Bacon's Rebellion

  • Shutdown Vote: Why Kaine Went Right and Warner Went Left

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Paul Goldman

    Senator Tim Kaine speaking at an event with an American flag in the background.
    Photo credit: Virginiapolitics.org

    Usually, U.S. Senator Mark Warner revels in being the deal-making, more conservative Virginia Senator, wearing liberal attacks as a badge of honor. Senator Tim Kaine is usually attacked by conservative Republicans for being too liberal and suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Kaine revels in those attacks.

    Senator Mark Warner speaking passionately at a podium, gesturing with his hands.
    Photo credit: Washington Post

    But on the congressional shutdown vote, Kaine went Republican MAGA right while Warner went Bernie Sanders left. Has politics flipped its magnetic field? Is the rapture so close that Tim and Mark are trying to get good with God? 

    The answer is far simpler. Warner is up for reelection next year. He knows he’s vulnerable to a primary challenge from the Bernie Sanders wing of Democratic party. The Vermont Senator Sanders is already all over the Internet, blasting the eight Democrats who voted with the Republicans. Sanders hasn’t accused them of selling out to Trump. Or being like the leaders of Vichy France. Not yet anyway. Warner figured it was better to join Bernie than fight him. It surely seemed the safer political move. But is it really? 

    Senator Kaine is not up for reelection next year. It’s no surprise none of the Democrats siding with the Trump Republicans are up for reelection next year. As Yogi Berra would say, some things are too coincidental to be a coincidence.

    (more…)

  • San Francisco on the James

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A look at some of the far-left laws Virginia Democrats will enact in 2026 now that they have full control of the General Assembly and governor’s mansion.

    View of the Golden Gate Bridge spanning across a body of water, with blue skies and clouds in the background.
    The Golden Gate Bridge spanning the James River. Image credit: Grok

    by Victoria Manning

    Democrats have been in control of at least one branch of Virginia state government since 2013, with complete control in 2020 and 2021. Although Republicans wielded Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s veto pen for the last four years, they were unable to enact any legislative changes to help the commonwealth. Now that Democrats have full control of all branches of government, Virginia will quickly become East California.

    Some of the most concerning actions that Democrats have already promised are two constitutional amendments that will be placed on the 2026 ballot. The first will be one of the most radical abortion laws in the nation—permitting abortion up until birth with no restrictions. The other is a redistricting effort that will allow Democrats to control nearly all congressional and legislative districts. Democrats hope to undo a 2020 constitutional amendment, supported by 66 percent of Virginians, which created a bipartisan redistricting commission.

    On the campaign trail, Democrats also promised to eradicate Virginia’s right to work laws. Mandatory union collective bargaining for the public sector, including teachers’ unions, will be quickly implemented.

    Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger promised to quickly rescind Gov. Youngkin’s executive order requiring state police cooperate with ICE. Virginia will become a sanctuary state for illegal alien criminals.

    (more…)

  • The Virginia Election: a Repudiation, But No Endorsement

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    James A. Bacon

    If the voters were upset with the way things are, it sure didn’t come with an imprimatur for stupid.

    A view of the Virginia State Capitol building featuring its iconic white columns and clean architectural lines, set against a dramatic sky.

    by Shaun Kenney

    A few key takeaways:

    • Virginia Democrats ran on affordability — and will now have to deliver.
    • Speaker Don Scott is pledging to govern with restraint; cautions against overreach.
    • Virginia Republicans turn in worst gubernatorial result since 1965.
    • Fewest number of Republicans in House of Delegates since 1988, which opens up the Virginia GOP to new leadership options in 2027.
    • Virginia Republicans will have to find a new leadership cadre repudiating the antisemitic “groyper” right — the serious infection being underreported.

    Victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan. So goes the old saw about who to blame as Virginians have been drowned in a series of self-crafted after-action reports which seek to fix blame rather than fix the problem.

    Of course, it’s not terribly hard to decipher what message Virginians were sending and to whom, and why Virginia Republicans struggled got our asses kicked failed to resonate against a national backdrop. Some lessons:

    (more…)

  • November 11

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

  • The Data Centers’ “Irreparable Harm” Sham

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Inside a modern data center featuring rows of servers, cooling systems, and illuminated cables.
    Ai-generated data center image: Grok

    by Mac Haddow

    In Prince William County, the story of the PW Digital Gateway has become a master class in legal hypocrisy. After a complete examination of the evidence, Judge Kimberly A. Irving ruled that the Board of County Supervisors’ vote approving the massive data center corridor was void ab initio because the County failed to provide the public with legally required notice, the developers cried foul. Now, before the Virginia Court of Appeals, they are wringing their hands and lamenting “irreparable harm.”

    Let’s be clear: the only irreparable harm at stake here is the damage these developers are trying to inflict on the rule of law, public trust, and the integrity of Prince William County’s zoning process.

    The Oak Valley Homeowners Association motion to the Appeals Court to reconsider their stay granted to the defendants provides a complete view of Judge Irving’s decision, and what the defendants buried in their briefs to the Appeals Court.

