next year. This is his way of making himself into the can-do guy.

Again, it is a good debate tactic, Senator Obama is the master of it, and I have learned from him, having praised Robert and Bill and Dwight at different forums as prelude to discussing a certain subject matter. And I have meant it, since all these guys have good things they have done over the years.

So like I say, my mind was ready for Robert to do his thing.

But last Tuesday night, Robert Grey suddenly went in another direction, and it caught me by surprise as I was standing there, listening to his answer to the Arts Center question. As I say, I was slow to pick-up on it since at the time, my thought was: "Gee, this is not Robert's usual opening lines in this area, so I wonder how he will get to it at the close." I fully expected he would.

That is to say, I figured Robert would make the usual pitch just in a different order.

Nada: Not to be. He didn't just start in a different direction, he was determined to go in a different direction.

As I wrote yesterday, he suggested I had some bad motivations in my taking the lead in exposing the the fiscal irresponsibility and fiscal flaws of the $100 million failed Arts Project that had led to that city auditor's report of $100's of thousands of dollars in unjustified expense reimbursements. He didn't disagree with what I had found, for how could he: The City Auditor agreed with my premise that much money had indeed been wrongfully or wastefully spent.

So instead, Robert went for the false personal attack on me, claiming falsely that I had held up good people to intentional ridicule for no good reason.

"Interesting" I thought, I remember looking out at the audience, the glare from the lights making me squint a little. This was, to be a sure, a very pro-arts audience, and so my initial reaction was that Grey had calculated that he wanted to slam me to this group, to make it seem that somehow I had attacked pro-arts folks personally.

In this format, there is no rebuttal as there was at the TJ debate. Thus, my having gone first, this gave Robert a clear shot since he was following me. I had seen him do this before, usually to Delegate Jones.

I wasn't overjoyed with the situation, but I knew the audience was a lot smarter than Robert did. So I was amused really.

Then came City Council President Pantele. Robert at least had a certain modulation to his false attacks. But not Bill, he pandered unbelievably, making it sound as if I had called the arts folks everything but a child of God: Bill was way over top, telling the arts folks that what I had done was beyond the pale, the worst thing he had ever witnessed, the biggest injustice since he had witnessed in his time on Earth, or at least close to it by Richmond standards. Bill wanted to take me to the Tower, along with Saint Thomas More and Anne Boleyn.

Off with his head!

I asked myself: What would they take this tactic at this time and place on this particular question? It seemed so out of sync with what they said on it a month ago.


That is to say: Why did they feel compelled to give such a negative, personal attack answer on Tuesday when they had not done that in all the months previous?

So it got me thinking, and then after Lawrence Williams had his turn at bat, the moderator asked a follow-up question that crystallized my thinking: He asked each candidate whether as Mayor, he would insist on a full accounting on all the monies that have gone into the project, since public funds comprise far more than 50% of the mix, that is to say by any standard, it is a mostly public project.

Dwight and I said yes, that when you have a project of this nature, the public is entitled to know all the fiscal facts, that is the normal course of things. Or to use the current phrase, full transparency.
This was a no-brainer really.

Yet Robert and Bill refused: They said the public was not entitled to all the fiscal facts. For example, the public was not entitled per se to know the donor of private money to the project, even though that person or organization contributing the money might also be seeking the assistance of the Mayor and/or City Council on a matter worth millions to that person or group.

Then it hit me: Of Course!. How dense of me!

Robert and Bill had been making private assurances to key big financial players in Richmond to get them to back them for Mayor.

And then it hit me further: Given the current economic and financial situation facing the City and the nation, the Arts Center is likely to need the city to use public funds to bail them out in order to allow the Arts Center backers to receive certain special privileges worth millions to the backers, to cover an operating deficit, to keep certain monies flowing to certain entities, and perhaps for other costs related to building and operating the Arts Center.

"But of course!" I told myself.

Why didn't I see this weeks ago?

The connection between the current situation in the economy and Wall Street relative to the Arts Center had not hit me until that moment.

Think about it: Assuming what we are seeing everyday in the newspapers turns out to be even half true, is this really the best time to be opening a new Arts Center?

As I have been saying for months now, Mr. Pantele and Mr. Wilder have created a fiscal mess in Richmond, spending more than the people could afford. Mr. Grey backs the fiscally irresponsible Wilder budget.

So then I got to thinking and asking people about some things relative to the Arts Center funding. And as it turns out, a close reading of the documents relating to the city's commitment to the various financial issues involved with the Arts Center over the years - such promises agreed to do in all particulars by Mr. Grey and Mr. Pantele - reveals some interesting details about how much the public is being asked to underwrite what was sold as a private project, not a publicly-funded one.

There was a time with the RTD and Style and the Richmond Free Press actually cared about making sure the public knew the facts: and that was when I was the person leading the effort to get the public these facts for the first time, as the City Finance Director admitted.

But since I left, there has been almost no real reporting on the issue of how much public money has been spent, and how much public money has now been promised, on this issue.

AND FOR GOOD REASON PERHAPS.

I dare anyone to do the homework. I dare anyone to think again about the operating bailout given to the Arts Center by the City government, what they call a subsidy, but what is actually a bailout since the Arts Center said it would not need any such monies only a year ago.

And if you do, if you think though the fiscal issues here, then the stances taken by Grey and Pantele are clear, as is a key component to their chances of becoming Mayor.

I have tried to level the playing field, to make it so that everyone in Richmond has a new level of equality in public matters that has not existed before.

Mr. Grey and Mr. Pantele have revealed far more than every intended last Tuesday.

I now have to figure out how to deal with it, to make sure the people of Richmond are not forced backwards.

As I have said, we have come too far to turn back now.

Grey/Pantele try to cover their fiscal irresponsiblity by attacking me yesterday at the mayoral debate

Goldman for Mayor - 15 October 2008 - For Immediate Release - 804-833-6313


In response to attacks from Grey and Pantele at last night's debate, Goldman calls on Grey and Pantele to come clean and explain how their fiscally irresponsible stances on the failed $100 Million dollar Arts Project shouldn't have voters worried about their having the Mayor's power over city funds. funds.


(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, only candidate for Mayor who had the public integrity years ago to demand a full accounting of the public funds wasted on the failed $100 million Arts Project project backed to the hilt by Mr. Grey and Mr. Pantele, and the candidate who actually came-up with a financing plan that saved the city millions while showing how to modernize the Carpenter Center and build a Performing Arts Center in a fiscally responsible way, issued the following statement this morning about last night's debate:

"Last night, in an attempt to cover-up their own fiscal mistakes and political pandering that cost taxpayers millions, Mr. Grey and Mr. Pantele falsely suggested that somehow myself or others were allegedly making veiled personal attacks against individuals by merely demanding honesty in the accounting of taxpayer dollars spent by those behind the failed $100 Downtown Arts Project plan that Mr. Grey and Mr. Pantele backed to the bitter end.

Instead of attacking me for being the only staff person in the entire city government with the guts and public integrity to insist on a full public accounting of every taxpayer dollar spent on the failed and fiscally irresponsible $100 million Arts Center Project that had to be abandoned due to fiscal mistakes, I dare Mr. Pantele and Mr. Grey to face the public and make a full accounting on their involvement in a project that has helped create the current fiscal mess in city government, a fiscal mess create in part because Mr. Grey and Mr. Pantele are supporting two of the most fiscally irresponsible budget stances in recent city history."

Goldman wins appeal in historic victory: State DEMS overturn Jones endorsement

Last night, the Virginia Democratic Party agreed with my legal and policy research, showing again that if you are willing to do the hard work, you can make needed change.

Since I was the only candidate for Mayor willing to do the hard work necessary to get the people of Richmond their right to elect their Mayor, is it any wonder that I was the one who took the time to do the work needed to make sure the Democrats of Richmond were not likewise effectively stripped of their right to elect the Democrat of their choosing by a handful of people who violated the party laws in a political powerplay last September?

I offer leadership, for a change, a proven record of having made real change that has been recognized nationally by Senator Obama, Senator Clinton, indeed Democrats, Republicans and Independents in articles and books.

Goldman wins appeal, sets historic precedent as Democratic Panel says Jones endorsement should be declared null and void

Goldman for Mayor - 7 October 2008 - For Immediate Release

Appeal Review Panel Backs Goldman Challenge in Historic Precedent

Agrees with Goldman that Jones' endorsement by Richmond City Democratic Committee was made in violation of party rules and should be found null and void.

