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Brown to challenge Marsh for Senate in 2011
12/30/2010 11:33 AM by John M
An email sent out this morning by the Friends for Preston Brown for Senate says that Preston Brown will run for the Virginia Senate District 16 seat held by Senator Henry Marsh for almost 20 years.
Marsh was first was elected to the Senate of Virginia in 1991, and has been re-elected ever since. He currently represents the 16th district, consisting of the city of Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, and parts of the city of Richmond, and Chesterfield and Prince George counties.
Brown is a businessman who runs an auto-dealership, cafe, and radio station on Richmond’s southside. This appears to be Brown’s first run for office, though he was active in his brother’s challenge to Delegate McQuinn in 2008.
Let’s hope Preston Brown is more responsible than Henry Otis Brown is about taking signs down after the election is over. That cat still has signs up.
An email sent out by the Brown campaign this morning says:
Couple of thoughts: Though it could well be time to have have a new senator, I hope it will be someone who does a better job of proofreading his campaign literature. (“Senate consist”, “Senator chief responsibilities”) And, I think it would need to be someone who could somehow differentiate himself from Henry.
Will Brown pledge to stay awake during committee meetings? That might not guarantee my vote, but it would be an improvement over our current Senator.
Remember – Sen. Marsh had an opportunity to stand up for the East End when the city was deciding which schools to build first, but instead he spoke out against the East End and in favor of the Mayor’s plan for a southside high school. He does not serve us well.
I don’t have much hope of Brown defeating Marsh, but I will welcome the day this Senator retires so that we can elect a competent, worthy representative of our district.
Houdon, I’m not fond of Marsh either. I’m not going to knock his civil rights record, but that was many years ago. I thnk he did good things, but again that was many years ago. He has not done anything for the east end in years. He’s got a tremendous following, though, and that’s how he keeps getting re-elected; there are a lot of older blacks who swear by him. That is also how he’s managed to keep a handle in city council even after being off council all these years – he endorses his own candidates in the east end. McQuinn was totally in his pocket; I’m not sure about Newbille. Leonidas Young was another Marsh handpick, but he ticked off Marsh when he endorsed the [then failed] mayor at large effort years ago and Marsh dropped his support even before Young’s criminal doings were made public.
BKW, I am also disappointed in the lack of proof reading in the literature. I do think Brown’s differentiated himself from Henry just by running against him, but I also doubt Brown’s ability to get elected.
Is Sen. Lambert III Bennie Lambert’s son? ‘Cause Bennie and Henry have stood together for years, so I do find that endorsement interesting.
One other thought. Back when Obama was running for president, Jesse Jackson was at a debate or some other function, and thought the mike he had on was off but it was not. He whispered to someone next to him that he’d like to ‘cut his b**** off’ or something equally offensive about Obama, and it hit the media. I read a really interesting article about that episode, to the effect that the older generation of civil rights politicians including Jackson were not supportive of Obama for various reasons including that they didn’t want to yield power to him; he’s another generation and they saw him as a threat. Marsh strikes me as of the same generation as Jesse Jackson, and he doesn’t want to cede power to ANYONE. I think it’s going to be tough to unseat him, and it might take someone with a higher profile than Brown, unless he’s got some powerful backers and a lot of money. I wish him luck, though.
It may be hard to unseat Marsh but someone has got to do it, he’s been in power too long and is holding back Richmond. Another thing that is linked to Marsh’s past, and I understand the reasons for it at the time, is Richmond’s lack of annexing power. If a politician were to work towards re-establishing that right maybe we could actually grow as a city instead of being surrounded by a suburban moat that drains the city’s resources.
Greetings,
We have seen what the well oil machine can do for the city of Richmond. The question is whether we want the Parties to continue to provide for the community as they have done for the past 10 years or are we the people going to participate. We choose to participate and just as they stated President Obama would not be elected, we believe the people have spoken. I, encourage all that are ready for a change, vote for Mr. Preston T. Brown and we the people will have a voice and someone that will right bills that directly affect our lives and community.
Peace Be With You
Earl Bradley
Crd, you’re right. Marsh does not condone the word cede. He will abdicate the throne when it suits/benefits him best and align a protege to take his place.
Civil rights history I applaud, however, what have you done for us lately? Like the last 30 years lately. The old guard has been looking out for themselves and not the east end. Those days need to be put behind us.
Preston has his heart in the right place and a big fight on his hands. The biggest being voter apathy. 10 months will go fast and election day will be here again. If you care about your community and want to kick start a new day I suggest that you take a serious look at Mr. Brown and start talking to your neighbors. It’s an off year and far too few of us exercise our right to vote. Marsh will win again if people sit at home on election day.
Mr. Brown, you’ve got my vote.