“The party has made clear that its first priority is to protect the status quo and to ensure that incumbents win,” Mittiga said in an interview. “It shows me that they’re not very interested in working with their progressive base or drawing in new blood or new ideas to the party. Frankly, it’s just a bit disheartening.”

The party reversed the policy of denying access to primary challengers at an organizational meeting March 3, after Mittiga drew attention to it on social media and appealed to other Democratic officials.

Susan Swecker, the state Democratic Party chair, said that before this year the party “never had the technological capability of separating the incumbent’s data from that of the challenger” and worked with the system vendor to create a workaround.

Toscano, a lawyer and former Charlottesville mayor facing his first Democratic primary challenger ever in the 57th District he has represented since 2006, said he agrees Mittiga should have access to the party’s data, but not his own. The issue seemed to be resolved, Toscano said, when Mittiga was granted access.

“I’m not sure what his beef is,” said Toscano, who has led the House’s Democratic minority since 2012.

Mittiga said the issues didn’t end when the party agreed to give him access.