by James C. Sherlock
Nobody asked, me, but I offer my Wednesday morning initial assessment of the elections in Virginia. In no particular order, here they are.
Until there is a Republican Party of Virginia, not the current Republican Party of me, the party candidates will remain eclectic to the point of statewide incoherence. Not sure who has the juice to pull that together.
It looks at this point like Abigail Spanberger lost to Nick Freitas by about 3,000 votes with 100% counted. I suspect there will be a recount. The rest of the House races were pretty one-sided. Redistricting by the new commission established by the new constitutional amendment will be crucial.
Northern Virginia is the bedroom of the federal government. It has been a long time since there were a significant number of Republicans in the career bureaucracy. Dispersing the offices of those bureaucrats around the country, generically a good idea, may not help the Republicans in swing states.
One question with a potential huge impact on Virginia legislation: Will the Virginia Supreme court take cases that result in an assertive role for that court in assessing new laws for constitutionality?
State issues including the following do not naturally break cleanly on a Democratic/Republican basis.
- How long will Virginians and their elected representatives put up with the hegemony of the state-granted regional monopolies that drive up their healthcare costs?
- Will Democrats join Republicans to ensure more primary care for the poor over hospital lobby opposition?
- Will parents demand better schools teaching a common core of subjects versus a new CRT agenda offered by some of the Ed schools?
- Will any one fight the takeover of many state-supported Ed schools by the radical left?
- How far will the School Boards go with bowing to critical race theory demands?
- How long will parents put up with remote learning?
- What level of support will emerge for local option contract negotiations by government unions?
- Will the “Green” Democrats who control Virginia politics now insist that Green energy plans maintain the stability of the electrical grid?
- How high will be too high for consumers on electricity prices and gasoline driven up to support a Green agenda? On a related note, will the Dems try to take away our gas-fired home appliances? emergency generators? Gas grills? Gas fireplaces?
- How far will the people of Virginia and their General Assembly let some state Universities go in their teaching of a radical Marxist overthrow of the United States constitution?
- Do the Democrats have the stomach to try for more gun control?
- How will the Governor and the General Assembly handle the Sentara Plan for EVMS versus the option of having UVa take it over?
- Will Richmond or other heavily minority cities and counties have the guts to try Success Academy discipline and pedagogy approaches to get Success Academy results for their children?
- Is there any glimmer of a will in the General Assembly to reign in campaign donations to state and local candidates?
Just some questions, no answers.