Boucher Announces Re-election Bid

Looks like the "Fighting 9th" will have a fight afterall, as Rep. Rick Boucher will run for a 15th term.

I've got the feeling that a combination of ego, growing GOP strength in the district, and lack of any other willing candidates put Boucher in a position where he felt he had to run again, given that he was rumored to be considering retirement (though he denies this).

Boucher is listed as the 10th most powerful member of the House, which given his tenure, would make some sense. Though he voted against the health care bill and has an A+ rating from the NRA, he has voted for cap-and-trade, the stimulus package, TARP, and the Big Auto Bailout. This (especially the cap-and-trade bill, which he helped to craft) is putting him increasingly at odds with the overall philosophies of his constituents.

Also, given that he may be challenged by State House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, who is popular in the 9th, Boucher will most likely be in a fight, the likes of which he has not seen since he defeated Bill Wampler in 1982.

(h/t Virginia Virtucon)

Bob McDonnell to Give Response to State of the Union Address

3rd time since 2006 that a Virginia politician has given the response (Tim Kaine in 2006, Jim Webb in 2007)...further proof that Virginia is not only the mother of Presidents, but it is the epicenter of American politics ;)

At least, we like to think so.

How Quickly the Landscape and Mood Changes

Paradigm shifts can be felt in many ways, and sometimes there is no better thermometer than the blogosphere. A quick glance around shows these things...

- Virginia Virtucon reports that MSNBC had it's highest ratings ever. I know that I probably watched more consecutive minutes of that channel than ever before (though I do tune in regularly to take the pulse of the opposition). I watched a bit of that channel last night to simply see the left's reactions, and it appears that many conservatives did the same. From what I saw, Howard Dean was gracious in his admission of party screw-ups all around in Mass. Rachel Maddow was fiery and clearly angry. So angry that even Chris Matthews was taken aback by some of her commentary.

- Many left bloggers think that this is because they did not pass health care "reform". If people are against what you are proposing (which they seem to dismissively admit to), why would they support you if you had already passed said reform? If anything, passing health care reform is like pushing the self-destruct button on all of Congress.

- Bearing Drift is hearing rumors that Rep. Rick Boucher (VA-9) is reconsidering running for reelection (something many Dems are doing, especially after last night's win for the GOP). Given that he is a bit of an oddity in terms of political affiliation vs. district demographics, he would be the only Dem that would really stand a chance in the "Fighting 9th" this year. If Boucher goes, the Dem control of that seat goes with it. Given the vulnerability of Glenn Nye and Tom Perriello in the 2nd and 5th Districts, respectively, and the possibility of a hard fight in the 11th (Gerry Connolly's district), the Dems cannot afford to have to pump a lot of money into a 4th fight in this state, as it will really spread party resources thin.

Gilbert Gets Creative to Assist Schools

Some creative proposals for closing budget gaps for schools from The Podium's representative in the House of Delegates, Todd Gilbert.

It's That Time Again...Virginia General Assembly Convenes Today

Keep track of the bills and the progress made within the General Assembly through Richmond Sunlight as well as highlights and commentary through The Podium.

Bolognese Declares, 41st House District S.E. Set for March 2nd

Kerry Bolognese, who barely lost to Del.-turned-Sen.-elect Dave Marsden in November for Marsden's 41st House District Seat, will run again to fill the same House seat, as Marsden's win last night puts him in the State Senate.

No word on who the Dems will have run against Bolognese, but no real buzz seems to be surrounding any particular potential candidates, either. Given that Bolognese is fresh off of a strong campaign in the same district, he has to be considered the early favorite no matter who runs against him. Name recognition means a lot in these special elections.

Filing deadline is January 29th, the special election will be held March 2nd.

(h/t Bearing Drift)

Marsden, McWaters Win in Special Elections

Results are in from the State Board of Elections.

- In the 8th State Senate District (Virginia Beach, formerly held by Ken Stolle), Jeff McWaters stomped all over Bill Fleming by a margin of 79%-21%. Expected, though maybe not by this much (I figured a 65%-35% McWaters win).

- In the 37th State Senate District (Fairfax County, formerly held by AG-elect Ken Cuccinelli), Dave "I Swear I'll Stay in This Rented Room" Marsden defeated Steve "Ex-Gay" Hunt by the slim margin of 51%-49%, or 317 votes. Honestly, this was a very strange election, as the precinct map makes little sense if you know the make-up of the district and compare it to the voting trends within the district. Interestingly, there were very unappetizing aspects to both candidates.

This tips Virginia's State Senate to a 22-18 margin for the Democrats, as both seats were previously held by Republicans. However, if Gov-elect McDonnell still tabs Sen. Edd Houck for his administration (which would have previously tipped the Senate to the GOP as a 20-20 tie would be broken by Lt. Governor Bill Bolling), the margin may still tip back to only 21-19 in favor of the Dems.

