Here are a few Virginia (and national) news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, July 17. Also, check out the WJHL news report, which provides context on Cuccinelli’s sellout of Southwest Virginia.
*Embattled Donor Tied To All Three Past GOP Nominees For Virginia Governor (“Williams and his company have had financial ties to Virginia’s past three attorneys general, and its past three Republican gubernatorial nominees. And one of those former attorneys general is now his lawyer.” Slimy!)
*Schapiro: Senate Democrats ponder control (“To regain the Senate, Democrats must win at least two elections: The first, in November for lieutenant governor, and the second, presumably in early January, for the Senate seat of Ralph Northam, the Norfolk Democrat running for LG.”)
A friend of mine posted four words on her FB page shortly after the Zimmerman verdict Saturday night, “Sad I’m not stunned.”
I have two children, a 39 year-old daughter and a 16 year-young son whom I have talked to about the Zimmerman case several times. We’ve talked about why the police let Zimmerman go without a thorough investigation in the first place; about why there had to be pressure initiated by the community for police to do their jobs; about why this young man, Trayvon Benjamin Martin, was treated differently than my son would have been; why justice for my son would have been different.
My son amazes me with his maturity one moment, and bewilders me with his immaturity the next. Odd for a child this age? Of course not, it is absolutely normal for him, passing from man-child to manhood is a slow, methodical, frustrating process. Young men at this age make coherent, sometimes brilliant decisions one moment, and mind-boggling less than prudent decisions the next.
My man-child is in many ways just like Trayvon Benjamin Martin…nearly the same age, similar in height at 6’2″ and weight at 180 pounds. Both tall, gangly, good looking, awkward, trying to learn how to deal with the physical changes in their bodies, raging hormones, not sure they still want to hug their moms, learning about girls and relationships. They want more freedom, more responsibility, but quietly question whether they can handle it in one breath, while figuratively beating their chests the next to illustrate “I’m a man, not a boy.”
But there are stark differences between my man-child and Trayvon Benjamin Martin. The most glaring: my son has white skin, blond hair, blue eyes.
I taught my son that if he should ever be out in the community and need help, the police would be his friends, to find them, to seek them out. Trayvon Benjamin Martin would have been taught to be careful, cautious. If he were stopped while driving, to turn on the dome light, roll down all the windows, make no sudden moves; hands open and flat, easily visible.
It is not unusual for my man-child to walk to the corner store to get a drink and a snack. So after the verdict, a natural question to my son was, “What would you do if noticed someone following you as you were walking home from the store?” At first there was that beating the chest manly bravado…”I’d ask him why he was following me. I’d take up for myself. I’d hit him.” I believe, a normal reaction from my man-child who is trying to find his way through the maze of both physical and mental maturity. Perhaps this was the same reaction Trayvon Benjamin Martin had when George Zimmerman followed him, first from his vehicle and then on foot. After more discussion, my man-child concluded, “I’d be scared. I might run, but if I ran, I wouldn’t feel like a man.” Again, probably the same thoughts Trayvon Benjamin Martin dealt with that night.
When Neighborhood Watch captain, George Zimmerman made the call to the police to report a suspicious person in his neighborhood, his job was complete. He should never have left his vehicle. He should never have pursued. He should never have put man-child Trayvon Benjamin Martin in the position to have to choose to fight or flee.
In my opinion, Zimmerman’s assumptions and the decisions he made based on those assumptions caused the death of 17-year-old man-child, Trayvon Benjamin Martin. Florida’s laws and jury instructions allowed Zimmerman to walk free from the killing of a black 17-year-old youth. If Trayvon Benjamin Martin had looked like my son, had white skin, blond hair, blue eyes, George Zimmerman would probably have continued on to Target, never called the police, never left his vehicle, never pursued.
The death of Trayvon Benjamin Martin is tragic and wrong. The Florida justice system failed him. It is infuriating and disgusting. The travesty is that every black family in America has to teach their male children to be careful and cautious, perhaps even fearful. Lessons I, nor my white 16-year-old son could ever fathom.
I am sad that it is different for a black man-child than a white man-child to walk down a neighborhood street at a 7 o’clock in the evening where they have every right to be. I am sad all families in America cannot teach their children the police are their friends and are here to protect them. I am sad black children need to fear armed civilians serving as Neighborhood Watch captains. Just as my FB friend, I, too, am sad that I am not stunned. But I am more than sad, I am angry as hell that in 2013 the country I love would allow such a tragedy to occur and the travesty to still exist.
Yesterday, we learned that Republican Attorney General nominee Mark “Criminalize Miscarriages” Obenshain raised a wad o’ cash – $480k to be exact. Where that money came from gives us a good indication of the type of Attorney General Mark Obenshain would be, if god forbid this Cuccinelli clone were actually to be elected this November. For starters, let’s look at his donations from dirty energy (coal, oil, uranium).
Energy (Oil/Coal/Natural Gas/Uranium)
Gilliam Companies and Family: $60,000
Holtzman Oil Companies and Family: $20,000
Alpha Natural Resources and Executives: $15,000
Koch Industries: $10,000
Coal Association: $2,500
Range Resources: $2,500
VA Uranium: $1,000
Total: $111,000
FYI, Richard Baxter Gilliam is the founder Cumberland Resources Corp, a private coal mining company in Abingdon. Marvin Gilliam is “an executive of Cumberland Resources Corp., a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources, which operates coal and lignite mines in southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky.” William B. Holtzman is “President of the Holtzman Oil Corp, a fuel distributor in the Shenandoah Valley.” Koch Industries is these scumbags. Virginia Uranium, of course, is infamous for literally flying Virginia legislators and their families to France to tour uranium operations (aka, try to buy our legislators by wining and dining them in Gay Paree). Alpha Natural Resources is a large coal producer which gave Ken Cuccinelli a flight – worth $7,751 – to the Virginia Mining Association ceremony in 2012. In 2010, Alpha was sued “by property owners in West Virginia…for subsidence damage and ruined groundwater due to ‘reprehensible, intentional, and grossly negligent’ conduct in mining operations.” On and on it goes, and to put it mildly, it’s not a pretty picture.
Of course, all these gifts and contributions to the Cuccinellis and Obenshains of the world does not come out of the goodness of these companies’ hearts. In the case of climate-science-denying, anti-clean-energy Ken Cuccinelli, I think that Raven, VA landowner Shirley Keene explains it very well: Cuccinelli favors fossil fuel companies over the people of southwestern Virginia. In the case of Mark Obenshain, who has stated that Ken Cuccinelli would be a model for him as Attorney General, we can look at bills like this one (“Provides that the Attorney General may not issue a civil investigative demand to a Virginia public institution of higher education when the claim relates to a matter of academic inquiry or research”), which he voted AGAINST, for an idea of where his priorities lie. That’s right, Obenshain apparently supported Ken Cuccinelli’s witch hunt against leading climate scientist Michael Mann. Why? Obviously, to serve the interests of the fossil fuel companies, whose goal is to milk every last bit of profit out of the earth, before they make the planet completely uninhabitable. Is this someone we’d want as Attorney General of Virginia? God no.
So let’s make damn sure that doesn’t happen. One way you can do that is by giving generously to Mark Herring, named a “legislative hero” by the League of Conservation Voters and strongly endorsed by climate scientist Michael Mann, the one Cuccinelli persecuted. Also, a message to my friends in the pro-environment community: Mark Herring needs your financial help. Note that, so far, the bad guys have been stepping up, big time, for Mark Obenshain. Now, it’s time for the good guys – the people who care about clean air and water over dirty energy profits – to step up as well. Because if they’re not happy with Ken Cuccinelli’s environmental record as Attorney General, they certainly aren’t going to be happy with his clone, Mark Obenshain’s.
In just six months, NC Voters are dissatisfied with their new governor. Extreme tactics, catering to the rich, and especially the GOP war on women have consequences. I refer you to my previous diary on the subject. Though his veto could have been overridden, surely he could have offered it on principal in response to the list of outrageous GA votes. Additionally, in a revenue non-neutral flat tax agreed upon just yesterday (and with passage likely from both houses today), he has gutted government funding while giving the rich disproportionate tax cuts. And he lied. In the campaign, he said he would veto any new abortion restrictions. And this week he has pledged to break that promise. And so the tide is turning away from him. Here is what the voters think of him now:
For the first time since taking office we find that McCrory has a negative approval rating this month. Only 40% of voters are happy with the job he’s doing to 49% who disapprove. That’s down a net 15 points from June when he was at a 45/39 spread. While McCrory’s numbers are pretty steady with Republicans, he continues to lose ground with Democrats (down a net 17 points from, minus 36 — 24/60 — last month to now minus 53 — 17/70) and independents (down a net 20 points from +12 — 46/34 — last month to minus 8 — 41/49 now). Only 68% of people who voted for McCrory last fall continue to approve of his job performance.
