In an unusual move, Manassas Democrats take to Twitter, slam House incumbent

MANASSAS — Democrats in Manassas appear to favor Mark Wolfe as the candidate to run for House of Delegates in the 50th District.

The seat is held by Lee Carter, a Democrat and the state’s first elected member of the Democratic Socialists of America activist group. Wolfe, a Republican turned Democrat announced his campaign earlier this month, more than two years after being elected to another term on the Manassas City Council.

A Tweet that appeared on the Manassas/Manassas Park Democratic Committee Twitter page states Carter “has essentially been MIA since his election…[as far as I know] he’s done zip to help elect other [Democrats]. We welcome [Carter’s] reengagement with the constituents he was elected to represent in Richmond.”

The Tweet, published Wednesday, Feb. 20 was deleted a day later.

“This tweet was erroneously sent via the committee’s account. It has been removed,” states Mike Freehand, with the Manassas/Manassas Park Democratic Committee.

Carter has not responded to a request for comment for this story.

Wolfe says he shares the same “progressive” values as Carter, but will bring to his campaign a “commonsense approach to get things done the same way I have during my time on city council.”

The 62-year-old praised the recent news of the Micron corporation’s $3 billion expansion in Manassas — the largest corporate expansion in Virginia history — as “the single best economic news for the community since IBM came to Manassas in the 1960s.”

The expansion is slated to bring 1,100 new high-paying jobs to the city and will increase Virginia’s exports by $1 billion annually when the project is complete. The firm will develop technology for driverless cars at its newly expanded facility.

Carter denounced the $70 million in tax credits awarded to the company by state officials as part of the expansion announcement, calling it “corrupt.”

Something the corrupt Micron deal and corrupt Amazon deal have in common: elected critics were excluded from the negotiations. That means our constituents were excluded too.

When Bezos’s @WashingtonPost says “Democracy Dies in Darkness” that’s not a warning. It’s his playbook.

— Lee J. Carter (@carterforva) November 13, 2018

1) Companies don’t create jobs. Labor creates all value.
2) The gentrification that would accompany the Micron deal would raise the cost of living for all of my current constituents. The only one to benefit from it is Micron.
3) Stop eating from the trash can of ideology. https://t.co/9bFTwsWIW7

— Lee J. Carter (@carterforva) October 17, 2018

Between the Amazon deal and the Micron deal, rent in my building has already gone up 18% since I signed my lease in May, and that’s before a single shovel has touched the dirt on either project.

Not theoretical. People are already being harmed.

— Lee J. Carter (@carterforva) November 30, 2018

Wolfe will face Carter in a June 11 Primary Election. Usually, parties — Democrat or Republican — usually don’t start touting candidates until after voters have their say in the Primary.

Ian Lovejoy, a Republican who’s also on the Manassas City Council, is also running for the 50th District seat.

The Manassas / Manassas Park Democratic Committee Tweet drew ire from a newly formed group, PWC Progressives.

Your bias is showing even when trying to claim you’re not biased. Shouldn’t you post a statement of equal defense and support of @carterforva This is going to be an absolute mess.

— PWCProgressives (@ProgressivesPwc) February 20, 2019

“Any “mess” would have been of [Carter’s] own making,” the deleted Manassas / Manassas Park Democratic Committee Tweet went on to state.

Here’s a screenshot of that exchange: