Bacon's Rebellion

  • Nuts & Bolts: Modernizing State Cyber-Security

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A pile of rusty nuts and bolts resting on a wooden surface.

    At least three Virginia government entities — Albemarle County, Gloucester County, and the Office of the Attorney General — were subjected to ransomware attacks in 2025. In myย most recent Oinkonomics podcast, Secretary of Finance Steve Cummings touched upon the Youngkin administration’s approach to cyber-security. โ€” JAB

    Cummings: My former life was a banker. My last stop was I was CEO of a $6 billion revenue bank owned by the Japanese, highly regulated by the Fed, by the OCC, by the SEC. And I spent most of my regulatory time on cyber. And as you can imagine, that is top of the priority list. If you look at finance, what I would say to everybody as I was pulling my team together, hey, folks, weโ€™re going to do things differently. We are the bank. We collect the revenues. We manage those funds when they come in to optimize them, and we pay all the bills through DOA.

    Why do you rob a bank? Itโ€™s because where the money is. We are the number one target. And we had those three agencies, which is the core, all doing it differently, completely independently, different tools, different standards, different tracking, and at much different levels of maturity of execution. So, I said, I donโ€™t care what you say about the incidents. We got to get this fixed.

    (more…)

  • Dems to Vote Selves 278% Pay Raiseย 

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Scott Dreyer

    The Democrat-led General Assembly voted in recent days to raise the salary for State Delegates and Senators to $50,000 per year.

    Virginia has always had a General Assembly made of part-time legislators. The idea was for them to have their primary jobs back at home, and their service in the legislature in Richmond was designed to occupy only a few weeks per year, with a modest stipend in accordance with that limited time.

    The move to grant themselves salaries of $50,000 per year is already more than many Virginians make at their full-time jobs working year-round.

    The Democrats ran on โ€œaffordabilityโ€ as a major platform during the fall 2025 campaign.

    The nearly 300% raises were passed on largely party lines, with Republicans opposing. Having passed both houses of the General Assembly, the measure now needs to be signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) to become law.

    Per state law, legislators cannot vote themselves a pay raise during the same session as their vote.ย There must be a new election before the pay raise can take effect, therefore the 278% pay raise would not take effect until 2028.

    Delegates are currently paid $17,650 a year; senators $18,000. Under the proposed increase, that would nearly tripleย to $50,000 a year for each.

    (more…)

  • Referendum Ad Wars

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    James A. Bacon

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Look whoโ€™s doing dabbling in investigative journalism! Itโ€™s my old employer, The Virginian-Pilot.

    Yep, they were so stunned by โ€œVote Noโ€ campaign literature aimed at black voters on the upcoming redistricting referendum, that they went digging.

    Figures.

    A man in a light gray suit and glasses gestures while speaking, with an American flag blurred in the background.
    Former Republican Delegate A.C. Cordoza. Image credit: Virginian-Pilot

    In a story headlined โ€œWho’s Behind An Anti-Redistricting Flyer Invoking Jim Crow?โ€ the paper asked a question absolutely no one was asking. (Except Dem loyalists, that is, who donโ€™t take kindly to black Republicans.)

    Left-wingers were indignant. How dare conservatives invoke Jim Crow, only Democrats can do that, which is right since it WAS Democrats who invented Jim Crow.

    The Democracy and Justice Political Action Committee paid for the campaign mailer, but campaign disclosures did not initially say who was behind the PAC โ€” inviting speculation from Democrats that a Republican special interest group was involved. But a disclosure form provided Monday by the PACโ€™s attorney identifies the person behind the PAC as A.C. Cordoza, a Black former Republican state delegate.

    Cordoza, who represented Hampton in the House of Delegates from 2022 to 2026, is chairman of Democracy and Justice PAC, which was registered March 5. Cordoza, who lost reelection last year, was the only Black Republican in the House of Delegates during his term.

    Cardozo explained his reasoning to the paper. Itโ€™s smart and sound. Continue reading.

  • Two Intrigues of the Utmost Importance to the UVA Community

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    James A. Bacon

    by the Jefferson Council

    A person in a detective costume examining something with a magnifying glass in front of a large, classical building with a dome and columns.

