Kate Andrews Archives - Page 14 of 124

New Transurban North Am. prez comes from public sector

Beau Memory, Transurban’s new North America president, joined the Australian transportation company that operates express toll lanes in Northern Virginia in November with more than 20 years of public-sector transportation experience.

In an interview last week with Virginia Business, the Tysons-based Memory says he’s still getting acclimated to Northern Virginia. “I’m still learning the region, but it’s a really exciting place to be moving to. You know, the influx of people and the diversity of cultures and economic opportunity here is really amazing.”

Memory was previously CEO and executive director of Denver’s E-470 Public Highway Authority, and before that, he served as chief operating officer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Memory also was national transportation director at North Carolina-based software analytics company SAS and executive director for the North Carolina Turnpike Authority.

At Transurban, he will oversee the company’s 53 miles of toll lanes on the Capital Beltway and Interstates 95 and 395, as well as the A25 bridge in Montreal in Canada. The I-95 Express Lanes is creating the largest reversible road in the country, with about 170,000 trips per day.

“One of the things that I’m really excited about is the bi-directional project with VDOT. That has the promise of being one of the most innovative projects when it comes to transportation solutions for mobility that have been done in some time,” Memory said. In August, a 10-mile extension of the I-95 Express Lanes opened, running from Route 610 in Quantico to Route 17 in Fredericksburg, and in 2025, Transurban plans to open an additional 2.5 miles of Express Lanes on the 495 Beltway. With both projects, Transurban collaborates with the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“In the public sector, we obviously have more needs than we do resources,” Memory said. “I think by tapping into the private sector, we can do more, we can provide more mobility and bring innovations. We can hopefully meet the needs of this growing region and others around the country.”

Memory said that sensors placed along Northern Virginia’s Express Lanes collect about 2,000 data points per mile, which allow researchers to learn a great deal about traffic patterns and other trends. “Mobility in the future won’t be driven by any one mode,” he said. “There are some really exciting opportunities on the horizon with connected autonomous vehicles. I think the Express Lanes concept offers a jumping-off point for whatever technology comes.”

In March, Transurban pulled out of a $5 billion toll road project, the planned expansion of the 10-lane American Legion Bridge that connects Maryland with Virginia over the Potomac River.

Pierce Coffee, Transurban’s previous North American president, also left in March after serving as its top U.S. executive since 2021. Former Chief Finance Officer Michael Discenza served as acting president before Memory came on board in November. Discenza left Transurban in November.

“Beau brings a deep understanding of toll roads, the broader transport industry, strategy development and public policy,” Transurban CEO Michelle Jablko said in a statement. “He has experience working with a variety of stakeholders including federal and state legislators and various communities to deliver complex major projects and innovations that benefit customers.”

Gov. proposes $90M to launch ‘Va. Research Triangle’

In a preview of his 2024-26 proposed budget, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Monday that he is including $90 million in one-time funds to create “Virginia’s Research Triangle,” a network between the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech to build collaboration in biotechnology, life sciences and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Youngkin’s biennial budget plan will include $50 million for U.Va.’s Manning Institute for Biotechnology, $27 million for Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and $13 million for VCU’s Medicines for All Institute, according to the announcement. The three institutions must first sign a memorandum of understanding with the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority and each other before receiving the money.

Youngkin plans to unveil his budget proposal Dec. 20, and the Virginia General Assembly will take up the plan and make its own adjustments next year, before returning the budget to the governor for his signature. The General Assembly’s 2024 regular session starts Jan. 10, 2024, although typically lawmakers call a special session in the spring to finalize the budget.

“Today’s investment announcement lays the groundwork for remarkable startup innovation and commercialization that interconnects Charlottesville, the greater Richmond area, Roanoke and the New River Valley. Through this state commitment and private philanthropy, we are building Virginia’s research triangle and network, supporting our higher education institutions’ research endeavors, and expanding Virginia’s university research capacity that will enhance life-saving research development for generations to come,” Youngkin said in a statement. “My administration is committed to building Virginia’s research engine for the future and creating high-paying jobs in the process.”

