George,

Tom Vandever's letter of yesterday does not sit well with me for several reasons.

First of all, the real problem with David Toscano's campaign being heavily financed by developers is not the contributions per se. The problem is Mr. Toscano's efforts to obscure the source of his money. In his finance report, Mr. Toscano lists the occupation of each of those developers as 'business person' rather than stating what their actual occupation is. If he is embarrassed enough to hide his donors' occupations from us even in legally mandated reports then he should return the money and clear his conscience. There's no shame in owning up to a mistake and it's not too late.

Second, Mr. Vandever's idea of 'revolutionary young' is belied by his reference to Mr. Toscano's 23 years of involvement in the local party.

Such long service is commendable. But there are a number of people in this party who seem to think that they are still young revolutionaries when in fact they have been party insiders fighting for the status quo for decades. We need those party insiders - they're good at getting things done in a pragmatic way. And often the status quo is a good thing. But let's not kid ourselves about who is playing what role at this point.

The real young revolutionaries in Charlottesville have a rather jaded view of David Toscano. Tom Vandever is correct that Toscano was on the right side of a lot of progressive issues over the years. He's a solid Democrat. But Democrats of my generation really got to know David Toscano when we were teenagers and he pushed the curfew law through back in '96. He spearheaded a law that allowed us to be thrown in jail just for walking down the street at night. I worked the late shift at Chap's Ice Cream downtown when I was 17 years old in the summer of '96. Sometimes I didn't get home until after midnight. I was a law-abiding citizen doing my job but he wanted me to be arrested -- not because of anything I did but because of who I was.

Do you remember the lawsuit? The downtown protests with hundreds of teenagers marching with signs? We can all vote now! Today we have careers, businesses, families and long memories. This is a generation that was galvanized and mobilized by 9/11 and the 2004 election. We are involved in this community and in this party. And we're not voting for the man who wanted to throw us in jail. We don't see David Toscano as a progressive, certainly not as a liberal and we remember that the real young revolutionaries were in the street and marching against him.

Jackson Landers (electronic mail, June 8, 2005)

Editor's Note: To my lights, there is little obscure about Toscano's Finance Disclosure Report Ending June 1, 2005. Most of the folks listed in the report who are tangentially or directly in development are well known throughout the community. Interested parties can find the names and addresses of donors to Toscano as well as to other candidates, on-line at http://www.sbe.state.va.us/cfda/scripts/cfda_adhoc_submit_Candidate.asp and might well ask them what their occupations are, whom they support and why. However, it is helpful for readers such as Jackson Landers to draw out such connections.