The Goochland Gazette | News - New Goochland Democratic Chair plans on rebuilding the party

12 Comments

New Goochland Democratic Chair plans on rebuilding the party
Published: January 18, 2012

Photo by Ken Odor
New Goochland Democratic Party Chair Molly Payne shows off the party Web site she recently created.

By Ken Odor
jodor@goochlandgazette.com

Just elected, the new chair of the Democratic Party hopes to expand the number of the party faithful in Goochland County.

That’s why Molly Payne was busy stirring up a pot of chili last Friday evening, preparing for the next day’s meeting at the Company 5 Firehouse.

She took over the leadership of the local Democratic Committee last month, replacing former chair Alan Tucker.

Payne, 27, said when Tucker asked her to take the job, she had to think about it awhile before deciding to accept it.

“I took a couple of weeks to think about it,” she said. “A lot of people said it would be a tough job,” she added, referring to the conservative, GOP leaning nature of Goochland.

But Payne, who said she grew up in a diverse, middle-class area in Lansing, Mich., where there was strong union support, sees a strong need for the party in Goochland.

“There is a population out there that is not represented,” said the Michigan State University graduate, who came to Virginia in 2008 after graduating with a degree in Zoology, to take a job as a rider and show groom at Plain Dealing Farm in Scottsville, Va. She found a place to live in Goochland and has been here ever since.

“I fell in love with the county and the community and that’s why I’m still here,” she wrote in an email to the Gazette.

She’s since moved on to her current job as Claims Review Specialist at the law firm of BrownGreer PLC, where she’s worked since November 2010.

“A Democrat born and bred,” is how she describes herself on the new Goochland Democratic Committee’s Web site, which she recently created. She worked for Democrat state senate candidate Bert Dodson in his recent campaign and said she was very disappointed at his loss to Republican Tom Garrett.

“My goal for this county is to make it okay again for people of different ideologies to talk to each other to work to solve problems,” said Payne, who laments what she sees as the wide gulf between the parties. “We are so far apart the people are not being served.”

One might say her chili pot was a step toward bridging the gulf between the parties, since the recipe for the turkey chili she was stirring came from a Republican friend.

Speaking of her circle of friends, she described the atmosphere she’d like to foster.

‘We talk politics and can disagree but still love each other,” she said, adding there’s no reason the country can’t do the same thing.

Payne said she hopes to expand the party, which did not field any candidates for the recent local elections nor for the 56th District House of Delegates open seat now occupied by freshman Del. Peter Farrell. Payne finds that lack of candidates particularly vexing and vowed to do something about it.

“If no one steps up to run against Farrell in two years, I’ll run,” she said.

But first things first. In addition to increasing the local party’s membership, Payne said she is concerned that the option of a modest property tax increase is evidently not even being considered as the county’s revenue declines.

“When we have these kinds of problems and you take your major revenue source off the table – I don’t think that’s prudent,” she explained. “I don’t think it serves their constituents for the supervisors to take such a hard line.”

Payne is also concerned with the county’s response to recent Ku Klux Klan literature distributed in the county.

“The Goochland County Democratic Committee stands with Sekou Shabaka and the NAACP in strongly condemning the distribution of Klan literature in the county,” she said. “It is in no one’s interest for Goochland to be known as a locality tolerant of intimidation, ignorance, and fear mongering. While the fliers have thus far been excused under the First Amendment, we all have the freedom of speech to denounce them.”

Payne said she would have liked to have seen a stronger response to the KKK literature from the board of supervisors, Sheriff Agnew, the Goochland County Republican Committee, and the Goochland Tea Party.

On some issues, Payne seems to be on the same page with other county parties.

“I have been involved with a group of Goochland residents opposed to the implementation of HB3202 for almost a year, working alongside conservative neighbors to prevent large-scale development in the Courthouse area. Our efforts show rural Virginians of different parties coming together to solve a bipartisan problem. I hope similar efforts will be made to make progress on our other issues, like transportation and law enforcement funding, improvement of education, and the Tuckahoe Creek Service District debt.”

Where she grew up, the state legislature is a full-time operation and Payne attributes the mishandling of the UDA issue by the General Assembly to its part-time status.

“A lot of mistakes can be and are made as a result of ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions to the Commonwealth’s problems,” she said.

To sharpen her skills Payne said she will be attending University of Virginia’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership this weekend.

For more information on the Goochland Democratic Committee, visit their Web site at http://www.goochlanddemocrats.org.

Photo by Ken Odor
Molly Payne stirs a pot of chili she planned to serve at a meeting of the Goochland Democratic Committee last weekend.

Reader Comments

Share This Article

Deal of the Day