Chesterfield County – Good Ole Boys – and Perry DeMay for Sheriff

It’s taken 400 years to get us here – I mean the Chesterfield County, Virginia and its 300,000 population that exists ostensibly as a bedroom community for the city of Richmond. I grew up here, went to high school here, and after a long absence have returned to the area – and I’m appalled. The first election I went to had not one Democrat on the ballot. Now I had been a small business owner, a long time business consultant to major companies, and for most of my life a Republican – but I found that local politics was still very much in the tight grasp of a few Republican good ole boys, hardly unchanged for decades. And that riled me to no end, as I am firm in my belief that a vigorous debate of ideas is essential to the evolution of a democratic society.

Which brings me to last night’s meeting of the Chesterfield County Democratic Committee that featured four Democratic candidates vying for county office in this fall’s election. I add here that the county’s five supervisors and most other county officers are – of course – from the Republican good ole boys school. So it was most refreshing that one of these candidates is true grit. Has energy and apparent integrity and a driving intention to upset this Republican stranglehold and attempt to wrench some political power from the steely grasp of a group of county conservatives who view office holding as some ancestral right.

And this “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” of Chesterfield County is none other than A. Perry DeMay – and he gave an electrifying and inspiring PowerPoint presentation that illustrated he is committed to win, committed to changing the county’s balance of power, committed to changing the “nepotism” networking between greedy developers and the county’s blue blood families. And he has specifics of what is wrong and specifics of what he intends to do to change the operation of the county’s Sheriff Department.


Perry DeMay is a stout truth telling common man – so uncommon in these times and particularly in this locale. Candid, self effacing, and committed – one only hopes that should he win, that he won’t be deterred by the powers to be or the general indifference of county residents.

By recent voting patterns, the county is about one third Democratic, liberal, or progressive leaning, and it’s about time the county begins a vigorous debate about it’s future – or the county will become increasingly irrelevant in this metro area and fail to provide the opportunity and quality of life its residents deserve.

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