Yes, the public is beginning to awaken. But it’s too late. And therein is the cautionary tale for Virginia. Don’t North Carolina Virginia!
In every realm but politics I love my state. It is a wonderful place to live. But not for long, as even as we speak:
* The funding sources for services and infrastructure are gutted;
* Our rights are decimated;
* The environment is ravaged;
* The tax base is obliterated for senseless, hugely disproportionate giveaways to the rich; and
*NC is dragged back to the Stone Age.
McCrory is so delusional that he thinks in just six months he has brought NC back from the recession. But he has done squarely nothing-until this week, when he didn’t fight for jobs, but rather gutted state jobs, and broke his pledge on reproductive choice. He has had nothing whatsoever to do with any recovery. Indeed, he just made it worse. It is way too soon to see the effects of his new policies and draconian tax plan. But they won’t be positive. We have more than thirty years of evidence that is true.
The Teahadists in the North Carolina GA are won’t to say they are doing “what they’re elected to do.” The only trouble is that that’s not true. They tapped into frustration of voters following both former governors Mike Easley and Bev Perdue. Easley had a nepotism (plus more) scandal and two of Perdue’s staffers failed to properly account for campaign expenses and campaign flights.
Compared to Bob McDonnell, though, the NC former governors’ scandals pale by comparison. McDonnell ran the governor’s mansion like a subsidiary to a tobacco company. (Come on, Virginia, where are you? Make your voices heard!) We in NC also had a very weak candidate step up at the last minute when Perdue suddenly found herself as the least popular governor in America and withdrew from her reelection race. He had handily beaten this serf to the Koch’s and Art Pope in her previous election.
The extreme and duplicitous behavior of the NC GA and its governor provide a warning for Virginia pols who eliminate the progress of the 20th Century and the first decade plus of the 21st. Bad behavior has consequences. And North Carolina continues to show how low you can go as well as a positive path forward. Let Virginia voters speak with one voice. “We are not for sale” (to Tea Party donors or otherwise), say the lyrics of Old Ceremony singer, Django Haskins.’ Alas, some in both NC and Virginia are.
I just got off a call with Virginia reproductive rights and progressive organizations (NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, Planned Parenthood Virginia, Progress VA), the purpose of which was to refute Mark Obenshain’s attempt to rewrite his extreme anti-women’s health record.
According to Tarina Keene, Executive Director, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia: the reason for the call is to dispel a “myth” Obenshain’s been pushing the past several weeks, attempting to deny his own past record and pretend to be a moderate. In fact, Obenshain back in 2009 introduced SB 962, a bill which would have required women to report miscarriages to the police within 24 hours or face a Class 1 misdemeanor, which includes a possibility of jail time. Keene said “we can all agree on the callousness of his attempt to criminalize tragic pregnancy complications and intimidate grieving Virginia women with the threat of law enforcement.” This is shocking, in Keene’s view, and makes one wonder why is Obenshain now denying knowledge of and/or support for his own bill? According to Keene, Obenshain DID introduce the bill, and “to say otherwise otherwise is to blatantly deny the purpose of his own legislation.” So, basically, Obenshain either didn’t read his own bill before he chose to introduce it, or the candidate for Virginia’s top attorney didn’t understand what his own bill’s implications were. Regardless, in Keene’s view, it’s time for Obenshain to stop misleading Virginia voters and trying to rewrite history.
According to Anna Scholl, Executive Director, Progress VA, Sen. Obenshain has a long record of “disregarding the impact of his right-wing extremism on women’s health.” Obenshain has a clear, long record of supporting measures to put up barriers to women’s access to reproductive care, and imposing hardships on women that he’s now claiming to oppose…
…This is the same guy who tried to block students at JMU from obtaining emergency contraception; who was a co-patron of the infamous “personhood” legislation that would outlaw all abortion and criminalize some forms of contraception; and of course his support for mandatory, trans-vaginal ultrasounds (he called it “common sense”; he also referred to the final, non-invasive version as the “PG version” of the legislation). In Scholl’s view, Obenshain apparently thinks he knows more than medical professionals. Clearly, Obenshain “has a long record of thoughtless disregard for the impact of his right-wing ideology on women’s health.” He has demonstrated that he is “nothing but a right-wing extremist” who will try to rewrite history in hopes that Virginia families won’t notice.
