by Joe Fitzgerald

The first was a plan to put a casino in Fairfax County, despite the objections of the local government there. He knew better than the county supervisors. The governor vetoed it.

Scott Surovell has had three major failures in his third year as leader of the state Senate Democrats.

The second was his push to appoint an anti-immigrant general district court judge in an area that’s heavily immigrant. The appointment was successful, but the decision to do so was a failure prima facie. But Surovell knew better than local Democrats.

The third was his push for a redistricting referendum on shaky legal grounds. Many serious people who favored redistricting still expected the referendum to fail on constitutional grounds. Surovell knew better than the skeptics, but today the Virginia Supreme Court agreed with the skeptics.

The greatest damage from the referendum push is to the governor, who lost ten points in her approval rating, in part from supporting the referendum, which stank even for many of us voting for it. The more general damage is to the Democratic Party in general, flip-flopping on redistricting and doing it badly.

The greatest damage from the judgeship in the 26^th Judicial District, which includes Harrisonburg, will be to immigrants who come before the court for traffic offenses and minor disputes.

The greatest damage from the casino veto should be to Surovell. He used his power and position not for the people of Virginia, but for a pet project the local government didn’t want.

If he had been, just for instance, a female speaker of the House, he’d be out of a job. It will be interesting to see what excuses his fellow state senators have for reappointing him.

Joe Fitzgerald is a former mayor of Harrisonburg. This column is republished with permission from his blog Still Not Sleeping.