Category Archives: Elections

Follow-up on Sen. Hashmi

Posted on December 2, 2023 by | 97 comments

Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield)
Photo credit: VPM

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Kerry Doughtery has evinced a certain amount of outrage on this blog about state Sen. Ghazala Hashni (D-Chesterfield) not living in the district in which she ran and won re-election. (See here and here.)

The recent redistricting had placed Sen. Hashmi’s long-time residence just outside the district which she represented. In order to be able to run in her old district, the senator rented an apartment in that district and listed it as her primary residence. A group of residents filed a petition with the court claiming that she had not abandoned her longtime residence in which her husband still lived. They monitored the movement of the family’s vehicles and claimed that Hashmi still spent time there.

A retired judge has ruled that the evidence showed that Sen. Hashmi had established a domicile at the apartment and thus met the requirements of the law and had not falsified her residency in papers she filed with the Board of Elections. In her testimony, Hashmi said that she had moved furniture and personal effects to the apartment, established an office there, and changed her voting registration and driver’s license to reflect her new address. She did not deny spending some nights at her former home, partly to help care for her husband, who was dealing with a medical issue. She said that she and her husband plan to buy a home in the new district.

My Soapbox

The actions taken by Sen. Hashmi to deal with being redistricted out of her legislative district are not unusual; other legislators have resorted to similar moves in the past. They may not seem right, but they are not illegal. It is amazing that legislators will go to the hassle and expense of renting apartments and then moving, and perhaps uprooting their families, just to remain in the General Assembly.

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Posted in Elections, General Assembly, Politics

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Open House Races in NoVa Already Crowded

Posted on December 1, 2023 by | 3 comments

by Jeanine Martin

Here are the candidates so far in the 2024 election for open seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 7th District, currently held by Democrat Abigail Spanberger, and in the 10th District, currently held by Democrat Jennifer Wexton:

Virginia’s 10th district

Del. Michelle Maldonado (D-Manassas) is the latest to announce her candidacy in the crowded Democrat field competing for the nomination for Congress in the 10th district.

Other Democrats running in the 10th are:

Eileen Filler Corn (D-Fairfax), former Speaker of the House of Delegates. (She does not reside in the 10th district but that is not necessary to run for Congress.)

State Sen. Jennifer Boysko (D-Fairfax)

Del. Suhas Subramanyam (D-parts of Loudoun and Prince William). He was elected to the state Senate earlier this month.

Del. Dan Helmer (D-part of Loudoun and Prince William)

Del. David Reid (D-Loudoun)

Atif Qarni, former Secretary of Education under Ralph Northam. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections, Politics

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How Youngkin Can Avoid Lame Duck Status

Posted on November 30, 2023 by | 33 comments

by Scott Lingamfelter

Elections produce clarity. One thing is noticeably clear after Republicans failed to achieve majorities in both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly. For the next two years, the prospects for Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s legislative agenda are bleak.

That’s the bad news.

Here is the good news: it doesn’t have to be that way.

The inclination of those defeated in elections is to engage in “blamestorming,” seeking to find fault with this or that election strategy. We’re seeing that now as some Republican legislators grouse about the governor’s decision to emphasize abortion restrictions that played badly in some swing districts. That messaging debate should occur. But it’s imperative that the governor and the GOP in Virginia do some serious brainstorming on how to win back the hearts and minds of voters. Serious-minded governance can do that. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections, Excellence and grace, General Assembly, Governance, Politics

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Most ‘Diverse’ General Assembly in Virginia History Takes Over in January

Posted on November 28, 2023 by | 46 comments

by Ken Reid

The new post-redistricting Virginia General Assembly that will take control in January, probably with a Democrat majority, will be the most ethnically, racially and religiously diverse group of legislators in Richmond in history, and about ¼ will be female.

In addition, some 52 of the 140 members of the General Assembly will be totally new to the State Capitol – most never having served in any elected office before.

