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A compilation of newspaper articles
about state government and politics.
VaNews - May 22, 2013
Compiled by Sue Lindsey
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
UNDER SCRUTINY, VA. GOV'S MANSION A DICHOTOMY
An embezzling case that began with a chef being accused of stealing food from Virginia's Executive Mansion and morphed into a political scandal involving two of the state's most powerful politicians has some people wondering: What goes on behind the wide double doors of the governor's house? The governor's mansion is in some ways a dichotomy: It is perhaps the state's highest-profile office, yet also one of the only places Gov. Bob McDonnell and his family can retreat for privacy.
LYNCHBURG RALLY AIMS TO SPARK VOTING-RIGHTS PUSH
About 20 people gathered at Dearington Baptist Church off Memorial Avenue Tuesday to organize a rally in Richmond for voting rights for felons. Organizers of the May 31 rally said they hope to encourage Gov. Bob McDonnell to sign an executive order reinstating voting rights for felons. Virginians convicted of a felony lose the ability to vote, although the governor can restore it on an individual basis.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
AMID PRESSURE RAMADAN AGREES TO INCLUDE TRIP IN FINANCIAL RECORDS
First-term Del. David Ramadan (R-87) has agreed to include a July 2012 trip funded by the Taiwanese government in his financial disclosure forms after pressure from an opposing campaign has mounted over the past week. Ramadan, who represents eastern Loudoun County and western Prince William County, announced Monday he would “voluntarily amend” his financial disclosure records to include the trip, worth about $7,500.
STATE ELECTIONS
LT. GOV. NOMINEE JACKSON SAYS ‘NO APOLOGIES’ FOR PAST COMMENTS ON GAYS, ABORTION
Virginia’s newly minted Republican lieutenant governor nominee E.W. Jackson says his faith and values inform his conservative stances on issues such as abortion and marriage — and some of his past statements critics are now highlighting as extreme and offensive. “I say the things that I say because I’m a Christian, not because I hate anybody, but because I have religious values that matter to me,” Jackson told reporters at a campaign stop in Fredericksburg. “Attacking me because I hold to those principles is attacking every church-going person, every family that’s living a traditional family life, everybody who believes that we all deserve the right to live. So I don’t have anything to rephrase or apologize for. I would just say people should not paint me as one-dimensional.”
CUCCINELLI VOUCHES FOR JACKSON ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Ken Cuccinelli has sent mixed signals about his new ticket mate E.W. Jackson since he became the lieutenant governor nominee at Saturday's Virginia Republican convention, alternately praising him and keeping him at an arm's length. At a campaign stop in Abingdon Monday, Cuccinelli reminded a crowd of supporters of the import of having a Republican as the tie-breaking vote in the evenly divided Virginia Senate, telling them Jackson can be trusted in that role.
GOP CANDIDATES SWING BY ’BURG
The three Republican statewide candidates finished up a three-day fly-around tour of the state with a rally in Fredericksburg Tuesday, pitching a message of shrinking government and growing jobs. Gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, lieutenant governor candidate E.W. Jackson and attorney general candidate Mark Obenshain began their tour after state Republicans nominated Jackson and Obenshain during a marathon convention in Richmond Saturday.
NEARLY 100 GREET REPUBLICAN TICKET IN LYNCHBURG
Promising to deliver economic liberty to Virginia, Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli continued his post-nomination tour Tuesday with remarks to a 100-strong Lynchburg crowd, many of whom helped choose him and his running mates at the GOP state convention Saturday. “We are off and running,” Cuccinelli said, standing in the Lynchburg airport terminal with E.W. Jackson and Mark Obenshain, the convention’s nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general.
DEMOCRATS SLAM GOP TICKET ON ANTI-HOMOSEXUAL RHETORIC
Democratic state lawmakers asserted Tuesday that the anti-homosexual views of Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli and his running mate E.W. Jackson will hamper the commonwealth's ability to attract businesses to the state. Democrats have been slamming what they say are Jackson's "extreme" positions since the staunch conservative was added to the GOP ticket as the party's candidate for lieutenant governor at a nominating convention Saturday.
NEW MCAULIFFE AD SPOTLIGHTS BIPARTISAN TRANSPORTATION EFFORT
Terry McAuliffe plays up his support of Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell's plan to pump billions into Virginia's aging road network in his second campaign ad, drawing a contrast with Republicans like Ken Cuccinelli who opposed the bipartisan plan. Flashing back to late February when the fate of the $6 billion plan was uncertain, the ad's narrator notes that while "Tea Party Republicans refused to support the plan" McAuliffe decided it was "too imporant a time for partisan politics."
MCAULIFFE AD TOUTS BUSINESSMAN’S ROLE IN VIRGINIA TRANSPORTATION COMPROMISE
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe is linking himself to the landmark transportation compromise championed by Republican Gov. Robert F. McDonnell in his latest campaign ad, launching statewide on Wednesday. The 30-second ad, titled “Too Important,” recounts the intra-party Republican fight over the legislation, and the bipartisan solution McAuliffe says he helped broker.
NEW CUCCINELLI TV AD FEATURES SLAIN OFFICER’S FAMILY
The Cuccinelli campaign is up with a new TV ad featuring family members of a police officer who was fatally injured in 2006 in a shooting outside of a Fairfax County police station. The TV ad, which the campaign says is airing statewide, features the wife and a daughter of the officer, Michael E. Garbarino, sharing memories of Ken Cuccinelli visiting the hospital after the shooting.
VBA WILL HOST FIRST GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE
Virginia Lawyers Weekly (Paywall)Plans are taking shape for the traditional first debate between candidates for Virginia’s governorship at the Virginia Bar Association Summer Meeting at The Homestead. The debate is set for Saturday, July 20, at 11 a.m.
GOV. CANDIDATES: THE DEBATE OVER DEBATES HAS BEGUN
Last month, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe called on Republican Ken Cuccinelli to join him in five debates across the commonwealth. Advertisement Last weekend, Cuccinelli upped the ante, pledging to debate McAuliffe 15 times, an offer that the McAuliffe campaign dismissed as a “political stunt.”
DISPELLING THE DAVIS FOR GOVERNOR RUMORS
Tom Davis won't get personally involved, as a candidate, in this fall's gubernatorial showdown between Ken Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe. The Republican former congressman from Fairfax County seemed baffled Tuesday when we asked him about rumors circulating for months that he would consider an independent run for governor. "Where does this stuff come from?" Davis said in an e-mail to The Virginian-Pilot. "No plans to run," he added.
LIZ MILLER ENTERS 32ND DISTRICT HOUSE RACE
Del. Tag Greason (R-32) is no longer running unopposed for his third term in the Virginia House of Delegates. Broadlands resident Elizabeth Miller announced Tuesday that she had filed to run as an independent for the 32nd District seat. She is the wife of former Supervisor Stevens Miller.