Proposal for Virginia voters to register by party

 

dem repub 2

Dailypress.com:

Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William, wants voters to be able to register by political party.

He has proposed a bill that would add party affiliation to the information people are asked to provide when registering. People could say they are independents, as well.

The state party chairman of each political party would have to notify the State Board of Elections of the party rules governing who may participate in the party’s primaries.The bill is similar to ones introduced in 2012 by Del. James LeMunyon and Del. Timothy D Hugo, both Fairfax County Republicans. Their efforts died in the Privileges and Elections Committee, without a vote ever being taken.

Thumbs down.  Why does this seem like the Republicans love the plan?  Have you every heard a Democrat like this proposal?  How about Independents?  Something must be broken if the Republicans want to fix it.

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Too close to count in Virginia so let’s change the rules

Rachel Maddow traces the discovery of the missing ballots in Fairfax County, starting with Ben Tribbett’s declaration that it appeared that around 3,000 ballots were missing from District 8.   Ben Tribbett is the blogmeister of NotLarrySabato blog as well as a local democratic.

The real crime here is the way those provisional ballots have to be counted.  I have never heard of anyone having to go in person to defend their ballot.  Several facts remain clear.  Cuccinelli should have resigned as Attorney General.  There is simply too much room for conflict of interest, especially with some of his prior …well..no nice way to say this, conflict of interest.  He chose not to follow tradition and do the right thing.

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Virginia governor’s race analysis: Beware of unintended consequences

There are some interesting facts in this video. The most dangerous thing to either candidate is that each man’s respective base grow complacent and stay home.

With less than a month until the election, the heat is on for the heart and soul of the Old Dominion. I never like calling an election. I feel it jinxes things up. However, it might be a subtle reminder to those who want to play a little ‘war on women’ that there can be deadly electoral paybacks.

What the women don’t take care of, the shutdown will.  Unfortunately for Cuccinelli, the antics of his party have bled over into his campaign.  That actually seems a little unfair.  The banana republicans should have thought of that before trying to ignore rule of law.  Their attempt to play hardball to get their own way definitely has had unintended consequences.  The Cooch just might be one of those consequences.

E. W. Jackson: Listen up, those who “are engaged in some sort of false religion”

Washingtonpost.com:

At a morning sermon Sunday in Northern Virginia, Republican lieutenant governor  candidate E.W. Jackson, a Chesapeake pastor, said people who don’t follow Jesus Christ “are engaged in some sort of false religion.”

Jackson offered that view while describing a list of the “controversial” things he believes, and that must be said, as a Christian.

“Any time you say, ‘There is no other means of salvation but through Jesus Christ, and if you don’t know him and you don’t follow him and you don’t go through him, you are engaged in some sort of false religion,’ that’s controversial. But it’s the truth,” Jackson said, according to a recording of the sermon by a Democratic tracker. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me.’”

It is not the first time Jackson has weighed in with controversial comments on questions of faith and social issues. He has also said that gay people’s “minds are perverted. They are frankly very sick people psychologically and mentally and emotionally.”

The Web site of the Restoration Fellowship Church in Strasburg, where Jackson spoke Sunday, includes a recording of Jackson’s sermon. But a short section that included the “false religion” comment was missing from that part of the recording.

The church’s pastor, Jay Ahlemann, said he agrees with Jackson’s interpretation of scripture. He also said a member of his church staff told him nothing had been deleted from the recording.

People may believe what they want to believe, even snake handlers or those who practice Santeria.  However, how smart is it to make that kind of proclamation when you are running for lt. governor?

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Cuccinelli’s Achilles heel(s)

So is this a fair charge against Cuccinelli? Should he have spoken up for the Violence Against Women Act?

The Cooch also has other problems. His track record on reproductive rights is abysmal. He has his own watch group who tags along behind him called Cooch Watch. You can follow them on coochwatch.org.

He also has received more than $18,000 from Johnnie Williams. Supposedly his aids shielded him from much of what was going on with Governor McDonnell. That is sort of a non-excuse.   wesh i had thut of

To be a Virginian….

