The wonderful turnout this morning is a harbinger of Spring for politics in Virginia. The interest in this campaign for State Senate should send a message. When we have candidates who will speak the truth, we Democrats will again begin to attract people to our causes, and win elections.

Did you know that there has been an increase of over one million registered voters in the last decade? Yet turnout at Virginia's elections has stagnated, or even declined. Mark Warner ran a powerful campaign with themes that matter to all of us. On most issues, the contrast with his Republican opposition was clear. More was spent than ever before in a Virginia election. What else can we do?

We have to start by finding our roots. Last Sunday, we read from Ecclesiasticus --the lesson that begins with the familiar "Now let us sing the praises of famous men…" What is less familiar, but calls out to us, as Democrats, comes at the end of the reading: "But of others there is no memory; they have perished as though they had never existed; they have become as though they had never been born, they and their children after them."

We have once again to find the pride that comes from listening to the working families of Virginia. We must rediscover the joy of people being able to help themselves, because government that represents our community, cares. We must re-dedicate ourselves to the commonweal, and put behind us the era of "grab while it lasts" and to hell with the slowest.

We will make a good start if we today nominate a candidate who will tell the truth. We need the truth if we are to govern a state moving forward. We need the truth if we are to bring people back to a functioning democracy. We need a truth teller if we are to demonstrate that money cannot buy the democratic process in Virginia. When people hear the truth they will respond.

This is both simple, and hard.

We must tell the truth about taxes: no amount of rhetoric about improving schools, especially, or any other area of life in the Commonwealth can hide what we all know. We cannot expect to catch up with decades of neglect by shuffling programs and depending on the lottery.

We must tell the truth about the environment: our hell bent pursuit of growth in Virginia is destroying the land we love. Our children will never forgive us the loss of rural land, clean streams and clear air. When you think about it, the only legacy we average, struggling, working Democrats have to leave to our children is a clean environment. Its time to make the polluters, speculators and pavers over pay the real cost for what they do.

We must tell the truth about the failures of our social compact: without fair wages, good schooling, decent policing, affordable housing and competent day care, we are building a false prosperity on the backs of working Virginia.

We must tell the truth about crime and justice: Our drug laws have failed. What can we do to reduce the impact of substance abuse in our communities? We've just about locked up every one we can catch. We have established a legal environment whose result, although I would not say its intent, is institutionalized racism. We know that capital punishment does not deter, but we fear facing the consequences of our human desire for revenge.

We must tell the truth about the bankruptcy of our current campaign financing practices: we are spending more and more every year, and turnout declines. We are excluding from participation in democracy most of our citizens. For a few, those with a sincere desire to run and serve, our first question too often is: how much can you bring to the table? For the rest, they are mostly unheard unless their voices are preceded by a check. No wonder they don't vote.

You can today take the beaten, sure path. This election is ours to lose, so any one of us should win. Or you can take the path that sends a message to all of Virginia: the Democratic Party will stand for the truth.

Is this frightening? Sure it is. We haven't done it since, perhaps, Harry Truman's time. But is Virginia ready? I think so.

Yesterday the Charlottesville Daily Progress wrote a powerful editorial pointing out that the Libertarian Reams was the only candidate to encourage people to think critically about a real problem. The editorial ended by saying:.."it is lamentable -- perhaps even irrational -- that, in a free society, we have set some issues off limits to rational questioning. We should not fear the pursuit of truth."

"We should not fear the pursuit of truth."

There are 854 of us here today. A large turnout, to be sure, but a small enough group for many of us to know each other. Look at your neighbor right now. Will you be able to say, in years hence, that today, November 10, 2001; you were part of that bold group who set Virginia's Democratic agenda for the future?

Nominate me. I will tell the truth. Virginia Democrats will lead the Commonwealth into the future.