 Beyer: Dealer as Democrat |
He is a rarity: a politically active Democrat dealer.
In 1997 he ran for governor of Republican-leaning Virginia.
That didn't work out.
Last year he was a key fund-raiser for the presidential campaigns of Howard Dean and then John Kerry.
All the while his dealerships keep selling Vol-vos, Land Rovers and Subarus in northern Virginia.
Now he is taking on the task of improving ties between business people and the Democratic Party.
He is chairman of the Democratic Business Council, an arm of the Democratic National Committee.
And he also is line to become chairman in 2007 of the American International Automobile Dealers Association.
By law, the group must be nonpartisan, but it is clearly friendlier toward Republicans than Democrats in Washington.
And what are the prospects?
Beyer, at AIADA's automotive congress last week, was upbeat but acknowledged, "I don't know how it will work."
You may e-mail Harry Stoffer at [email protected]