(Richmond) - In an historic first for Virginia politics, the panel set-up by the 3rd and 7th Democratic Congressional District Committees of the State Democratic Party has issued the following findings, which reads in pertinent part:

To: Participants in the hearing held by a subcommittee of the 3rd and 7th Congressional District Committees to hear the appeal of Paul Goldman of the endorsement of mayoral candidate Dwight Jones made by the Richmond City Democratic Committee on September 25, 2008.

From: Appeal Review Subcommittee of the 3rd and 7th Congressional District Committees

Following the Monday evening hearing on the Goldman appeal, the subcommittee met to deliberate. The recommendations of the subcommittee are not the decision on the appeal but will be forwarded, along with all pertinent documents, to a joint meeting of both the 3rd and 7th Congressional District Committees for their decision.


The subcommittee will recommend to the joint committees that violation #6 of the Goldman appeal be found valid.

The subcommittee will also recommend to the joint committees that the endorsement action of the Richmond City Democratic Committee in the mayoral race be found null and void and that the endorsement process of candidates for City Council and School Board which is scheduled to take place at the October 23, 2008, meeting of the RCDC include the mayoral race as well.

Goldman attacked for daring to believe that rules should be enforced

Dr. Jones uses his Doctorate in religion to give Democrats some legal advice

Dr. Goldman uses his Juris Doctor to try and give the Democratic Party some religion

By Paul Goldman, an occasional column for the blog.

In a filing with the State Democratic Party that seemed right out of the John McCain campaign, Delegate Dwight Jones accuses yours truly of "a series of distortions", indeed being "absurd at best" at one point.

Move over Barack, you and I got to share some room here as the punching bag.

Frankly, I was a little surprised at the harsh language used by my friend Dwight Jones in his written statement to the State Democratic Party submitted voluntarily - he was under no obligation to say it - as part of the review process being used to resolve the my challenge, joined in by Mr. Pantele and Mr. Grey, relative to the action taken by the Richmond City Democratic Committee at their September 25th meeting.

As former State Democratic Chairman Larry Framme pointed out last night at the hearing conducted by conference call [and open to the media and others dailing-in], all that this appeal stated was the self-evident: namely, that the Richmond City Democratic Committee had not followed some very clear and basic rules in making their "endorsement" of Delegate Jones by an unprecedented, unpublicized, and unfair issue-less, power-broker driven process effectively closed to 99.9999% of all the Democrats of Richmond.

To be fair to Dwight, his statement didn't strike me as his usual way of saying things and moreover, it was aimed at the substance of my position, not at me personally.

That being said however, such words do matter, as do deeds, in the larger context of things.

In 2003, in writing the Elected Mayor Law, I was very careful to write a law that took into consideration his views, that of Senator Marsh, and others opposed an elected Mayor so that the people could finally get their right to elect their Mayor.

The plan developed is unique in the United States, but it was necessary if we were to free Richmond from the grasp of a failed and corrupt form of government, as 80% of the people agreed in the pro-change referendum vote, the Elected Mayor law winning in 90% of the precincts in the City.

Yet despite all my efforts, Delegate Jones and Senator Marsh, who was a key leader of the pro-Jones forces on September 25th, objected to the final product, indeed Senator Marsh made some very inflammatory and personal comments about my motivations, all totally untrue which he knew to be the case.

However, I am use to being subject to that kind of stuff from all sides.

Still, I mention it now because all that my petition to the State Democratic Party asked was for the same consideration that Mr. Jones and Mr. Marsh asked to be given on my Elected Mayor Law.

The basis of their objection was that an African-American was put an unfair legal disadvantage under my Elected Mayor law.

Their position had no basis in fact. Senator Obama will get upwards of 80% of the vote in Richmond as did Doug Wilder when he ran for Mayor. Indeed, when my friend Senator Donald McEachin ran for Attorney General, he got less than 40% statewide, but carried Richmond easily.

The truth: By any honest analysis of politics, the Elected Mayor Law gives Dwight Jones as fair and open a chance to be elected as any election law in the country for the position of Mayor.

If not more.

So it strikes me - as they say in England - as rather "bad form" for Mr. Jones and Mr. Marsh to now be taking the position that the Richmond City Democratic Committee can use a procedure that is not fair, that is not open, that violates party rules, that is to say it suffers - in the eyes of any objective analyst - from the of kind of basic flaws that both men said were the reasons they opposed my Elected Mayor Law plan.

If they were so allegedly concern then, why is there no such concern now?

As I said in 2003: the Elected Mayor Law was fair to all concerned and it surely would not prevent Dwight Jones from having a fair and equal chance to win the race for Mayor. He concedes my point now.

What choice does he have given the objective facts?

So why then, when I point out what Mr. Framme and others all know - that the actions taken by the RCDC on September 25th were done precisely to deny the very fair and equal chance demanded by Mr. Jones and Mr. Marsh in 2003 - do I have to read the kinds of things I read in Mr. Jones' statement to the RCDC?

The next Mayor of Richmond, due in good measure to the fiscal mismanagement of the Wilder Administration and the City Council, will have to ask citizens to sacrifice in order to solve a growing fiscal mess. Thus, the person who holds that office needs to be seen as having been elected by a process that was not tainted, nor rigged either directly or indirectly in order to have the moral authority to ask for such sacrifices.

I treated the objections of Mr. Jones and Mr. Marsh in 2003 solely on the merits, as anyone who has read the Justice Department files can attest.

Whether Mr. Jones's written statement to the State Democratic Party meets that test I will leave it for others to decide.

Goldman warning not heeded about budget/fiscal mess in Richmond by Wilder/Pantele/Media: So as mess grows, the public will sadly be hurt more.

Goldman for Mayor - 6 October 2008 - For Immediate Release - 804-833-6313

Goldman Has Been Alone Among the Candidates for Mayor Warning Richmond About The Mess Being Created by the Wilder-led City Hall/Pantele-City Council Fiscal Fantasy

Any fair minded commentator on the Mayoral Debates and Forums knows that Paul Goldman has been the only candidate who had the vision and understanding of local finance months ago to tell voters that the growing city fiscal and budget mess was the top issue facing the new Mayor-elect [see an example of one of my fiscal warnings issued several months ago below]

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, issued the following statement this morning:

"As I have been saying for months - and yes, I do use email press releases which has produced interesting comments from editorialists and reporters who apparently believe making comments about the messenger somehow make less accurate the message - the Wilder-led City Hall and the Pantele-led City Council have created a fiscal and budget mess for the next Mayor-elect.

Having been a fiscal advisor to Governor-elect Mark Warner when he inherited a fiscal mess, I am the only candidate with the experience to steer Richmond through the growing crisis that will force the Mayor-elect to make some very tough decisions in the best interests of Richmond's future.

Starting from the day I announced back in February, I have been warning about the fiscal fantasies of the Wilder-led City Hall and the Pantele-led City Council.

For the last 7 months, I have used every Debate, every Forum, and whenever appropriate in discussing the future with voters, to try and alert the city to the fiscal and budget mess we face.

I urged the Wilder-led City Hall and the Pantele-led City Council to start making cuts IN THE 2008 FY BUDGET, not only the current 2009 FY budget assuming the two sides could ever agree to meet their responsibilities and produce a fiscal document both would agree is the legal fiscal plan for Richmond.

The media's refusal to hold both Mr. Wilder and Mr. Pantele accountable for not having an agreed-upon 2009 FY budget now over 3 months into the new fiscal year - a situation that has never before occurred in Richmond or any other Virginia locality to my knowledge - has only prolonged the situation in my judgment.

To quote Bob Dylan, how "many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?"

The answer is blowing in the fiscal wind, and it is time my friends Mr. Wilder and Mr. Pantele and the others took their heads out of the sand.

For example, here is an email press release I sent out nearly 3 months ago: .




Goldman for Mayor - 11 July 08- 2008 - For Immediate Release - Contact, 804-833-6313 -[Emphasis added]


"City Hall and City Council have been paying for a rising cost of government from a housing bubble that is not going to be there next year"

"As I have been saying for months, Wilder's led City Hall and Pantele's led
City Council need to stop wasting money on the most expensive City Hall and City Council in the state, and start cutting their expenses and government expenses, big time."