The governor’s announcement comes shortly after the groundbreaking ceremony for the $350 million Manning Institute in Charlottesville, in which the state already invested $50 million, along with $150 million from U.Va. and $100 million from donors Paul and Diane Manning, who made the donation in January. Dr. Craig Kent, CEO of UVA Health, said in January the institute could help Virginia compete with other U.S. biotech hubs, including North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

VCU’s Medicines for All Institute is already a key part of Petersburg’s pharmaceutical industry hub, which has received federal funding to manufacture more medications domestically. Drug manufacturers started moving production abroad decades ago, leading to national security concerns and supply chain issues in recent years.

In Roanoke, the Fralin Institute is the home of biomedical research scientists in different fields; in September, a foundation established by the estate of Richmond philanthropist Bill Goodwin’s late son, Hunter, gave the institute $50 million to support cancer and neuroscience research.

Youngkin said in his announcement that VIPA will help bring the three institutes’ biotech innovations to market faster and will provide startup support.

“Innovation is at the heart of a thriving economy and the commonwealth of Virginia,” VIPA President Joseph Benevento said in a statement. “Today’s landmark investment announced by Gov. Youngkin will help accelerate university collaboration and elevate Virginia’s leadership in the critical biotech, life sciences and pharmaceutical manufacturing health sectors.”

A British invasion at Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum

This week, Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney’s photography exhibit makes the second stop on its global magical mystery tour, with the show’s U.S. debut at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk. Museum officials say attendance is expected to be higher than any previous exhibit at the 90-year-old Chrysler, with inquiries coming from across the country.

“Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm,” an exhibition of about 250 photos and video footage taken by McCartney during the height of Beatlemania in late 1963 and early 1964, will open to the public at Chrysler on Thursday and run through April 7, 2024. The show’s world debut took place June through Oct. 1 at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

The exhibit’s three-month run in London drew more than 110,000 visitors, according to Sarah Brown, McCartney’s photographic curator and archivist. By comparison, 190,000 visitors toured the Chrysler during all of 2022.

Among the photos that will be on display are behind-the-scenes glimpses of McCartney and his bandmates — John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr — during three months of travels in the United Kingdom, the United States and France, as the four young musicians saw their fandom expand from their native England to the U.S. in February 1964, when they performed on “The Ed Sullivan Show” for two weeks to shrieking fans, ushering in the British Invasion to 73 million TV viewers.

Within months, their fame was worldwide, and the Beatles toured globally through 1966, when they abandoned the road for the studio, recording increasingly ambitious and innovative albums that included “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Abbey Road.” In 1970, the Beatles broke up and embarked on solo careers.

In November, McCartney’s pictures, which were in storage for nearly 60 years and had not previously been publicly displayed, landed in Norfolk, where they’ll remain through April 7. McCartney’s photographic curator and archivist, Sarah Brown, collaborated with Lloyd DeWitt, the Chrysler’s senior curator, on placement of the photos at the Norfolk museum, which opens the exhibit to the public Thursday. Members of the museum will have the chance Tuesday and Wednesday to catch a preview of the show, and members of the media toured the exhibit Monday.

From left, Chrysler Museum of Art Senior Curator Lloyd DeWitt, Macon and Joan Brock Director Erik Neil, and Sarah Brown, Paul McCartney’s photographic curator and archivist, at the Chrysler exhibit of “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm” opening Dec. 7, 2023.

McCartney’s photos — mainly in black and white until the band arrived in Miami in February 1964, when McCartney used color film to capture blue skies and the ocean — also show a snowy White House in Washington, D.C., teens chasing the Beatles’ car, portraits of police officers and a railroad worker, as well as fellow performers on their 1964 U.S. tour. A handful of McCartney’s photos chosen specifically for the U.S. exhibit show American artists that include Clarence “Frogman” Henry and Jackie DeShannon.

