Dear George:

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who worked so hard on the Caravati / Searl's campaign and to congratulate Blake, Alex, Rob, and Stratton for running clean and honorable campaigns. Blake and Rob deserve congratulations on their respective victories.

Tuesday night was a frustration for the party, but it was the culmination of a number of frustrations for those working on the campaign. This was a lonely campaign, as all who served will attest.

There are a lot of lessons to learn here, if we choose to pay attention. We know that decentralized party organization will not work without strong central structure. We know that comfort with the status quo will not work. We know that politics for politics sake is not a motivator. We know that regardless of the quality and excellence of a candidate, even her best efforts are wasted without the strong support and dedicated effort of an invigorated community. We need strong advisors, supporters, campaigners, volunteers and communicators committed to any campaign. We didn't get that for Alex. Let's never fail another candidate like that again.

I suggest that there is a great opportunity here to redefine this community of Democrats and to re-dedicate ourselves to our goals for the Party. Charlottesville is a Democratic haven in a largely Republican state. Charlottesville can't just be a closed testing ground for Democratic theory. For the Democratic Party, Charlottesville has to be a place to develop a strong infrastructure and powerful candidates for local and state contests.

I respectfully suggest to this community that the opportunity for our party rests not in any one election, but in the development of a vision for Charlottesville and then Virginia. We can promote activities that develop volunteers, and then recruit and develop outstanding candidates. When this party can deliver vision, activities, volunteers and candidates, those candidates and their campaign staffs will deliver victories.

The Democrats for Change (DFC) has done an outstanding job in setting vision and setting a platform. They've done it every year, and have gotten some really strong candidates. I'm aware of no such document or statement of intention on the part of the Party. This Party has proven in the past that we can deliver victories for strong candidates. There is a great deal we can do, now is the time.

I submit that the best time for criticism about a campaign is BEFORE an election. Nobody wants apologies, and nobody wants recriminations. We want results. We have had the luxury of believing that Democrats will always win here. Now we have the gift of competition. I hope that we will rise to the occasion. Our Party will do a great deal of soul searching in the weeks ahead, we will do a post-mortem, and we will look to find what's right and what's wrong with the way we do things. We lose if we fail to approach this in anything but a constructive manner with an eye towards strength for future races.

Our councilwoman Meredith Richards is preparing a fight for Virgil Goode's seat in the 5th District. We need to ask how to do things better for her and for other candidates in the future. If there are constructive questions to be asked, consider asking how we can deliver results for Meredith now and for our candidates in the future?

Josh Chernila (electronic mail, May 10, 2002)