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor "said there is reason the Richmond Times Dispatch said of all the candidates in the race for Mayor, I was the only one with real credibility as a champion of the Richmonders' fed-up with the wasteful spending at city hall."

"And that reason should be clear this morning as Wall Street is rocked again today by what falling housing prices are doing to the credit markets and the economy" Goldman continued.

In a statement, Goldman said:

"Despite all my efforts these many months, the City Council and City Hall has refused to listen and instead heaped millions and millions of more spending on the backs of real estate property tax payers by wasting money we can not afford due to what they claim is another 8% spike in average home values, on top of several other successive years of galloping high assessment boosts. .

But in the real world of the next 12 months, all these rose-colored views of our city leaders are about to face the reality of the oil, housing, and retail market place that make up our economy.

There is not going to be any such double or near-double digit increase to pay for the bloated and expanded permanent city government they have now created. For too long, instead of making the hard decisions needed to expand our job base and thus our revenue base, and rein in the most expensive city hall, city council and city school bureaucracy in the state, city elected leaders and their fiscal teams have been authorizing spending at a rate that the people of Richmond can not afford.

The inability of City Hall and City Council to figure out what is the legal city budget without another law suit that will waste more money that Richmond can not afford is a metaphor.

The more City Hall and City Council waste in spending that we can't afford, the more in the end they will hurt the people of Richmond, especially the most vulnerable among us."
--------------30 ----------------------

VA DEM Party concedes validity of Goldman's appeal, admits only permissible endorsement process must be one where "everyone's voice is heard."

The Jones for Mayor campaign needs to heed words of Bob Dylan:

"How Many Times Can a Man Turn his Head and Pretend That He Just Doesn't See?"

It is blowing in the wind folks.

By Paul Goldman

In today's Richmond Times Dispatch, the Virginia Democratic Party had this to say about my challenge to the RCDC "endorsement" action of last Thursday night:

" We're not going to pre-emptively change anything, but we want a process is [sic] which everyone's voice is heard," said Jared Leopold, a state party spokesman." [Emphasis added].

Given that one of the basic, fundamental premises of my challenge to the Richmond City Democratic Committee "process" that "endorsed" Delegate Jones is that even the RCDC members concede that it was not a process in which everyone's voice was heard - quite the opposite really - then this official statement from the Virginia Democratic Party concedes what all fair-minded people already know.

Everyone's voice was not heard last Thursday night at the RCDC meeting BY DESIGN, indeed the whole "process" never even allowed the candidates to speak to the RCDC, or even fill out the usual questionnaire PRIOR TO THE SURPRISE, NOT-PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED endorsement move.

As Jefferson might say, that is why it is self-evident that the RCDC process and action VIOLATED THE VIRGINIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLAN AND THE RCDC'S OWN BYLAWS.

In fact, the reason the Jones for Mayor campaign did what he it did WAS TO ACT SO THAT ALL VOICES DID NOT HAVE A CHANCE TO BE HEARD!

So this is why I have urged the Appeal Committee created to hold their hearing ASAP, to ask Delegate Jones to allow it to be held ASAP, so we can quickly correct the damage done by the RCDC failures to follow the basic rules and values of the Democratic party.

News flash: Goldman wins first step on his Jones appeal. I was just informed....

Goldman for Mayor - 30 September 2008 - For Immediate Release

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, issued the following statement in response to an email received from Majorie Clark, the head of the 7th District Democratic Committee:

"I have just received the communication copied below from Chairwoman Clark, which is in response to my request earlier today, such request made as part of my appeal in the Jones endorsement controversy, and also copied below.

As I have said repeatedly, I like and respect Dwight, that is not the issue. But given the challenges facing the next Mayor of Richmond to bring this city together, the public interest is not served, nor Dwight should he win, by any taint that might attached to the process used to choose the winner in this campaign.

Having been Chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, I know it took a lot of guts and integrity for Chairwoman Clark to take such action. Eventually, everyone, will see that she did the right thing, for the right reasons, and in the end, everyone including Delegate Jones, will realize her actions are in the best interests of Richmond, the Democratic Party and whomever gets the honor of serving as the River City's next chief executive.


-----------------Forwarded Message:
Subj:
Please notify Jones campaign immediately of appeal of endorsement
Date:
9/30/2008 12:30:40 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From:
Mmclarkdem
To:
levar@vademocrats.org, dmark@vademocrats.org, fleone@spriggs.com
CC:
Klearb, mmclarkdem@yahoo.com
BCC:
GoldmanUSA

I believe that Paul's request is appropriate.

I hope you will notify the Jones campaign, the RCDC and all other campaigns immediately that an appeal is in the works and that claiming a final endorsement decision now may be premature.

Continuing to claim this endorsement, if the process turns out to have been in violation of the party plan, compounds the "smell" of unfairness and political rigging that will cling to the Jones campaign. If the endorsement process were conducted with correct notification of "all interested parties," the outcome would likely be the same; but there would definitely be positive vibes about the fairness. That would be good for Jones and for the RCDC.

The request should come from you at the top, rather than from the district committee chairs who have received the appeal.

Thanks.

Marjorie
804-276-2354



From: GoldmanUSATo: Mmclarkdem, Klearb, fleone@spriggs.com, levar@vademocrats.org, dmark@vademocrats.orgCC: eric@ericpayne.net, jennifer.l.mcclellan@verizon.comSent: 9/30/2008 10:19:35 A.M. Eastern Daylight TimeSubj: Addition to my appeal. Sorry, had the wrong subject on last email.

Dear Majorie, and Barbara:

RE: Addition to my appeal as to (e) action requested:

Given the circumstances, I request, as part of my appeal, that the Jones for Mayor campaign be contacted immediately and asked to stop from referring to Mr. Jones, directly or indirectly, as the endorsed Democratic candidate for Mayor until a decision on my appeal has been made.

This is only fair, not only to the other Democrats running, but to the people of Richmond.

Voting as already started in the Mayor's race.

Accordingly, we need to make sure no voter is under a false impression when he or she makes their decision.

Moreover, until a decision is reached, there is nothing to stop Mr. Jones' campaign from sending out literature, making phone calls and otherwise saying that he is the Democratic-endorsed candidate running with Senator Obama on his official ticket.

This claim can therefore be sent in the next few days to tens of thousands of voters in Richmond.

Should my appeal be upheld - as I believe will be the case - then this incorrect claim would have been communicated to all these tens of thousands of voters.

We all know the analogy to one of those courtroom scenes in Law and Order scenes when the lawyer violates the rules and the Judge tells the jury to "disregard what they heard."

The offending lawyer will smile, knowing that this is not possible.

As I have said repeatedly, I like and respect Dwight, that is not the issue. But given the challenges facing the next Mayor of Richmond to bring this city together, the public interest is not served, nor Dwight should he win, by any taint that might attached to the process used to choose the winner in this campaign.

Sincerely,

Paul Goldman

If Jones' endorsement by Richmond City DEM Committee stands, Mayor's election is over.

My column to be published tomorrow will explain why, if the unprecedented, unpublicized and apparently rigged Richmond City Democratic Committee process is upheld, then Dwight Jones is the next Mayor of Richmond: that's right, the election is over even though election day is over a month away and most people in town have never heard of Dwight [nor the rest of us too].

Did unprecedented, rigged process used by Richmond City DEM Committee violate Voting Rights Act?

Goldman for Mayor - 28 September 2008 - For Immediate Release - Contact: 804-833-6313

Did the Richmond City Democratic Committee violate the Voting Rights Act by the questionable, unprecedented, and apparently rigged process it used to endorse Delegate Dwight Jones for Mayor this past Thursday?

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor issued the following:

"Surely Barack Obama and Paul Goldman aren't the only Democrats who realize that time has come for a new politics. I like Dwight, he is a terrific guy. But this is not about any one person, it is about the values and principles Democrats across America believe in.

Yesterday, following the procedures in the Virginia Democratic Party Plan, I asked the appropriate body to review the process.

In 2003 and 2004, some of the individuals who voted to break the rules last Thursday night were the same persons who said they didn't back the Elected Mayor law that I drafted because its passage had been done in violation of the Voting Rights Act. They heaped false personal abuse on myself and others.

So the question is: When will we stop the double standard in Richmond and in that regard, if the Richmond City Democratic Committee is incapable of believing in Dr. King's dream, then what does that say about the future of things in the River City?