This forces redistricting to be a bit more bipartisan than would have been expected with the GOP holding power in both houses of the General Assembly as well as the Governor's mansion.

Upcoming General Assembly and Proposed Gun Rights Legislation

Browsing through Richmond Sunlight, and I'm finding some good pro-2nd Amendment legislation.

In the House...
- HB26 would mandate that the Clerk of Court cannot ask a concealed weapon permit applicant for any identification beyond what is required for the application form.
- HB32 would allow the faculty at any university in Virginia to carry a concealed weapon, provided they have a permit.
- HB49 would repeal the one-handgun-per-month rule.
- HB79 would remove public access to applications for concealed weapons permits. This is good, because I really don't want other people snooping through my permit application. I'm a proponent of open government, but this is information about private citizens, not government officials.

There are more, but these stuck out to me as excellent new legislation that promotes our 2nd Amendment rights.

More Moronic Messages from Marsden

Crystal Clear Conservative puts up the latest evidence of Dave Marsden using empty platitudes and basic fearmongering of Republicans (ooooh, scary boogeymen Republicans, oooooh!) to try to appeal to voters in the 37th District special election.

Three problems with Marsden's "case" for election

- Bob McDonnell's campaign proved that people want to hear about solutions, not simply about how evil the other party is (OMG! Repugz are Social Conservativz, they hate teh gayz n women! = Creigh Deed's message in a nutshell).
- If Marsden loses, there is no change in the make up of the State Senate, as this is already held by a Republican (AG-elect Ken Cuccinelli). So the Senate still remains in Dem control by the same margin.
- There is NO mention of why Marsden is a better candidate (other than party name, which means NOTHING in the current political climate) or why Steve Hunt is not a good candidate.

Ouch, Mr. Speaker!

I Appreciate Directness and Honesty, But...

...this is (pardon my French) f*cking ridiculous.

Apparently, Del.-elect Patrick Hope supports sending people to jail for not having health insurance, because he believes not having health insurance is like tax evasion. He also likes answering his constituents in the most condescending and jack-@$$ed tone possible.

He hasn't even been sworn in, and Patrick Hope has already earned a spot on the "worst Delegates in the House" list.

Pat Herrity to Run, but For What?

Ben Tribbett says "HERRITY IS IN", but is he referring to the Fairfax County Chairmanship (which he has already expressed interest in running for), or is Herrity going to run against Keith Fimian in a primary to decide who faces Gerry Connolly in this year's midterm Congressional election? I've asked Ben this question, let's see what the answer is...

UPDATE...

Ben posted in the comments section of his post that Herrity is in for a run at Connolly's Congressional seat.

Worth Some Worry, But Don't Hit "Panic" Yet

Tertium Quids and Virginia Virtucon have both reported that Sen. Walter Stosch told Goochland Republicans that we "have to have more taxes this year".

While that is a worrisome statement, I wouldn't hit the panic button yet.

See, first of all, the House is solidly Republican again...and fiscally conservative for the most part. They have already declared Gov. Kaine's budget DOA. The Senate is already slightly tilted towards the Dems, who would support such a measure.

Last, but not least, the Governor-elect is a Republican. It's up to him to sign off on new taxes. Being that Bob McDonnell is not nearly as quick to raise taxes as Mark Warner is, I wouldn't start the panic of higher taxes just yet.

Obenshain Says Warner, Webb Owe Virginians an Apology

...and he's RIGHT!

Not only did our esteemed senators vote for a gaudy monstrosity of a health care bill, now Virginia has to pick up the tab for Nebraska, some of Louisiana, and non-profits in Michigan (among other things).

Given that Gov. Kaine's regional taxing authorities were unconstitutional, doesn't that instantly call this bill into review due to the fact that it forces some states to foot the bill for others in a discriminatory fashion? But I digress...

Sen. Obenshain points out where Virginia is on the hook for the sell-outs of other states and their senators, then goes after our own U.S. senators, especially Jim Webb.

"What did our intrepid duo in the U.S. Senate do to stand strong for the rights and interests of Virginians? Absolutely nothing. They fell right in line with Mr. Reid and the rest of the Democrats in the Senate and voted for this abomination. They required little coaxing and no incentives. Jim Webb may have been "born fighting," but he did not hesitate to run up the white flag here."

Oooh, that's gotta hurt.

On a side political note, for Obenshain to get this in the Washington Times and have Real Clear Politics post it on their site as well really does raise his profile. Obenshain for AG in 2013, or maybe even a senate run in 2012? I wouldn't mind it one bit.

