Category: Politics
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Who Is Tommy East?
James C. Sherlock Tommy East sits as the Nursing Home Industry representative on the Virginia Board of Health. He is the President & CEO of Heritage Hall Healthcare and Rehabilitation Centers, an operator of nursing homes headquartered in Roanoke. In 2014, he was appointed by Governor McAuliffe to serve on the Commonwealth of Virginia Board…
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Notes from the Right Wing Echo Chamber
By Peter Galuszka On Wednesday, I was standing next to the Capitol grounds in Richmond watching brightly decorated cars and pickups drive on 9th Street, their horns blaring. I was attending the drive by protest rally on assignment for Style Weekly and happened to speak to Jason Roberge, a Spotsylvania County resident who is one…
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Rethinking Ralph Northam
By Peter Galuszka Governor Ralph Northam has been taking his lumps, especially from critics on this blog, for his performance in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s been described as inept, incompetent, unresponsive and, incredibly, as potentially dictatorial. What is indeed curious is that while Northam was slow to get moving on virus issues, he has…
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Right Wing Uses Virus To Stifle Needed Reforms
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in Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Culture wars, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Federal issues, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Government Transparency, Gun rights, Health Care, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Media, Money in politics, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlements, TaxesBy Peter Galuszka Right-wingers in Virginia have been apoplectic for months that Democrats finally captured the General Assembly after years of Republican control. They also were enraged that the legislature this winter passed a number of reforms that would draw Virginia into the 21st Century such raising the minimum wage, boosting collective bargaining, tightening rules…
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The Progressives’ “Opportunity of a Lifetime”
by James C. Sherlock Virginia faces a crisis of governance during COVID-19, and the repercussions will play out in the General Assembly and in our elections for federal offices this fall. The political campaigns both within and outside the General Assembly will be about policy rather than the administrative skill to carry it out. In…
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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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A Look at Richmond and COVID-19
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in Agriculture & forestry, Business and Economy, Children and Families, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Culture wars, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government Finance, Government workers and pensions, Housing, Infrastructure, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Money in politics, Planning, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Resilience, Science & Technology, Social Services and Entitlements, Telecommunications, UncategorizedBy Peter Galuszka Here is a roundup story I wrote for Style Weekly that was published today that explains the effects of COVID-19 on the Richmond area. Hopefully, BR readers will find it of interest. It was a tough piece to report. The impacts of the deadly virus are very complicated and multi-faceted. An especially…
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Dare County, N.C., closes its borders
By DJ Rippert From Outer Banks to Outer Mongolia. Dare County, N.C. issued orders last week closing its borders to non-residents. Dare is a coastal county just south of Currituck County, N.C., which borders Virginia. Many Virginians know Dare County from Outer Banks vacations in towns such as Duck or fishing trips launched from Manteo.…
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Hey, Politicians, Give Unspent Campaign Funds to Charity
by James C. Sherlock I am a strong believer in the generosity of most Americans. I offer in this essay a way for Virginia elected officials to donate campaign money left over from their last elections to charities that provide healthcare services to Virginia’s poor. It is a simple concept that can do a lot…
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Money and Chaos in Virginia Politics
by James C. Sherlock Having watched the flood of money into the 2017 and 2019 Virginia elections and the utter chaos in the 2020 General Assembly, I offer what I hope are two reform suggestions that meet with bipartisan approval. Limit the money in state politics I wrote an entire column on the abuses of…
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Virginia’s Vengeful Politicians
by Kerry Dougherty Terry McAuliffe is a terrific politician. If you’ve met the former Virginia governor you know what I mean. He’s smooth. He oozes charm. Like many skilled politicians, underneath that affable exterior lurks a ruthless operator with an elephantine memory. Just ask LaBravia Jenkins, the well-respected commonwealth’s attorney for the City of Fredericksburg.…
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Spy V. Spy in Virginia Politics?
By Peter Galuszka Erik Prince, the highly controversial former Navy SEAL and founder of the security firm Blackwater, recruited spies to infiltrate liberal groups and the 2018 political campaign of U.S. Rep Abigail Spanberger, according to media reports. His role was disclosed in a lawsuit deposition involving the right-wing group Project Veritas that has tried…
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Virginia Has No Campaign Contribution Limits — And It Shows
by James C. Sherlock Did anyone notice the reporting last year that Virginia’s 2019 state election drew unprecedented amounts of special interest money from out of state, most of it targeted to turn the state blue? It worked. Federal laws regulate the use of money in federal elections. The states implement and enforce campaign finance…
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How Hospitals Exercise Political Clout
by James C. Sherlock Virginia’s hospitals and health systems have for decades gotten everything they have sought from the state government, both the constitutional officers and the General Assembly. Readers of this space have been provided the details of some of their successes that are counter to the public good. But what is the source…
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How Virginia Would Fare Under President Biden, Part 1
By DJ Rippert And then there were two. Today, Elizabeth Warren announced that she will withdraw from the presidential race. That leaves Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard (yes, she’s still running) as the remaining candidates for the Democratic nomination. Given that Tulsi Gabbard has exactly one delegate (from American Samoa where she was…