Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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Local Collective Bargaining Off to Slow Start
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Although the alarm bells have sounded repeatedly on this blog, there has not been a rush to establish public employee bargaining in Virginia. Today, about a year and a half after the General Assembly enacted the authorizing law, and six months after it went into effect, only three jurisdictions have enacted ordinances…
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Youngkin for Education Dictator?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Republicans, the advocates for smaller governor and for not having Richmond dictate to localities, seem to be running a would-be dictator for governor. In Halifax County recently, Glenn Youngkin announced, “We will not teach Critical Race Theory in our schools” and, according to the South Boston News and Record, “on day one…
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Redistricting: Fairness is in the Eye of the Partisan
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia Redistricting Commission has hit another wall. This one, over Congressional districts, is good, old-fashioned partisan politics, dressed up as differing perceptions of fairness. Last week, the Commission decided to keep Congressional districts Three and Four intact, with only those changes needed to bring their populations in line with what was…
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Redistricting: Breakdown!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The redistricting process has broken down here on the eve of the deadline of the Virginia Redistricting Commission to report to the General Assembly. The divisions and distrust are so deep that the members could not agree even on which maps to use as a starting point in session on Friday. When…
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Redistricting: Incumbents, Open Seats, and Partisanship
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Most General Assembly incumbents are resting easier. The Democrat and Republican map drawers took their guidance from the Virginia Redistricting Commission seriously and drew district lines putting most incumbents in districts with no other incumbents. As discussed in an earlier post, the Commission members interpreted Virginia Code language as requiring it to…
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Redistricting: Impasse?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia Redistricting Commission started its meeting on Saturday with the goal of reaching a preliminary agreement on one draft map for the House of Delegates and one draft map for the Senate in anticipation of public hearings scheduled to begin on Monday. Six hours later, the meeting was adjourned with the…
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Redistricting: Incumbents, Race, and Prisoners
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The most recent meeting of the Virginia Redistricting Commission was marked by tension over the two most sensitive issues—incumbency and race. The meeting was supposed to be dedicated to viewing efforts of the two sets of partisan map drawers to come up with a single map for the Senate districts upon which…
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Redistricting: Voting Rights Act
by Dick Hall-Sizemore After the population issue of “one man, one vote,” the next priority the Virginia Redistricting Commission must consider in the drawing of new election districts is compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act. This post will lay out the main principles that need to be considered. I need to make this caveat…
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Redistricting: the First Stab at Statewide Maps
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia Redistricting Commission started out by dividing the state into eight regions. Its original plan was to proceed with drawing House and Senate districts, region by region, starting with Northern Virginia. That quickly proved to be inefficient, slow, and impractical. Last week the map drawers were instructed to produce statewide House…
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Convicted, But Innocent–Emerson Stevens
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In August, Governor Northam granted a full pardon to Emerson Stevens. Stevens had been convicted of killing a young mother of two in 1985 in a small fishing village on the Northern Neck. The pardon was based on evidence that “reflects Mr. Stevens’ innocence.” Stevens maintained from the beginning that he was…
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Redistricting: Let the Lawsuits Begin!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The first draft maps had not been drawn when the first lawsuit challenging Virginia’s redistricting process was filed. Sen. Travis Hackworth. R-Tazewell, along with several other plaintiffs, is challenging 2020 Virginia legislation that required, for redistricting purposes, prison and jail inmates to be allocated to the population counts of the locality of…
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What We Want the Future to Know About 2020
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Several commenters to the previous post on the removal of the Lee Monument expressed interest in the items that were placed in the new time capsule that was to be placed in the base of the former Lee Monument. According to a news release from the Governor’s office, these are the items:
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Lee Monument Removed
Yesterday morning the Lee Monument, the last major and most prominent celebration of the Lost Cause, was removed. Virginia and Richmond have now truly embraced the 21st Century.
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Former Norfolk Sheriff Convicted of Fraud and Bribery
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Here is another name to add to the list of corrupt public officials — former Norfolk Sheriff Bob McCabe. Earlier this week, a federal jury convicted him of all 11 counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. The charges covered actions committed over a 22-year period. They included accepting gift cards to…
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Driving While Black Redux
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Some participants on this blog have voiced skepticism regarding the claim that Black drivers are more likely than white drivers to be pulled over by law enforcement. Jim Bacon even went to great lengths to demonstrate that it was difficult to determine the race of a driver in a moving vehicle. These…