As for attendance expectations, “that is a million-dollar question,” said Erik Neil, Macon and Joan Brock director and president of the art museum. “We haven’t put on a show like this. But I expect that we will get tens of thousands. We’ve got interest from all over the country, like we never have [before], because of such widespread attention given to this material.” The museum ordered about 1,000 books depicting about 275 of McCartney’s photos.

The U.S. exhibit is timed to the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ Sullivan appearances, and the Chrysler will host a special event Feb. 9, 2024, for museum members. According to Brown, McCartney personally chose music to be played at the event, and he also has curated five films to be screened on Wednesdays beginning Jan. 24, 2024, at the Naro Extended Cinema in Norfolk. The musician also had close oversight of the exhibit, choosing which photos to display and contributing quotes that describe the experience of the Beatles’ breakout in the U.S. DeWitt noted that because the photos hadn’t been displayed before this year, the prints were brand new and, in some cases, large enough to see details of large crowds gathered to see the band.

In 2020, McCartney rediscovered about 1,000 photos he had taken with a 35-millimeter camera while preparing for an exhibit of his late wife Linda McCartney’s photos.

Fixing a hole

So, how did the Chrysler get the gig, you may be asking? It was partly luck, Neil said. “We had an unusual opening, [a show] we had slotted in here [that] we had to push back for completely extraneous reasons,” Neil explained to Virginia Business. Casting about for a possible replacement, the McCartney exhibit “came across our desk,” Neil said. “Things opened up, and we said, ‘Oh yeah, that’s great. Let’s go get that.'”

McCartney’s representatives had reached out to the museum about a year ago, which is considered fairly late notice in the museum world, Neil noted, and the final contract was signed about six months ago. Usually special exhibits at larger museums are booked at least two years out, “or even further,” up to four years.

Even with the opening in its schedule, the Chrysler still needed to raise money to bring in the exhibit. Speaking in late November, Neil said he was still seeking donations and had not yet determined what the actual cost of the exhibit would be. “We will not know the exact cost of this exhibition until a lot of things are worked out … and [that] depends a little bit on what other venues there might be and what costs would be shared.”

McCartney, a committed vegetarian and environmental activist, placed some restrictions on the financial backing for the exhibit — including no sponsorships from fossil fuel companies, said Neil, who was able to get some past museum donors on board to help with costs, as well as assistance from the museum’s Horace W. Goldsmith Special Exhibitions Endowment. He declined to name individuals as he was still finalizing the sponsorships for the show, which will be free to all visitors. “That was one thing that I know was appealing to the McCartney team — that we are free,” Neil noted.

There’s no word whether Sir Paul will come to Norfolk during the exhibit’s stay. The 81-year-old musician is on tour in Brazil through Dec. 16, although he doesn’t have any dates for 2024 listed yet.

Neil, whose favorite Beatles song is “Blackbird,” says the museum has extended an invitation to McCartney. Hopefully Sir Paul can work it out.

Stoney declares candidacy for Va. governor

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney declared his candidacy for governor Monday, setting up an early contest with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who announced her own run for the Democratic nomination last month. The general election will take place in November 2025.

If elected, he would be Virginia’s second Black governor, more than 30 years after the historic election of Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.

Stoney, who was elected to his first term as mayor in 2016 and re-elected in 2020, filed his paperwork last week for the Democratic gubernatorial race and had spoken about his plans to run earlier in November. In his announcement released Monday morning, Stoney tells his life story. Raised in York County by his father and grandmother in a “working poor family,” Stoney says he was the first member of his family to graduate from high school and then graduated from James Madison University, where he received a degree in public administration and political science.