    (more…)

  • SNAP Recipients Can Do Their Own Eyebrows

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A close-up of a woman with closed eyes, having her eyebrows threaded by a person's hand using thin thread.
    No one on SNAP should be getting their brows, lashes or nails done. If they can afford those luxuries they can feed their own families.

    by Kerry Dougherty

    Looks like the Democrats caved. Finally.

    Or at least 9 of them came to their senses regarding the damaging government shutdown that is in its 40th day.

    They got nothing. The shutdown was for nothing. Yet it did ensure that a seething bloc of Virginia federal workers headed to the polls last Tuesday to elect the most left-wing slate in the commonwealth’s history.

    It’s no coincidence that five days after federal workers stormed the polls and sent a radical band of wokesters to Richmond, the shutdown was grinding to a halt.

    Late Sunday night the vote was taken and arms were twisted as a handful of Democrat Senators decided to reopen the federal government.

    Among them was Sen. Tim Kaine.

    Kaine claimed that he’d been “too focused” on the Virginia elections to end the shutdown earlier.

    Someone tell the senator that he isn’t paid to campaign in state elections. He’s in Washington to do a job in Congress.

    Prior to Sunday Dems said they’d support reopening the government only if Republicans would agree to keep subsidies on Obamacare premiums for one more year.

    A very clever form of extortion. Continue reading.

  • Transition Team Light on Virginia Government Experience

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Picture credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch

    Gov-elect Spanberger seems on the verge of repeating a mistake that then Gov.-elect Youngkin made four years ago — surrounding herself with advisers from her former world rather than from Virginia government and politics. 

    Youngkin, a complete neophyte in politics and Virginia government, brought in people from the investment banking world and agency heads, several from out of state. The investment banking world is totally different from Virginia government and politics. Based on reports from long-time state employees, there was a steep learning curve. Youngkin is now on his third Superintendent of Public Schools.

    Spanberger is in danger of going down the same path. Granted, she has more experience with Virginia and government than Youngkin had, but her experience has been in Congress, a whole different world. Also, she spent a year or so going around the state preparing to run for governor. That gave her some exposure to different areas of the state and to members of the General Assembly. But those efforts are not a substitute for years-long familiarity with Virginia government. Here is who she has announced as her chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, and transition team:

    Chief of staff — Bonnie Krenz-Schnurman. Background: Served as Spanberger’s chief of staff for five years in Congress and since she has been a candidate; previously, senior policy adviser at the White House Domestic Council under Obama; before that, managed a national malaria program in Tanzania for the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

    Director of transition team and deputy chief of staff — Karen Mask. Worked as field director in Spanberger’s Congressional campaigns. Before that, was a senior policy analyst at the Virginia Dept. of Health and a special projects coordinator with the Virginia Dept. of Education.

    (more…)

  • Jeanine’s Memes

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    James A. Bacon

    A group of individuals near barbed wire fencing, with a text overlay questioning why people do not flee from capitalism to socialism.

    See more memes at The Bull Elephant.

  • Now the Hard Part Begins

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    by Dick Hall-Sizemore

    Overlooked in all the news around the election was some sobering budget news for the next governor.

    As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Virginia Dept. of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) has forecast that Virginia’s Medicaid costs will increase by $3.2 billion over the next three years. That increase consists of an additional $410 million in the current fiscal year and $2.8 billion in the next two-year budget that Governor Youngkin will present next month.

    In addition to the big increase in Medicaid costs, the state is projecting an increase of $964 million needed to support local K-12 education programs. This is the biennial “re-benchmarking” that takes place, which projects what it will cost to continue existing programs at their current levels.

    In addition to the additional $3.8 billion that will be needed for the next biennial budget right from the beginning will be the costs and revenue reductions stemming from Trump’s spending and taxing legislation passed this year. Based on past experience, it is safe to say that the analysts in the Dept. of Planning and Budget are working overtime these days to develop the two budget bills, the “caboose” for the current fiscal year and the “big budget bill” for the 2006-2008 biennium, that Youngkin must present to the General Assembly by December 20.

    (more…)

  • Pragmatic or Partisan?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Will Abigail Spanberger fight for DEI or for intellectual diversity in her dealings with UVA?

    The Rotunda at the University of Virginia, featuring classical architecture with a domed roof and columns, surrounded by green grass and trees under a blue sky.

    by Joel Gardner

    Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger states that she wants to have an administration that reflects pragmatism rather than partisanship. But her Democrat colleagues in the state senate have already exhibited a degree of partisanship vis-à-vis the University of Virginia and other state universities unparalleled in the history of the Commonwealth.

    A standing committee of the state senate has rejected the last five appointees to the UVA Board of Visitors solely because they were chosen by a Republican governor. While the ability of a committee to act on behalf of the entire General Assembly is now in front of the Virginia Supreme Court, it really doesn’t matter because the Democrat leadership of the state senate has stated that they will flat out reject any appointee made by Governor Youngkin.

    By contrast, for decades when Republicans held either one or both houses of the General Assembly they never once rejected a Democrat governor’s choice for the UVA Board.