As my filing showed - and as the additional filing will additionally show now that I am in possession of the RCDC bylaws - the rules passed to protect the rights of the minority, of the all the citizens of Richmond, were not followed last Thursday.

Having been the one person among the candidates running for Mayor who has a proven record of being willing to take the lead at historic moments to bring blacks and whites together so we get with the business of getting past the past, I can say this based on successful experience:

Two wrongs can never make things right, and in the end, the people who get most hurt by the public cynicism fueled by ill-advised action as the RCDC took last night are the very poor children and working families who have long looked to Democrats to level the playing field.

Goldman urges Democrats not to abandon principle, to realize any taint on mayoral election will only wind-up hurting the city's poorest children

Statement from Paul Goldman to his fellow Democrats:

In 1985, when no other Democrat in the state who looked like me would do it, I took the chief cook and bottle washer position in order to free Virginia of an old politics that denied equal political rights to African-Americans and women, long denied any chance at being elected to statewide office.

I believed then - and I believe now - that Democrats need to champion a political process that is based on merit,is as open and fair and democratic as we can make it.

Clearly, the action taken by a small number of members of the Richmond City Democratic Committee violates - as I show in my official complaint filed this morning - those basic principles, not to mention the rules of the Virginia Democratic Party Plan.

I like Dwight Jones, he is a terrific guy. But life is a lesson in living and learning from your mistakes. Moreover, candidates are generally not informed of all the nitty-gritty details of such things as party plans, and notice requirements. They leave that to staff.

Richmond needs a Mayor who has a proven record of reaching out across racial lines, to bring people together. Thus the next Mayor must be elected in a way that does not make the people of the City think it was through a rigged process, which put the public interest second, and the political interest of the political power-brokers first.

In 1985, it was lonely out there on the front lines of change. The same for 2003 when we freed Richmond from the grasp of a failed and corrupt system of government. At the time, Mr. Jones and most of his key supporters opposed me, one basically comparing me to racist trying to take away the voting rights of African-Americans.

Having been called names before, I didn't worry, as Dr. King says, truth crushed to Earth will rise.

Now, Mr. Jones and my opponents, who were comfortable with the old failed system that denied Richmonders the right to vote for their Mayor, suddenly have had a death-bed conversion and want the job they said was not necessary.

I consider that progress, and worth all the personal abuse.

2008 now presents the next challenge here in Richmond.

In the name of the poor children of Richmond, who stand the most to lose, I urge the RCDC and the Democratic Party to realize that "endorsing" Dwight Jones, given the process used, holds the whole Richmond mayoral election up to ridicule: and in so doing, it will make it harder for Mr. Jones to be the Mayor he needs to be should he be elected.

So in that sense, everyone stands to lose unless principled heads prevail: and the right thing is done.

Reversing the RCDC decision will, admittedly, be unprecedented. It will embarrassing. We have all been there if you have had the guts to stand in the arena and fight for real change.

But it is the right thing to do, indeed the thing Richmond needs Democrats to do right now.

Pantele's crocodile tears: His plan to rig the DEM endorsement process fails as he is outrigged by Jones!

Bill Pantele and his people tried for months, led by the head of the Richmond City Democratic Committee Eric Payne, to pack the Richmond City Democratic Committee with pro-Pantele members in order to set-up a rigged the process to get Mr. Pantele the RCDC endorsement. But when they realized that Dwight Jones and his campaign had done a better job packing the RCDC with pro-Jones people, then Eric Payne tried to thwart the Jones people by dragging things out to make it impossible for them to get the endorsement. Last night, the Jones people pulled a power play on Pantele and got Jones the endorsement through an even more rigged process!

I saw this coming last April, which is why I wrote my letter to Mr. Payne hoping to force the process into the sunlight and why I wrote my article discussing the RCDC endorsement and what it would mean to get on the official Obama Democratic ballot.

But never did I imagine they would be so blatant about things, to have a total sham for a process, to treat everyone including the public with such disdain.

So today, to hear Bill complain about Jones is really more crocodile tears than the flood wall in Shockoe Bottom might be able to handle.

Come on Bill, fess-up: your plan to rig the DEM endorsement and then the election by getting yourself on the official Obama ballot was thwarted by Dwight and his campaign. Ironically, there is a good chance Bill decided to run for Mayor because Eric, et. al. promised him they could control the Richmond City Democratic Committee.

So when Highway 101 is in town to do a concert, they should call Bill and have him sing the chorus to their big hit "Cry, Cry, Cry."

Goldman challenges "sham, manipulated, undemocratic" process used by Richmond DEMS to endorse Jones.

Goldman for Mayor - 26 September 2008 - For Immediate Release

Statement from Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, former Chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, and recognized as one of the few leaders who stood up to the old, closed process, even suing the old Democratic Party, to make sure all Democrats got an equal say in party matters:

"I was just informed that the Richmond City Democratic Committee, in an example of a closed, non-democratic, boss-run, who-cares-about-the-issues-or-the-best-interests-of-Richmond process that would have even embarrassed the segregationist regime of Harry F. Byrd, last night endorsed Dwight Jones without (1) ever interviewing any of the other Democrats running for Mayor about their positions on the issues, (2)without providing notice to anyone even the press about what they were going to do, (3) (3) without considering how should an embarrassing and undemocratic process could split Democrats and thus hurt the chances of the Obama-Biden ticket to carry Virginia, (4) without any consideration on how such an embarrassing, insular and exclusionary process would hurt the ability of any Mayor to bring our City together and (5) without any consideration to the fact that the RCDC, which never helped me one wit when I was fighting to end this kind of power-broker controlled process of picking our Mayor, has shown once again that never wanted to give average Democrats any say in picking a Mayor in the first place.

As I have said repeatedly in this campaign, my career has been successful in making historic changes that have opened up our society so that all people can have a greater say in their government and their city and their state and their country because I have never been afraid of challenging the political establishment and the political power-brokers: and I see no reason to stop now.

Earlier this year, in a column for Style Weekly, I warned that something like this could happen. No one paid attention. No one cared.

But I believe that the people of Richmond, whatever their political philosophy, agree with me that we have come too far to turn back now. "

Wilder sets precedent, responds to Goldman analysis of city budget and fiscal mess. Why did Wilder respond?

Goldman for Mayor - 25 September 2008 - For Immediate Release

What did the Mayor say about the Goldman analysis of our city's budget and fiscal mess, the failure of City Hall and City Council to level with the people on our finances, and the fact the two bodies wasted all that money as they have been living off a real estate bubble leading to inflated real estate assessments, thus inflated real estate taxes?

In a statement, Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor said:

"The reason Mayor Wilder knew he needed to answer my analysis is clear to anyone who has followed Virginia politics over the years. As has been pointed out by those who were there, my AAA credibility on public finances in these situations has been long recognized due to my work in helping Governor-elect Wilder and Governor-elect Warner address the growing budget and fiscal mess they inherited upon winning the state's top job. They sought my advice not only during the transition period, but at those initial meetings either in the Governor's office or at the Governor's Mansion as they needed to make the tough decisions right at the start of their terms.

Sadly, the next Mayor-elect, like Governors-elect Wilder and Warner, is apparently going to going to inherit a budget and fiscal mess in terms of city finances going forward during this same time frame early in his term, something that will carry forward to least the first half of the next mayoral term.

Like Governors-elect Wilder and Warner, the next Mayor is going to have take honest, no-nonsense fiscally responsible action right from the start.

One reason I was the first to announce for Mayor early this year was my hope that it would enable me to sound the alarm, to get the Wilder Administration and the Pantele-led City Council to take the needed action starting with the last quarter of the previous city budget.

But Mr. Pantele and Mr. Wilder proved they would rather fight and feud.

Moreover, as the Mayor knows, my AAA credibility isn't just based on the fact that none of my opponents, taken individually or combined, has this real-time experience. The fact is that I also have a Masters in Public Administration from the top school in the country in that discipline, helping to make me an expert on public finance by education, the only candidate for Mayor with this training. .

Of all the candidates for Mayor, I am the only one that Mr. Pantele, the City Council, and the old power-brokers know they can't fool. I am the only one with the knowledge and independence to expose the truth about what they have done or tried to do with city funds over the years.

My AAA credibility on public finances, earned by not just talking the talk, but walking the walk, and my independence of any special interest is something they fear.

