Congratulations to Congressman-Elect Connolly!
Congratulations Gerry!
The 11th Congressional District Democratic Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia congratulates Gerry Connolly on his election to Congress.
We are confident that Congressman-Elect Connolly will provide the citizens of the 11th CD with common-sense, results-oriented representation that will serve us well in the coming years.
We also believe Gerry Connolly will emerge as a leader within the U.S. House of Representatives and will use his intellect and his passion for government to help President-Elect Barack Obama turn our federal government around.We congratulate the Connolly family, campaign manager James Walkinshaw, the entire Connolly for
Congress staff, and our dedicated volunteers for their hard work in a hard-fought campaign.
We also offer our thanks to Governor Kaine, Senator Webb, elected officials across Northern Virginia, and all of the Democrats who worked to help Gerry Connolly win this congressional election. Last, but certainly not least, thanks to everyone in the 11th CD who cast their votes in this historic election.
Sincerely,
George Burke, Chair
Text of Congressman-Elect Gerry Connolly’s Election Night Victory Speech
I want to thank all of you who were a part of this effort. First, I want to thank my wife Cathy and daughter Caitlin. I want to thank my staff and the hundreds of volunteers who contributed countless hours on my behalf. I want to thank my friends in labor, the environmental community, and the business community. I want to thank my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors and elected state and local officials from across Northern Virginia who supported me. Finally, I want to thank my good friend Governor Tim Kaine for believing in me from the start.
Tonight Virginians joined their fellow Americans in taking back their government. Tonight we told the ideologues to stand aside, it is time for a common sense approach that gets results. Tonight we told Washington to stop the endless partisan bickering and get something done.
Tonight we judged one Party and held its Administration to account for its failures and mismanagement: Katrina, Iraq, Global Warming, declining incomes, lost jobs, the biggest deficit in American history, the largest one-week drop in the stock market’s history. And the voters spoke — enough, be gone, you’ve had your day. It is time for a change.
And tonight we turned a heavy page on 400 years of racial history and reaffirmed the American imperative that all men and women are created as equals. All are entitled to reach their highest potential. All are to be given that opportunity.
Tonight we celebrate a historic election that will be recorded in the annals of this generation and for generations to come. But tomorrow, we Democrats begin the arduous task before us — to heal political wounds, to end a war honorably, to reassert that torture can never be an American value, to stabilize a lasting economy, to restore our place in the world, to reassert our environmental stewardship, to provide quality education for all our children, to revamp a broken health care system, to level the playing field for working men and women, to reach across the aisle to restore civility and mutual respect in our polity.
All the easy things have been done. The next Administration and Congress now face the greatest economic challenge since 1932. We need to recognize that much damage has been done and we won’t be able to fix everything overnight, but we must be willing to tackle the tough and seemingly intractable issues. But most importantly we must act. We must remake the federal government as a responsive, accountable instrument of the people we serve. If we do all of these things we will extend tonight’s historic mandate for a generation. If we insist that the government must work for all of our citizens again, we cannot fail.