    A number of recent mysterious events have brought into the open serious concerns involving the issues of transparency and accountabilityโ€”two topics that have been subjects of repeated controversy by various elements of the University community. As devotees of Conan Doyle and the sleuth of Baker Street, we have put on our deerstalkers and utilizing deductive reasoning combined with the testimony of credible sources have reached conclusions of the utmost importance to our University:

    1. The Mystery of the Missing Meeting: Was there Governmental Interference in the Selection of our New Rector?

    Anyone who regularly follows UVA Board of Visitor (BOV) meetings knows that the BOV meets quarterly, with the meeting spanning two days, usually a Thursday and Friday. Last week, the BOV held its first meeting of 2026, which was also the first meeting of the Board after Governor Spanberger engineered her hostile takeover of the Board. What made this meeting unusual from the outset, is that it was the first time in the history of the Commonwealth that a newly elected governor had previously appointed a controlling number of Board membersโ€”in this case 10 of 17. However, this was not the only unusual aspect of this Board meeting.

    As noted above, BOV meetings generally span two days and include reports from most of the standing committees of the Board including the Academic and Student Life, Buildings and Grounds, Advancement, Finance, College at Wise, and Audit, Compliance and Risk committees. Last weekโ€™s BOV met for only one day and heard reports from only one committee. To paraphrase a question asked each year at the Passover Sederโ€”โ€œWhy was this Board meeting di๏ฌ€erent than all other regularly scheduled Board Meetings?โ€

    (more…)

  • Spanberger Pushes Back

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Gov. Abigail Spanberger

    Gov. Abigail Spanberger is pushing back against the elimination of a sales tax break for data centers being proposed by Senate Democrats in their budget recommendations.ย (For background on the sales tax exemption, see Steve Hanerโ€™s discussion here.)

    There is a tradition in which the governor meets with the budget bill conferees (those members chosen to work out the differences between the House and Senate budget bills) to discuss the differences and the governorโ€™s priorities. Following that is the โ€œGovernorโ€™s letterโ€ to the conferees, in which the governor sets out his/her priorities and recommended actions for the budget.ย Among staff members who worked in the past on helping draft โ€œthe letter,โ€ there was great skepticism as to how much attention the conferees paid to it.

    However, this year, reports the Richmond Times Dispatch, Spanberger has used the meeting and the letter to send a strong signal that she does not fully support the Senate proposal to repeal the exemption on sales tax for equipment enjoyed by data centers. “I know we share a commitment to protecting Virginia’s fiscal integrity, upholding our commitments to businesses that we have invited to invest in the Commonwealth, and maintaining the AAA bond rating we have held since 1938,” she stated inย the letter.ย The governorโ€™s spokesperson then doubled down, โ€œAs budget negotiations advance, the Governor has expressed to House and Senate leaders her serious concerns about going back on commitments Virginia has made to businesses that it recruited to invest in the Commonwealth.”ย 

    (more…)

  • With Friends Like This…

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    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Virginia Republicans seem to be very frustrated with their party’s attempts to thwart the redistricting changes being pushed by Virginia Democrats.

    A lot of their frustration has been directed at former Gov. Youngkin. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the incumbent Republican members of Congress,whose seats are in jeopardy, met with Youngkin to implore him to “help with fundraising, ad messaging and other efforts to drive their voters to turn out.” Rep. Rob Wittman (R-First) said that Youngkin “was adamant to say he was not going to get involved.โ€ Wittman went on to say, โ€œGlenn is just missing in action. If youโ€™re not going to fight for your own state, for your own party, thatโ€™s pretty poor testament to what you would do if the president were to select you for a position.โ€

    Sen. Glenn Sturtevant

    Others are complaining by the lack of support from national Republican organizations. The Virginia Political Newsletter quoted Sen. Glenn Sturtevant (R-Chesterfield) as lamenting:

    “[Democrats have] like $20 million to push this budget referendum, theyโ€™re playing ads on TV all day, every day, and thereโ€™s really nothing in response thatโ€™s comparable. And the reason for that is that the money is just not coming down from the National Republican groups. And I canโ€™t give you a good answer as to why that is, they have seemed to be very focused on making sure that the Epstein files were not released. They had plenty of time and effort to spend on that. I know that they were in session last week because they voted to not disclose the congressional sexual harassment slush fund. So they were very focused on that. If it involves sending bombs and munitions to other countries, they will move heaven and earth to make sure that happens. But when we have this illegal constitutional referendum going on in Virginia, weโ€™re not seeing a whole lot of help from our federal partners.โ€

