We already know that Virginia State Senator Amanda “I Call My Revolver My Little Equal Rights Amendment” Chase (R-SD11) is a far-right extremist nutter. Still, check out the tweet, at the bottom of this post, by the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, noting that Chase liked a “meme depicting her on the side of heavily armed extremist flashing ‘white power’ sign at Tuesday’s special session.” So…crazy, but not surprising for Chase, who also believes that “The ERA Amendment is nothing more than a ploy by the left to eliminate gender altogether.”
But how about Chase’s Virginia State Senate colleague, Glen Sturtevant (R-SD10), who likes to pretend he’s sort of moderate but really isn’t. Evidence? Check out the following two tweets, first by RTD political reporter Patrick Wilson, who passes along a recent fundraising email from Sturtevant. There are so many problems with this email, it’s hard to know where to start, but here are just a few that jumped out at me:
- First of all, what in bloody hell is Sturtevant referring to when he rants about how, supposedly, “Ralph Northam and Justin Fairfax are pushing extremist policies such as allowing localities to confiscate all guns from law-abiding citizens?” Is there an actual piece of legislation that says anything remotely like this, or is Sturtevant just pandering to the most feverish parts of the Trumpster “base?” As far as I can tell, it’s 100% the latter, as ZERO Virginia Democratic elected officials are talking about “allowing localities to confiscate all guns from law-abiding citizens.” That’s just a flat-out, outrageous, demonstrable lie by Sturtevant, who must be REALLY panicked that he’s going to lose his seat in November, and quite possibly see his future political ambitions go up in smoke.
- Second, why is Sturtevant even mentioning Justin Fairfax? I mean, it’s not as if the LG has any particular power, or as if Justin Fairfax had anything whatsoever to do with Gov. Northam’s package of gun legislation. So again, why does Sturtevant mention Fairfax? Is that some sort of dog whistle? If not…what?
- Again, what is this “extreme legislation” Sturtevant’s referring to? As far as I’m aware, Gov. Northam’s proposed gun violence prevention legislative package has strong majority support, in some cases upwards of 80%. Is Sturtevant saying that most of his own constituents are extremists? If not…again, what IS he saying?
- What’s so terrible, exactly, about California and New York? With regard to gun violence, note that California has the eighth-lowest lowest rates (7.9 per 100,000 people) of firearm deaths in the country, while New York’s is the third-lowest (4.4 per 100,000 people) in the country. Virginia’s state firearm death rate? Try 12.1 per 100,000 people, which is nearly three times New York’s rate and 1 1/2 times California’s rate. So why wouldn’t we want to be more like that, exactly? Again, is this some sort of dog whistle by Sturtevant?
- Of course, it all could be simply because – as the following tweet by the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence argues – Sturtevant has “showed his true colors” with his votes on gun violence prevention. The question is why Sturtevant thinks this is going to help win him reelection in a district carried 61%-37% by Tim Kaine last November and 57%-42% by Ralph Northam in November 2017. Got me on that one, other than that he’s counting on the majority of his district – the very people he considers to be “extremists” – not showing up in November. Instead, I urge every voter in SD10 to turn out in November, send Sturtevant packing and elect Democrat Ghazala Hashmi instead!
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