Finally, according to Cianti Stewart-Reid, Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Virginia PAC, we want and need an Attorney General who won’t politicize the office, as Ken Cuccinelli has done. But given Obenshain’s record of standing with Cuccinelli on almost every issue, as well as his close ties to Cuccinelli, it’s more likely that Obenshain would model himself after the hyper-partisan Cuccinelli. Among other things, Cuccinelli and Obenshain both favor “personhood” legislation, both favor defunding Planned Parenthood, both support restricting access to contraception, both favor the onerous “TRAP” regulations on women’s health/abortion clinics in Virginia, etc., etc. Bottom line: it’s clear based on what we’ve seen from Obenshain and Cuccinelli that they are “two peas in a pod.”
The modern two-party political age began in 1969 here in Virginia. The dominant segregationist Democratic Party held sway for decades, until Linwood Holton became the first GOP statewide officer holder in modern times, winning the governorship. Since then, Republicans have always held at least one of the five offices elected statewide: 2 U.S. Senators plus Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General. As I was the first to predict last month, all signs point to this coming to an end on November 5, with the first Democratic statewide ticket sweep since 1989.
We will know more this Saturday, when Cuccinelli and McAuliffe meet in their first high-profile debate. The encounter figures to start with questions about Republican Governor Bob McDonnell…and end with statements concerning the First Family of Virginia’s travails.
Terry’s job in the debate is easy: Don’t say anything foolish; indeed, stay comfortably within the 45 yard lines of the basic Democratic pitch. He doesn’t even need to win the debate; things are that bad for Cuccinelli and his GOP posse.
It is July. The AG and the GOP have therefore been running for Governor full out about a year now. In this period, the AG has produced not a single good campaign day. His campaign has no theme. He is trying to find some happy medium which doesn’t exist for him. He has wasted 75% of the total Governor’s race. All he has to show for it is the following: an alienated GOP LG (Bill Bolling); an unqualified, elevator-don’t-stop-at-every-floor candidate for LG (EW Jackson); and now the most disgraced Governor (Bob McDonnell) in the history of the state – at least in modern times.
This trifecta of political baggage presents a huge problem for a favored candidate: it is a fatal weight for an underdog like Cuccinelli unless the AG radically ups the level of his game. Meaning: Right now, the Cuccinelli ticket is headed for a wipeout in November.
This would, in turn, leave the GOP without a single person in any of the five state elected offices for the first time in over two generations. And it gets worse: Mark Warner is a sure winner next year, short of a miracle. The President carried Virginia both in 2008 and 2012. Net, net: This is the worst statewide performance for Republicans since the days of segregation.
True, it is only July, and “stuff happens” all the time in politics. Terry lost badly in a primary four years ago, so he isn’t a proven vote getter yet. And then you have the yada, yada, yada, of the GOP, all backed up by millions of dollars in negative ads against Terry, et al.
My response: Short of political malpractice by the Dems, the VA GOP has put itself in an electoral straight jacket, needing Houdini to get out. Unless the Governor resigns, he is an albatross all the way. Perhaps Cuccinelli has a brilliant strategy to escape that dead weight, perhaps the Governor will resign, perhaps a meteor will hit on election day but only in Democratic areas. Anything is possible depending on your definition of possible. But it is like the term “reasonable doubt”: it doesn’t include any doubt, only what is reasonable.
SO: Given the less-than-excellent Cuccinelli campaign to date, and given the known Bolling/Jackson/McD/Mrs. McD/Star Scientific mess, is it reasonable to believe that the GOP will magically run the innovative, clever campaign needed to win? The answer: NO. This should be clear this Saturday. As Bob McDonnell goes, so goes the GOP ticket this fall.
That might not be fair, of course. But, as Newton said, a body in motion tends to stay in motion in the same direction unless acted upon by a superior force. So, unless the VA GOP knows something about physics that is unknown to the rest of us, they are headed for an historic fall if they can’t right the ship in a relatively short time.
*Lt. Governor: Ralph Northam (D) 42%- EW Jackson (R) 35%
*Attorney General: Mark Herring (D) 38%-Mark Obenshain (R) 36%
*Generic House of Delegates ballot: Democrats 46%-Republicans 42%
*Cuccinelli is seriously unpopular, at 32%-47% (-15 points). McAuliffe is closer to even, at 34%-36% (-2 points)
*Jackson is at 15% favorable/28% unfavorable. My question is, what the heck is wrong with those 15% of Virginians?!? LOL
*”Obenshain’s name recognition is just 33% and Herring’s is 28%, with voters closely divided in their opinions about both of them.”
