To Mary MacNeil --

I had heard of Creigh Deeds before this week.

I am not supporting Creigh, or anyone else. I see 4 excellent declared candidates, and I could support whoever emerges from the process on Saturday.

I am writing this mainly to respond to the competing claims of disadvantage -- to respond to Tom Vandever's implication that Creigh is somehow disadvantaged by having the meeting in Charlottesville, and to the claim that other candidates are disadvantaged by not having access to whatever mystical "lists" Emily Couric's friends may have kept.

First, as to the implication that Creigh is disadvantaged by having the meeting in Charlottesville. It was the wish of the 25th Senatorial District Committee to have the meeting at Natural Bridge, which is close to the geographical center of this bizarre district. Natural Bridge was taken. Then we looked at various schools in Rockbridge or Nelson County; the places that were available were too small, and the places that were large enough were either taken or very difficult to get to. Some suggested locations -- like Western Albemarle High School -- are not in the 25th District. Will Harvey had to make a decision, and he chose the County Office Building. It was not a plot to disadvantage Creigh.

Nor does it in fact work to Creigh's disadvantage. The Rules of the Convention must be consistent with the Call to Convention. The Call, as drafted and approved by the Senatorial District Committee on October 27, call for proportional representation by city or county. So if Charlottesville turns out 500 participants, they still only have a 25% say in the outcome. If Bath County only has 3 people there, they will still get a 3% say in the outcome. We adopted this Call and Rules expressly because we wanted to make sure that in a district that is a 3-hour drive from end to end, the location of the meeting would not affect the outcome.

As to the "lists" -- if this were a campaign for the nomination that required extensive immediate fundraising to get the nomination, the concern would be more valid. But that's not what will win this nomination.

The way to win this race is to get a big crowd to support you in Charlottesville and Albemarle. Creigh has to do that to win -- the 27% of the vote from across the mountain is not enough. Al Weed will need to do that -- the 8% that he might expect from Nelson won't keep him in the race very long. Nancy and Meredith (and Steve Koleszar, if he runs) will need to bring in their friends en masse, to try to shut out the Deeds voters.

No list of supporters of Emily Couric is any better for this purpose than the City Committee list and our mailing list of about 1500 names, both of which have been made available to those who have asked. I assume that comparable lists exist and have been made available in other jurisdictions as well.

Whoever wins on Saturday will do so because of two things:

1. He or she will have brought a lot of supporters from Charlottesville and Albemarle, and

2. He or she will have been able to attract a lot of support once folks' first choices drop out.

That's politics, gang. So let's stop whining, and start organizing.

Lloyd Snook (electronic mail, November 5, 2001).