I’ve been to a bunch of Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington)’s pre-General-Assembly-session pancake breakfasts over the years, but this morning’s was arguably: a) the most crowded (by far?); and b) the most interesting.
On the first point, I’d say there were probably 100-150 people there, including several elected officials (AG Mark Herring, Arlington/Falls Church Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos, Arlington Clerk of the Circuit Court Paul Ferguson, Arlington Treasurer Carla de la Pava, Arlington County Board member Erik Gutshall) and former elected officials (former State Sen. Mary Margaret-Whipple, former Del. James Almand).
So why was it the most interesting? First, because AG Mark Herring – a recently announced candidate for governor in 2021 – was the special guest, and had a lot of interesting things to say, including all the great work the AG office is doing, as well as his support for Del. Patrick Hope’s reelection. Herring also called for reinstatement of Virginia’s one-handgun-per-month limit and hinted at possible support for “single payer” or “Medicare for All,” which I thought was interesting as well.
As for Del. Hope, he “wholeheartedly” endorsed Herring for governor, praising the work he’s done as AG as “the people’s lawyer” – fighting to defend the Affordable Care Act, working to make sure that people are protected against hate crimes, suing big pharma for pushing opioids and contributing to the opioid epidemic, working to protect the Chesapeake Bay, etc. Del. Hope specifically praised Herring for his recent pledge, here on Blue Virginia, not to take money from state-regulated monopolies like Dominion Energy. Del. Hope said that he, himself, has taken money from Dominion in the past, but that he can’t in good conscience do so any more, particularly after AG Herring’s pledge. So, Del. Hope said:
“I’m going to take the same commitment [Mark Herring] made…all Democrats should make that same commitment, our caucus should make that commitment, every single Democrat that’s running for office should make that commitment [to not take money from Dominion Energy].”
Great stuff, now let’s get it done already and ditch dirty Dominion dollars from the Democratic Party once and for all!
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