Thread by @socialistdogmom

tonight’s candidate forum with the two democratic candidates for virginia’s 57th district house seat, kathy galvin and sally hudson, is hosted by the charlottesville dems & albemarle county democratic party. it doesn’t appear to be livestreamed anywhere

turnout here at the haven tonight is pretty decent. it is, as usual, an overwhelmingly elderly white crowd.

goddamnit, in the first 5 seconds of her introduction, galvin says she was inspired to run by dr martin luther king jr

https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1119075603263705088?s=21

same rules apply tonight

https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1120452768563642369?s=21

“my top priority is what i’ve heard your top priority is,” galvin says. her description of fighting structural inequality is about high property taxes. but what about the city’s massive renter population? most of us can’t even afford a situation in which we HAVE real estate taxes

this forum is closer to a debate - they are allowing candidates the opportunity to reply after the other responds to a question. this will work against galvin and probably in hudson’s favor. galvin is very clearly off her game and doesn’t respond well to being disagreed with.

(hudson’s response also included a reference to dr king’s march on washington. that’s $10 to the black mamas bailout so far tonight)

the next question is about ensuring voter access. galvin says it’s important to have an independent body drawing district boundaries, but hasn’t used the word gerrymandering?

galvin’s answer about increasing voter access shifted quickly into campaign finance reform.

hudson says voting online (which galvin suggested) sounds great on paper, but we aren’t there yet.

hudson points out that making election day a holiday is another thing that sounds great on paper, but most service workers still wouldn’t get that day off.

oof this format has galvin in rare form. she really cannot tolerate being disagreed with. it’s making her furiously defensive. i wish this were being livestreamed.

next question is about the green new deal. what steps would you initiate to make it work in virginia?
hudson says the first step is loosening dominion’s grip on our electricity production.

hudson: “no one has a monopoly on the sun,” but dominion is standing in the way of the growth of solar power.

galvin says the green new deal is a very good aspirational document. “what we need to be doing is driving the economy toward renewables” & expresses disappointment in gov northam’s failure to get VA to join the regional greenhouse gas initiative

“the unfortunate reality is that we have found dominion to be a dishonest partner in clean energy,” hudson says. “until we quarantine dominion’s monopoly to the grid itself,” we don’t have a path forward.

next question: describe your approach to affordable healthcare.

galvin: “it’s a challenge.” she says the high premiums are best fought by making sure there are multiple market options. (cville had the highest ACA premiums in the nation last year)

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

hudson says as an economist, she’s used to having to debunk talking points like that from republicans and didn’t expect to have to address this during a democratic primary.

hudson says it’s essential for virginia to have a public option. medicaid buy-in would allow any virginian to purchase health insurance from the state if they didn’t like the marketplace options.

hudson: the private market will never adequately provision health insurance. we have a moral imperative to make sure everyone has access to healthcare.

galvin: “i actually view myself as a pragmatic progressive.” she says states that pursued options like the ones hudson is talking about had to raise taxes (god forbid)

hudson says she didn’t mention vermont for a reason (that was the state galvin cited as a bad example)
“this is what i do for a living,” hudson says. she advises state agencies about things like this.

describe your top initiative in addressing the needs in public schools, especially economically disadvantaged students.

hudson: we have to raise teacher salaries. VA teacher salaries are 20+% below the national average.

hudson: “it is a game changer for students of color to have teachers of color.”
recruiting and retaining teachers of color is key.

galvin says changing the dynamics for african american students starts with adequately funding education.

she AGAIN cites her time on the school board. don’t let her forget she said this as a member of the cville school board:

c-ville.com/working-the-sy…

hudson has the motherfucking claws out tonight. the primary is in a month. playtime is over.

describe your approach to affordable housing.

galvin: “we need a lot of it. we need it done quickly and automatically.”
she is... not answering the question.
after some vague generalizations about the cost of land, she gets back to her hobby horse of inclusionary zoning.

galvin doesn’t seem to know or care that “inclusionary zoning” isn’t something most voters understand the meaning of. it isn’t a good answer if no one knows what you’re describing.

hudson asks the moderator to repeat the question which i swear to god was only to needle galvin about the fact that she didn’t answer it.

hudson says there is a need for both funding and flexibility to allow localities to address affordable housing. at the state level, there are a lot of discriminatory housing policies on the books that need to be addressed.

yikes kathy, she’s trying to talk about updating the state human rights code but she said “gender preference” instead of “gender presentation.” trans people aren’t just preferring a gender, kathy.

next question is about how candidates would work to overcome the dillon rule.

hudson says a progressive community like ours will always be trying to make reforms ahead of other parts of the state. the dillon rule holds us back, but she believes it can be overcome.

hudson explains that the dillon rule isn’t a line in the state code that can be struck - it’s more about built up court precedents.

galvin: “we agree the dillon rule is a problem,” but disagrees about the path forward. she says the party in power never has any desire to do anything about the dillon rule.

galvin says the lack of care at the state level about the dillon rule indicates there aren’t enough people in state government with a background in local government. (why is she yelling? does she know the mics are working fine?)

galvin is openly mocking the idea of overturning the dillon rule. this is a frequent strategy of hers - hostile condescension toward any radical idea.

galvin has started almost every single rebuttal with “we agree!” before disagreeing with what her opponent said. she is so eager to present herself as a progressive without actually articulating a single progressive idea.