    Under the past two Democrat governors, UVA had become a highly politicized institution. This was done under the rubric of so called “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” which as Anthony Kronman, the former Dean of the Yale Law School, has said is “a political campaign masquerading as an educational ideal.”

    (more…)

  • Bacon Meme of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    A humorous image of a character resembling a small, green alien with large ears, eyes closed and a pleased expression, with the text 'SMELL BACON, I DO' overlayed.

  • Virginia’s Worst Nursing Home Chains – Part Six – A Picture of Deceit

    Posted on

    by

    sherlockj

    Virginia’s Worst Nursing Home Chains – Part Six – A Picture of Deceit

    by James C. Sherlock

    “This nursing home information is confusing, mindbending, and scary.  Please draw us a picture to clarify.” Well, readers are right. It is all three of those things. It is meant to be so by some people in the system.

    Virginia has some excellent nursing homes and chains, but those are not the subject of this article.  

    I offer below a chart of a fictional 12-facility chain whose structure permits bad things to happen, often by design. It shows a commercial real estate structure on which some nursing home chains are modeled. Indeed, many of them have been founded by people with their roots in real estate, partnered with others licensed as nursing home administrators and with an accountant. The structure was designed by the real estate industry to generate fees and to protect assets in court.  

    It is used by the worst of nursing home chain owners to bleed money from the operating companies, leaving little for staffing, building repairs, and other necessities. Annual profits have been seen to exceed 20%. That beats anything else in real estate.

    First, the big picture, and then the explanation.

    (more…)

  • Will Virginia Become a One-Party State?

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Image credit: Grok

    by Paul Goldman

    Virginia GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin is vowing to finish “strong.” With all due respect, it might have been better if he had started “strong.” His party just suffered its worse defeat in Virginia’s two-party era. If that’s finishing strong, I’d like to know what he thinks finishing weak looks like. 

    Fact: No Republican connected to Trump’s MAGA has ever or will ever be elected Governor of Virginia. Or U.S. Senator. I wrote months ago on these pages — in my column saying John Reid won the short straw not primary gold — that the historical numbers pointed to Spanberger likely breaking the all-time percentage record for any Dem gubernatorial in the two-party era. I also thought a ticket sweep seemed likely based on my analysis of historical voting statistics. 

    Next prediction: Will the Virginia Democratic Party try to wipe out the Virginia Republican Party if the super partisan redistricting amendment is approved by the voters this spring? My answer: 100% for sure. The path to such destruction is foreseeable. 

    (more…)

  • Trump Lost the Virginia Elections for Republicans

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    by Hans Bader

    The GOP was crushed in the recent Virginia elections because Donald Trump is terribly unpopular in Virginia. Before Trump was president, the GOP easily controlled the Virginia state legislature, and held 66 of the 100 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. After Tuesday’s election, it will hold only 34 seats in the House and control neither house of the state legislature.

    Former Richmond mayor Levar Stoney pointed this out:

    A tweet by Levar Stoney discussing the impact of Donald Trump on the Republican Party's performance in Virginia elections, listing election results from 2017 to 2025.

    Trump fans claimed the GOP lost Tuesday’s election because Virginia is a staunchly Democratic state. But it has long been a purple state where Republicans used to control the legislature handily, because suburban voters leaned Republican. Now, the suburbanites in Virginia heavily lean Democratic, and every single legislator representing northern Virginia is a Democrat.

    Virginia isn’t a deep blue state by nature. It is only Trump who makes it so.

    (more…)

  • Almost as Good as It Gets

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Democrats run the table — and then some

    by David J. Toscano

    A campaign bus engulfed in flames on the side of the road, with a visible image of a candidate on its side.

    In the classic film, Network, Howard Beale delivered one of the most remembered lines in movie history: “I’m mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore”. Many voters, from Virginia to California and Maine to Georgia, seemed to feel that way. Frustrated by chaos, corruption, and exhaustion, they turned out in record numbers to deliver sweeping victories for Democrats, winning most every significant contest on the ballot.

    Virginia, Virginia, Virginia, Virginia

    Virginia has again shown itself as a bellwether of change. Abigail Spanberger won by the largest margin since Bob McDonnell’s 2009 victory, as Democrats swept all statewide races in an election with turnout higher than four years ago — a clear sign of Democratic energy.

    Less noticed but equally consequential were Democrats’ massive gains in the House of Delegates, where they flipped 13 seats and will hold a 64–36 margin come January. Speaker of House Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, arguably now the most powerful man in the state and the primary architect of the romp, exclaimed that this “is what a mandate looks like,” while cautioning that “the word of the day is restraint. We can’t overreach.”

    Republicans, meanwhile, imploded. Neither Trump nor mainstream conservatives ever embraced Winsome-Sears, whose campaign was derided by a Trump ally as a “dumpster fire” — a label made literal when her campaign bus caught fire on the roadside. Late GOP money shifted to Jason Miyares, but even that could not save him. Trump supporters unloaded after her loss. Chris LaCivita, longtime Virginia GOP strategist and Trump’s 2024 campaign manager, wrote: “A Bad candidate and Bad campaign have consequences — the Virginia Governor’s race is example number 1.”

    (more…)

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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