Battlefield Virginia
It’s a nerve-wracking time this fall for a small group of campaign managers, with the balance of power in the General Assembly coming down to a handful of close political races. In House District 97, freshman Republican Del. Karen Greenhalgh is defending her Virginia Beach-centered seat against Michael Feggans, a Democrat who grew up in […]
‘A generational shift’
Updated June 29 Politicians like to suggest every new election is the most important of our lifetimes, but Virginia’s off-off-year state legislative elections in 2023 might actually live up to the billing for once. In November, voters will elect representatives to all 140 seats in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates, in the first […]
The main event
Updated Jan. 4, 2023 Like the quote from a possibly apocryphal Harvard Law professor, Virginia legislators can look to their left and then to their right, and one of their peers probably won’t be seated there next year, thanks to a supercharged primary field created by a late 2021 redistricting. And now, 61 of Virginia’s […]
No 2022 delegate elections, judges rule
Virginia politico Paul Goldman’s quest to force new elections of state delegates this fall ended in defeat Monday, after a panel of three federal judges ruled that he lacked standing as a voter and a prospective candidate to bring the legal challenge, which focused on the state’s newly redrawn political districts based on the 2020 […]
Lawmakers kill bill calling for transparency in redistricting commission
RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Senate killed a House proposal to expand access to the commonwealth’s new redistricting commission and help make the process more transparent and democratic. House Bill 2082, patroned by Del. Mark Levine, D-Alexandria, would have required the redistricting commission meetings to be advertised and accessible to the public. The commission will […]
Representing the underdogs
Although it’s hard to think way back to January 2020, a time before a year of social unrest, pandemic and economic peril, that’s when Virginia’s legislature and executive branch became majority-Democrat for the first time since 1993. However, even if some Virginians forgot about this significant shift, Republican lawmakers have not. Just before Thanksgiving, Virginia […]
Virginia redistricting committee takes shape
RICHMOND, Va. — More than half a dozen legislators have been named to a bipartisan redistricting commission that seeks to fairly draw congressional and state legislative districts. The commission will be made up of 16 people. Half of them will be legislators and the other half will be Virginia citizens. Virginia legislative leaders chose four […]