He served as Virginia’s first Black secretary of the commonwealth under Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who prioritized restoring voting rights to Virginians convicted of felonies. Stoney said in his announcement that he helped restore the right to vote to nearly 200,000 people during his time in McAuliffe’s administration, which ended in 2018. Stoney resigned as secretary after launching his campaign to become Richmond’s mayor in 2016, and became the city’s youngest elected mayor at age 35.

Stoney’s tenure as mayor has been mixed, as major economic development projects he supported failed — the $1.5 billion Navy Hill development, proposed to replace the now-shuttered Richmond Coliseum, was spiked by Richmond City Council in early 2020 after strong community opposition, and a $562 million casino referendum was defeated a second time by Richmond voters last month.

Despite the faltering of those projects, Stoney’s administration has moved forward with the Diamond District, a $2.44 billion project to replace the city’s baseball stadium, home to the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels team, as well as add two hotels, 3,000 residential units, 935,000 square feet of office space, and 195,000 square feet of retail and community space. The new stadium is expected to open in spring 2026, a year after a deadline set by Major League Baseball for all Minor League facilities to meet new standards.

Meanwhile, the city’s Economic Development Authority and the Greater Richmond Convention Center Authority have selected four development teams that will compete to redesign the 9.4-acre downtown site that includes the Coliseum, although the city declared a concert venue will not be built there.

In 2020, Stoney received praise from some quarters for removing Richmond’s Confederate statues on Monument Avenue, following large racial justice protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020 in Minneapolis. That summer, Richmond was the site of daily protests, including one in which police tear-gassed a crowd of protesters at the former Robert E. Lee monument.

Stoney, who spoke against police brutality in the days following Floyd’s murder while also standing with Richmond’s police, faced local anger after the tear-gassing incident, which ultimately ended in a civil rights lawsuit against city police. In 2022, the suit was settled for an undisclosed amount.

The mayor’s announcement for governor highlights the building of new city schools, creating a budget surplus and reducing the poverty rate by 22% during his tenure. In March, Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building reported that the overall poverty rate in the city was 19.8%, and according to the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey, about 21% of children in Richmond and 21.4% of Latinos were living below the poverty line in 2021, about half the number recorded in 2012.

In addition to serving as mayor and secretary of the commonwealth, Stoney was president of the Democratic Mayors Alliance and served as executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia. In 2022, he married Brandy Washington, a manager of Altria Group, and in Monday’s announcement, Stoney says they are expecting their first child, a girl, this spring.

Although Spanberger and Stoney are the only two gubernatorial candidates who have officially launched campaigns for 2025, on the Republican side, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Attorney Gen. Jason Miyares are likely candidates. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is barred from seeking consecutive terms under Virginia law. Spanberger has received significant endorsements since declaring, including from former Gov. Ralph Northam and former U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, a member of the state’s more progressive Democratic wing.

GSA inspector general to probe FBI HQ site selection

Three weeks after U.S. Sen. Mark Warner lambasted a decision to place the FBI headquarters in Maryland instead of Springfield as “corrupt,” the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. General Services Administration said Thursday it would launch an investigation immediately, according to a letter made public by Warner’s office.

In the letter dated Nov. 30, acting Inspector Gen. Robert Erickson wrote that his office “is initiating an evaluation of GSA’s selection of the site. Our objective will be to assess the agency’s process and procedures for the site selection to relocate the FBI headquarters.”

The probe comes after Warner, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and almost all of Virginia’s congressional delegation — as well as FBI director Christopher Wray — all raised concerns about the GSA’s decision to build a new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland, on land owned by the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority.

Although Warner, a Democrat who serves as chairman of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, and Kaine expressed disappointment on Nov. 8 when the GSA’s choice was made public, his tone changed to anger by the next morning. Early on Nov. 9, Wray sent an email to the entire FBI workforce raising concerns that a former political appointee to the GSA who previously worked at WMATA had overridden the recommendation of a three-person panel — including two longtime GSA officials and one career FBI official — that the FBI headquarters be placed in Springfield, in southern Fairfax County, on property owned by the GSA.

