Author: Bob Rayner
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Tough Question: What’s Going On at the Virginia General Assembly?
by Gordon C. Morse Forty years ago, I wrote an essay for the Richmond Times-Dispatch — “The Long and the Short of the Assembly” — that noted “a growing sense that the Virginia General Assembly is not performing satisfactorily,” that it had “devolved into an unhappy spectacle.” Revisiting that essay recently immediately gave me a…
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How Youngkin Can Avoid Lame Duck Status
by Scott Lingamfelter Elections produce clarity. One thing is noticeably clear after Republicans failed to achieve majorities in both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly. For the next two years, the prospects for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s legislative agenda are bleak. That’s the bad news. Here is the good news: it doesn’t have to be…
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‘Defund the Police’ and Other Nonsense
by Joe Fitzgerald “Defund the police” is a stupid slogan. Give its proponents the benefit of the doubt, however. Maybe what they meant was return police to their core mission of protecting life and property, remove their frequent role as social worker or mental health counselor, demilitarize their responses to all but the most dangerous…
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Most ‘Diverse’ General Assembly in Virginia History Takes Over in January
by Ken Reid The new post-redistricting Virginia General Assembly that will take control in January, probably with a Democrat majority, will be the most ethnically, racially and religiously diverse group of legislators in Richmond in history, and about ¼ will be female. In addition, some 52 of the 140 members of the General Assembly will…
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The Problem with Local Elections
by Joe Fitzgerald I once told a candidate for Harrisonburg City Council that ten thousand people would show up to vote and more than half would never have heard of him. Referring to the expense and effort of campaigning, he asked, “Why the Hell am I doing this then?” The answer might be to give…
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Democrats Introduce Gun-Grabbing Bill
from The Republican Standard Along with the attempt to codify abortion, there is another radical bill being proposed by Democrats in Virginia. An assault-weapons ban has been filed by Fairfax-area Delegate Dan Helmer in the House and Charlotteville-area Senator Craig Deeds. HB 2 seeks to “make it a Class 1 misdemeanor for anyone to import,…
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Misleading Certitude on Climate Change
by Bill O’Keefe The Richmond Times-Dispatch meteorologist, Sean Sublett, recently wrote an article, “What to make of the National Climate Assessment.” He makes little of it in terms of analysis, and he reposts as if the assessment is primarily fact and not scientific speculation. He provides almost nothing on the uncertainties that drive the National Assessment.…
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Virginia Democrats’ Minimum Wage Bill Would Wipe Out Jobs, Especially During Recessions
from Liberty Unyielding The Democratic leaders in both houses of Virginia’s legislature have just introduced legislation that would raise the Virginia minimum wage from $12 to $15. The bill also retains provisions that make the minimum wage rise with inflation, while preventing it from ever falling due to deflation. As a result, it could rise…
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Virginia Dems Have a Razor-Thin Majority, Not a Mandate
by Kerry Dougherty Gosh, it seems like it was just last month that Virginia Democrats accused Republicans of being too extreme on abortion and used that wedge issue to gain a slight edge in the General Assembly. (The GOP favors a reasonable 15-week limit, preventing the grisly practice of late-term abortions, except in cases of…
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Virginia Might Legalize Abortion in All 9 Months of Pregnancy
by Hans Bader Virginia may permanently legalize abortion in all nine months of pregnancy by banning any regulation of abortion unless necessary to meet a compelling interest, and — more importantly — defining “compelling interest” to exclude the life of the fetus even after viability. That is what is mandated by a state constitutional amendment…
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Republican Problems in Virginia
by Shaun Kenney There was an angrier version of this analysis I had prepared. One that placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of those who would have reaped the rewards had Tuesday gone differently. I’m not going to do that. … because there’s a bigger problem in front of us. Virginia Democrats have a…
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It’s Not Trump; Our Coalitions Matter
by Shaun Kenney Stop me if you’ve seen this one before. Virginia Republicans either get absolutely shellacked in an election, or the margins are super close and we either lose — in which case, the Western Experiment is over and America should pack it in — or we miraculously win and have set the new conservative standard for the…
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Legacy Media Play Catch-Up in Hashmi Case
by Kerry Dougherty Just as I predicted: The corporate media could no longer ignore the election controversy brewing in Virginia’s bright blue 15th Senate District and were finally forced to cover the uncomfortable topic of election “irregularities”. The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak – the best reporter in Virginia – broke the story last weekend. The…
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Spanberger’s Low-Energy Launch
by Shaun Kenney Long rumored and much anticipated, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) announced her intention to run for Virginia governor in 2025 just weeks after Republicans led by Governor Glenn Youngkin fell short of re-capturing leadership of the General Assembly. Spanberger’s announcement — being panned as “low energy” by most observers — came just days…
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An After-Action Review of the ’23 Election
by Scott Lingamfelter Years ago, when I was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, we would conduct force-on-force training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. It’s a vast complex in a high desert environment where training was quite realistic. We would conduct maneuvers against what was termed “the world-class OPFOR” or opposition forces, who mimicked…