  • Nuts & Bolts: Modernizing State IT Systems

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A pile of rusty nuts and bolts on a wooden surface.
    Image credit: Grok

    In my last Oinkonomics podcast, I asked former Secretary of Finance Steve Cummings to discuss the commonwealth’s travails in upgrading its financial information systems. In the glory days of Virginia journalism, reporters could have mined these remarks for a half dozen articles. Today? Government-efficiency stories don’t generate clickthroughs, so they don’t get written. — JAB

    Cummings: Two things Iโ€™ll talk about in finance, because this was a priority of the Governor. Secretary [of Administration Lyn] McDermid, who was CIO at the Richmond Fed, really focused on this. We had within our cabinet reports a tracker of all IT projects. Weโ€™d pause and look at things that were shifting status from green to yellow to red so thereโ€™s a conversation to find out whatโ€™s going on because state governmentโ€™s notorious for poor execution in IT.

    In finance, Iโ€™d say the two big things are first, the core ERP system, Cardinal, which has a financial function and HR in one package, PeopleSoft. And they installed the finance package starting 10, 12 years ago. They got partway done with it. And then they found they were end-of-life on the old HR system. I donโ€™t know how that was such a surprise, but they had to shift all of their resources off finance over to HR, which means they never really finished the finance package. As a result of that, over 50 agencies had to build their own to close that gap.

    (more…)

  • Public Union Bills Causing Angst Among Local Democratic Officials

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    Steve Haner

    by Steve Haner

    Legislation to expand the potential for union contracts to cover most local and state employees is on the verge of approval if Democrats in the House of Delegates and Senate can reconcile two versions of the bill.ย 

    They might also have to reconcile with locally elected Democratic officials. Many of them have openly opposed the plan to remove the authority they were granted in 2020 to decide whether their employees could bargain collectively, an option many localities have not taken.

    Local officials also note that that state is leaving with them the burden of paying for the higher salaries and benefit costs which are likely to result. The only additional state dollars being included in the pending budget cover creation of a new Public Employee Relations Board to manage the new bargaining process.

    On the long list of transformative 2026 legislation heading for the desk of new Governor Abigail Spanberger (D), this might have the deepest impact on the stateโ€™s political future. Public employee unions are the backbone of her party in the cities and states where they can organize.

    For the first time under these bills, state employees will also be allowed to organize and negotiate a contract. The House bill leaves out employees of the stateโ€™s higher education institutions, and the Senate bill exempts home care workers. Both delay implementation until 2028, a planning period the Virginia Education Association complains about on its webpage advocating for these bills.ย 

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    A humorous depiction of historical figures resembling American Founding Fathers, with one holding a baseball bat, accompanied by a caption referencing Khamenei and '72 Virginians'.

    See more memes at The Bull Elephant.

  • ERIC is Back

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Despite professing concern for election integrity, former Gov. Youngkin pulled Virginia out of Electronic Registration Information Center, Inc., (ERIC), an organization developed to enable states to share data in order to clean up their election rolls and identify people who might try to vote in different states.

    The General Assembly has passed, along party lines, ย a bill that would require the Virginia Commissioner of Elections to apply for re-admission to ERIC.ย Not only does the bill require that the Commonwealth rejoin ERIC, the authors included a provision that would make it difficult for a future governor to withdraw Virginiaโ€™s membership again.

    Under the provisions of the bill, a governor could longer withdraw Virginia from ERIC on his/her own initiative, as former Gov. Youngkin was able to do. Rather, the bill would require that, before the state could leave ERIC, two-thirds of the members of the Board of Elections would have to approve.ย The Board of Elections consists of five members appointed by the governor.ย Three of the members must be representatives of the party that cast the highest number of votes for governor in the most recent election.ย Two-thirds of five is 3.335.ย Therefore, withdrawal from ERIC would require the approval of four members of the Board of Elections.ย Consequently, at least one of the members from the minority party would have to agree to the withdrawal from ERIC.