Upon reading a draft of the GSA executive’s report, FBI officials “expressed concern that elements of the site selection plan were not followed,” Wray wrote. “In particular, the FBI observed that, at times, outside information was inserted into the process in a manner which appeared to disproportionately favor Greenbelt, and the justifications for the departures from the panel were varied and inconsistent.” He also wrote that FBI officials “raised a serious concern about the appearance of a lack of impartiality by the GSA senior executive, given the executive’s previous professional affiliation with the owner of the selected site.”

According to an Engineering News-Record article, Nina M. Albert, WMATA’s former top real estate official, was appointed commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service in 2021 by the Biden White House. However, Albert left the GSA and became Washington, D.C.’s deputy mayor of planning and economic development in October, according to The Washington Post. Wray did not include Albert’s name in his email.

In the hours after Wray sent his email, Kaine, Warner, Youngkin and U.S. Reps. Don Beyer, Gerry Connolly, Jen Kiggans, Jennifer McClellan, Bobby Scott, Abigail Spanberger, Jennifer Wexton and Rob Wittman sent out a statement condemning “political interference” in the site selection decision. Warner went on to say during a news conference later that day that he was “shocked” at Wray’s email and called the override of the panel’s recommendation “outrageous. This whole process needs to be thrown out and restarted.”

On Nov. 15, the same group of Virginia congressional lawmakers, with the addition of U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, wrote to the GSA’s Office of the Inspector General to request an investigation into the selection process, arguing that the GSA “administered a site selection process fouled by political considerations and alleged impropriety – one that was repeatedly curated to arrive at a predetermined outcome.”

The letter continues, stating that the political appointee, again unnamed in the elected officials’ letter, “promptly left the federal government” after directing that the FBI headquarters be built in Maryland, “implicating Congress’s ability to engage with this individual in an oversight capacity. In defending the indefensible, GSA has decided to proceed with the selection of Greenbelt over the objections of its client agency, the FBI. These facts, when taken together, paint an ugly picture of a fatally flawed procurement that demands further investigation.”

Thursday, after receiving Erickson’s letter confirming the investigation, the same group of Virginia congressional leaders issued a statement praising the decision: “We applaud the inspector general for moving quickly and encourage him to move forward to complete a careful and thorough review. In the meantime, the GSA must pause all activities related to the relocation until the IG’s investigation is complete.”

The director of communications at Albert’s office said Thursday they had no comment at this time.

The new FBI headquarters would replace the aging J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in Washington, D.C. A second location in Prince George’s County, Maryland, was under consideration in addition to the Greenbelt and Springfield properties. In the past two years, the Springfield site has been promoted by Kaine, Warner and Youngkin as a natural fit for the headquarters, where between 750 and 1,000 people would work, due to its proximity to the FBI’s Quantico training facility and other intelligence sites. The project also is expected to bring thousands of other jobs and an economic boost to the region.

100 People to Meet in 2024

Virginia is full of interesting people, and when it comes to this year’s batch of 100 people to meet for 2024, the commonwealth continues to deliver a bevy of fascinating newsmakers, professionals and go-getters worthy of your valuable networking time.

In Virginia Business’ fifth annual list of people to meet in the new year, you’ll find up-and-coming entrepreneurs, influential attorneys, nonprofit leaders, educators and health care executives. And in addition to people you’d expect to see in the pages of a business magazine, you’ll also find some extraordinary folks to get to know: two best-selling novelists, a popular Minor League Baseball announcer, a Netflix-famous true crime podcaster, a viral country music sensation and a TikToker famous for imitating German film director Werner Herzog.

You’ll definitely find some people here you’ll want to introduce yourself to in 2024. As always, you can break the ice by saying you read about them in Virginia Business.

