(Helen Zurita during her campaign for Manassas City Council)
Helen Zurita announced Monday afternoon that she is seeking the Democratic nomination to run in HD-50, the district that is currently represented by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Delegate Lee Carter. The announcement from Zurita however came after a statement from the Carter campaign alleging a data breach by a local party official that provided Zurita with valuable voter information.
Prior to the announcement from Zurita Monday afternoon, Carter released a statement calling out the Prince William County Democratic Committee chair, LT Pridgen, for an unprecedented action she took when she sent 1,193 pages of Prince William County’s personal voter data to Zurita and Carter for free last week. The Carter campaign called it an “apparent effort to instigate and support a primary challenge against Delegate Carter in House District 50.”
While Carter is running for governor, his campaign says he is also running for reelection to his House seat. Several Democrats that are running statewide are doing the same thing including Delegates Sam Rasoul, Elizabeth Guzman, and Mark Levine as they seek the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.
The voter data that is typically purchased from the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA) can vary in price depending on how much voter data you are requesting. A House race can cost close to $1,000 typically, while Senate data is more expensive due to the larger districts. A spokesperson for Carter says that he has spent close to $10,000 for voter information from the state party since 2016.
“This unusual breach calls into question the fairness of the Democratic Party and its commitment to protecting voter data,” Delegate Carter said. “The state party needs to nip this in the bud and provide fair voter data access to all candidates in the county, ASAP.”
Grant Fox, the communications director for DPVA said that Zurita was mistakenly sent the data and she will have to now pay for access to the information. “While Helen Zurita was mistakenly sent PDFs of call sheets, her campaign will have to pay for access to the voter file to use any voter data, just like every other Democratic campaign,” Fox said.
Zurita, ignoring the incident and the morning press release from Carter moved forward with her announcement in the afternoon. “I have worked hard as a volunteer and as an advocate to give people in my community a voice,” she said in her announcement. “We have been overlooked and ignored for too long. Constituent services have been lacking, and I am going to change that. I intend to use my platform to ensure that the residents in the 50th District have a proven leader and advocate.”
If a candidate wins the statewide nomination in early-June and also wins their House primary that same day, they can drop out of their House race in time for the party to find another candidate for the November general election. If the legislators fail to receive the statewide nomination in the primary but still win the nomination for their House district, they will be eligible to run for their House seats in November.
Virginia Scope is an independent news publication that is funded largely by donations and subscribers. As local newsrooms are losing writers each day, we are trying to fill the void to ensure that the public is informed and that leaders are held accountable for their actions. If you can chip in a monthly subscription of whatever you can afford, even $1, it will go a long way to helping us. Subscribe here. You can also make a one-time donation below: