Category: Campaign finance reform
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An Utter (and Videotaped) Disgrace of the Virginia General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock Whatever the Virginia Health Care Association (VHCA), the state’s nursing home lobbying organization, pays its General Counsel, Scott Johnson, it is not enough. He has been representing them for 20 years, and he owns the General Assembly. This is going to sound boring as I frame the background that is the…
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Corruption, Ignorance Turn Deadly in the General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock Virginia Department of Health inspectors, on page 11 of 66 of a statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2021, wrote of a gut-wrenching discovery. They found an incontinent patient at Autumn Care of Suffolk, a stroke victim unable to talk, tied to her bed by a staffer. She was terrified and…
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VPM Reporter Digs Into Power For Tomorrow
Ben Paviour at Virginia Public Media has fleshed out additional substantial details on the political activities of Power for Tomorrow, a utility advocacy group with major funding from Dominion Energy Virginia. Questions asked and issues hinted at by this report on Bacon’s Rebellion now have more clarity. Yes, Paviour found quite a few Virginia incumbent…
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Personal Use of Campaign Funds–Some Clarifications
by Dick Hall-Sizemore James Sherlock has posted an article accusing the General Assembly of being “the only state that allows candidates to raise unlimited funds and spend that money on personal expenses.” He bases that accusation on the defeat of two bills: HB 1952 in 2021 and SB 1471 in 2023. The accusation is misleading…
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Public Corruption Transacted in Public
by James C. Sherlock Want that country club membership but don’t want to write the check for the initial membership fee? How about the down payment on a vacation home? Run for office in Virginia. Pay for it with campaign money. You don’t even have to win as long as you spend it during the…
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New Yorkers, Virginians Will See Your Political Campaign Contributions and Raise You Dick Saslaw
by James C. Sherlock The New York Post was scandalized. In a stunning display of how New York politics work, two of the state Legislature’s most outspoken opponents of charter schools are also among the biggest recipients of campaign cash from New York’s teachers’ union and its political action committee. State Sen. John Liu (D-Queens),…
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Senate Privileges and Elections Committee Votes for Virginia to Remain an Oligarchy
by James C. Sherlock Oligarchy: a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution. The Privileges and Elections Committee of the Virginia Senate has voted down two bills by Senator Chap Petersen that would have restored some semblance of a democratic republic status to Virginia. Senate Bill 803 would have for…
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Triumphs in Criminal Bail Reform and Restorative Justice
by James C. Sherlock George Soros wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday July 31. Title: “Why I Support Reform Prosecutors.” Subtitle: “Justice or safety? It’s a false choice. They reinforce each other.” Mr. Soros proudly proclaims he has supported the election (and more recently the re-election) of prosecutors who support reform.…
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“But, It’s Not a Perfect Bill. I Can’t Support That”
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Once again, the General Assembly has killed legislation that would prohibit politicians from using campaign donations to cover personal expenses. It is easy to express outrage at this almost annual occurrence, but, in doing some background research on the subject, I encountered some details that, on the one hand, provide a fuller…
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COPN’s Regional Monopolies Helped Boost Virginia Hospitals’ Operating Margins to more than 3x National Median in 2020
by James C. Sherlock Virginians have been assured forever by the hospital lobby that the non-profit regional monopolies established and protected by COPN nearly everywhere but Richmond: are benign public servants with a charitable mission; certainly don’t drive up costs; that competition does not matter; that the State Medical Facilities Plan on which COPN is…
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A Compelling Case for Campaign Finance Reform – Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorneys
by James C. Sherlock Remind me why, exactly, Virginia permits massive out-of-state campaign contributions to dominate local races. I can’t hear you. Because we do, an out-of-state organization is by far the biggest donor to Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorneys races in elections of local prosecutors. Justice and Public Safety PAC, based in Washington D.C., utterly dominates support to the…
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A Campaign Finance Reform Lesson – the 2021 Elections for the Virginia House of Delegates
by James C. Sherlock Money in politics matters for a lot of reasons. Most of them are unsupportive of a republican form of government. The majority of the Virginia political class is addicted to unlimited campaign donations, a powerful incumbent protection mechanism. They do not blush when they contend that transparency is all that is…
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An Unmistakeable Odor of Corruption
by James C. Sherlock The data offered by the Virginia Public Access Project in Money in Politics have long left a perception that privileged access to Virginia elected officials is for sale. Perception matches reality. It is for sale. No one denies that: a republican form of government is based on a rough equality of…
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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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Terry McAuliffe as Governor Aggressively Denied Charter Schools to Poor Minority Children
by James C. Sherlock Terry McAuliffe demonstrated as governor that he will fight public charter schools. He will oppose them regardless of the lifelong costs to the students of some truly pitiful Virginia public schools, many with majorities of minority students. When governor, he vetoed a major attempt by the General Assembly to help those…