Find their profiles in the below categories:

Angels

Builders

Educators

Go-Getters

Hosts

Impact Makers

Innovators

New Folks

Public Faces

Rainmakers

Storytellers

Warner condemns FBI HQ site selection as ‘corrupt’

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner said Nov. 9 that the General Services Administration’s selection of Greenbelt, Maryland, instead of Fairfax County for the new FBI headquarters was a “corrupt” process, and that he expected better from the Biden administration.

Warner’s comments followed an email that day from FBI Director Christopher Wray to the agency’s entire workforce, saying that a former political appointee to the GSA overrode a three-person panel’s unanimous recommendation to build the FBI’s new headquarters in Springfield.

In a bipartisan statement, Warner, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and almost all of Virginia’s congressional delegation called for a reversal of the decision, condemning “political interference” in the site selection.

The location for the new headquarters, replacing the FBI’s aging J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., has long been under discussion, with Virginia and Maryland officials competing for the new office, which is expected to bring in 750 to 1,000 jobs and an economic boost.

In a two-part site selection process, two career GSA officials and a longtime FBI official evaluated two locations in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and a location in Springfield, and the panelists unanimously recommended 58 acres in Springfield already owned by the GSA. However, during the second phase of site selection, a senior GSA executive appointed by the White House recommended the Maryland site.

Wray wrote in his email that upon reading a draft of that GSA executive’s report, FBI officials “expressed concern that elements of the site selection plan were not followed. In particular, the FBI observed that, at times, outside information was inserted into the process in a manner which appeared to disproportionately favor Greenbelt.”

FBI officials “raised a serious concern about the appearance of a lack of impartiality by the GSA senior executive,” Wray wrote. Without naming the executive, he noted that the person had worked for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which owns the Greenbelt property.

Nina M. Albert, WMATA’s former top real estate official, was named commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service in 2021. However, Albert left the GSA in October and is now Washington, D.C.’s deputy mayor of planning and economic development. Albert’s representative did not return messages seeking comment.

Warner said he and other officials will call on the Biden administration for a general inspector review. “This whole process needs to be thrown out and restarted.”

A longer version of this story ran online on Nov. 9.

Pot of gold

Placing aside the morality of marijuana use, let’s consider how much money Virginia is currently leaving on the table without a regulated, taxed recreational cannabis market.

In 2020, directed by the Virginia General Assembly, which was then under Democratic control, the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission conducted a study on legalizing marijuana in Virginia.

If commercial recreational sales of marijuana were legalized and taxed at 20% to 25%, JLARC estimated the state would reap between $147 million and $300 million in annual net tax revenue. (Some legislators would likely push for lower taxes, which would persuade more marijuana users to move away from the black market, experts say.)

Legalization is also popular with voters; 60% of Virginia voters polled this year by Christopher Newport University support allowing retail sales of recreational marijuana, including 44% of Republicans polled.

Currently, Virginia’s cannabis laws sit in a gray area: We have licensed dispensaries of medical marijuana, and it’s legal now to possess small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. But that leaves a giant black market that may amount to as much as $2.4 billion in marijuana sales in the commonwealth for 2023, estimates New Frontier Data, a Washington, D.C.-based data and analytics firm focused on the cannabis industry. By contrast, Virginia’s three operating casinos reported about $407 million in total revenue between January and October, according to the Virginia Lottery.

We can’t say for sure that legal recreational cannabis sales to adults would immediately pull that entire $2.4 billion away from black market sources, but it indicates a massive amount of potential untaxed revenue if Virginia legislators and Gov. Glenn Youngkin do nothing to regulate cannabis during the 2024 General Assembly session.

Although Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Joseph Guthrie said in July that Youngkin was “not interested” in further legalization, Youngkin has not made any definitive public pronouncements — however, he is viewed as having worked behind the scenes to scuttle legislation legalizing retail sales of marijuana.

In the 2023 session, the GOP-controlled House of Delegates killed Republican- and Democrat-sponsored bills that would have set up a regulatory structure for retail sales in 2024. The Cannabis Control Authority, which will regulate the state’s medical marijuana industry beginning in January, saw its operations budget cut by $2.9 million to $5.3 million.