Washingtonpost.com:

Ken Cuccinelli II’s campaign likes to portray Terry McAuliffe as a Syracuse native whose outsize political ambition drove him to eye gubernatorial races in Florida and New York before he decided to run in Virginia.

“Unlike McAuliffe,” the Republican’s spokeswoman said at one point, “Cuccinelli is a product of Virginia.” Cuccinelli has hammered the same theme, saying his Democratic opponent “ didn’t show any interest in Virginia until he wanted to run for governor.”

In a contentious campaign five months before the election, Republicans are questioning McAuliffe’s connection to the state even as seismic demographic shifts have made defining an authentic Virginian a near-herculean task.

If the transient bureaucrat has replaced the tobacco farmer as the face of the commonwealth, the state’s gubernatorial race has become a test of whether Republicans can effectively cast McAuliffe as “an undocumented Virginian,” as state political analyst Robert Holsworth puts it.

Over the past century, the percentage of native-born residents has dropped at a faster pace in Virginia than anywhere else in the country. Today, a little less than half of Virginian’s population was born in the Old Dominion.

“A case could be made that an authentic Virginian these days is someone born outside of Virginia,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington. “Different parts of the state would have different ideas about what is authentic.”

From where I am sitting, I think both of them are carpet-baggers.   I can trace my Virginia ancesters back, by family name even, to the late 1600’s.  I can go back 7 or 8 generations in Albemarle County alone.  So can thousands of other Virginians.  Those old ancestors also would say I had turned Yankee, I am sure, for spending my life in Northern Virginia.  It’s all relative.   Then I have the other side of the family that no one knows much about.  (whispered voice:  they ARE Yankees)  My father was a Jersey boy who came to UVA back in the 30’s and worked his way through the University playing 3 sports per year.  (sort of like Cuccinelli came from NJ)

My husband is a Yankee who was born in Massachusetts and raised in Maryland.  He came to Virginia as a young adult.  No one is prouder of his Virginia ‘heritage’ than he is.  He probably wouldn’t like it that I just called him a Yankee.  Many years ago I gave him a set of cocktail napkins that said the following:

To be a Virginian either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one’s Mother’s side, is an Introduction to any State in the Union, a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above.”—Anonymous

Back to our governor wanna-bes–Cuccinelli was born in New Jersey.  I fail to see how he is a product of Virginia.  McAuliffe was born in New York.  Cuccinelli graduated from high school in Washington, D.C.  McAuliffe graduated in NY.  Both have lived in the state of Virginia over 20 years.  The question now becomes, who cares.  Both have legal residency.

The question should be, which candidate best represents the majority of Virginians.  The answer has yet to be determined.   Both need to stick to telling us what they will do for Virginia.  I have seen what Cuccinelli would do for Virginia and I did not like it.  I still don’t like it.  McAuliffe has to be a better choice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Fredericks: Tea Party Stormed the Convention

Is Fredericks actually saying that the tea party is going to cause the Republicans to crash and burn at the election? it sure sounds like it to me.

I am just not one to count chickens before they hatch.

The reality is, very few people are far right or far left anythings.  The people who win elections are those who appeal to the middle.  Elections are won and lost by the middle, not by the purists of either political extreme.

As I touched base with many of my Republican buds, I believe most of them were speechless.

I saw this happen many years ago, before there was such a thing as a tea party.  Ollie North and Michael Farris were somehow involved.  It was then I made my resolution to never attend another Republican convention, as a vendor or anything else.

And the Republican winners are……

The Republican State Convention selected the following folks to challenge the Democrats in this year’s state elections.

Governor:  Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

Lt. Governor:  Bishop E.W. Jackson

Attorney General:  Senator Mark Obenshain

This is an extremely conservative ticket.  Make no mistake, the Democrats will point out the extremism.  It looks like its all about numbers now–who can get the most votes.  As far right as this slate is, the Democrats can be all over the spectrum.

There will be a Democratic primary on June 11th to decide who will represent the party for Lt. Governor and Attorney General.

