Category Archives: Elections

Democratic General Assembly Would Be Much Softer on Crime

Posted on November 1, 2023 by | 10 comments

from Liberty Unyielding 

Democrats are slightly favored to win control of Virginia’s legislature in this year’s election, although the election will be very close. If they take over, the legislature will become much softer on crime than it is now, because incoming Democratic leaders are more left-wing than their mainstream liberal predecessors. For example, if Democrats win control of the House of Delegates, the speaker of the House will be Democratic leader Don Scott, a convicted felon, not his mainstream liberal predecessor, Eileen Filler-Corn.

Back in 2020, Don Scott proposed radical legislation that would release dangerous criminals from prison, even if prison and parole officials had proof of their continuing danger to society. It failed to pass back then, because Scott was a junior legislator, and Democrats were more mainstream liberal, and less left-wing, than they are now. The only moderate Democrats in the Virginia legislature are either retiring — such as state Senator Lynwood Lewis — or were defeated in the Spring 2023 Democratic primary. Some mainstream liberals are also leaving the legislature. George Barker was defeated in a primary by a candidate to his left, and Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw is retiring.

Scott’s legislation in 2020 was very bad, and at odds with public safety. If he becomes House Speaker, he might be able to use his power to get his fellow Democrats to pass it. Then, he could hold Republican Governor Youngkin’s priorities hostage unless Youngkin allows such legislation to become law. For example, Scott could get Democrats to block the governor’s appointments. The Virginia Senate only approved Governor Youngkin’s appointment of Bert Ellis to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors because the Senate’s two moderate Democrats voted along with Republicans to confirm him. Both of those Democrats are leaving the legislature after this year. The House of Delegates can also block appointments to many posts in Virginia. Continue reading →

10 Comments

Posted in Courts and law, Crime, Corrections and Law Enforcement, Elections, General Assembly

Tagged

Musings on Virginia Politics

Posted on October 31, 2023 by | 9 comments

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Southwest Virginia elections—The folks in the Mt. Rogers region take their politics seriously. Along all those mountain roads are numerous assemblages of campaign signs like the one shown above, although this is small in comparison to some. (You gotta love a candidate nicknamed “Stingy”!) Because the General Assembly seats are, for the most part, uncontested, the action is with the campaigns for local offices.

Bellwether—The national columnist, E.J. Dionne, Jr., has picked up on David Toscano’s theme of Virginia being a bellwether state. In a recent column, he argues that both parties in Virginia are resorting to the familiar tactic of getting their voters to the polls by “scaring the daylights out of them.”

The Democrats are warning ominously that Republicans, “MAGA extremists,” if they take over both houses of the legislature, will abolish abortion. For their part, Republicans are declaring that Democrats want to defund the police and let criminals “walk easy.” As Joshua Cole, a Democrat running for a House seat in the Fredericksburg area told Dionne, “It’s either abortion or it’s crime.”

Dionne concludes, “Both parties will be intensely watching Virginia for clues about 2024’s political atmosphere…. The upshot: huge sums of money dropped on a few places are turning Virginia into a laboratory where competing theories about what moves voters are being tested.”

Local elections are the most fun–Speaking of local elections, Dwight Yancey of Cardinal News has a fascinating summary of local elections around the state, albeit mostly in the western part.  It includes a description of three indicted Republican candidates on the ballots.

9 Comments

Posted in Elections, Politics

Tagged

List of Wrongly Purged Voter Registrations Gets Larger

Posted on October 30, 2023 by | 76 comments

Susan Beals, Commissioner,
Va. Dept. of Elections

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Remember my earlier report on the Youngkin administration cancelling the registrations of voters eligible to vote? These were felons whose voting rights had been restored who had committed a parole violation, which shows up as a felony in the State Police’s official crime database.

In mid-October, the state Department of Elections reported that there are only about 275 individuals affected. Now, it is up to 3,400.

When VPM, Richmond’s public radio station, first reported the errors, the administration was dismissive of the reports. Later, it minimized the extent of the problem. Now, it is trying to shift the blame. Jeff Goettman, the Governor’s chief of staff, says the administration suspects the errors “are the result of antiquated data systems and insufficient processes maintained over the last 20 plus years.” Anyone who has worked with data knows that, when one grabs a bunch of data that was compiled for one purpose and uses it for an entirely different purpose, one needs to be especially careful and needs to be thoroughly familiar with the dataset that is being relied upon. Anyone except, apparently, the folks at the Department of Elections.

To cover himself, the Governor has ordered the Office of the Inspector General to investigate the “circumstances, data systems, and practices” surrounding this event and, as a counter measure, to prepare a separate report examining whether thousands of residents had been left on the registration rolls despite having been convicted of a new felony.

