Virginia General Assembly Is Blue Again
When I was on Tony Macrini’s radio show recently he asked for my prediction in the upcoming elections.
I hate prognosticating. I’m almost always wrong.
“Democrats take the General Assembly,” I replied.
For once, I was right. Democrats didn’t lose a single seat in either the House or Senate in yesterday’s off-off year election. And they picked up a handful. Enough to end the GOP’s slim majority in both chambers.
It didn’t take clairvoyant powers to know what was coming. Anyone who’s lived in Virginia for a couple of decades knew.
It isn’t Trump, either, as tempting as it may be to blame the president.
It’s demographics. The state has been turning blue for the last decade and the court-approved districts that once favored Republicans were recently redrawn and now tilt Democratic. This was inevitable.
The General Assembly is in the hands of Democrats again, after 25 years. Even with the blackface and sex scandals in Richmond. Consider this: Without the repulsive antics at the top of the party, Democrats might have made even bigger inroads. Many candidates were reluctant to campaign with a governor and AG who’d pranced around in blackface and a lieutenant governor accused of sexual assault.
What’s also inevitable is that Democrats will run the Old Dominion for years. They’ll have a chance to do some gerrymandering of their own - hey, they were pros at it for decades — after the 2020 census.
While I’m making predictions, here are a few more: It won’t be long before Virginia’s business-friendly Right-to-Work laws are struck down and compulsory union membership - and the dues that come with that - are in place. Late-term abortion restrictions will be eased. Count on that, as ghoulish as it is.
Gun control is coming. Question is, are there any Democrats who aren’t terrified by firearms and actually know the difference between semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons to keep the laws sane?
Probably not.
Virginia is now New York. Just call us The Little Apple
I’m writing this at 10 pm and - as usual - Virginia Beach election results are trickling in. Will someone please explain to me why our little corner of the commonwealth is so danged slow to report? (And yes, I know things were even slower when they were counting votes on an abacus. We have computers now. It shouldn’t take this long. Other locales are all in.)
On top of that, the Virginia State Board of Elections’ website crashed about an hour ago. Maddening.
What follows are some random thoughts on Election Night, keeping in mind that vote totals are not official and several races are so close they’re destined for recounts.
It could have been worse for the GOP in Virginia Beach. Several well-financed races flooded with out-of-state far-left money flamed out.
State Sen. Bill DeSteph held his seat against Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal who was rolling in Michael Bloomberg and Planned Parenthood dough. Big win in a tight race.
At 11:30 Smasal still hadn’t conceded.
In a very close race for an open senate seat, newcomer Republican Jen Kiggans edged out her well-financed Democratic opponent Cheryl Turpin, by about 500 votes.
In an even closer race, it appears Democrat Nancy Guy who took $348,400 from a Bloomberg PAC in a single day last week, edged out incumbent Republican Chris Stolle.
By 18 votes. Hello, recount.
The biggest loss in the General Assembly, though, was the surprising defeat of Del. Chris Jones of Suffolk. The 61-year-old pharmacist has been in the House of Delegates since 1998 and served as chair of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful positions in Richmond.
Speaking as a former newspaper reporter, Jones was always a pleasure to interview. Down-to-earth and accessible. Oh, and honest. I can tell you journalists will miss him. I suspect his colleagues will too.
Jones’ district was one that was redrawn so that it went from reliably Republican to heavily Democratic and he was the first big GOP casualty of the night.
Let’s get really local, shall we?
As I write this, Virginia Beach voters have rejected Rosemary Wilson’s ridiculous bid for the Beach district seat on city council. Running for one seat while occupying another was greedy and selfish. Wilson thought she was being cute. Voters didn’t.
Wilson lost to Guy Tower, who was appointed to the Beach District seat in April.
Unfortunately, voters are stuck with Wilson for another year as she completes her At-Large term.
Surely by night’s end Wilson noticed that in a three-way race, about 60 percent of the people voted against her cynical game of musical chairs. Hopefully a strong candidate will emerge to challenge her in 2020 and take her off city council for good. Wilson’s shown herself to be manipulative and unserious.
Republican Leigh Henderson garnered almost 50 percent of the vote in a three-way race for City Treasurer, despite a vigorous campaign by her Democratic opponent and Virginia Beach’s First Citizen, Laura Habr.
Proving that Virginia Beach, at least, is not a Democratic stronghold.
Yet.