In February, VPM quoted the governor as saying that the matter is up to state legislators: “They’ve got to go do the work.”

So, where are state legislators on this? Gentry Locke Consulting President Greg Habeeb, a former Republican state delegate who now represents the Virginia Cannabis Association as a lobbyist, says conditions may be right for passage of legalized retail sales, with Democrats holding narrow majorities in both chambers.

Although Youngkin — who is rumored to be interested in running against U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine in 2024 — would not want a metaphorical scarlet pot leaf hung around his neck by other Republican senatorial contenders, he has a rhetorical defense for further legalization, Habeeb notes.

Possession of small amounts of cannabis is already legal in Virginia, as are sales for medical use. Youngkin could argue that allowing recreational sales to adults in regulated, licensed dispensaries — instead of illegally through black market dealers — is part of his public safety mandate, similar to his administration’s support of hemp regulation and enforcement.

One shortcut toward creating a state-regulated retail structure would be to allow the four companies already holding medical marijuana licenses to expand into recreational sales.

Also, there’s the question of social justice. In 2020, Virginia Democrats put forward the idea that people who were disproportionately harmed by arrests and convictions under earlier cannabis laws — mainly people of color — should benefit financially through legalization and licensing. To many Republicans, that sounded a lot like reparations, a controversial idea that would be difficult to pass under any circumstances in Virginia. But now, there’s more talk about changing legislative and policy language to focus on the “economic opportunity” around cannabis. Bipartisan retail cannabis bills that failed in the 2023 General Assembly session are expected to be refiled for the 2024 session, which convenes Jan. 10, 2024.

Even with Democrats once again in control of the state legislature, it’s likely to come down to Youngkin’s calculations and veto power.

No dice: Casino referendum fails again

Richmond’s do-over casino referendum failed at the ballot box Nov. 7 by a much larger margin than the city’s first casino referendum did in 2021, as roughly 61% of Richmond voters rejected the proposed $562 million Richmond Grand Resort & Casino.

Leading up to the election, the casino’s corporate backers, Urban One and Churchill Downs, sank more than $10 million into advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts, including a free Isley Brothers concert next to an early voting polling place and free food truck meals for voters.

“We are proud to have run a community-centered campaign to create more opportunities for residents of this great city to rise into the middle class,” pro-casino PAC Richmond Wins, Vote Yes said in a statement after the referendum’s defeat.

With 72 precincts reporting, 39,768 Richmonders voted against the casino and 24,765 voted for it, a 61.62% to 38.38% margin, according to the Virginia Department of Elections. By comparison, the 2021 casino referendum failed by fewer than 1,500 votes, with 40,243 voters, or 50.95%, rejecting it.

With a budget just below $200,000, casino opponents made their cause visible with yard signs and letters to city residents, as well as an airplane flying over the Richmond Folk Festival in October with a banner reading “VOTE NO CASINO … AGAIN.”

“The people of Richmond have made the following clear: You can’t build a new city on old resentments. For too long, the politics of Richmond has been controlled by politicians and their allies who put their own self-interest before the public interest,” said Paul Goldman, a key casino opponent and former campaign manager for Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.

In the immediate days before the election, controversy erupted as casino proponents were dogged by reports of antisemitic and racially insensitive speech on Urban One-owned radio stations in Richmond, leading to a guest host being banned and Urban One issuing a public apology.

Several prominent Richmond organizations endorsed the casino proposal, including ChamberRVA, the Metropolitan Business League, Richmond Region Tourism, the Richmond NAACP and several local union chapters.

The proposed casino would have included a 250-room hotel, a 3,000-seat concert venue and a soundstage where Urban One pledged to invest $50 million over 10 years. Casino backers estimated that the project would have created 1,300 permanent jobs and generated $30 million in annual tax revenue.