This make-up is largely due to the huge number of retirements from the last GA, which was primarily forced by bipartisan redistricting in 2021, where a number of incumbents were placed in the same district and chose not to run against each other for re-election.  

Whites will be the minority in the  Democrat Caucus in each house, which also could be a first.  The House of Delegates as a whole will be 67% white,  down from 78% after the 2017 “Blue wave” elections,  when Republicans maintained control by a coin toss – and that’s because the overwhelming number of Republicans are white.

In the State Senate, 30 of the 40 senators will be white in 2024, largely due to the Republican presence.

This analysis, based on examining the biographies of the new GA members on Ballotpedia, shows the following breakdown, though one race (the 82nd house race between incumbent Republican Kim Taylor and Democrat challenger Kim Adams) is headed to a recount with Taylor ahead by 78 votes   Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections, Electoral process, Uncategorized

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The Problem with Local Elections

Posted on November 28, 2023 by | 17 comments

by Joe Fitzgerald

I once told a candidate for Harrisonburg City Council that ten thousand people would show up to vote and more than half would never have heard of him. Referring to the expense and effort of campaigning, he asked, “Why the Hell am I doing this then?”

The answer might be to give the voters a fighting chance. City Council actions affect day-to-day lives more than decisions made in Richmond or D.C., but the elections themselves are, if not hidden, at least subsumed into races that get more attention.

State and federal Democratic campaigns in one three-year period, 2012-14, hired at least eight people full-time and paid 30-plus months of office rental. Even allowing for the relatively low pay (and brutally long hours) for campaign organizers, that’s somewhere north of $200,000 over that period, just on one side of the political aisle. The Republican side would be close to the same. That rough guess of $400K over three years doesn’t include state senate and delegate races at a quarter million a pop for strongly-contested races.

City Council races bring in and spend much less money and are harder to analyze. For instance, one council candidate had the Planning Commission chair design a website for him and claimed it was a $4,000 donation. The astonishing thing about campaign finance in Virginia is how much is actually legal, not just in what is raised but in how it’s reported. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections, Electoral process

Charlottesville, Its Public Schools and UVa – Part One – Bad things Happen

Posted on November 27, 2023 by | 94 comments

Charlottesville neighborhoods.  Courtesy Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition

by James C. Sherlock

In the relationship between Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, very bad things have happened to Charlottesville and continue to do so.

I have developed a working thesis on that relationship.

The city is at the mercy of the University by virtue of the latter’s wealth, influence, and power in Charlottesville elections.

It is, driven by University community voters, the bluest voting district in the Commonwealth.

Unfailingly progressive Charlottesville city council, school board and Commonwealth’s Attorney candidates are elected by the dominant votes of the University, its employees and its students.

Charlottesville City Schools (CCS) are to a large degree creatures of the University.

Many CCS teachers have their bachelors and/or advanced degrees from UVa’s School of Education and Human Development. Many University ed school students do their student teaching in Charlottesville.

Every progressive educational policy and virtually every experiment the University’s ed school can dream up are visited on those students.  The University’s ed school Research Centers and Labs find the proximity convenient and a pliant school board welcoming.

The University can’t bear to leave anything in CCS alone.

As Charlottesville High School faces the aftermath of rising rates of violence at the school and three canceled days of school due to alack of personnel, teachers at the University and other community groups have assisted in the school’s response. Faculty from the University’s School of Education and Human Development were present at development sessions with Charlottesville High School teachers aiming to address underlying issues….

“Dr. Stephanie Rowley, dean of the University’s Education School, said faculty from Education’s counselor education and educational psychology programs were particularly involved with the efforts because of the relevance of their expertise.”

There is no record of their being invited.

“Lack of personnel”.  The teachers walked out because of runaway violence.

The University “lent a hand”.

“In light of the University’s recent push to bolster its impact in Charlottesville, some members of the University who specialize in education attended the teacher work day meetings at Charlottesville High School.”

Seriously.  To “bolster (the University’s) impact in Charlottesville”.

