Category: Electoral process
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Trailing Candidates Should Bail Out, Void Primary
By Steve Haner More often than not, the suspense in an election is over long before the polls open. That is the case with the two primary contests which will require me to sit in a polling place all day on June 23. The expected losers should just drop out now and save us all…
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WTJU Podcast: COVID-19 and the Economy
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in Agriculture & forestry, Bacon and Pigs, Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Charity, Philanthropy, Nonprofits, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Corruption and Scandals, Culture wars, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, Elections, Electoral process, Energy, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Government Transparency, Gun rights, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Taxes, Telecommunications, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka Here’s is the twice-monthly podcast produced by WTJU, the official radio station of the University of Virginia. With me on this podcast are Nathan Moore, the station general manager, and Sarah Vogelsong, who covers, labor, energy and environmental issues across the state for the Virginia Mercury, a fairly new and highly regarded…
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Move 2020 Nomination Deadline To Late Summer
By Steve Haner A week after the March 3 Democratic presidential primary I was sick, probably with a cold but I had to wonder. No fever developed and patent medicines got me through. But it could have been COVID-19 after checking in hundreds of voters in the Maple Street Firehouse. There is no way I’m…
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State Senate Saves the Commonwealth. Again.
by Kerry Dougherty Here’s a morsel of good news from Richmond: Virginia will not be joining the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact movement. This year, anyway. For the second time in 10 days a State Senate committee saved us from extreme bills that had already passed the drunk-with-power House of Delegates. First, it was the…
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Electoral College Vote, Carbon Tax, Labor’s Wants
By Steve Haner The End of the Electoral College Looms The legislature’s new ruling Democrats, having celebrated their adoption of the national Equal Rights Amendment, may continue their Constitutional aspirations next week and try to kill the federal Electoral College. Some believe the will of Virginia voters in choosing presidential electors should be overridden by…
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Fairfax County Has More Registered Voters than Adults Old Enough to Vote
More Northern Virginia news you will never read in the Washington Post… Fairfax County has a registration rate of 105%, according to conservative activist group Judicial Watch. In other words, the number of voter registrations exceeds the number of citizens in the county old enough to vote. During the last reporting period, the county removed…
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California Too Conservative for Some Virginia Dems
by Hans Bader To some Americans, staunchly progressive California may seem too liberal. But not to Virginia’s Democratic legislators. They’re proposing legislation that would make Virginia more liberal than California. That includes letting murderers vote while in prison, and letting them be paroled even if a court has sentenced them to life without parole. Virginia…
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A Dialogue on Money in Virginia Politics
Jeff Thomas: Thank you for having me to Bacon’s Rebellion, Jim. I’m a longtime reader, first-time poster. Money in Virginia politics is an important topic on which I think we both agree, and I’m eager to hear your take on it. As I understand it, we’ll each answer and ask a question of the other…
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Sanctimonious Money in Politics
The older I get, the more irritable I get. Perhaps, upon passing the threshold to Medicare eligibility, I became a cranky old man. In my defense, however, I do find myself continually provoked. The latest vexation comes from a Community Idea Stations article describing how an increasing number of Democratic Party candidates for General Assembly…
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Amazon Campaign Contributions: $75,000 and Counting
Speaking of alien overlords (see previous post)… I believe I’m correct in saying that Bacon’s Rebellion’s Steve Haner was the first pundit to note that if you like Amazon as a major player in Virginia’s economy, you’d better get accustomed to Amazon as a major player in Virginia politics. Now comes the Washington Business Journal noting…
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Bacon Bits: Economic Research Edition
I periodically check the research papers coming out of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) because they often address issues of interest to Bacon’s Rebellion. The research is far more rigorous from a methodological perspective than the work product of special-interest and advocacy groups, hence more worthy of serious consideration — even when it…
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Gerrymandering Virginia from Red to Blue
by Hans Bader On Tuesday, a three-judge panel redistricted Virginia’s House of Delegates, adopting a highly favorable map for Democrats. It is effectively a political gerrymander in their favor. The result will be to lock in Democratic dominance in the state for years to come, giving them control of future redistricting. Tuesday’s redistricting will shift…
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Americans Spend More on Thanksgiving Than Election 2018
by Dan Backer When it’s all said and done, America will spend roughly $3 billion on Thanksgiving dinners this year—50 percent of it on turkeys alone. That’s a whole lot of white meat and cranberry sauce—not to mention food comas. The $3 billion doesn’t even account for the billions more spent on Thanksgiving-themed advertising or…
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No Excuses for Chesterfield Voting Problems
I’ve been an election officer twice now, for the June primary and now for this massive mid-term election, so that makes me a real expert, right? Hardly. But I read the Richmond Times-Dispatch story about the problems Tuesday in Chesterfield County with deeper insight than I would have a year ago. Know first that after…
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You Can Take These Voters to Water, but You Can’t Make Them Drink
The Virginia Public Access Project refuses to link to Bacon’s Rebellion news articles, but, hey, (gnashing of teeth) no hard feelings…. The nonprofit group produces some interesting data visualizations, including the graphic above, that are worth pondering. Virginia has 5.2 million registered voters. Now, I know that many registered voters don’t always vote. But I’m…