Longtime DC Bureau Chief Donates, Advocates for Liberal Gay Democrat in Virginia

Cragg Hines, a longtime Washington bureau chief and columnist for the Houston Chronicle (who retired in 2007), announced his very strong backing of a liberal gay Democrat for the Virginia State Senate. In the gay magazine Metro Weekly, Hines wrote "it would be worth electing him just to see the look on the faces of right-wing Republican legislators and their sometimes vicious, off-the-wall supporters" when he was sworn in. 

Hines has also put his money where his mouth is, donating $250 to Delegate Adam Ebbin's Senate campaign.

As then-Gov. Tim Kaine, an early Obama supporter, said the day after the 2008 election: ''Old Virginny in dead.'' That thesis was tested severely in 2009 when an anti-gay, anti-choice, hard-right Republican ticket swept into power in Richmond, including the rampaging troglodyte Ken Cuccinelli as attorney general.

But on Tuesday, Aug. 23, an important group of Virginia voters can show that, in the long arc of history, both [Sen. Mary Margaret] Whipple and Kaine were right: Change can come to the Old Dominion, and the state's backward, discriminatory past can be packed off to a museum of justifiably lost causes.

To accomplish the next big political breakthrough for Virginia, voters in the 30th State Senate district (most of Alexandria and parts of eastern Arlington and Fairfax counties, all the way down the Potomac to Gunston Cove) can support Adam Ebbin in the Democratic primary. If successful, Ebbin, who was the first – and is still the only – openly gay member of the Virginia House of Delegates, would become the first openly gay member of the Virginia Senate.

Although Ebbin is wildly qualified by virtue of legislative experience, tenacity and unwavering adherence to progressive values, it would be worth electing him just to see the look on the faces of right-wing Republican legislators and their sometimes vicious, off-the-wall supporters as Adam is sworn in....

Adam is best known as an advocate for Virginians who do not have a cadre of high-priced lobbyists in Richmond. He fights for human rights, including those of domestic partners, and against Cuccinelli's extremism. The state would be in much better shape today if Ebbin's proposal to sharply curtail Cuccinelli's ability to file civil actions had been enacted.

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Hines also sounded like a campaign manager when the website Blue Virginia interviewed Ebbin about his positions. Hines left this comment:

Perfect candidate

Three good progressives are in this race, but Adam's legislative experience, tested fearlessness and potential for making a little more history argue strongly for his candidacy. His answers to these very direct questions are A+.

If you truly want to drive Cooch's crowd mad (well, madder),  Adam is the candidate to do it.

Earlier: Washington Post supportively reports that Del. Adam Ebbin thinks anti-gay attitudes are causing gay migration out of Virginia