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A compilation of newspaper articles
about state government and politics.
VaNews - May 23, 2013
Compiled by Sue Lindsey
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
MCDONNELL BEING INVESTIGATED OVER DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS
Gov. Bob McDonnell is under investigation over the statements of economic interest he has filed. The investigation was initiated by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who sent a letter in early November 2012 to Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring, appointing him to review McDonnell’s statements. By law, elected officials are required to account for all gifts received in excess of $50.
PROSECUTOR INVESTIGATING MCDONNELL’S DISCLOSURE OF GIFTS
A Richmond prosecutor is investigating whether Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell violated state gift and disclosure laws — a probe that was initiated by state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II. Cuccinelli (R) confirmed Wednesday that he asked Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring to conduct a review of McDonnell’s annual economic disclosure forms last November.
PROSECUTOR REVIEWS MCDONNELL AT CUCCINELLI'S REQUEST
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has asked a Richmond prosecutor to evaluate Gov. Bob McDonnell's financial disclosure forms as an outgrowth of the scrutiny on gifts to both Republicans. In November, Cuccinelli asked Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Herring to check into McDonnell's economic interest forms, according to documents obtained under an open records request. Months later, in April, he requested a similar review by Herring of his own disclosure forms.
SPECIAL PROSECUTOR APPOINTED IN INVESTIGATION OF VIRGINIA GOVERNOR
Virginia’s attorney general has appointed an outside prosecutor to investigate Gov. Bob McDonnell’s financial disclosures, in a widening scandal over a political donor who wrote a $15,000 check for the wedding of the governor’s daughter, and who was also a benefactor of the attorney general.
STATE ELECTIONS
TERRY MCAULIFFE REVERSES COURSE, BACKS BILL TO ALLOW OIL DRILLING OFF VIRGINIA COAST
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe now supports exploring for oil off the coast of Virginia, reversing his position on an issue that both sides of the debate consider to be crucial to the commonwealth’s long-term energy future. When McAuliffe ran for governor in 2009 he said he would back “exploratory drilling for natural gas only“ and did “not support drilling for oil off our coast,” a fact that Republicans cite often in arguing that the Democrat is on the wrong side of the issue. But now that he’s running for governor again, facing Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) in November, McAuliffe has a different stance.
KAINE, WARNER DECRY JACKSON’S PAST STATEMENTS
Comments by E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, about homosexuals, Democrats and President Barack Obama are “divisive” and have no place in Virginia politics, Sens. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine said Wednesday. “Name-calling people in the other party, using brash labels to tar whole groups of people — that’s out of place in Virginia politics, that place is in the past. We fought hard to put that in the past,” Kaine, D-Va., said Wednesday in an interview.
IDENTITY, MINORITY OFFICIALS BLAST JACKSON'S RHETORIC
African American officials in the Virginia Democratic Party are teeing off on E.W. Jackson, the Chesapeake faith leader and Republican lieutenant governor nominee, for promoting what they call political hate speech against fellow blacks in the guise of religion. State Sen. Mamie Locke of Hampton called his rhetoric ugly and mean-spirited, while Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones, who's also a minister, blasted Jackson for espousing a "message of hate and divisiveness" rather than one of Christian compassion.
DEMOCRATIC LEADERS TAKE AIM AT GOP PICK JACKSON
Virginia Democrats continued focusing their fire in November's bellwether statewide elections not at the top of the Republican ticket but in the middle, at the outspoken conservative black minister nominated by GOP delegates for lieutenant governor. Four elected African-American Democratic leaders expressed dismay and outrage at comments by E.W. Jackson in which he compares Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, likens the Democratic Party to a latter-day slaveholder and suggests the first black president, Barack Obama, is an atheist or a Muslim.
MCAULIFFE CAMPAIGN STEAMS INTO F.C. AFTER GOP SLATE IS CHOSEN
Rolling into Falls Church last Sunday night after earlier campaign stops in Powhattan and Gainesville, an Energizer Bunny-like, loud and wide-eyed, spring stepping, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead”-professing Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe took a winding down potluck hosted by the Falls Church City Democratic Committee at the local Community Center and turned it into a cheering, yelping and stomping political rally.
HARTWOOD DEMOCRAT CHALLENGES COLE
Del. Mark Cole has drawn a Democratic challenger for November’s House of Delegates race. Kathleen O’Halloran, of Hartwood, announced her candidacy for the 88th House of Delegates seat in a news release on Wednesday.
THREE TO FACE OFF FOR 55TH DISTRICT HOUSE SEAT
Voters in Hanover, Caroline and Spotsylvania counties have a contest for the House of Delegates. Democrat Toni Radler, a Hanover County resident and community activist, recently announced that she is seeking the 55th District seat of Del. John A. Cox, R-Hanover, who is retiring after two terms
LOUDOUN HOUSE CANDIDATE EXPERIENCING THE ‘WILD, WILD WEST’ OF POLITICS
Facebook. Twitter. Digital fundraising. Campaign websites. These aren't tools politicians had to concern themselves with 20 years ago. But in the past half-decade candidates and policy operatives have increasingly utilized social media to curate their message, connect with the electorate and level jabs at their opposition. Sounds like a jackpot for the pols, right?
CONGRESS
BILL AIMS TO ALLOW DRILLING OFFSHORE, GET VA. A SHARE
Virginia's two U.S. senators on Wednesday joined a renewed effort to lift a federal moratorium on gas and oil drilling in the commonwealth's coastal waters. They also vowed that they wouldn't support the drilling unless Virginia got a significant share of future government oil and gas revenue that, under current law, would all go to Washington.
VIRGINIA SENATORS PUSH FOR OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION
Virginia’s two U.S. senators announced they’ll push again this year to give Virginia federal permission to explore offshore oil reserves. Sen. Mark Warner had introduced similar legislation in the past. This is Sen. Tim Kaine’s first session in the Senate. Their proposal—the Virginia Outer Continental Shelf Energy Production Act—is similar to a House bill from Virginia Rep. Scott Rigell.
SENS. WARNER, KAINE HOPE TO END OFFSHORE DRILLING BAN
U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine introduced legislation Wednesday that would lift the federal ban on exploration and drilling for natural gas and oil off the coast of Virginia. The moratorium, which lasts through 2017, was put in place by President Barack Obama's administration following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.