The Pantele-led City Council has tried to belittle me in hopes of hiding their fiscal incompetence.

But those Governors, who have had to inherit the kinds of budget and fiscal messes that Mr. Pantele and the City Council have helped create for the next Mayor-elect, know the truth.

And that is why Doug Wilder knew he needed to respond."

News Flash: Legendary investor Warren Buffett reports he will "invest in Goldman"

Goldman for Mayor - September 24th - For Immediate Release

Richmond Times Dispatch is reporting this morning that legendary finance expert Warren Buffett "to invest $5 Billion in Goldman."

(Richmond): Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, issued the following statement this morning:

"For myself and of course Mr. Sachs along with the entire Goldman Sachs Group Inc, I want to thank Warren baby for recognizing proven performance and credentials.

$5 extra large is cool Mr. B. It will make for one heck of a campaign finance report next month.

The Buffett man can add. So with (1) Governor Kaine saying we face a 3 billion deficit at the state level, with (2) Uncle Sugar in D.C. facing a trillion - that's 333 times the size of the state deficit! - in debt explosion due to the need to save capitalism from the capitalists, and (3) the fiscally irresponsible Wilder-Pantele regime this past year having created a deficit-ridden, spending-splurge fiscal mess here in the River City that still defies a budget solution 3 months into the new fiscal year,
Mr. B. knew he had to find a someone who understood the 1, 2, & 3 of it all.

So he turned to Goldy, fearing otherwise that he and Richmond would get Sacked.

The Sage of Omaha knows I have been praise by several Governors for giving them no-nonsense and sound fiscal advice that helped them win national acclaim for how they dealt, in a fiscally responsible way, with serious fiscal problems inherited upon taking office.

And the next Mayor of Richmond is going to inherit a fiscal mess.

Mr. B. knows that I am the only candidate for Mayor with the proven record of fiscal acumen and graduate training in public finance to get us out of this growing financial hole.

Later today, I will again try to get the media of Richmond - I have been trying now since February - to finally focus on the fiscal mess here in Richmond.

Even Mr. Pantele has now been forced to concede that he has voted for a series of budgets that has given Richmond the most bloated and inefficient local government in Virginia, the amount of waste he conceded last night to be at least 30 million and likely close to twice that."

"Pantele too behold to real estate and other special interests to be trusted on Stadium issue"

Goldman for Mayor - 23 September 2008 - For Immediate Release


Goldman: "I am the only candidate for Mayor who has proven he can be trusted to oppose a Downtown Baseball Stadium. My friend Bill Pantele is too tied to the real estate interests bankrolling his campaign. Now we know why they and certain others have given him so much money after meeting with him in private. And now we know why he is trying to hide his true position until after the election as was evident in today's RTD story."

"A Downtown Baseball Stadium is a bad deal for Richmond as I showed the last time. As the RTD has said, I am the only candidate with the proven credibility to be trusted to defend the public interest of the average citizen on these kinds of key issues."

"Mayor Goldman will not allow the real estate and other powerful interests to use their financial and other clout to wield special influence over City Hall and City Council so they can force a Downtown Baseball Stadium on the people of Richmond."

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, issued this statement this morning after reading the revelations in today's Richmond Times Dispatch about what has been going around in private in all those meeting between the Wilder Administration and City Council President Bill Pantele, among others, on the issue of a Downtown Baseball Stadium.

In this statement, Mr. Goldman said:

"Finally, the truth about what Mr. Pantele and others have been discussing in private. Of all the candidates running for Mayor, I am the only one who can be trusted to oppose a Downtown Baseball Stadium, for I am the only candidate who showed the leadership, the financial expertise, and the political honesty to expose the truth last time the special interests tried to force a Downtown Baseball Stadium on the people of Richmond.

To paraphrase what Joe Louis said to Billy Cohn: Mr. Pantele, you can run but you can't hide, it is now clear what you have been telling the real estate interests and certain others bankrolling your campaign in all those private meetings.

Mayor Goldman will oppose a Downtown Baseball Stadium, for as I have pointed out since 2005 after studying the issue, it is not in the best interests of the people of Richmond, it is just another Pantele giveaway, as was the case when he voted to raise the meals tax and give all those special benefits to the last failed project he supported, another ill-conceived project that I was able to help stop before it bleed even more millions from the public treasury.

If we want baseball in Richmond, then the current Boulevard location is the only viable option.

Only a Goldman Administration will have the expertise, the proven record and the political courage to stand-up to the old power-brokers: and they know it, because Bill Pantele was always comfortable with the old system, which answered to the old power-brokers as he said when first running for City Council.

There is a reason that I am the only candidate willing to publicly oppose a Downtown Baseball Stadium, Echo Harbor and the sweetheart deal that gave us the highest food tax in the state for a 100 million dollar project that we couldn't afford: and to publicly support the Patrick Henry Charter School and David McCoy for Police Chief.

And that reason is this: I am the one candidate with the independence and knowledge to be able to free Richmond from the grasp of the same old power-brokers on both sides who while claiming to be different, actually are the same in putting their self-interest ahead of the public interest."

Richmond's media failure to fight for openness hurts their credibility

Goldman won't attend closed, no-press or public invited debate-style forum before a private, membership-only group

"In any other major city in America, the local press would be demanding to be present, anything less would be seen as a total abdication of journalistic responsibility. The group might refuse, but at least the media would try."

Here are excerpts from today's RTD story:

Thursday, Sep 18, 2008 - Excerpts

By WILL JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Richmond mayoral candidate Paul Goldman is withdrawing from an appearance before a group of corporate leaders, saying the closed meeting highlights the "plantation mentality" that he's running to change.

"I know of no place else in the country where a private group thinks all the candidates for mayor will show up for a private debate before them -- no press, no public," Goldman said yesterday at a news conference outside The Jefferson Hotel, where the Management Round Table is planning its Sept. 29 breakfast meeting.

Robert C. Sledd, Round Table chairman, said Goldman is "trying to make a mountain out of a molehill."

"There are forums for the media and public to attend," he said. "This is just an opportunity for business folks to hear what the mayoral candidates have to say. There's nothing mysterious."

Goldman, whose campaign has garnered no financial support from business leaders, said he was told the meeting would be closed because "it always has been."

"The office [of mayor] itself isn't for purchase," he said. "It's not for ownership by any private group. It is for the people, and the way you demonstrate that is when you . . . campaign openly. . . . I'm not going to fall for what I call this plantation mentality. I'm the guy that wants to change it."

The Management Round Table has about 60 corporate leaders as members who meet about five times a year to hear about community issues, said Sledd, former chairman and chief executive officer of Performance Food Group.

He said the breakfast meeting isn't a forum, although an agenda says the candidates will present their platforms and take questions from the audience.

Forty members of the Round Table are expected to attend, including executives with Bon Secours, Capital One, Bank of America, Wachovia Bank, Troutman Sanders, Williams Mullen, McGuireWoods, NewMarket Corp., Ukrop's Super Markets, Scott & Stringfellow and Media General Inc., the parent company of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"It is our hope that the session will be valuable for you too, as most MRT members have not yet committed to a candidate," organizer Tayloe Negus said in an e-mail to Goldman.

Sledd said the Round Table, as a registered civic organization, is prohibited from making political contributions.

Other mayoral candidates aren't objecting to the meeting.

"There are plenty of opportunities for the general public and Richmond city voters to attend a public forum and see the candidates in action," said Craig Bieber, campaign manager for William J. Pantele.

Lisa Fulton, campaign manager for Robert J. Grey Jr., said Grey plans to attend the meeting. "While it would be our hope that all events are open to the press, those decisions are ultimately that of the hosts," she said in an e-mail.

Dwight Clinton Jones will tell the business leaders the same things he tells residents when he's campaigning door to door, campaign manager Kevin O'Holleran said.

Goldman declines to participate in private debate-style forum before Management Round Table where press is excluded.

At Noon today, I will be holding a press conference to discuss the letter sent explaining my reasons for not believing it proper for a candidate for Mayor to participate in a private debate-style forum before a purely private group - in this case the Management Round Table - where the press, for example, is excluded.

Goldman support upsets old power-brokers: excerpts from RTD news story

Goldman has $100,000 for race

Goldman willingness to challenge the same ole, same old power-broker politics that has held Richmond back gains support, makes real change possible next year. But will more people join the effort?

