Category: Politics
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Showdown at the GA Corral
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares recently announced on the nationally televised Laura Ingraham show that “there’s a new sheriff in town.” That new sheriff was gunned down Wednesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The issue was Miyares’s marquee proposal to broaden the Attorney General’s authority to prosecute criminal cases in circuit court.…
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First Bill to Amend VCEA Buried by Committee
by Steve Haner The first of several pending bills to slow Virginia’s rush to an expensive energy future based on unreliable electricity just failed in a Republican-controlled committee. There is every reason to expect the same fate for two other pending measures with similar goals. In past years energy bills have gone to a subcommittee,…
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Restoring Process Over Politics
by Shaun Kenney Over the last eight years, Virginia Democrats have been swift to impose their will in violation of political process — a fact that continues to frustrate Virginia Republicans on fronts as wide as economic shutdowns, mask mandates, the tearing down of history and war memorials, the imposition of Critical Race Theory in…
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Hands Off My Donations!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Virginia Senators wasted little time killing off an attempt to limit campaign contributions. On its first day of meetings, the Privileges and Elections Committee took up Senator Chap Petersen’s bill to place a $2o,000 cap on campaign contributions (SB 44). Voting to report the bill were five Democrats: Deeds (Bath), Ebbin (Alexandria),…
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Who Funded Voter Suppression in Rural Virginia?
by James A. Bacon It caused quite the brouhaha when Axios published a story in September on how a Democratic PAC posed as a conservative outfit to depress Republican voter turnout in Southwest Virginia by raising questions about Glenn Youngkin’s commitment to gun rights. Dominion Energy had donated $200,000 to the effort, run by Accountability…
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Day One
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Comments and ruminations on “Day One” actions: Executive Order 1—”Inherently divisive” concepts. The headlines will have gotten this one wrong. The Governor has not prohibited the teaching of critical race theory in public schools, not that anyone was actually doing that. He has directed the Superintendent of Public Instruction to purge the…
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Northam Exits — the End of an Error
by Scott Dreyer Unlike the other 49 states in the Union, only Virginia has a constitution that prohibits a governor from serving two consecutive terms. That is why former Governor Terry McAuliffe tried to make a comeback last November but current Governor Ralph Northam–blessedly–must exit the Governor’s Mansion on January 15, 2022. Early on, Northam…
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Early Fireworks
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The 2022 General Assembly has gotten off to an inauspicious start. It started off quietly enough. On Wednesday, the first day, Delegate Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, was elected Speaker on vote of 97-0. It is not usual for the person selected by the majority party caucus to be Speaker to be formally elected…
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A Peek Behind the Veil
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Background During my research for the articles on state financial assistance for public education, I ran across a curious provision and, subsequently, tracked the history of that provision. That history provides a small peek at the budget development and legislative processes that illustrate: Why I find them so fascinating, and Why many…
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Redistricting Now Final
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The redistricting for General Assembly seats and those in the U.S. House of Representatives is complete. The Virginia Supreme Court issued its final order and approved maps on December 28, 2021. There are some significant changes from the earlier proposed maps. For a discussion of the first maps released by the Supreme…
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What’s the Matter with Charlottesville?
by James A. Bacon In his bestselling book of 2007, Thomas Franks asked the question, What’s the Matter with Kansas? Why do blue-collar inhabitants of the Sunflower State, he wondered, so consistently vote for Republican politicians who pursue policies supposedly antithetical to their material self-interest? Perhaps the answer is that level-headed Kansans could see where…
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Del. Jay Jones Quits Before He Starts
We’re becoming “Jones, party of 3” this summer and we couldn’t be more excited! pic.twitter.com/WG83KbY8oQ — Jay Jones (@jonesjay) December 14, 2021 Sorry, Delegate, I don’t buy it. I’m delighted that you and your wife are expecting your first baby. And your determination to be a good dad is admirable. Every child should be so…
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Virginia State and Local Agencies Must Spend Federal Coronavirus Relief Funds by December 31
by James C. Sherlock State and local governments are awash in billions of dollars of federal funding with various federal expiration dates if not spent. The General Assembly set its own deadline. Recipients have to spend federal money allocated by the General Assembly by Dec. 31 or lose it back to the Governor for repurposing.…
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Finally, There Are Redistricting Maps Up for Final Consideration
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The two special masters appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court to assist in redistricting have accomplished in about a month what the Virginia Redistricting Commission (“the Commission”) was unable to do in about nine months: produce single draft maps for the Congressional districts, the Senate districts, and the House of Delegates districts.…
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Budget Maneuvering
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of the quirks about Virginia’s governing system is that an outgoing governor gets to submit a budget proposal for the upcoming biennium, when he will not be around to execute it. It would be difficult for any new governor trying to deal with a budget that he had no part in…