For Black children in CCS schools, that influence, long-running and well-meaning though it has been, has turned out to have been a disaster unparalleled in the Commonwealth.

Continue reading →

94 Comments

Posted in Attendance, Children and families, Civil Rights, Culture wars, DEI, Demographics, Discipline and disorder, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Elections, Governance, Housing, Race and race relations, teacher education

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“Parental Rights” Movement Fading?

Posted on November 19, 2023 by | 97 comments

Loudoun County School Board meeting, 2021 Photo credit: What’s Trending

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

When Glenn Youngkin was elected Governor in 2021, largely on a platform of “parental rights” in schools, a national movement seemed to have been born.  In Virginia, and elsewhere, school board meetings were packed with fervent citizens shouting at the board members and at each other about banning books in school libraries and classrooms, LGBTQ policies, and other issues.  Law enforcement had to be called in to keep order.

With the last election, that movement seems to have lost momentum.  Nationally, Democrats won school board elections in many key districts and candidates backed by progressive groups did well.  Moms for Liberty, one of the leading “parental rights” groups, lost some of the ground it had won two years earlier.  The group pushed back against claims that voters were rejecting its platform, saying that 40 percent of the candidates it had endorsed won, although that hardly seems like a case that its agenda is winning.  Furthermore, it quickly took down its list of endorsed candidates from its website, thereby making it impossible to verify even this claim. Continue reading →

97 Comments

Posted in Culture wars, Education (K-12), Elections, Politics

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Republican Problems in Virginia

Posted on November 17, 2023 by | 80 comments

by Shaun Kenney

There was an angrier version of this analysis I had prepared. One that placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of those who would have reaped the rewards had Tuesday gone differently.

I’m not going to do that.

… because there’s a bigger problem in front of us.

Virginia Democrats have a lot more strength than Virginia Republicans care to consider, and it will take all of us — all of us — and not just some of us to put up a resistance in 2024 and 2025.

I don’t know what it will require to fix it. Yet I think many Republicans are tired of being used for temporary gain only to watch the Democrats run circles around us as they invest in the necessary ecosystem — activists, news outlets, think tanks, polling firms — to capture hearts and minds. Republicans are a consultancy-driven party; Democrats are built around coalitions. With differing definitions of success and reward, victory comes much more cheaply for Republicans than for Democrats.

When it comes, that is.

The Democrats can point back to 20 years of progress. Can we name a single Republican victory in Virginia on a policy issue of note over the last 20 years? That we were proud to run on and champion in front of voters? Continue reading →

80 Comments

Posted in Elections, Politics

It’s Not Trump; Our Coalitions Matter

Posted on November 16, 2023 by | 24 comments

by Shaun Kenney

Stop me if you’ve seen this one before.

Virginia Republicans either get absolutely shellacked in an election, or the margins are super close and we either lose — in which case, the Western Experiment is over and America should pack it in — or we miraculously win and have set the new conservative standard for the next 20 years with Virginia in the vanguard.

We do this to ourselves every year, folks.

Hope everyone loves their non-partisan (sic) redistricting courtesy of the State of California. Fact of the matter is that Virginia Democrats outspent Republicans by $7.5 million and nearly lost the whole thing.

Now with one seat margins, they will have to work with three statewide Republicans without any clear mandate other than a strong desire from the electorate to quit being crazy and start applying common sense. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections, General Assembly, Politics

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Legacy Media Play Catch-Up in Hashmi Case

Posted on November 15, 2023 by | 33 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Just as I predicted: The corporate media could no longer ignore the election controversy brewing in Virginia’s bright blue 15th Senate District and were finally forced to cover the uncomfortable topic of election “irregularities”.

The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak – the best reporter in Virginia – broke the story last weekend. The Richmond Times-Dispatch followed up on Tuesday.

That Senate race was won in a landslide last week by Ghazala Hashmi, a Democrat. Trouble is, it appears she actually lives in the 12th District – a GOP stronghold – and rented an apartment in the Democrat-friendly 15th to have an address there.

