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Former Va. Gov. Jim Gilmore, says Ukraine invasion starts global struggle with authoritarianism
The unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine marks the start of a 100-year global struggle between the forces of authoritarianism and the democratic nations of the world, former Virginia Gov. and U.S. emissary to Europe Jim Gilmore said Thursday. “This is a long war that is ahead of us here. I’m not talking about the Ukrainian […]
Youngkin may have White House dreams. But it’s been a while since a Va. governor made the leap.
It’s a familiar script. Virginia elects a new governor who, in our off-off-year cycles, briefly captures half the nation’s imagination and becomes the hottest new thing since clip-on neckties. But it takes on even greater breathlessness when the new governor bursts onto the scene seemingly from nowhere to upset a towering politico with national stature […]
Gambling grab for Va.’s iconic slogan is distasteful. But is a state law necessary?
News item: A Virginia senator pushes legislation to prohibit gambling companies from ripping off the commonwealth’s universally recognized, trademarked tourism marketing pitch line, “Virginia is for Lovers.” The story left me torn, as I suspect was true for a lot of Virginians. Bookmakers and casino operators had bastardized the commonwealth’s 53-year-old slogan with “Virginia is […]
Newbie governors with no governing experience face a steep learning curve
There ought to be a crash course – an orientation of sorts – for guys like Glenn Youngkin who get elected governor having never spent a moment in elective public office. It’s almost unfair. Youngkin, a Republican, came to office like Mark Warner, 20 years before him, and Terry McAuliffe, the former governor he defeated […]
In a time of plenty, can we spare a little more to modernize Virginia infrastructure?
It’s rare that Virginia’s governors and budget writers have the luxury to look over a state treasury flush with cash and struggle to figure out how to spend it all. Maybe while it’s top-of-mind, just a thought: Pour as much as you can into modernizing Virginia’s public infrastructure. Consider for a moment: revenues that feed […]
‘Eating our seed corn’: Struggling young workers, our economic backbone, need help
You don’t have to get out much to know that our commonwealth and our nation aren’t doing so well. You see it in the volatile stock markets, as fickle and easily spooked as a school of minnows, with freak-show dips and rebounds in just one day’s session. You see it in the supermarkets, with some […]
Bipartisanship in Richmond: Is that even a realistic expectation?
Can we just agree that we can’t agree? Can we just acknowledge that the passing, oblique nod to the ideal of finding common cause in Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 27-minute inaugural address was already a punch line before the bleachers and bunting on the Capitol steps came down that day? The partisan back-biting and recriminations […]
Going to jail for giving someone the finger? Mattaponi governance dispute deepens.
What if you could do time for flipping somebody off? It’s not a classy move, but the middle-finger salute has been deemed by the courts as free expression protected by the First Amendment. When Steven Custalow was accused of doing it a month ago to the chief of the Mattaponi Indian Reservation, it landed him […]
The strange, roller-coaster term of Virginia’s improbable governor, Ralph Northam
Happy trails, Governor Northam. By the end of this week, the strange, improbable four-year tour of Virginia’s 73rd governor, His Excellency Ralph Shearer Northam, will be over. In a time-honored ceremony on Saturday morning, surrounded by living former governors dressed befitting a high-society church wedding, the mild-mannered Eastern Shore-raised country doctor who ambled into the […]
Four ways Virginia can make 2022 better than 2020 or 2021
It wouldn’t take a huge leap for 2022 to be better than either of the past two years. Let’s face it, 2020 and 2021 set the bar pretty low. In Virginia, I grant you, we have dodged the tribulations of many sister states. The West, particularly California, suffered fires that left thousands homeless and charred […]
The window is there to return to bi-partisan compromise in 2022. Just don’t hold your breath.
The year 2021 was only six days old when it tipped its hand to the sort of politically riven year it would be. Thousands of violent apostles of defeated President Donald Trump tried (and failed) to end nearly 250 years of American democracy by commandeering Congress’s constitutional duty to count the nation’s electoral votes that […]
Northam’s loaded legacy budget co-opts Youngkin, dispenses holiday sugar plums
What better way to get the Yule season rolling than playing Santa Claus, as Virginia’s lame-duck governor, Ralph Northam, is doing? His jolly old excellency has been popping up everywhere, promising hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of sugar plums that he’s embedded into his proposed $158 billion biennial state budget that’s improbably flush with […]