A federal appeals court denied Fredericksburg-area voters’ request to block Republican Bob Thomas from being seated in the House of Delegates, just hours before the General Assembly session began.
A Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Richmond denied the motion seeking to keep Thomas from being seated due to dozens of people who voted in the wrong races in the Fredericksburg area. Thomas beat Democrat Joshua Cole by 73 votes.
Unfortunately, although Marc Elias is the top Democratic elections attorney in the country, he hasn’t had a great few weeks here in Virginia, whether with HD-28 or HD-94. And with that, it looks like we’ll have a 51-49 GOP-controlled Virginia House of Delegates, with (unfortunately) Kirk Cox as Speaker. On a positive note, all Democrats need is two Republicans to vote with them on, say, Medicaid expansion, for it to pass the House. So we’ll see how it goes, but this is a bummer (albeit not surprising, IMHO).
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