76 Comments

Posted in Elections, Electoral process, Governance

Tagged

The Californication of Virginia

Posted on October 30, 2023 by | 143 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Does anyone really think fewer gas mowers will make a difference?

More importantly, is it the role of government to tell citizens what they must use to trim their fescue?

Of course it isn’t.

Why should we in Virginia care? Because we’re just one car back on California’s crazy train.

During the disastrous Ralph Northam era, when both chambers of the General Assembly were controlled by Virginia’s far-left Democrats, the Old Dominion linked its automotive climate policies to California’s.

Unless sanity is restored in the November elections and the Senate flips to the GOP, gas-powered cars will no longer be sold in Virginia after 2035. Continue reading →

143 Comments

Posted in Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Elections, Energy, Environment, General Assembly, Politics

Tagged

Electric Vehicles May Be Worse for the Environment than Gasoline-Powered Ones

Posted on October 30, 2023 by | 39 comments

by Hans Bader

Electric vehicles require enormous damage to the environment just to produce their batteries — 250 tons of mining is required for a single battery, according to Real Clear Energy. Switching to electric cars would require a radical expansion of mining across the world, and the minerals for the car batteries will be refined mainly using the coal-powered electric grid of China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Yet states are starting to mandate electric vehicles. Nine states, including California, have now decided to ban gasoline-powered cars by 2035, requiring that all cars sold be electric instead. In 2021, Virginia’s Democratic-controlled legislature passed a law adopting California standards for Virginia vehicles, so Virginia also will ban gasoline-powered cars in 2035, unless that law is repealed, as Republicans seek to do (the Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates voted to repeal the ban on gas-powered cars in 2023, but the Democratic-controlled Virginia state Senate kept the ban in place). Continue reading →

39 Comments

Posted in Elections, Energy, Environment, General Assembly, Virginia Law

Tagged

Resorts Like Airports

Posted on October 29, 2023 by | 1 comment

by Jon Baliles

There has been a lot of boasting from the casino advocates about their partnership with Kentucky-based Churchill Downs, Inc. (CDI). The rebranded Richmond Grand casino developer Urban One is a radio and TV conglomerate that has said they are partnering with CDI because of their huge capitalization and experience with casinos. But let’s take a look at Churchill Downs’ casino portfolio, because it’s not what the casino advocates have been claiming.

CDI is obviously world-famous for the running of the Kentucky Derby horse race, and they have expanded their portfolio to include more and more gaming facilities in recent years. CDI bought out Peninsula Pacific Entertainment (PPE) in a $2.75 billion deal in 2022, and PPE had been Urban One’s original partner in the first, failed casino referendum. The deal included the Colonial Downs Racetrack in New Kent, as well as six Rosie’s Gaming Emporium historical horse racing facilities across Virginia plus two smaller casinos, one in Iowa and one in New York. But among the eleven casinos in the CDI portfolio, none are anywhere near the scale what they promise for Richmond. And none of those eleven casinos resemble anything grand — except for the indisputable fact that the house always wins, even if the resort looks more like an airport.

The Richmond Grand advocates claim their casino will have a 250-room hotel, an entertainment/concert venue with 3,000 seats, a TV and film production soundstage, and 15 restaurants and “dining options.” But if you look at their other casinos, they are all small casinos in small markets and are not even close to the “resort” they claim to be bringing to Richmond. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Posted in Business and Economy, Economic development, Elections, Gambling

Tagged

Voters Will Decide Virginia’s Future Direction

Posted on October 25, 2023 by | 58 comments

by Derrick Max

In two weeks, the people of Virginia will decide on two competing visions for the future of Virginia. Will they elect a General Assembly favoring Governor Glenn Youngkin’s more freedom-oriented policy vision, or will they elect a General Assembly returning the Commonwealth to the statist policy vision of former governors Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam?

While much of the current debate in the Commonwealth has focused almost solely on abortion, the number of issues “on the ballot” in this election is much broader and ought to be more closely considered by voters. If readers want a deeper dive into these issues, links to the Thomas Jefferson Institute’s work in these areas are included.

Surpluses are on the ballot in Virginia.

Earlier this year, faced with an historic $5.1 billion surplus, Governor Youngkin and Democrats in the Virginia Senate reached a deal to cut $1.05 billion in taxes and allocate $3.7 billion in new, one-time spending. This $3 in new spending for every $1 in tax cuts is backward.

Budget officials in Virginia just reported that in the first quarter of this fiscal year, surpluses are continuing to be amassed in Richmond. Coupled with the official projections for spending and revenue for the next few years, the next General Assembly will almost certainly be faced with large cash surpluses. Continue reading →

58 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12), Elections, Energy, Government Finance, Taxes

Tagged ,

The High Stakes in Virginia’s Very Close Nov. 7 Election

Posted on October 21, 2023 by | 33 comments

from Liberty Unyielding

Virginia is holding a very close election. The last day to vote is on Tuesday, November 7. If you live in Virginia, you can also vote early, at specified locations, on Monday through Friday, from September 22 to November 3, or on Saturday, October 28 or November 4.

Voters are almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. A recent Washington Post poll shows that 47% of likely voters prefer the Democrats, while 45% of likely voters prefer the Republicans.

Republicans and Democrats are tied on the generic ballot, according to recent polls for Cygnal and Yahoo News.

A Founder’s Insight poll shows 45% of Virginia voters plan to vote for the Democrats, and 44% plan to vote for Republicans. A poll by Coefficient shows 41% Virginians plan to vote for the Democrats, while 40% plan to vote for the Republicans.

Control of Virginia’s legislature could be decided by a single vote, like yours if you live in Virginia. In 2017, the pivotal legislative race in Virginia was decided by a coin toss to break a tie, after two candidates got the same number of votes in Virginia’s 94th district. The Republican candidate won that coin toss. His win in that race gave Republicans control of the House of Delegates by a narrow 51-to-49 margin.

The election results may determine whether Virginia cuts taxes or instead raises government spending at a rapid clip. Virginia has a Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, but the legislature is split between a Democratic-controlled state Senate and a Republican-controlled House of Delegates. The Democratic-controlled Senate has blocked most of the governor’s proposed tax cuts, but it did grudgingly agree to repeal most of the state sales tax on groceries, reducing it from 2.5% to 1%.  Governor Youngkin and Republicans would like to fully eliminatethe grocery tax, while Democrats want to keep the tax so they can spend more taxpayer money. Continue reading →

33 Comments

Posted in Elections, Energy, General Assembly, Politics, Taxes

Tagged

Loudoun Dems Reject Former House Speaker’s Donation

Posted on October 20, 2023 by | 17 comments

Eileen Filler-Corn

from The Republican Standard 

Democrats in Loudoun have rejected the donation of one of their declared 2024 Congressional candidates.

In a move that raised eyebrows, the Loudoun County Democratic Committee (LCDC) Officers hastily decided to donate $1,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross for their Israel/Gaza Relief Fund, following the receipt of a $1,000 contribution from Eileen Filler-Corn’s PAC, “Energize For Change,” just last week. Continue reading →

17 Comments

Posted in Elections, Money in politics, Politics

Tagged

State Elections This Fall: What to Watch

Posted on October 20, 2023 by | 3 comments

by David J. Toscano

(This column was first published in Fights of Our Lives!)

Halloween is right around the corner and many Americans are considering whether skeletons and hobgoglins should adorn their homes and how their children will dress for this spookiest of holidays. But other scary events are also upon us, in the form of critical elections in several states on November 7.   While this is neither a presidential nor a midterm election, the results will nonetheless reverberate across the nation.

Statewide elections are now underway in Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, New Jersey, and, most importantly, in Virginia.  Key ballot initiatives are before voters in Ohio and Maine, and several contests for state Supreme Court Judgeships are up for grabs. Reproductive rights figure to play a key role, and could make a difference in Virginia, where Republicans are aiming to flip the State Senate and have declared their intentions to institute a 15-week ban on the procedure if they do.

The fall’s election will likely provide more evidence of the increasing nationalization of state politics, as voters continue to vote based on who is serving in White House rather than the unique qualities and positions of candidates. And these elections will further display the partisan divides in the nation, and a growing political schism in the nation. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in Elections, General Assembly, Politics

Tagged

Campaign Finance Reports Show the Party of the Rich Is Outraising Republicans

Posted on October 18, 2023 by | 56 comments

by Jeanine Martin

As usual the party of the rich, Democrats, is outraising Republicans in the commonwealth election scheduled for November 7th. The September financial reports for all candidates and committees can be found here. If things don’t turn around in the next three weeks Republicans will have a difficult time flipping the State Senate and keeping the House of Delegates. Continue reading →

56 Comments

Posted in Elections, General Assembly, Money in politics, Politics

Tagged

Making Mischief With Election Law Changes

Posted on October 17, 2023 by | 12 comments

Rep. Bob Good, Photo credit: Richmond Times Dispatch

by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Here is a recent tweak in election law that did not get a lot of public attention. Effective January 1, 2024, it will be almost impossible for a political party to use a convention to nominate a candidate for a Congressional district seat.  On its face the law still allows a political party of a district to determine how the nomination of candidate is made, but the 2021 change makes this stipulation:

