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A compilation of newspaper articles
about state government and politics.
VaNews - February 7, 2013
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Compiled by Sue Lindsey
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
BOLLING SAYS HE'LL HAVE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT IN MARCH
Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who grudgingly abandoned his quest for the GOP gubernatorial nomination last fall, says he's planning a big announcement next month. What he's planning to say remains a mystery. Bolling told political journalists at the annual Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association dinner Wednesday night to mark their calendars for March 14.
POSSIBLE INDEPENDENT BILL BOLLING NOT SO MAVERICKY ON SENATE VOTES
Reports of Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling going rogue may be premature. Sure, earlier this year, following his decision to withdraw from the GOP nomination for governor, the once and perhaps future candidate for governor in 2013 came out in favor of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act -- something his friend and political ally, Gov. Bob McDonnell, said he didn't favor.
CUCCINELLI SHOWS PRAGMATIC POLITICS TO UVA CLASS
Virginia’s presumptive Republican nominee for governor touted his accomplishments as attorney general Wednesday and predicted that a "wait and see" attitude is likely to shape statewide and nationwide legislative policies on key issues. Ken Cuccinelli shared his perspective on politics in front of about 400 University of Virginia students in an introduction to American politics class led by political professor and expert Larry Sabato.
CUCCINELLI DESCRIBES POLITICAL SUCCESSES, OPPONENT'S FAILURES
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican contender in the Virginia governor race, guest lectured at Politics Prof. Larry Sabato’s “Introduction to American Politics” class Wednesday. Cuccinelli first lectured on his responsibilities as attorney general and then opened the floor to students’ questions. He spoke at length about what he believes to be his major accomplishments during his term, including gang violence reduction, fraud prevention for the elderly and cracking down on child pornography.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
SPEAKER RULES AGAINST SENATE GOP REDISTRICTING PLAN
The surprise Senate redistricting plan that revived partisan divisions in the legislature is dead, at least for now, after House Speaker Bill Howell ruled the plan out of order on Wednesday. Howell, R-Stafford, ruled that the plan, attached as an amendment to a House bill, was not germane to the bill. That essentially kills the plan.
VA. HOUSE SPEAKER DERAILS GOP SENATE REDISTRICTING PLAN
ouse Speaker William J. Howell, one of Richmond’s most reliable Republican votes, bucked his own party Wednesday to derail a Senate redistricting plan that could have handed the GOP control of that chamber for decades. Howell (Stafford) used a procedural ruling to kill the new Senate map, resisting pressure from his caucus and Senate Republicans, who assured him that state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) was prepared to back the plan.
AP INTERVIEW: HOWELL LABORED OVER REMAP RULING
House Speaker Bill Howell is the last guy to go looking for a fight. But when the state Senate's 20 Republicans used ambush tactics to muscle a wholesale rewrite of Virginia's 40 Senate districts past the Senate's 20 Democrats on a day when a black Democratic senator was attending President Barack Obama's inauguration, it started a fight that came looking for Howell.
HOUSE SPEAKER BILL HOWELL AVERTS REDISTRICTING FUROR
The Republican speaker of the House of Delegates quelled a partisan firestorm over a controversial Senate redistricting scheme Wednesday, making a procedural ruling that killed the GOP-engineered plan without a vote. Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford County, ruled that the Senate plan — attached as an amendment to a House bill — was not germane to the original legislation.
VA. HOUSE SPEAKER KILLS SENATE GOP REDISTRICTING PLAN
Republican House Speaker Bill Howell on Wednesday blocked a controversial GOP redistricting scheme despite significant pressure from within his own party to keep it alive. Howell said Senate Republicans acted out of line last month when they amended a relatively benign House bill by completely redrawing the Senate maps to give them an edge in the 2015 elections.
HOUSE SPEAKER KILLS SENATE REDISTRICTING PLAN
Senate Democrats breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday as House Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford, killed the surprise redistricting plan Senate Republicans hoped would solidify their power for years to come. Howell ruled the Senate plan to radically redraw the state's 40 Senate districts as "not germane" to the original House of Delegates measure the plan was attached to. The original House bill cleaned up split precincts in 39 House districts.
REDRAWING VA. STATE SENATE DISTRICTS DROPPED
Virginia's Republican House speaker on Wednesday ruled against a measure muscled through by Senate Republicans to redraw all 40 state Senate districts, defusing a partisan dispute that had threatened to stymie progress on major legislation. House Speaker William J. Howell announced Wednesday that the vast Senate redistricting plan included in a Senate-passed amendment was not germane, or relevant, to the bill’s limited intent of making minor, technical changes to 39 House of Delegates districts.
GOP SENATE REDISTRICTING PLAN KILLED BY HOUSE SPEAKER
A controversial plan to tilt state Senate districts in Republicans' favor died at the other end of the Capitol on Wednesday, thanks to a procedural move by Republican House Speaker William Howell that could restore a spirit of cooperation to a sometimes fractious General Assembly. The far-reaching redrawing of Senate district lines was sprung on unsuspecting Democrats last month when the absence of Sen. Henry Marsh, a Richmond civil rights attorney away from the Capitol Jan. 21 for the presidential inauguration, gave the GOP the edge it needed to ram through the plan.
SENATE TO CONSIDER QUICKER DECISION ON MEDICAID
The Virginia Senate is having second thoughts about waiting another year to decide whether to expand the state’s Medicaid program to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Virginians under the national Affordable Care Act.
VA. GENERAL ASSEMBLY: WHERE BILLS STAND AT ‘CROSSOVER’
This year’s General Assembly session hit its midpoint, called “crossover,” Tuesday night, marking the day when bills must pass one house or the other or die for the session. Here’s how some of the legislation fared this session.
HOUSE TRANSPORTATION BILL TO FACE SENATE DEMOCRATS
The path forward on a long-term plan to fund transportation projects in Virginia will have to move through skeptical Senate Democrats, though it was still unclear Wednesday what a final package might look like. A version of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s proposal survived the House of Delegates but the state Senate rejected its own version of the bill on Tuesday after Democrats balked at the ideas of swapping the gas tax for a higher state sales tax and of paying for transportation using general fund revenues.