If you thought that Virginia State Sen. Frank Wagner (R-Dominion and, oh yeah, also SD7, a 54% Northam district representing Virginia Beach and a small part of Norfolk), then check out the right-winger running to replace him. Her name is Carolyn Weems, and you can listen to audio of her interview yesterday on Trumpster radio (“The John Fredericks Show”) below.
First, check out her recent letter to the editor, in which she completely twists/warps what Gov. Northam’s position is on late-term abortion, writing, “Northam’s assumption that to ensure women’s rights, babies must die, is simply wrong.” Uh…no.
Next, listen to the interview, in which Weems angers the host by refusing to give answers to several questions, and which she also has the following to say:
- “Frank Wagner called me the night before he announced his retirement and asked me to seriously consider it and I did. And, of course, one of the reasons is because of all the crazy stuff coming out of our capital. I mean recently it’s just been an embarrassment for Virginia to have so many radical left wing ideals coming out of Richmond; it’s trickling down from you know from Washington to our state and the Commonwealth is not what it what it was when I moved here 36 years ago and it’s not the same when I raised my five children here.” (Question: Is Weems referring to “crazy stuff” and “radical left wing ideals” like…Medicaid expansion? environmental protection and switching to clean energy? ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment? passing overwhelmingly popular, commonsense gun violence reduction legislation? protecting a woman’s right to reproductive freedom? LGBT equality? voting rights? civil rights? increasing the minimum wage and improving economic conditions for working Virginians? other?)
- ” I want to make sure that we keep this seat so that we don’t become you know so radical and and fall into the left’s agenda.” (Again, the “left’s agenda” like…the aforementioned items, all of which are HIGHLY popular?)
- “You’ll have Republicans from school boards who often vote for [tax increases to provide revenues for public education] because they want to make sure their constituents know how important education is. but I have held true to my fiscal conservatism and I have not voted for tax increases any while I’ve been on the school board.” [Got it, she doesn’t want to vote to fund public education, apparently thinks it’s all a big political game or whatever when Republicans pretend to care about public education, but don’t really give a crap of course.)
- “…all the Democrats they want to do away with right-to-work state, they want to increase the minimum wage, and I know at one time we had 22 employees with our company and we could not have stayed in business you know if all these things change.” (Seriously? Increasing the minimum wage or allowing your workers to unionize is going to drive you out of business?)
- On funding improvements to I-81, Weems basically wouldn’t say how she’d do that (tolls? gasoline tax? anything?). This is where John Fredericks got really frustrated, said “you’re not giving me an answer…you can’t fix roads by finding change under the seat of your car; I went through the same I went through this debate in 2013 with all the Tea Party is screaming about the Bob McDonnell tax to fix the roads.”
- On casino gambling, she said she’s not “for ’em or against ’em,” while complaining that “we tend to study things and study things and study things and have meetings and talk and talk.” (Fredericks responded, incredulously, “what does that *mean* Carolyn?” LOL)
- She talked about “reaching out to folks” to figure out her positions on the issues. Again, Fredericks was incredulous – “Are you going to, like, do a referendum in your district and, like, poll your…constituents and decide if they want to see those or not…right now you’re a lobbyist’s dream.” Hahaha.
- On Medicaid expansion, Weems said we “have to expand it in a conservative responsible way” (whatever that means; also note that Medicaid’s already been expanded, no thanks to most Republicans).
- After a final expression of frustration by John Fredericks at Weems’ lack of clarity on policy positions by Weems, she reverted to her right-wing talking points – “we’re gonna vote for pro-business, we’re gonna keep the right-to-work state, we’re gonna hold minimum wage at a at a reasonable amount“).
In sum, to the extent Weems *has* policy positions, they seem to be boilerplate right-wing orthodoxy (aka, nonsense). Instead, I urge everyone in SD7 to vote in November for whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being – Cheryl Turpin, Kim Howard or Susan Hippen!
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