A longer version of this story ran online on Nov. 7.

Democrats sweep Va. General Assembly

Democrats regained control of the General Assembly in the Nov. 7 elections, likely putting a damper on Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s legislative agenda and potential 2024 presidential aspirations. Democrats won 21 out of 40 seats in the Virginia State Senate and 51 seats out of 100 in the House of Delegates, which has been held by Republicans for the past two years.

This electoral outcome will likely prevent Youngkin from passing most of his agenda, including placing a 15-week limit on abortions, which was a significant issue for many voters, particularly Democrats and women. It may also at least temporarily lessen his national standing, as Youngkin failed to deliver a red wave as he did during his 2021 election, which saw Republicans elected to the state’s top three offices and the GOP take control of the House.

The election also sets up Virginia House Minority Leader Don Scott Jr. of Portsmouth to become the first Black speaker of the House in the Virginia legislature’s 400-plus-year history, replacing GOP Speaker Todd Gilbert, who has presided over the House of Delegates since January 2022.

In a Nov. 8 news conference, Youngkin downplayed his party’s disappointing results and noted the General Assembly’s recent history of changes in party control. “I think what that reflects is that we are a state that is very comfortable working together, working across party lines to get things done.”

Virginia’s blue wave followed a national trend, as Ohio voters approved ballot measures guaranteeing abortion access and legalizing recreational marijuana use. Meanwhile, in Kentucky, voters granted a second term to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who had campaigned on making Kentucky’s abortion laws less restrictive.

Virginia voters went to the polls Nov. 7 to fill all 140 General Assembly seats. Many candidates were new faces or, at least, less experienced than those who previously filled the legislature, thanks to a December 2021 redistricting that redrew political districts without prioritizing residential addresses of incumbents. That led to an unprecedented wave of retirements and some primary defeats of longtime legislators.

Democrats came up victorious in some of the most hotly contested races.

In Loudoun and Fauquier counties, Democrat Russet Perry, a former CIA officer and prosecutor, won Senate District 31, defeating Republican Juan Pablo Segura, a health care tech entrepreneur who founded a local doughnut chain.

Del. Danica Roem, who was the nation’s first openly transgender state lawmaker, was elected to the state Senate for the 30th District seat in Manassas and part of Prince William County, defeating Republican candidate Bill Woolf, formerly a Fairfax County police detective.

In another key seat, Democratic Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg defeated incumbent Republican state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant in Senate District 16 in western Henrico County.

However, Republican David Owen won with 51.2% of the vote over Democrat Susanna Gibson in House District 57 in western Henrico and Goochland counties, a race that received national attention following revelations that Gibson had performed sex acts with her husband on a live streaming pornography website while soliciting tips from viewers.

With issues such as parental influence in schools, reproductive rights, cannabis retail sales and corporate tax cuts in the balance, Democratic- and Republican-affiliated PACs sank millions into legislative campaigns this year. According to an Associated Press story, by early November, General Assembly candidates brought in record amounts of cash, with Senate candidates raising $80.8 million, compared with $53.6 million at the same point in 2019, and House candidates raising $77.5 million, compared with $67.5 million in 2019.

Both Republicans and Democrats emphasized the historic nature of the election, which could determine the state’s abortion, clean energy, education and tax policies for decades to come — although the parties differ widely on their overall goals.

Voting in Loudoun, retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Steven Ritz said although he’s ordinarily a Republican, he voted for Democrat Perry because he felt the GOP has strayed from the party it used to be, which he deemed “fiscally conservative, [but] not rabid.”

And at a western Henrico polling place, Pilates instructor Angie Madison, a self-described independent who votes depending on the issues, said she voted for Democratic candidates in the Nov. 7 elections. “I’m trying to do my part by voting Democratic and trying to vote for abortion rights and all that stuff,” she said. “It feels like we’re going back in time versus forward in time, so I want to go forward in time.”