My latest op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot Wednesday. It is quite interesting to me that there has been a slew of applications from Virginia localities to "bail out" of the preclearance rules of The Voting Rights Act this year. So far, five localities have reached agreements with the U.S. Justice Department and another four applications … Continue reading A different kind of bailout
All of those involved, especially the Associated Press and the candidates, have literally bumped their heads in scheduling a debate between presumptive party nominees for Senate George Allen and Tim Kaine. Oh, sure - the press covered their backsides by saying "eligible participants include any declared candidates that average 15 percent or better in published, … Continue reading Debate foolishness (updated)
Guest post by Carole Garrison Politics are constantly changing so is the way we interact with candidates. One interesting change is the ability for people to submit questions using Google Moderator. Charlottesville Tomorrow and The Daily Progress are employing this technology for their upcoming debates for the Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle Board of … Continue reading Google and public engagement
At 12:01am today, the Clinton-era "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was repealed. Good riddance.
That little place further down south must be experiencing some inclement weather 😉 This Cal Thomas article was reprinted in Sunday's Virginian-Pilot. (So much for the "liberal bias" of the newspaper.) It was this sentence that caught my eye: If we want smaller government, we will have to pick up the slack. And that's the … Continue reading In which I agree with Cal Thomas
Mark your calendars! The Virginia Peninsula MAL Unit of the League of Women Voters of Virginia announced Friday that it will be hosting four candidate forums covering the General Assembly races in Hampton, Newport News, Poquoson and Yorktown. The forums will be open to the public and will be moderated by The Daily Press. The … Continue reading Peninsula LWV Announces 2011 candidate forums
The Virginian-Pilot is reporting that former delegate Phil Hamilton has been ordered to begin serving his prison sentence by Monday. Judge Henry Hudson, according to the article, wrote: This court cannot conclude in good faith that defendant’s appeal raises a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in reversal or a new trial. … Continue reading Hamilton ordered to prison by Monday
Yesterday was the filing deadline for campaign finance disclosure reports for candidates on the ballot in November. The data below covers the period August 11 to August 31 and was taken from the Virginia Public Access Project, better known as VPAP. As of this writing, the information on VPAP is just the raw data from … Continue reading 9/15/11 Financial reports – local races
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell announced this week that state employee retirement benefits might need to be cut, because the system has $18 billion in unfunded liabilities. He's right about the unfunded liability. Over the next 75 years it does total $18 billion. But that's not the state employees' fault. McDonnell has done little to endear … Continue reading Governor goes after state employees …again.
Absolutely buried heading into the 15th. A few links from around the 'net: Bill Clinton coming to raise money for Virginia Senate Democrats. Rick Perry coming to raise money for Republican Party of Virginia Excerpts from the taped interviews of Jackie Kennedy Nearly 1 in 6 Americans are in poverty 1 in 4 homes with … Continue reading Quick links 09/14/11
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