George,

I am writing to encourage your readers to vote for Rich Collins on June 14th. I have known both Rich and David [Toscano] for nearly 25 years.

Lloyd Snook recently wrote that Toscano is the kind of person that can "work with business leaders and conservatives to get things done." I hate to quibble with Lloyd but getting something done is hardly justification for doing it. It is getting the RIGHT thing done that is important. Nonetheless, Lloyd has come closest to uttering what so many know but seem afraid to say out loud: David is the kind of Democrat that majority Republicans in Richmond can work with. That prospect is truly frightening.

That David can work with Republicans and conservatives is well-known - but if you need further evidence that suggests the same, go to the Virginia State Board of Elections (http://www.sbe.state.va.us/) which allows you to see in detail who is giving their money to him. Both the Hook and C-ville revealed last week that more than 30% has come from the Real Estate/Construction sector. The State Board site also allows you cross reference a donor in one campaign to contributions to others, past or present. There you can find that a $2000 Charlottesville contributor to David's campaign has given about the same to Rob Bell over that last few years, gave more than $4000 to Mark Early's campaign for governor and has supported Kilgore. So either David is winning converts to his "progressive" politics or he is now seen among conservatives as good investment. I suggest it is the latter.

I want something different - a delegate who will frighten the Neanderthals back into their caves and stiffen the backbone of dispirited fellow Democrats. I want a delegate whose focus is laser-like, whose rhetoric is inspiring and unapologetic - and someone who is battle tested in the real world - outside the comfy environs of City Council. Rich meets these conditions.

Rich Collins does not seek further office and is free to speak the truth. Rich Collins can inspire the less fortunate and give hope to the beleaguered. Rich Collins can represent the most vital element of this community - those who are dissatisfied, hungry for change and impatient for it.

The 57th district deserves a delegate who can motivate the young and the old and one unafraid to demand a new social contract where the minimum wage is a living wage, where all Virginians have affordable health insurance, and where workers and citizens can successfully counterbalance corporate dominance of our workplaces, public spaces and natural world.

Rich Collins is "the man." [I encourage people to] vote for him on June 14th.

Donal Day (electronic mail, June 6, 2005)

Editor's Note: Donal Day ran for the House of Delegates as the candidate of the Citizen Party in 1981 in a three-way race, where he received 19% of the vote. He subsequently ran as an independent candidate in 1995 for the Virginia 25th State Senate seat against Democrat Emily Couric who won with 50% of the vote. In the same race, Republican incumbent Ed Robb received 45% of the vote; Donal Day received 4% of the vote; Libertarian candidate Eric Strzepeck received 1% of the vote.

In that race, Donal Day said that he would advocate for working people and called both Mitch Van Yahres and David Toscano "party hacks" for endorsing Emily Couric, to which Toscano took exception, calling it a "poor choice of words."

The text of David Toscano's newspaper ad endorsement for Emily Couric in that race follows:

For more on candidates' finances in the current Virginia 57th District House race, see Democratic Financial Disclosure Reports For the Period Ending June 1, 2005, Democrats Report Money Totals, and Virginia State Board of Elections Campaign Finance in Virginia. See if you can pick out the conservatives contributing to candidates in this race.