David M. Poole, a journalist whose commitment to public disclosure revolutionized public understanding of money in Virginia politics, will speak at the February 12 meeting of the Lake of the Woods Democratic Club.
The presentation will take place at 1:30 p.m. in Classroom II of the LOW Community Center and is open to all.
In his book “Trusted Source,” Poole explains how the nonprofit he founded — the Virginia Public Access Project — managed to address two major challenges of our times: the demise of newspapers and the declining faith in our institutions.
“In a time of deep cynicism in many public institutions, the Virginia Public Access Project remains an outlier, commanding trust across Virginia’s political spectrum. Over a quarter century, as its mission has grown from digitizing campaign contribution reports to offering citizens an array of information about the inner workings of government, the organization has retained broad political support,” Richmond journalist Margaret Edds wrote in her foreword to “Trusted Source.”
Copies of “Trusted Source” will be available for purchase at the meeting.
Poole is a Florida native who earned a degree in Soviet and Eastern European Studies from the University of North Carolina. Before he founded VPAP in 1997, Poole wrote for newspapers in Lynchburg, Roanoke, and Tampa, Fla. He and his wife, Clare, live in Richmond.
Follow the links below to learn more about VPAP and Poole’s book.