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

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    James A. Bacon

    A dog wearing a ski mask in a workshop setting, accompanied by a humorous caption about bacon.

  • Fatal Fairfax Stabbing Sparks Questions About Prosecutor Policies and ICE Cooperation

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora
    Republished with permission fromย IWFeatures

    On Feb. 23, Abdul Jalloh, a Sierra Leone national in the country illegally, fatally stabbed Stephanie Minter, a 41-year-old mother, at a bus stop in Fairfax County, Virginia, according to law enforcement.

    Close-up of a smiling woman with wavy brown hair, wearing a black and white striped top, in a well-lit indoor setting.
    Stephanie Minter

    Prior to Minterโ€™s murder, Jalloh, 32, had previously been arrested more than 30 times for multiple offenses, including rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and pickpocketing.

    In more than a dozen of Jallohโ€™s prior arrests, prosecutors entered โ€œnolle prosequi,โ€ a legal term meaning they chose not to pursue the charges.

    The refusal to pursue charges against Jalloh and the most recent stabbing incident raise critical questions about the countyโ€™s notoriously soft-on-crime, George Soros-backed Commonwealthโ€™s Attorney, Steve Descano. Many Fairfax County residents are asking how itโ€™s possible that after more than 30 arrests, Jalloh was still roaming the streets.

    โ€œThis case isnโ€™t just a preventable tragedyโ€”itโ€™s criminal negligence by a prosecutor who protects criminals from consequences, especially illegal aliens.โ€ Sean Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities, told IW Features. โ€œDescanoโ€™s office even has a policy to give illegals preferential treatment, and that dangerous discrimination cost Stephanie Minter her life.โ€ย 

    (more…)

  • Why Do Dems Bother?

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    James A. Bacon

    Assembly majority poised to appoint a judge who hates us.

    by Joe Fitzgerald

    Will Democrats in the General Assembly find a way to piss away their majority?

    Historically, yes. Then theyโ€™ll begin looking for a woman to blame it on. (See Filler-Corn, Eileen.)

    A man in a suit and tie sitting at a desk, looking directly at the camera, with a window in the background.
    Todd Gilbert. Photo credit: Washington Post

    Ranking Democrats are currently defending being on the verge of appointing Todd Gilbert to a judgeship. The former Republican speaker of the House of Delegates is a Trump administration reject, fired before he could be confirmed as a U.S. Attorney. He casually stomped on any Democratic initiative in sight when he was in power.

    But judgeships are one of the last bastions of Good Old Boy patronage in Virginia. Nominations are made by the local members of the assembly and approved as a group by the full body. Norfolk Dems pick a judge, Valley Pubs pick a judge, and they all go out for drinks in the Shockoe Slip and talk about how hard they work for their partyโ€™s values.

    (more…)

  • A Dangerous Bill

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Del. Dan Helmer (D-Fairfax) Chief patron of HB 333

    The General Assembly has passed, and has sent to the governor for her review, legislation that would require that any  โ€œprogram of instruction on or relating to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitolโ€ shall:

    โ€œ1. Not describe, portray, or present as credible a description or portrayal of the actions precipitating or involved in the events of the January 6, 2021, insurrection as peaceful protest;

    2. Not state, suggest, or present as credible a statement or suggestion that there was extensive election fraud that could have changed or actually changed the results of the 2020 presidential election; and

    3. Describe the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol as an unprecedented, violent attack on United States democratic institutions, infrastructure, and representatives for the purpose of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.โ€

    This is so wrong on so many levels.ย  First, the legislature should not be getting into the specifics of what teachers teach.ย  We are just getting over the argument over whether evolution and creation science should have equal weight in schools.ย  Second, it sets a dangerous precedent for future legislatures.ย  For example, many conservatives would love to instruct schools not to teach that climate change is real. Finally, one can hardly, in good conscience, condemn Gov. Youngkinโ€™s prohibition on teaching critical race theory and other โ€œdivisiveโ€ topics and then prohibit teaching certain ideas concerning the January 6 attacks and the 2020 election and require how the Capitol insurrection must be depicted.

  • Descano Strikes Again

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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