Sunday, Sep 14, 2008 - 12:08 AM - Excerpts from front-page, B-1 story

By WILL JONES
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Richmond mayoral candidate Paul Goldman will have cash to compete for votes in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Goldman, who has been running an aggressive, shoestring campaign, said yesterday that he has raised $100,000 -- a serious sum that three opponents reported having raised or nearly raised through June.

"It's like a card game," Goldman said yesterday. "This is enough to stay in the game, to get the next card."

Goldman said he expects the reports due tomorrow to show that Jones, Pantele and Grey have raised substantially more than he has. He said he expects to use the money to reach out to voters in the final weeks and believes it could also convince Richmonders that he is a viable choice.

"In the system we live in, the ideas are more important if you have a big bank account than if you have a small bank account," said Goldman, a lawyer and a former state Democratic Party chairman.

Goldman Backs McCoy for Police Chief

Goldman for Mayor - 9 September 2008 - For Immediate Release

Goldman Backs McCoy for Police Chief

"Given the incredible success in the fight against crime since we started the Elected Mayor form of government, Mr. McCoy has earned the great honor of having the word "Interim" removed and just being known as Richmond Police Chief David McCoy."

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, says "Mr. David McCoy, a 23-year veteran of the Richmond Police Department, has been a integral part of one of the most successful crime-fighting teams not just in the history of Richmond, but around the country. He is a professional who knows how to keep our success going."

"My opponents were happy with the old way of policing, they opposed my efforts to change our form of government, which is the only reason we could get someone like former Chief Rodney Monroe. Under the old system championed by Mr. Pantele and City Council, we would be stuck with a failed anti-crime strategy that they knew was failing, but they didn't have the courage to change.

Mayor Wilder used his power under the new form of government to get Rodney Monroe to come to Richmond: and the rest, as they say, is history.

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, why change horses in midstream now, when we have finally turned the corner in the fight against crime?

A decade ago, in an article for the Richmond Times Dispatch, I wrote that if we went to an elected Mayor, I guaranteed we would get a new, successful approach to fighting crime that would cut the murder rate by 30%.

Mayor Wilder made the right choice in choosing Rodney Monroe. Now, David McCoy is the right person to keep our anti-crime successes going. The record speaks for itself.

With Chief McCoy, Commonwealth Attorney Herring, and Mayor Goldman, citizens will have a crime-fighting team that has a proven record of being willing to make the changes necessary to help make our loved ones safer and keep Richmond from returning to the days when it was ranked as one of the most dangerous towns in America.

I applaud our police officers for their bravery and their success. As Mayor Wilder leaves office, he has a right to be proud of his efforts to build one of the most successful police departments in the country."

----------------

Goldman Praises Williams, West: challenges Richmond to get past racial politics

Goldman for Mayor - September 6th - For Immediate Release:

"I urge everyone to read Michael Paul Williams column today in the Richmond Times
Dispatch, [copied below] it is an exception article and for the sake of the children of our town, I hope the adults of the River City reflect upon it, and take it to heart."

"Let me also say that Keith West is likewise doing what a public servant should do, he is working to bring people together to help improve the educational opportunities of the children of Richmond, I know the goal of providing greater educational opportunity is shared by every other member of the School Board, so as I said when working with others to get Richmonders their right to elect their Mayor, I know that change can be hard, but when it is necessary, we need to figure out a way to get it done. There are 4000 charter schools in the country, so it has long been a mainstream idea, and in our case, an idea whose time has come for Richmond."

Mistrust of charter school may mean missed chance

Saturday, Sep 06, 2008 -

By MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST

Rosa Parks, before her death, was associated with the charter schools movement.
Black parents and teachers in Topeka, Kan., are trying to establish a charter school in the same building where plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education were denied admission in 1951.
Charter schools have a track record of improving the achievement of black students in low-income urban areas, and are endorsed by none other than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"Some of the strongest advocates of the charter movement in the U.S. have been African-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and so on," said Joe Nathan, director of The Center for School Change at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

So why are some black folks in our town so leery of them?

Perhaps it's because, in Richmond, past is prologue and history is often at loggerheads with harmony.

Richmond is fertile ground for conspiracy theories for no other reason than they often prove out.

The Virginia State Conference NAACP is not alone in observing that one election after the change to the mayor-at-large system in Richmond, the City Council and School Board became majority white.

Some black folks who've stood by the school district, or had no other options, bristle at the thought of those who abandoned the district or who never belonged carving out an educational island. Some opponents argue that resources provided to Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts would be put to better use systemwide.

Nathan counters that charter schools can be more egalitarian than district schools, since no admissions tests are allowed like at say, Richmond Community High. Patrick Henry would hold a lottery to determine admission.

Three of the four black members of the Richmond School Board opposed the Patrick Henry proposal Tuesday.

Board member Keith West, a charter school proponent, voted against the proposal because he said the contract governing the school was too restrictive. But instead of lawyers, this situation needs mediators.

Nathan was among the founders of the nation's first charter school in St. Paul, Minn. It opened in 1992 with fewer than 100 students. Today, more than 4,000 charter schools nationwide educate some 1.3 million students.

Nathan is quick to point out that not every charter school proposal has been a great one, and there have been abuses and misuse or theft of monies. But he urged Richmond to embrace the concept.

"We make progress when we try new things," Nathan said.

He attributes suspicion of the movement here to the bitter aftertaste of white resistance to the Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring school segregation unconstitutional.
"One of the things I witnessed in the South sometimes with African-Americans is a very strong recognition of the school choice movement of the late '50s and '60s, which was about promoting segregation and inequality," he said.

Indeed, the NAACP said in a recent statement: "There is a nefarious battle being waged by a segment of the population to take back what was lost in the 1970s. Charter schools were conceptualized immediately after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1955."

What would Nathan say to the wary?

"I'd say that while I completely respect and understand the concerns about what's happened, and completely respect the concern that the world is not entirely fair, the evidence is quite clear that some African-Americans who did poorly in existing schools are doing far better in charter schools."

Shouldn't that be the bottom line?

Given failure on school construction, no justification for using City funds to build a new Baseball Stadium

Goldman for Mayor - 2 September 2008 - For Immediate Release:

Statement from Paul Goldman

In the Washington Post today, there is this quote from Mike Berry, the general manager of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority:

"One of the considerations in any discussion would be the playing venue as well as what the community feels it could invest," Berry said. "A partnership could be created with their expectation and what the local community is willing to support."

The RMA is a regional authority, so presumably the "local community" he is referring to are the localities represented on the RMA board.

It will soon be three years since my "City of the Future" plan was praised by Mr. Pantele, the Mayor, City Council and the School Board. It was part of what I call my "Construction Initiative" for improving our schools, a compliment to the "Instruction Initiative" that I want to enact if elected Mayor.

The key component of this plan was to begin the first wide-scale modernization of our school system in modern history, which has the oldest such facilities in the state.

To date, neither the Wilder Administration, any member of the City Council nor the School Board, has seen any urgency in all of these three years to make sure we even began the modernization of a single school, not to mention all the one's included in my plan.

As indicated, I am not sure what Mr. Berry has in mind regarding the City of Richmond putting up money for a new Baseball Stadium. Hopefully, he will enlighten us as to what he means and with whom he has been consulting.

But for me, the choice is clear: If the elected leaders of this city are so indifferent to the plight of the children and have shown no interest in the last three years in finding the time to figure out how to modernize one school in the oldest such system in the state, then there is absolutely no justification for this city contributing any funds from it's public treasury toward a new baseball stadium.

I don't see how a city that is prepared to vote overwhelming for Barack Obama can read his education platform, and then believe that the failure of these last three years in terms of school modernization can be at all justified.

And then to compound the failure by giving public money to a baseball stadium before you have even modernized a single public school?

That's why I say it is time for a change in Richmond.

Given this continuing failure on school construction, there is no justification for the City of Richmond dipping into it's budget, currently 6 million in the red, and spending many millions on constructing a new Baseball Stadium.

If it's Biden, this may explain Obama waiting so long to make the VP announcement

If it's Biden, this may explain Obama waiting so long to make the VP announcement

By Paul Goldman

Following-up on this morning's earlier analysis, never in the history of modern presidential campaigning during this primary-dominated era has someone who fared so poorly as did Senator Biden this year been chosen for the Vice-Presidency over someone who did so well such as Senator Hillary Clinton.

