Not Larry Sabato

CREIGH DEEDS CALLS NORTHERN VIRGINIA RETARDED?!?!?!

From Marc Fisher:

"The power has shifted," he says. "Rural legislators ruled the roost for so long. But the idea that the power is still in the rural areas is nonsense. Most of the state is suburbia now. It's like 'Of Mice and Men,' where you have this big mentally handicapped guy who didn't realize all the power he really had. Fairfax has 14 percent of Virginia's population but pays 28 percent of the state's income tax."

"SB 1105"- Restaurant Smoking Ban

Earlier this year, I told the Senate Democratic Caucus that members who wanted to blog were welcome to come on NLS and keep us up to date on their interesting bills. Senator Ralph Northam, who represents parts of Norfolk and the Eastern Store in the Senate has taken us up on the offer. We are thrilled to have him here with this update on his bill to ban smoking in restaurants!

I hope everyone will contact their Delegates and Senators in support of this bill.

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SB 1105 – A BILL … relating to smoking in restaurants; civil penalties.

By Senator Ralph S. Northam

As I did last year, I am carrying a bill that would prohibit smoking most anywhere where food is served; a version of the Indoor Clean Air Act that most people call the “Restaurant Smoking Ban.” That is Senate Bill (SB) 1105, a good piece of legislation, which I think deserves to become law, and I am hopeful it will.

Although I am the patron of the bill, I am working with a broad coalition of supporters to ensure its passage. The language came from Governor Tim Kaine’s office, nonprofit groups like the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart and Lung Associations have launched massive public relations and grassroots advocacy campaigns, and many of my fellow doctors (I am a pediatric neurologist), have offered a great deal of support.

Last year, our coalition successfully passed the bill in the Senate, only to have it killed in a House of Delegates subcommittee with no recorded votes. For me and many others, that was frustrating, but it was also a learning opportunity.

There are a couple of good indicators that we might have better luck this year.

First, the Speaker of the House has ruled that all subcommittee votes will be recorded this year, so the bill cannot die without everyone knowing exactly who killed it. This will hopefully act as a deterrent to some who would prefer to have the bill “go away” but do not want to cast a vote against something that 75 percent of Virginians favor.

Second, and maybe partially because of the first reason, the new Chairman of the House Committee on General Laws (Republican Delegate Chris Jones) has stated publicly that he will let his full committee hear the bill. This will not only give supporters a bigger public forum, but it will also give more members of the House a chance to hear their arguments.

So far this year, the Restaurant Smoking Ban’s path has been slightly different than it was in 2008.

Here is the first in a series of columns on the path this bill is taking to become a law:

I filed the bill in early January.

After filing, the Senate Clerk refers bills to a committee or sub-committee, and in this case, a sub-committee.

Since there are several versions of the smoking ban bill, they were referred to a Special Subcommittee on Smoking, which conducted a public hearing on the bills. After hearing a number of impassioned pleas from waitresses, musicians, students, and cancer victims, the bill was reported out of that subcommittee on a 3-2 vote and sent up to the full Committee on Education and Health. The whole process added about an extra week, but it ended up where we needed it to be.

Once a bill passes a sub-committee, it heads to a committee.

Through a glitch, the 2009 version was referred to the Senate Committee on Local Government, whereas the 2008 bill had gone to the Committee on Education and Health. This caused a bit of concern at first, but the Chair of Local Government (Democratic Senator Louise Lucas) was amenable to re-refer the bill to Education and Health.

In Education and Health, I presented my bill again, and again it passed, this time on an 11-3 vote. That small victory meant that the full Senate would have to vote on the bill’s passage.

Once a committee approves a bill, the legislation is given to the full Senate for a vote.

SB 1105 had it’s first reading before the full Senate on Friday, Jan. 30 (the Constitution of Virginia requires each bill to be read three times before a final vote takes place), so by my count, the Senate will vote on the measure next Tuesday.

If the bill passes the Senate, it will go to the House of Delegates for the same process.

If the House then votes in favor of the bill, the governor will either sign the legislation into law or veto it.

Still, not every bill passes through state government so simply. Sometimes, the House will pass a different version of a bill in the Senate. In those cases, House and Senate members hold a conference to reconcile the differences.

Then the bill goes to the governor, who can sign it or exercise veto power.