A method of nomination shall not be selected if such method will have the practical effect of excluding participation in the nominating process by qualified voters who are otherwise eligible to participate in the nominating process under that political party’s rules but are unable to attend meetings because they are (i) a member of a uniformed service, as defined in § 24.2-452, on active duty; (ii) temporarily residing outside of the United States; (iii) a student attending a school or institution of higher education; (iv) a person with a disability; or (v) a person who has a communicable disease of public health threat as defined in § 32.1-48.06 or who may have come in contact with a person with such disease. However, such restriction shall not apply when selecting a candidate for a special election or nominating a candidate pursuant to § 24.2-539, or in the event that no candidate files the required paperwork by the deadline prescribed in § 24.2-522. Continue reading →

12 Comments

Posted in Elections, Electoral process, Politics

Tagged

The Benefits of School Choice and the Risks in the November Elections

Posted on October 16, 2023 by | 14 comments

from Liberty Unyielding

The debate over school choice has tended to focus on whether students learn more as a result. But learning improvements from school choice are probably smaller than improvements in other dimensions, such as civic participation, law abidingness, and family stability later in life. Jason Bedrick of The Heritage Foundation notes that “School-choice policies even appear to foster law-abidingness and self-governance. A study by @P_Diddy Wolf & @Corey_DeAngelis found that students participating in Milwaukee’s school choice program saw significant reductions in criminal convictions & paternity suits.” Perhaps private schools have the ability to instill values in ways that the public schools do not.

“When it comes to civic knowledge and skills, 10 studies find a private-school advantage, six find no difference, and none find a government-school advantage,” Bedrick points out. “Some claim government schools are where people of all different backgrounds learn to live and work together. Yet, in the research on political tolerance—a virtue our nation needs direly today—show a 13-1 advantage for school choice over government schooling.”

In the public schools, “Teaching students a historically accurate understanding of our nation’s founding and the role of government is not a priority. Instead, instructional content too often centers on social justice, ethnic studies, and Marxist-inspired Critical Race Theory,” Bedrick says.

Since private schools spend less per student on average than the public schools, school choice also has the potential to save taxpayers a lot of money over the long run. Continue reading →

14 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12), Elections, General Assembly

Tagged ,

We Happy Many

Posted on October 15, 2023 by | 18 comments

Campaigner-In-Chief

by Tom Blau 

Virginia Republicans seem increasingly depressed by November electoral prospects. Many Republicans can’t figure out if the Democrats are more driven by incompetence or fecklessness, but they ask, anyway. 

But the more concrete question is: can Democrats, despite everything, nevertheless do well at the polls next month?  And if they’re so bad, how determined are Republicans to slam the ball in the net?  Maybe not so: on the macro level, the newspapers report population movement from states like New York and California to states like Florida and Texas, attracted by the prospect of not having to self-censor casual conversations. On the “micro level,” they complain that many important campaign jobs—door-to-door canvasser, poll-site greeter, election official, and poll-watcher — are unfilled. 

The stakes are high, not just at home. Virginia’s rare election a year before the presidential gives it outsize influence on the country. Virginia is home to many who depend — or do quite well — on a government paycheck. Appeals to liberty or the market, the competitors of government rule, don’t find natural soil. Virginia’s 8.6 million population is driven by the size of Fairfax County (1.1 million), plus Arlington, Alexandria et al among the main D.C. bedroom communities.

The situation is tough. As Damon Runyon, the great chronicler of mid-20th-century Manhattan low-lifes (see Guys and Dolls), put it, surely “The race is not always to the swift, or the battle to the strong — but that’s generally the way to bet.” 

But if it were easy to outrun the swift and outfight the strong, who would need campaign volunteers? I’m looking at you, dear reader.  Continue reading →

18 Comments

Posted in Elections, Politics

Tagged

Deep Dive: Casinos, Highways, and Ignoring RVA Voters

Posted on October 13, 2023 by | 3 comments

Downtown Richmond

by Jon Baliles

Republished with permission from RVA 5×5.

They say the past is prologue and that if you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it, among other famous quotes that have stood the test of time. And they have a factor of truth and lesson in them. And so is the case with next month’s casino referendum, the second one we have had the chance to vote for because the first one was ignored by city leaders in 2021.

This Deep Dive is a look back at the last time Richmond faced two referendums on one topic in short succession — the people were asked to vote to register their voice and they said no to the city leaders, planners, and business leaders. Both times, the people’s voice was ignored, and both times the city leaders overruled their vote and their voice and pursued their plans irrespective of the results — with disastrous and long-lasting consequences.

This may be starting to sound familiar. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Posted in Business and Economy, Economic development, Elections, Ethics, Gambling, Money in politics, Politics

Tagged