Category: General Assembly
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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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Excess Profits Squeezed Out From Dominion Rates
By Steve Haner The long struggle to prevent Dominion Energy Virginia from earning excess profits in its base rates year after year appears to be over and consumers finally won. That is the main takeaway as the first general review of its base rates since the 2023 regulatory re-write is moving toward a quick settlement.…
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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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Dominion Wind May Be Sued, Hikes Customer Bills
by Steve Haner Two national activist groups on energy and environmental issues, both with connections to Virginia, have taken the first legal steps to challenge the recent federal approvals for Virginia’s planned offshore wind complex. Most of what follows is directly from their announcement dated November 14. The Heartland Institute and the Committee for a Constructive…
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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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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…
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Anyone Know Where Sen. Ghazala Hashmi Lives?
by Kerry Dougherty mmm. Looks like things just got interesting — instead of merely horrifying — in last Tuesday’s election. If Luke Rosiak of The Daily Wire is correct, one Democrat member of the Virginia State Senate may be fighting to stay out of jail rather than taking her seat in the Capitol come January.…
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Rumblings Among House Republicans
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Del. Don Scott (D-Portsmouth), the current Minority Leader in the House of Delegates, seems to be on a smooth glide path to making history by being elected Speaker when the General Assembly convenes in January. The fate of the current Speaker, Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), is less certain. One might logically expect a…
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Sam Rasoul and Jewish Democrats in the General Assembly – An Uneasy Alliance
James C. Sherlock Salam “Sam” Rasoul is a Democrat delegate from Roanoke. He still publicly blames Israel for an explosion at a Gaza hospital that the western world’s intelligence services have blamed on an errant Hamas rocket. Even The New York Times changed its story after jumping the gun on that report. At the rally…
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Democrats, Judges, and Higher Taxes
from Liberty Unyielding For generations, Washington State had no state income tax, because of anti-income tax provisions in its state constitution. But the Washington state supreme court recently upheld a classic example of an income tax — a state tax on income from capital gains — by making the absurd argument that a capital gains tax…
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Dominion, Clean VA Spend $23M Buying Influence
By Steve Haner Dominion Energy Virginia has increased its donations to Virginia state politicians six-fold in just four years. The other major donors in the energy regulation arena, Clean Virginia Fund and its founder, have done much the same. They are donating five times more in the 2023 election cycle than they did in the…
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SCC Approves Paying Extra for Fuel As “Relief”
by Steve Haner The Virginia State Corporation Commission has approved Dominion Energy Virginia’s request to stretch out the back payments on $1.3 billion in old fuel bills from previous years over more than seven years. While the ultimate dollar cost to customers is millions higher because of interest charges, even the SCC news release touted…
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Dems Work to Suppress Minority Votes in Senate Race
by Victoria Snitsar Churchill In the heart of Virginia’s Senate District 31 race, where political fervor has ignited a spirited campaign, allegations of voter suppression tactics are taking center stage. Juan Pablo Segura – the Republican contender for the seat – has raised concerns about what he describes as attempts by his opponent Russet Perry’s…