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Recent Articles from Mason Adams
Midterm murkiness
Republicans look to extend their 2021 wins in state elections as they closely eye congressional targets in November’s midterm elections. Democrats hold seven of the state’s 11 congressional seats, with three of those having changed hands during the last midterms in 2018. U.S. Reps. Elaine Luria of Norfolk, Abigail Spanberger of Glen Allen and Jennifer […]
Balancing act
The Virginia General Assembly returned to a familiar configuration in 2022, legislating with a Republican-majority House of Delegates and Democratic-controlled Virginia Senate for the seventh time since 2000. But while the partisan split was old hat, much else about the session was new, taking place two years into the global COVID-19 pandemic and occurring after […]
The great divide
Virginia’s business community faces a strangely familiar and yet uncertain state government headed into the 2022 General Assembly session, which begins Jan. 12. Republicans rolled to victories across the board in the November 2021 election as Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin led a GOP sweep of all three statewide offices, and Republicans also won a narrow 52-48 […]
The outsider
A former CEO who has never held political office, Glenn Youngkin will take the reins as Virginia’s next governor, having harnessed political tailwinds to a Republican sweep of statewide offices and GOP control of the House of Delegates. The electoral success ended eight years of Democratic victories, but Virginia’s 74th governor will have to contend […]
The color of money
A dusty floor, lumber piles and strewn tools mark the signs of active construction in the future showroom of Pure Shenandoah LLC. CEO Tanner Johnson stands in the front room of the historic, renovated Casey Jones building in Elkton and describes the experience of a future customer. “You’ll come in right here to a cool […]
Tale of the tape
As Virginians decide whether to go with the known — Democratic former Gov. Terry McAuliffe — or the unknown — first-time candidate Glenn Youngkin, a Republican — Virginia Business checks in with the two major contenders to be the commonwealth’s 74th governor. In exclusive interviews, the candidates lay out their plans to create more jobs, […]
Enter the candidates
With early voting starting the next day, Virginia gubernatorial candidates Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin came out swinging in their Sept. 16 first debate, sniping over issues ranging from coronavirus vaccine mandates to abortion in what The Washington Post described as a “bare-knuckled” sparring match at the Appalachian School of Law. Democratic former Gov. McAuliffe […]
The Powell Memo
The Powell Memorandum has been praised and vilified, denounced as a blueprint for business to seize control of American life, and embraced as a way to protect liberty and free enterprise. Whether because of its lasting influence or alarming prescience, the Powell Memorandum has become one of the most important single documents in understanding the […]
Back to the future
The candidates running for governor in November face the convergence of two Virginia political trends. The first is the commonwealth’s tendency to vote for governors of the opposing party from the present White House occupant. Beginning in 1977, Virginia has voted against the party holding the White House in every election except for 2013, when […]
Seismic session
With short legislative sessions and state elections looming in the fall, odd-numbered years have developed an often-unfair reputation for being a slack time for the General Assembly. Observers of the Virginia legislature’s 2021 session, however, would hardly have come away with that impression. In the second year of Democratic control of the legislature, lawmakers passed […]