Indeed, never before as a better performing candidate been rejected for a worse performing candidate, not to mention in this case a near winner being rejected for a huge loser, indeed someone who has now been forced to twice withdraw from the presidential contest after his campaign did so poorly.

If it's Biden, my gut says: The Obama high command was worried about a potential backlash from Clinton supporters for several reasons, not the least is the fact that the Clinton campaign made her gender such a big part of her strategy, and now, here again, we see the woman rejected for a man who she crushed in the primaries.

By keeping the Biden thing under wraps until the weekend before the Democratic Convention, when key Clinton operatives and feminist activists will be otherwise somewhat distracted by the need to be traveling to Denver, this makes any such big backlash being part of the narrative a lot less possible.

Once folks get to Denver, with Senator Clinton due to speak on Tuesday night, this calendar maneuver I think is calculated to reduce any possible " once again, the woman plays by the rules, beats the man, but he gets the job anyway" type of backlash in the media against Biden's nomination.

Think about it: The polls show that most of the Hillary constituency wants her to run for VEEP. They think she earned it.

She crushed Biden, who while a super-guy and a solid Democrat, still lost badly. He didn't have the money nor the opportunity to show what he could do, that's true, and he has a solid record in office.

But the operative issue is simply that he got beat, by her, and badly.

So, again we thinking out loud in terms of the average Clinton backer, why is that Hillary, the woman, loses to Biden, the man, for the VP prize?

As people know, I have addressed the issues of gender, race, and the like in several articles in the past in major dailies, I wrote some new one's this year, but the news media has chosen this time to review them, and in the end not to publish them.

In my view, the Obama team has been worried about a possible backlash being played out in the 24/7 media political echo chamber - not on the Convention floor - so they have reduced the time available for it.

For Senator Clinton's 18 million I think it is voters, and millions more, especially women who she targeted with her campaign strategy, the sense of hurt and rejection is a fair concern for Democratic leaders to have. Joe Biden has a solid Democratic record. But again, he got beat big time by Hillary Clinton.

Senator Clinton will be addressing it in her Convention speech, you can bet on that. So will her husband.

So if it is Biden, don't be surprised if the GOP tries to play some political games here.

Senator Bayh, a Clinton backer, would not have the Biden circumstance, the same for Governor Kaine, since he backed Obama, and in that regard, it is understandable that he would be more likely to be chosen than Senator Clinton.

Biden didn't back Obama, he ran against Hillary, he got beat big time.

Yet he ends up with the prize.

That is going to be the view of a lot of Clinton supporters in middle America.

Why Robert Grey and Bill Pantele are in Dire Straits

[To be read with the Dire Straits Grammy-winning song "Money for Nothing" playing in the background on your MTV].

By Paul Goldman

Whose wasting the most taxpayer money, Robert Grey by backing the Mayor's budget spending, or Bill Pantele, by opposing it?

Truth is, both Robert and Bill are both wasting big $, indeed the same Big $, but at least Mr. Grey can say he isn't trying to hide anything. For some reason, the local news media has yet to inform the public about the level of spending in certain key areas at City Hall during these first two months of the new fiscal year: and how the rate of spending compares to the expected level of spending in such areas as contained in the City Council budget, which Mr. Pantele and his City Council posse claim is legal, although they refuse to try and enforce it!

Robert, Bill and I are lawyers of sorts, so we know this basic tenet of law, namely that the chief executive of a locality must have legal authority, through action by the legislative branch, before he or she can legally expend public funds. The Wilder Administration says it has such lawful authority due to the automatic enactment of the Mayor's budget on account of the failure of the Council to pass it's budget according to the requirements of the City Charter.

As indicated, big firm corporate lawyer Mr. Grey agrees with Hizzoner: small firm general practice lawyer Mr. Pantele naturally backs his own handiwork.

But focusing on the legal side of the feud misses the wasteful spending side, for as the feudists fiddle, the Wilder Administration burns up public dollars. The Council budget and the Mayor's budget differed significantly in certain areas of spending. However, the actual total annual amount of such spending is only one aspect of how big $ money can be wasted: there is also the rate of monthly spending in these certain areas by City Hall.

Remember: An executive generally has discretion as to the rate of his/her spending in any given month in many areas unless the law provides otherwise. Soon, we will be 2 months into the new budget year. The Wilder Administration says it is following their spending plan, not the Council's, to the extent there are no legally binding ordinances on the books.

What Big $ waste can this situation produce? Let's use round numbers to develop a hypothetical example. Assume the Mayor's budget proposed spending say $2,000,000 for public relations. The Council budget however only appropriated $1,000,000 in this area. .

Thus, assume they are are feuding over which is the legal appropriation, $2M or $1M.

But under either legal theory, the Mayor could spend $1M during this FY 09 before it could be argued that he has exceeded the law, since even if the Council budget was to be ultimately proven to be the legal one, their budget gave the Mayor $1M to spend in that area.

So here is the "rub" as they say. The Council appropriation in the above example presumed that this $1M would be spent over the 12 month period in some fairly regular fashion. But standard practice would be to leave the monthly the rate of such spending for the executive to decide. Thus, in the example above, the Mayor has the legal right to spend the full $1M during the last six months of his term, which is the first six months of the current fiscal year.

Query: Going from the above example used to explain the budget math to what is actually going in Richmond right, is the Council's failure on the budget, and the media's failing to focus on the issue, leading to a waste big $ due to the Wilder Administration's rate of spending in certain areas?

Remember: In the example above, the Council presumably thought that any spending in excess of it's $1M was wasteful and unnecessary. But if the Wilder Administration, using the math above, was spending at a rate of 2x what the Council thought was necessary, this would equate to the Mayor exhausting the entire million in just six months.

The above is just a example to help explain basic budget math.

But between Wilder and Grey's legal position on one side, and Pantele along with City Council on the other side, this begs the question:

What is the rate that Mayor Wilder is burning up public money in certain areas?

The Mayor says things are going along as usual at City Hall.

What does that mean in terms of spending in certain areas?

Surely Council, by virtue of elective responsibility, and the media, by the obligations of the fourth estate, have a duty to get the public the facts so we can judge ourselves.

Mr. Pantele objected to my saying that he and the other Council members, along with the staff of City Hall and City Council, were wheeling and dealing behind closed doors during these many weeks of the unprecedented situation of having no budget. He said they were hiding nothing.

But yet, the public has been told nothing officially, as Councilwoman Ellen Robertson, head of the Finance Committee, admitted in the RTD on Tuesday.

Mr. Pantele claims in his campaign literature that wants to be the "people's Mayor." Mr. Grey in his campaign handout says he has a different "attitude" than the Wilder Administration and that the people deserve "new approaches."

Unfortunately, their talk may not be very cheap at all: in their own way, they are perpetuating the same old things in the same old ways, getting the same old results.

More legalese from lawyers who, while taking different sides of the argument, wind-up justifying what could be just another Big $ raid on the public treasury.

Deep cuts in Mayor's office, Mayor's entourage, cost of City Council, top-level of city bureaucracy must be made: and now.

Goldman for Mayor - 19 August 2008 - For Immediate Release - Contact, 804-833-6313

"Any budget deal without deep cuts to Mayor's Office, the Mayor's entourage, the cost of the City Council, the top levels of the bloated and most expensive city bureaucracy in the state, is both unacceptable and irresponsible."

Goldman calls the 1% solution headlined in today's RTD "a an election-year back-room deal that someone with level of graduate education in public budgeting knows to be - and I am sorry to have to say it - amateur hour."


(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, said today that "the revelations in this morning's Richmond Times Dispatch - based on material given to the newspaper only after Delegate Jones and I showed real leadership by challenging City Hall and City Council to reveal their wheeling and dealing behind closed doors - prove that Delegate Jones and myself "peeped Mayor Doug Wilder and City Council Bill Pantele's hole card" as they say in poker.

My experience had taught me that when elected officials order financial wheeling and dealing in the back-rooms so as to keep the public in the dark, there is usually something they are trying to hide from the public.

If Mr. Jones' reporting is correct, then our elected officials actually think that it is both fiscally prudent and fair to the people that the parks, the libraries, and other vital services be cut as much as the most wasteful, expensive, bloated and top-heavy City Hall and City Council in Richmond's history.

This kind of across-the-board budgeting technique is considered the height of amateurism by those of us who have studied public budgeting at the graduate level.

