"State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds faced a crowded headquarters office full of Democrats on Friday evening and urged 46 more days of effort to elect a party team led the past four years by Gov. Mark R. Warner.

Deeds, a Bath County Democrat running for attorney general, said the challenge is to continue the tax and budget reform efforts begun under Warner with new revenue for education and state services.

“Last year, he put together a group of people, a bipartisan coalition of delegates and senators, to do the right thing, and it was supported by the statewide business community,” Deeds told the crowd at the opening of 300 West Main St. as Charlottesville and Albemarle County party headquarters.

“There were people on the other side kicking and screaming all the way, and the Republicans have nominated three of them” for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, Deeds said.

“Our challenge this year is to decide whether we continue to take Virginia forward, whether we work hard for a continued vision for Virginia … that includes opportunity for everybody and not just for a select few,” he said.

Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville, spoke for Leslie Byrne, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.

“She’s a real fighter, and she’s a she,” said the retiring delegate who served 11 years with Byrne in the General Assembly. He said Republicans have a problem with a woman like Byrne who fights not only to make Virginia a good place for business but for employees as well.”

Van Yahres urged Democrats to get their voters out on Nov. 8 because “I keep hearing it’s going to be a low turnout. That scares me. We can’t win with a low turnout.”

Former Mayor David Toscano spoke briefly as the Democrat running to succeed Van Yahres in the House of Delegates.

“In the next few weeks we’re going to have to expand this room” to make all the telephone calls and send all the mail needed to turn out the voters Democrats need, Toscano said.

Albemarle School Board member Steve Koleszar, who is challenging Del. Rob Bell, said Democrats have a lot of work to do to continue climbing back toward majority status in Virginia.

“The country for too long has been slipping and sliding in the conservative direction,” Koleszar said. “We’ve allowed them to take control.”

Koleszar said he is challenging Bell for the House because the Republican voted against Warner’s budget, which contained new revenue for education.

David Slutzky spoke as the first Democrat seeking the Rio District seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors since 1989 and said Democrats are needed at the county and state levels to work together to control sprawl and growth." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, September 24, 2005)