Mark Sanford wins House Seat in Special Election

SC

Wonders never cease to amaze me.  Republican Mark Sanford has won the House Seat in a special election against Stephen Colbert’s sister, Elizabeth Colbert Busch who is a greenhorn in the political arena.

USAtoday.com:

WASHINGTON — Disgraced ex-South Carolina governor Mark Sanford won his bid for redemption on Tuesday night, defeating Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch for his old seat in Congress.

Sanford, a Republican who admitted an extramarital affair in 2009, was ready to quit politics for good if he was not victorious in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District. He will replace Republican Tim Scott, who was appointed to the Senate.

The former governor — once a rising GOP star considered presidential material — was an early favorite in the Republican district, which Mitt Romney carried by 18 percentage points in the 2012 election. But the revelation that his ex-wife, Jenny, accused Sanford of trespassing at her home caused the National Republican Congressional Committee to withdraw its financial and logistical support and gave Colbert Busch an opening.

Sanford is due in court within the week over trespassing  at his former wife’s home.  So much for family values.  Sanford, while pitiable, really left office in disgrace.  Not only did he leave the country, he also left no way for anyone to get in touch with him while he was gallivanting back and forth to South America.  Sanford lied to his wife and deserted his children at the time.  Sanford failed to call his children on Father’s Day.

Before his fling, Sanford had been a family values politician.  I am surprised the good people of South Carolina are willing to give him  and his  fiance another chance.

 

Corey, you could have fooled me!

No Latino voters for Core-man
No Latino voters for Core-man

I got another beg letter from Corey.  He wanted money.  I am not sure why he thinks I am his friend.  Part of his  email contained the following:

The media is at it again. Just two days ago, a columnist from the Richmond Times Dispatch labeled me “an immigrant basher”.

It is no doubt this statement arises from my leadership of the nation’s toughest crackdown on criminal illegal immigration

In Prince William County, if you are arrested for a crime and it is determined that you are here illegally, then our law enforcement officers hand you over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

I need your help in this fight to combat the never ending liberal media attacking our conservative values.  A donation of $25, $50, $100 would go a long way to help me spread my message of conservative governance.

Every person who is being arrested is checked, regardless of age, sex, race, etc. If upholding the Rule of Law makes me “an immigrant basher” than let them name call, I am willing to deal with such petty insults for the safety of Prince William County’s 425,000+ residents. Since we enacted our illegal immigration policy, there has been a 47.8% drop in violent crime and we have handed over more than 6,000 criminal illegal aliens to ICE.

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Mark Herring to run for Attorney General

Finally,  an attorney general without his own personal agenda.

Mark Herring would replace someone with an all out assault on progressive thinking.   Electing Mark Herring would be a chance to undo the embarrassment of having Ken Cuccinelli as Attorney General.  I don’t think there would be a need to have a Herring Watch.  That just doesn’t have the same ring as Cooch Watch.

Voter id: Virginia gives, then takes away

Long Lines IN Reston, VA
Long Lines IN Reston, VA

Washingtonpost.com

 

Last year, the General Assembly passed a law to close a loophole that had allowed Virginians to vote without presenting identification. But the law also greatly expanded the list of acceptable IDs to include utility bills, bank statements, government checks, paychecks, concealed weapons permits and student IDs.

Many of those forms of identification would be removed under HB1337, leaving voter registration cards, Social Security cards, driver’s licenses, government-issued IDs and photo workplace IDs as forms accepted at the polls.

SB1256 would apply a stricter standard, requiring that voters present photo identification. Voters would need a government-issued photo ID that includes their address, such as driver’s license or passport, a photo ID from a Virginia college or university, or a workplace ID bearing a photo. As part of the bill, the commonwealth would provide, free of charge, voter registration cards with photographs. The current registration cards, which do not have photos, would no longer be accepted.

Republicans pushing for tighter ID standards cited the need to protect the integrity of elections. They pointed to an undercover 2012 campaign video in which the son of Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) can be heard discussing how a utility bill could be used to commit voter fraud. The office of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) and Arlington police investigated but did not charge the congressman’s son, Patrick Moran.

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