If that’s what happened, Hashmi wouldn’t be the first candidate to rent a little pied-a-terre to use occasionally and claim as a dwelling place to meet residency requirements. This sort of chicanery has happened before.

Of course it deprives citizens of having a representative who actually lives in their district, but no one cares about the peons. It’s all about winning.

But on her official forms – which Hashmi signed – she did not declare the home she’s owned in Midlothian since 1999. The form said a primary residence didn’t have to be declared.

So which is it, Senator? Is the Midlothian house your residence or do you actually live in the apartment you rented? Continue reading →

33 Comments

Posted in Elections, ethics, General Assembly, Politics

Spanberger’s Low-Energy Launch

Posted on November 14, 2023 by | 37 comments

by Shaun Kenney

Long rumored and much anticipated, Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) announced her intention to run for Virginia governor in 2025 just weeks after Republicans led by Governor Glenn Youngkin fell short of re-capturing leadership of the General Assembly.

Spanberger’s announcement — being panned as “low energy” by most observers — came just days after Virginia Republicans fell a few thousand votes short of capturing the Virginia State Senate and gaining parity in the House of Delegates — with just one vote dividing both chambers:

“The greatest honor of my life has been to represent Virginians in the U.S. House. Today, I am proud to announce that I will be working hard to gain the support and trust of all Virginians to continue this service as the next Governor of Virginia,” said Spanberger. “Virginia is where I grew up, where I am raising my own family, and where I intend to build a stronger future for the next generation of Virginians. As a former CIA case officer, former federal law enforcement officer, and current Member of Congress, I have always believed in the value of public service. I look forward to serving the Seventh District through the end of this term and then pursuing the important work of bringing Virginia together to keep our Commonwealth strong.

Meanwhile, all eyes turn towards Richmond as Mayor Levar Stoney — former chief of staff to Governor Terry McAuliffe — is anticipated to launch his own run for the Governor’s Mansion in 2025. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections

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An After-Action Review of the ’23 Election

Posted on November 13, 2023 by | 62 comments

by Scott Lingamfelter

Years ago, when I was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, we would conduct force-on-force training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. It’s a vast complex in a high desert environment where training was quite realistic. We would conduct maneuvers against what was termed “the world-class OPFOR” or opposition forces, who mimicked Soviet war doctrine while we used the new “AirLand Battle” tactics to defeat them.

In many cases units who fought the OPFOR came up short, not due to our doctrine, but due to our execution of it. That’s the point: you can have the best plan in the world, and if it is poorly executed, you lose.

After each operation, we would gather with the observer controllers (OC) to evaluate our performance. It was brutally honest. Why? Because in combat, people die and that is a brutal reality. So, you train hard to win and bring your team home. That means you take inventory of your mistakes to get better the next time you execute the mission. And when you do, you focus on what occurred on the desert floor during the battle; you don’t critique the personalities of the players.

But even when focused on the raw facts of the performance, the After Action Reviews (AAR) were sometime tough to swallow. Fortunately, we had a legendary OC who made things a bit easier to digest by beginning each AAR by saying of our results, “It ain’t good, it ain’t bad, it’s just what happened.” So, let’s begin taking inventory of a recent battle for the legislature in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Republicans had a very disappointing Election Day 2023, especially at the state level. It was an important battle for the GOP to secure majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly so that our Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin could advance an agenda he felt was best for the Commonwealth. We failed. And just as we did at the NTC, let’s set personalities aside. Playing the “blame game” doesn’t produce future victories. But addressing performance honestly can help produce future victories. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections, General Assembly

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Anyone Know Where Sen. Ghazala Hashmi Lives?

Posted on November 13, 2023 by | 27 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

mmm. Looks like things just got interesting — instead of merely horrifying — in last Tuesday’s election.

If Luke Rosiak of The Daily Wire is correct, one Democrat member of the Virginia State Senate may be fighting to stay out of jail rather than taking her seat in the Capitol come January.