(h/t SWAC Girl)

McDonnell Seeks to Remove Gubernatorial Term Limits

The Gov.-elect would like to see an end to the law that keeps Virginia Governors from serving consecutive terms. This really is not a new viewpoint amongst previous Governors, but I believe McDonnell is just simply voicing his viewpoint, and not creating a point of contention between himself and the General Assembly (which traditionally has not supported such a change).

I do believe that his proposal to change the years that the biennial budgets from odd to even years (to avoid saddling an incoming governor with a previous governor's budget) is a very smart proposal and one that I believe will be McDonnell's key focus (along with job growth and transportation improvements) in his first year as Governor.

(h/t Delmarva Dealings)

Chap(!) Petersen's "Decade of Zeroes"

Chap(!) and his bow tie have an interesting retrospective on the memorable and incredible things that have occurred during the past decade in Virginia Politics and general events. Give it a look. Chap, despite sitting on the blue side of the aisle, is a first-class gentleman and plays it pretty straight here, with some interesting choices for his categories.

McDonnell Pushes for Offshore Drilling as Part of Energy Approach

Governor-elect Bob McDonnell appeals to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to make Virginia the first state to move forward with new offshore drilling as part of an "all of the above" approach to energy solutions (as McDonnell calls it, "traditional and renewable").

McDonnell's letter is posted at The Shad Plank.

Searching for a Candidate to Endorse in the VA-5 GOP Primary

It's a crowded field to earn the right to challenge Tom Periello in November, 2010. After reviewing the viewpoints of all 7 candidates, I'm still stuck.

I have narrowed the field of 7 down to 3...Ron Ferrin, Jim McKelvey, and Michael McPadden. All 3 seem to be committed to a constitutional approach. Ferrin and McPadden have pro-life stances, though McPadden's stance is to make abortion law something that the public votes on (much like in Europe). McKelvey hasn't mentioned any "social" issues, and both Ferrin and McPadden don't go beyond the abortion argument on social issues.

I believe that all 3 of these candidates would be very good at standing by limited government principles as well as stand for pro-liberty ideals (compared to the other candidates).

Now, if someone can make a convincing case for one of these three (or one of the other 4), I would greatly appreciate it. I'm a bit stuck right now.

For Once, Tim Kaine is Right!

Outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine states that "...the budget he is handing off to Gov.-elect Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican, is one he would have drafted for his own administration or for the Democratic candidate, if state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds had won the November gubernatorial election."

The difference would've been that Deeds would've readily accepted the income tax increase, McDonnell will not. Thus, Kaine is being honest that he's not putting in a tax increase to simply screw McDonnell...but he's still trying to pass off a tax increase. Period. Kaine is giving the right answer to the wrong question.

(h/t Barticles)

And Speaking of the Steve Hunt...

...Spock on one of NLS's comment threads finally explained this "ex-gay" thing about Steve Hunt to me. Kudos to Spock for finally answering my questions on this. He stated...

Phil- As a school board member, Hunt tried to bring "ex-gays" into the public school classrooms to tell kids how not to be gay if they are.

He also tried to do this without the consent of the rest of the school board.

This busted open a pandora's box of questions about Hunt, his own sexual orientation, and his lack of respect for policy procedure and his agenda.

I'll reiterate what I said in my reply to this. I don't endorse anything of this nature (despite the fact that it puts me at odds with some Republicans). I don't think that the schools should encourage or discourage anyone from deciding on their sexual orientation. It is not the place of public schools to do so. The fact that he did so by going around the rest of his board members is just an extra foul on this matter.

I know that there are Social Conservatives that don't like that I hold this viewpoint (especially since that I am, for all intents and purposes, on the right side of the aisle...just a bit "north" of the right) but that's just how I feel. A person's sexual orientation is a part of their genetic composition, it's more than just a simple choice, IMO.

Feel free to disagree with me, I'll probably understand why you would, but I simply do not endorse what Hunt apparently did.

Dave Marsden = The Harvey Dent of Virginia Politics

I missed this from Too Conservative a couple of days ago, but it bears repeating.

Dave Marsden was positioning himself as a centrist (Warner-esque, I suppose) who was against big government and higher taxes (basically, a conservative Democrat) in his campaign for the special election in the 37th State Senate district. Now he's attacking Bob McDonnell (who ran on being against big government and higher taxes) in a recent mailer, and positioning himself as the man who will fight against McDonnell and his agenda. The worst part is, Marsden is sending the mailer to not only Dems, but to Independents and Republicans as well...you know, the people who supported McDonnell just over a month ago.

This is the same man who worked to get Ken Cuccinelli get elected to the General Assembly, and then became a Democrat, won a seat in the House of Delegates, and is now challenging for Cuccinelli's vacated Senate seat. The man is literally Two-Face (hence the "Harvey Dent" reference, kids).

Steve Hunt may win the special election out of Marsden's sheer confusion.