With all due respect to my friends Doug Wilder and Bill Pantele, they have allowed a bloated, top-heavy, wasteful City Hall and City Council bureaucracy to bleed the public treasury dry, to the point where we now, by their own admission, face a record budget deficit.

They have created an unprecedented fiscal mess, with Richmond now almost 2 months into the new fiscal year, with a deficit budget, something that is not permitted, much less even contemplated, by the City Charter.

City Hall preaches accountability, so does City Council.

The time has come for them to accept their responsibility and be accountable for the fiscal mess they have created.

There is only one way to achieve a fiscally responsible and fair resolution to the budget mess they have created: And that is going to require deep cuts in the Mayor's Office, the Mayor's entourage, the top levels of the city bureaucracy, the cost of City Council, for starters."



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Goldman cites President Lincoln in defending seniors, retirees, while challenging City Hall, City Council

Goldman for Mayor - 18th August 2008 - Release 9 AM - Contact, 804-833-6313


City Attorney said COLA enactment part of legally valid budget ordinance

Goldman worried "back-room political deal may be made by City Council and City Hall that will hurt the many senior citizens who had thought they could count on city leaders to abide by the law and provide what the City Attorney says is a legally valid cost of living pension adjustment."

Goldman says such a back-room deal "would be terrible for Richmond's image."

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, said today that "it is one thing for the Mayor and the City Council to heap blame on each other with endless finger-pointing. But it something entirely different when the result is to hurt innocent senior citizens and other city retirees by cutting their pension benefits.

"The City Attorney says the City Council budget is legal, which means the Cost of Living Adjustment [COLA] so included was properly granted. Thus, the practical effect of City Hall and City Council making a back-room deal to renege and eliminate this COLA amounts to cutting the pensions benefits of many economically squeezed senior citizens below what was promised by law a few weeks ago, creating a terrible image for the City of Richmond.

"Delegate Jones and myself are here today to tell City Hall and City Council that President Lincoln was right, they can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but on this issue, City Hall and City Council aren't fooling anyone any longer if their back-room budget deal reneges on the legal promise made to these senior citizen and other retirees."

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Robert Grey's 100% support for Mayor Wilder's confrontational, illegal budget action is a defining moment in his campaign.

Goldman for Mayor - For Immediate Release - Contract, 804-833-6313

Robert Grey's full support for City Hall's confrontational, illegal budget action shows that a Grey Administration would be just more of the same, not the "change" he claims.

(Richmond) - Paul Goldman, candidate for Mayor, said today that not "only is Robert Grey wrong on the law, his support last night for City Hall's confrontational "my way or the highway" illegal approach on the budget, the same attitude having previously given us Fiasco Friday among other things, shows Robert would just be more of the same, that he isn't anything like the change he is pretending to be."."

"Robert talks a good game, but at last night's debate, he made the amazingly revealing statement that he was in total support of the illegal, confrontational City Hall budget action taken by Mayor Wilder that has created an unprecedented budget situation in Richmond."

"Fortunately, the Grey statement was caught on video, and in my view, it may in retrospect prove to be the defining moment in his campaign."

-------30------------------

Richmond GOP challenged to repudiate Rove's anti-Richmond remarks at it's McCain HQ meeting tomorrow night

Goldman for Mayor - 12 August 2008 - For Immediate Release: Contact, 804-833-6313


12 August 2008


Mr. Cortland Putbrese
Chair,
Richmond Republican Committee
Richmond, Va


Dear Cortland:

According to you website, the Richmond Republican Committee is meeting tomorrow, August 13th, at the McCain Campaign Richmond Headquarters at 2819 Parham Road. This meeting will begin a 6:30 PM. Due to the recent disparaging comments about Richmond by Mr. Karl Rove, in his effort to demean our town and hold it up to national ridicule in hopes of gaining political advantage for the Republican national ticket, I believe the Richmond GOP has a community obligation, by formal resolution, to repudiate this former Bush White House official so that not just our fellow residents, but the entire nation, will see that we here in River City, Democrats and Republicans, are united in such repudiation of this offensive remarks uttered on national television.

To be sure, I am presuming that you and the members of your committee are by now aware of what Mr. Rove said this past Sunday, such disparaging comments the subject of Michael Paul Williams' column today in the Richmond Times Dispatch. Moreover, given Mr. Rove's status as another of those Inside-the-Washington-beltway commentators and believer that the bigger the government, the better [the federal deficit is now at an all-time high], his disparaging comments about middle-class towns like Richmond are, sadly, to be expected. They seem to have such an elitist attitude toward those towns whose residents raise the children, fight the wars, and obey the 10 commandments.

The people of Richmond, who have labored as hard as any in America to build our nation, don't need for someone who has benefited as much from this sacrifice as Mr. Rove - who has led a rather privileged life for most of this century at public expense - to be disparaged and ridiculed by a Republican of his stature on national television.

In this regard, I would hope we are all Richmonders, not divided into partisan political camps. To be sure, Mr. Rove may believe that Richmond is not the equal of Henderson, Nevada, a town that didn't even exist until after WW 2, a place that grew because it was a commute away from downtown Las Vegas, a locality best known in many circles for it's role in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever wherein Sean Connery barely foils the plan to cremate him alive at the Palm Mortuary!

But the issue now is not what he believes, but what the Richmond Republican Committee believes.

Accordingly, with this electronic letter, I am writing to request that your Richmond Republican Committee, at their meeting tomorrow, pass an appropriately worded formal resolution rejecting (1) the disparaging comments made by Mr. Rove and (2) extolling the many sacrifices and good works of Richmonders past and present in building not just a terrific City but a great state and country.


Sincerely,

Paul Goldman
Richmond
804-833-6313
.

Goldman defends Richmond, Kaine from Karl Rove's attacks seen on CBS-TV, Channel 6

Goldman for Mayor - 11 August 2008 - For Immediate Release

Dear Karl,

Why is it that so many people who work, or did work, for President Bush, seem so eager to thumb their nose at middle-class America? Case in point, your elitist attacks against us here in Richmond, stated this Sunday where you told the CBS TV audience:

"Will all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years," Rove told Bob Schieffer [host of Face The Nation on CBS]. "He's been able but undistinguished. I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done."

Rove even dragged Richmond into his sights. "[Kaine] was mayor of the 105th largest city in America," Rove said. "And again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it's smaller than Chula Vista, California; Aurora, Colorado; Mesa, or Gilbert, Arizona; North Las Vegas, or Henderson, Nevada. It's not a big town."

Karl, as I have been saying, ever since you went to Washington, you and the other Bushites have become creatures of the Inside DC crowd, who believe those in that federal enclave have all the knowledge and all the wisdom. You thumb your nose at us here in the middle of Virginia, like you do at Middle America generally.

You have lost touch, assuming you ever really had it, with the rest of America, those living outside the beltway, the middle-class families the do the work, raise the children, fight the wars, and move our country forward.

Yes, Richmond isn't the biggest city in America. Thank goodness for that. You believe, as one would expect from someone who advised the President to run-up the biggest deficits in American history, that the bigger the government, the better.

Richmond is a great city, with great people, and one reason is it's manageable size, and the fact it is still a community with so many small, viable, neighborhoods.
Tim Kaine did a lot to improve our City, and I was happy to work with him to improve our form of government, an historic change praised by Republicans and Democrats alike in our area.
It has been a long time since America has had someone with hands-on experience in dealing with urban and suburban issues as our Vice-President.

Karl, you think that kind of experience would be bad for American. I believe it would be not only good for America, but great for America.

Richmond may not be the biggest city in our country. But it is a city that faces so many of our challenging issues, and I would rather have Mayor Tim Kaine trying to solve them, then Vice-President Dick Cheney, who had no experience in these areas whatsoever [as he has shown], Vice-President Dan Qualye [true, I suppose he could have helped with First Tee], to name just the last two GOP VEEPS.

Indeed, Mayor Kaine proved to be a far better administrator and problem-solver on these crucial issues to America than anyone the Republicans have elected to Vice-President since Teddy Roosevelt in 1900, who likewise got his start in politics as a local leader [actually, TR ran and lost for Mayor of New York before becoming Police Commissioner].

Harry Truman got his start in local government: he faced the same elitist criticisms from the GOP. But HST was a great Vice-President and President.

Next time you are in Richmond, give a ring.

Sincerely,

PG