Sunday, March 17, 2013
Does the commonwealth need another name on the ballot?
Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling took himself out of Virginia's race for governor last week, leaving, at least for now, what's shaping up to be a two-person race. The choice for the Old Dominion's next governor, seven months before Election Day, seems to have boiled down to presumptive Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli, the state's socially conservative attorney general, against likely Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a McLean businessman. The Republican Party of Virginia will hold its convention on May 17 and 18 in Richmond to formally select its nominee. Democrats go to the polls on June 11 to cast their ballots in several races, including governor and lieutenant governor. …
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Terry McAuliffe said he disagreed with parts of bill but thought supporting the compromise that passed the Senate on Saturday was crucial.
The former chairman of the Democratic National Committee came to Arlington on Tuesday to praise the work of Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell. Terry McAuliffe, the Democrat hoping to succeed McDonnell, said he spent hours on the phone calling members of both parties urging them to support a transportation compromise, which ultimately passed this weekend in the hours before the 2013 General Assembly session ended. "When you work on these major projects, it's not about a partisan agenda," McAuliffe told about a half-dozen reporters at a news conference on the 15th floor of the Sheraton Pentagon City. "This was a big deal. Was this a legacy item for Governor McDonnell? You bet it was." The event was designed to paint Republican Attorney General …
Friday, February 22, 2013
Bill aiming to build consensus around Gov. Bob McDonnell's plan to bring $3 billion to transportation projects met with mixed reviews.
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Friday, February 22
By Whitney Spicer Capital News Service Critics of the transportation funding compromise reached by legislative negotiators say the plan would place a huge burden on Virginia taxpayers. The Virginia House of Delegates on Friday passed House Bill 2313, which would raise about $900 million a year for transportation and transit projects. The 98-page compromise must win approval the Senate before it can be signed into law by the governor. The legislative session ends Saturday. The new plan, which was hammered out by a 10-member conference committee over the past week, would potentially raise close to $900 million a year in transportation revenue. It could be the first transportation funding overhaul in Virginia since 1986 if it passes. The …
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Bill would impose harsher penalties, make texting while driving a primary offense.
A bill that would impose tougher penalties on those convicted of texting while driving cleared the state Senate on Tuesday and now heads to the desk of Gov. Bob McDonnell. The bill increases the fine to $250 — up from $20 — for the first texting-while-driving offense and $500 for each subsequent conviction. It also makes texting while driving an aggravating circumstance to reckless driving, and so anyone convicted of such would face a mandatory minimum $500 penalty if they were texting while they were driving recklessly. Texting while driving would also become a primary offense, which means police can stop someone on the suspicion that a driver is texting; current law allows police to charge someone with texting while driving only if they'…
Monday, February 18, 2013
Governor sends letter to president, congressional delegation.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on Monday sent a letter to President Barack Obama and the Old Dominion's congressional delegation calling for immediate action to prevent automatic spending cuts under sequestration. The $1.2 trillion in cuts — meant to force Congress to compromise, which hasn't happened — are slated to go into effect March 1. That deadline has been pushed back several times as lawmakers have brokered Band-Aid solutions. "The automatic sequestration reductions mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 are already having a significant adverse effect on the Commonwealth," McDonnell stated. "When fully implemented, they could force Virginia and other states into a recession. Sequestration-mandated reductions will be implemented …
Monday, January 7, 2013
County's legislative delegation heads to Richmond as 'underdogs' in Virginia General Assembly.
Virginia lawmakers who represent Arlington in Richmond have another tough year ahead of them. The county's seven-member legislative delegation — Sens. Janet Howell, Barbara Favola and Adam Ebbin, plus Dels. Bob Brink, Patrick Hope, Alfonso Lopez and freshman Rob Krupicka, all Democrats — spent three hours Friday night listening to a long list of concerns and requests from individuals and organizations. Overwhelmingly, people asked legislators to bolster funding for social safety net programs, particularly in the realms of mental health, substance abuse, developmental disabilities and brain injuries. They asked, too, that the delegation work to expand Medicaid and implement the Affordable Care Act in Virginia, including establishing an …
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Virginia's lieutenant governor made the announcement Wednesday morning.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling announced Wednesday morning that he is hanging his hat up in the race for governor, likely to clear the way for Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, to win the Republican nomination. “For the past seven years I have had the honor of serving as Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor and it had been my intention to seek the Republican Party’s nomination for Governor in 2013,” he said in a statement Wednesday morning. “However, not everything we want in life is meant to be.” Bolling cited a change in the nomination process as his reason for dropping out. In the past, nominees were chosen in a statewide primary, but the 2013 candidates will be chosen at a party convention. “I reluctantly concluded that the decision to …
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Politico reports that McAuliffe announced his intentions to his supporters in an email Thursday.
Just days after the presidential campaign season ended, another campaign is about to gear up. McLean resident Terry McAuliffe announced Thursday he intends to run for governor of Virginia in 2013, when Gov. Bob McDonnell's term ends, Politico reports. McAuliffe, the former DNC chairman and co-chair of Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, wrote in an email to supporters on Thursday: "I realize that after any election some people’s immediate question is about the next campaign. I want to be straightforward with you: I plan on running for Governor of Virginia in 2013. Over the past four years, I’ve traveled to every corner of Virginia for over 2,400 meetings and events. It is absolutely clear to me that Virginians want their next …
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The governor said power should be restored to all Dominion customers by Thursday.
Gov. Bob McDonnell said in his final press briefing for Hurricane Sandy that Virginia was "spared a significant event." “First responders and private partners, they have really done an amazing job preparing for the storm and applying lessons learned from previous storms and putting in an incredible amount of hours,” McDonnell said. McDonnell cited concerns about rivers cresting as flood waters go into the major arteries, and he expected an update on that later Tuesday. Virginia was awarded a federal disaster declaration yesterday, said McDonnell, noting he was “delighted” that President Barack Obama and FEMA were on it immediately. "That is only for federal direct assistance to allow them to provide resources directly and as we do our …
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Courthouse-based tech startup hosted governor Wednesday.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell toured the Arlington-based tech startup Opower on Wednesday and asked what he could do to help attract and retain similar businesses — and got a fairly simple answer. "Just… more." The company's brain trust talked about how they compete with giants like Google and Facebook, about battling the perception that Northern Virginia tech jobs are exclusively with government contractors, about the need to create a culture of innovation and idea sharing. Located in the Courthouse neighborhood, Opower has about 200 employees at its Arlington headquarters. It has about another 70 in San Francisco and a small office in London. The tech startup's business model is based on the idea that the cheapest energy is the energy you …
Vasquez2
2:59 am on Monday, May 20, 2013
Wow, KEL, any credibility you might've had just went down the toilet with that post. more ›