I was actually too tired to stay in Richmond and watch the speech live, even though I had been offered a ticket. Perhaps next year I’ll attend. But I did make it home in time to watch. The Governor has been announcing his legislative agenda for some time now, so there were few surprises in this speech for those who have been following the media. Two items, though, I had not previously heard him mention.
Abuser fees. When the public became aware of the abuser fees last summer, an uproar ensued. Thousands signed a petition demanding their repeal. As the 2007 election cycle wore on, the issue died down, with promises that the fees would be tweaked to include out-of-state drivers and to only apply to the worst drivers. Citing the JLARC study, the governor came to the same conclusion that I did: scrap them. I didn’t see that one coming.
Bipartisan redistricting. The governor said it’s time and I wholeheartedly agree. Well, I would prefer we have nonpartisan redistricting but at least bipartisan redistricting is a step in the right direction. (In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I now serve on the advisory board for The Virginia Redistricting Coalition.) I do hope the governor’s support of this will help ease its passage.
The text of the speech can be found here. Or listen to the speech.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
A few things of note.
Not going very far:
1. Expanding pre-K from 13k to 20k slots..when the Commonwealth is short money.
The Governor talked about compromise. How about 1k new slots/year for 7 years?
2. Background checks for buying guns at gun shows.
As Ken Stolle has noted, it wouldn’t have stopped what happened at Virginia Tech. The bill dies in Militia and Police.
I was pleasantly suprised to hear the Governor push something I’ve long argued for: allowing anyone who wants to vote absentee to do so regardless of reason. You make voting SO easy that everyone will want to do it. (Okay, everyone still won’t.)
Finally, I’m happier with the proposed changes to Virginia’s involuntary commitment laws than some of what was being talked about earlier in 2007.