next question is about how they, as city residents, plan to work with their constituents on the county. galvin cites work she did on council to keep the county courts located in downtown charlottesville as well as on the regional tourism board.

hudson says she has the support of 3/4 of the current county board of supervisors whose districts are in the 57th.
“because of gerrymandering, this is going to be the only democratic district for miles.”

oh god i’m embarrassed for kathy.

galvin says because she didn’t announce her campaign until after delegate toscano announced his retirement. she says she was unable to secure endorsements because they were already taken because she got in the race late.

hudson says you reveal a lot about how you’ll serve by how you campaign. she’s made herself available for public Q&As, on facebook, twitter, and email throughout the campaign.

next question is about funding mass transit.

hudson says we have to talk seriously about progressive taxation. “we have to change how we think about levying taxes.”

hudson says adding another tax bracket at the millionaire level would allow us to fund public transit and things like PreK.

galvin just cited the electric scooters as a “transit option.”

did she just suggest fewer in town bus & trolley routes in favor of better regional transit? don’t we need both? what good is it to get people in town if they can’t get around town?

galvin is saying some good things but in a bizarre jumbled way that i’m having trouble summarizing.

hudson says she would not raise sales tax to fund transit - it’s a regressive tax (and, being an econ professor, succinctly explains what that means and why it’s bad)

galvin responds with a mix of defensiveness and flippancy- “it could be sales tax, it could be income tax.”

next question - what will you do to improve access to services and funding for people with physical and mental health challenges?

galvin starts by praising the work creigh deeds has done around access to mental health care. she is spending the bulk of her time describing a solution that has already been identified.

galvin is almost out of time before she says something about the need to review community services boards, but doesn’t really get to the point before she’s cut off.

hudson also praises the work done by deeds.
“we have to stop calling it mental health. it’s health.”
the answer is increasing health insurance coverage, again calling for a public option.

hudson says there is also a serious staffing problem in mental healthcare. we don’t have enough clinicians & therapists.

galvin takes the conversation back to the shortage of beds in psych facilities. this is ALWAYS her response about mental healthcare. does she realize that institutionalization is a last resort and wouldn’t be necessary for many people who got better, earlier care?

“as a labor economist,” hudson says the solution to some of these problems is just paying people more. not complicated things like tuition remission models, which can create degree mills. the staffing problems can be resolved with more attractive pay.

next question is about which committees they’d like to serve on. i wonder if anyone told galvin the committee she answered this question with last time doesn’t exist.

https://twitter.com/socialistdogmom/status/1119044680174440448?s=21

someone must’ve told her. she has updated her answer to omit the nonexistent committee.

next question is about our racist statues. galvin starts by saying she’s currently personally involved in a lawsuit about the statues, which limits what she can say, but she did participate in asking for a bill (killed in committee) to move the statues.

lmao hudson asked for the question to be repeated. i swear she’s doing this to point out how galvin isn’t answering the questions.

hudson says we need to take the message to richmond about our statues. she raises galvin’s own voting record on the statue. she voted AGAINST moving it before august 2017. “those statues were wrong before lives were lost.”

galvin says she understood those statues represented the lost cause narrative. she’s incredibly defensive. angry. “the general consensus before aug 12 was to add context” to the statues. she says she “did what was wise” at the time.

galvin says after august 12, the statues weren’t just symbols of white supremacy, they were actively hurting people.

(jesus christ she really isn’t getting it is she? they were HURTING PEOPLE all along. i guess what she means is they killed a white woman. then it mattered.)

hudson: there’s a difference between being a leader and being a funnel for public opinion

next question is about reentry of incarcerated people.
hudson says that’s a great question, something we need to focus on especially because we are incarcerating too many people.

hudson says she isn’t an expert on this but says she knows exactly who she would go to for guidance on this, naming a professor who has published an extensive literature review of re entry models, as well as mayor walker’s work on the matter.

galvin snidely says hudson’s comment that “the first job of a delegate is to go to the people who know” is “interesting.”
she says the people who know, in this case, are formerly incarcerated people (which i actually agree with)

hudson says she admits she was wrong - the voices of the formerly incarcerated absolutely must be centered. “it’s a both/and situation” with experts and people with lived experience.

galvin’s responses are truly all over the place. i wonder if the heat is getting to her? it’s really hot in here.

last question. how will you address gun control?

galvin: “we need to make it safe.” she gives a bizarre and rambling answer about august 12.

hudson: “we don’t have one gun problem, we have 8” “our problem with gun deah by suicide is different from our gun problem with white supremacists which is different from the problem of child access to guns.”

hudson says she was 10 at the time of the columbine shooting. it was the first major media event she remembers.
she says grassroots organizing has brought the only progress we’ve seen on gun control in this country.

i thought maybe at the last debate galvin’s performance was subpar because she’d literally just come from the ER after a bike accident. she was shaken up, maybe medicated. but she doesn’t have a visible head injury tonight 🤷‍♀️

in her closing remarks, hudson says it’s important to elect a delegate who can tackle state level problems with state level solutions. “i am not someone who conceives of public office as a ladder, from school board to city council to delegate”

kathy looks fucking furious.

oh kathy, is that an inspiring tone? i know you’re mad at your opponent, but you’re talking to us. stop scolding us.

why does she keep talking about what amazing antiracist work she did as a member of the school board.

well that was excruciating. can’t wait to do it again on saturday afternoon at the northside library.