In a story headlined “Virginia Dems Could Lose Control of State Senate Because One Of Its Members May Have Lied About Her Residence,” Rosiak claims that Ghazala Hashmi may not live in the 15th Senate District, rendering her ineligible to occupy the seat she won just last week.

Worse, Rosiak reports that Hashmi may have lied on the Certificate of Candidacy Qualifications that she signed last March. In it, she claimed to live in an apartment in Chesterfield while she may have been living in the $600,000 home in Midlothian where she has resided for decades. If these accusations are true, Hashmi could be facing a maximum fine of $2,500, up to 10 years in prison and she could lose the right to vote.

Rosiak reports that, before redistricting, Hashmi’s Midlothian home was in District 10. She represented that district when she was elected in 2020. When the boundaries moved, however, Hashmi found herself living in District 12. Oddly enough, instead of running for that seat, Hashmi entered the race for District 15 and listed an apartment there as her dwelling place.

As it happens, District 12, where Hashmi reportedly DOES live, is a GOP stronghold, which was won by Republican Glen Sturtevant, who garnered 54% of the vote. Continue reading →

27 Comments

Posted in Elections, ethics, General Assembly, Politics

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A Red Wave in Roanoke County

Posted on November 10, 2023 by | 41 comments

by Scott Dreyer

In contrast to some big Democrat wins in the eastern part of the state giving them control of both houses of the General Assembly, the Roanoke and NRV experienced a regional red wave in the November 7 elections.

Of particular significance, the GOP won both of the most competitive, high-stakes races in our area for General Assembly seats.

Sen. David Suetterlein (R)
(photo/Tennesseestar.com)

In the highest-profile race, Sen. David Suetterlein defeated Roanoke City Councilwoman Trish White-Boyd for the newly-created Senate District 4. Some have erroneously claimed this race was for “retiring Sen. John Edwards’ seat.” Actually, however, the grossly-gerrymandered district Edwards long represented–nicknamed “The Johnnymander”— was dissolved in recent redistricting. That old district lumped Democrat-heavy Roanoke City with the Virginia Tech area, so that both it and the surrounding GOP-heavy rural areas surrounding it were not competitive seats.

The new District 4, however, has the advantage of including most of the Roanoke Valley as a “community of interest.” It covers all of Roanoke City, Salem, and parts of Roanoke and Montgomery Counties. As can be seen in this district map, White-Boyd racked up wide margins in the City and narrow margins in two Montgomery County precincts just east of Blacksburg. However, she lost everywhere else in Montgomery County, Roanoke County, and Salem. Suetterlein carried seven precincts in Roanoke City: Preston Park, East Gate, Hollins Road, Southeast, Garden City, South Roanoke, and Deyerle. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections

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It Wasn’t About Youngkin

Posted on November 9, 2023 by | 27 comments

by Joe Fitzgerald

Deep in the hills of Southwest Virginia is a state Senate district where nobody works because the coal industry is increasingly mechanized. The district has all or part of eight counties. In Northern Virginia is a county where nobody works because they’re all employed by the federal government. The county includes all or part of eight state Senate districts.

Every four years, national political  writers combine this into a cohesive entity called Virginia and use it as a bellwether for the presidential election that follows the state Senate election by one year, every single time. The state’s economics and politics are shaped by, among other things, the coal industry and the federal government (see above). The state’s boundaries are shaped by rivers, a bay, a mountain range, and a southern line that’s straight except for a zig-zag south of Abingdon caused by a drunken surveyor.

Most of the national political writers don’t know that our districts were drawn by the courts, our counties and cities are separate entities, and our precincts are drawn by processes that vary by district, county, and city. And every four years, regular as clockwork, they write about how the General Assembly races will impact the ambitions of George Allen, Jim Gilmore, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Bob McDonnell, Terry McAuliffe, or Glenn Youngkin for president, vice president, or U.S. senator. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections, Media, Politics

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