It will be interesting to see how legislators treat this smoking ban bill. From a doctor’s standpoint, I’m hopeful our state officials will do the right thing.

Is Sharon Bulova Toast?

Tuesday: Rain and snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 36. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

I'm sure tons of people will want to go out in those conditions to vote for the status quo of "pay to play" in Fairfax. (snark) 

This is looking like a big NO vote in the referendum on Gerry Connolly.

OPEN THREAD

While I catch up on some stuff...

OPEN LETTER TO JONATHAN MURRAY

Jonathan,

Haven't heard from you in a while.  Hope all is well.  Not sure if you have run any other unsuccessful campaigns recently- but wanted to let you know about a GREAT opportunity in 2009 in Virginia.  This candidate is right up your alley.  Her name is Pat Edmonson.  She's currently on the Virginia Beach School Board, and running for Lt. Governor.  Check out her intro video here.

I'm sure you probably thought you could never get another job in Virginia after your "Hooters Incident" where you took young campaign volunteers to a local Hooters restaurant.  I thought so also!  Good news though- this candidate is highly unlikely to care- she came dressed to a local campaign rally like a Hooters waitress herself!  See here.

Anyway- I promised to let you know if I ever heard of any future opportunities that were a good fit for you.  I hope you will pursue this one.  FYI- January is Pat's favorite month because it is reading month- so get in touch with her soon!

Ben

PS- Joe Abbey says hello also!

Stunning

Tim Kaine's commitment to dirty energy sources like coal has been well documented.

But he's taking it to a new level in this budget.  According to Planetsave Kaine is cutting 14 of 54 Air Inspectors around the state.

Increasing dirty production, while gutting funding for clean air oversight.  Unacceptable. 

I wonder which Democratic candidate for Governor will be the leader to campaign against these cuts.

Ayatollah Cuccinelli Continues Collapse

TC has more.

Republican Civil War Continues

More and more, it seems like the fight here is between the Republican House of Delegates members and every other person who identifies as a Republican in Virginia being embarrassed by their behavior...

Bowerbank Breaks Law, Then Launders Money To Himself?!

A positive development from last year's General Assembly was closing the loophole that forced contributions given through third party groups (like ActBlue), that were designated for specific candidates to be reported as contributions from the person who gave them- not from the group.  In other words, if you logged onto ActBlue, and said you wanted to donate $500 to a candidate, the contribution would be reported from you, not ActBlue.  Otherwise, the entire disclosure system would have been destroyed as people could donate through services like this and avoid any public scrutiny.  In Virginia, where we have no donation limits, and rely on disclosure laws, this was a disaster of a loophole, basically destroying our entire campaign finance system- until it was closed last year.

As a lawyer told me, "The new law defines a "designated contribution" as "a contribution that is designated specifically and in writing for a particular candidate or candidates and that is made using a political committee solely as a conduit." Va. Code Ann. § 24.2-945.1(A) (2009). Under the new rule, if a candidate's campaign committee receives a designated contribution from a Virginia political committee, an out-of-state political committee, or a federal political action committee, the campaign committee must report the name and other required information of the person who designated the contribution. Id. § 24.2-947.4(B)(3)".

I was surprised to see one campaign didn't follow this new law- it was Jon Bowerbank for Lt. Governor, led by the less than capable Jon Paul Lupo.  As you can see here, the campaign is hiding the identities of over $72,000 worth of donors through ActBlue, running seriously afoul of the law.

But what makes this worse, is ActBlue discloses its donations separately and it appears Bowerbank is laundering money to himself, by donating to his campaign through ActBlue and then disclosing it as money from ActBlue.  Make Sense?  See this and this.  Bowerbank donates $10,000 to ActBlue on 9/29, and gets $10,565 on 9/30.  Hmm....

I don't have a problem with Bowerbank being a self-funded candidate, but he is going to violate campaign finance law in order to make it appear he has more public support- then we have a big problem with it. 

It is also possible this is just another error by the incompetent Jon Paul Lupo, in which case Bowerbank should probably make that clear and fire him immediately.

Herring Sworn In

25 ballots still not counted and can be appealed to House Privileges and Elections Committee.

In the meantime, House seats Charniele Herring as the new Delegate.

Read more at the Alexandria Connection.

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