Also of interest is that a large majority of Virginians simply have no opinion whatsoever of the LG and AG candidates. It will be interesting to see what happens as name ID goes up, and as Virginians find out how insane EW Jackson is, and how extreme Mark “Criminalize Miscarriages” Obenshain is. I’m very much looking forward to it! 🙂
P.S. According to the “crosstabs” of this poll, Libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis draws about equally from Obama and Romney supporters. I wonder if that will stay the same as the election proceeds, as it seems to me that Sarvis is a much more natural fit for Republicans disgruntled with Cuccinelli because of his view that government very much SHOULD be in our bedrooms and doctors’ offices, telling us what we can and can’t do with our bodies and our lives. That’s pretty much the polar opposite of “libertarian.”
Richmond, VA – Today Ralph Northam’s campaign for Lieutenant Governor announced that state Senator Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) will serve as the campaign’s chairman. McEachin is the chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and was an early endorser of Northam’s candidacy.
With the Virginia Senate evenly split –20 Democrats and 20 Republicans–the race for Lieutenant Governor will determine the majority in the next legislative session. Senator McEachin is a veteran of Virginia campaigns. He will serve as a surrogate for Senator Northam and assist with the key components of the campaign.
“I am proud to have my friend Donald McEachin play such an important role in this campaign. He has been a tremendous leader of our caucus in the Senate and a trusted advisor to me in this race. Together in the Senate we have worked to repeal the intrusive ultrasound mandate, support the bipartisan transportation bill, and to create opportunity for all Virginians. I am lucky to have him be a part of our team and I look forward to continuing our work together,” said state Senator Ralph Northam.
Senator McEachin said, “I am proud to be a part of this important endeavor. I know that Ralph Northam will continue his strong efforts to ensure that Virginians can get and keep good jobs, that our public schools are top-notch and that our transportation crisis is addressed. Most significantly, Ralph will work across Party lines to create common sense, effective solutions, not be bound by a rigid ideological agenda that is out of step with our Commonwealth. I look forward to working with him in the campaign and in the State Senate in the years ahead.”
The selection of Donald McEachin highlights the importance of the Richmond area and Northam’s dedication to issues like jobs creation, universal pre-K, and health care.
Last Wednesday, I did a blog post on the Fairfax City council’s last meeting, in which they voted 4-2 to pass a new zoning ordinance that covered, among other things, women’s health (including abortion) clinics. Since then, I’ve been reading commentary (and emails) by a variety of people, including Ben Tribbett (“The Fairfax City Disaster”), Catherine S. Read (“Inappropriate Zoning for Women’s Health Centers”), Kathy Lund Hackshaw, and Fairfax City council member Dan Drummond (“My Vote on Zoning Amendment”), etc. I also had a chance to chat for almost two hours with Dan Drummond this past weekend. I wish I could tell you that all of this has completely clarified the issue in my mind, but I’m not sure I’d go that far. One thing I would say is that this is an important, complicated issue that almost certainly needs further study and discussion before it proceeds any further. With that, here are some (super-wonky) bullet points regarding the information I’ve gathered over the past week. Enjoy(?)…if you’re a total policy wonk, that is.
*The women’s health clinic in question here, NOVA Health Clinic, was already closed due to a lawsuit (other tenants were reportedly complaining, supposed nonpayment of rent, etc.), issues related to TRAP, etc. as reported by Tom Jackman of the Washington Post this morning.
*The clinic had been looking to move to a location on Main Street in Fairfax City, but their application for a non-residential use permit was “denied in May because officials decided parking at the building was not adequate.” (I also was told that NOVA Health Center withdrew its application, given that it was clear it wouldn’t be approved due to parking, etc.)
*There was clearly a great deal of opposition by people in the neighborhood to placing the clinic essentially across the street from them. To what extent you feel this opposition was justified – and obviously, most of us care what goes in right across the street from our homes – or that it was “NIMBYism” is an open question; my view is that there were elements of both.
*Apparently, it was after the permit denial that the issue came to the attention of the Fairfax City council, resulting in a process that led up to last Tuesday night’s 4-2 vote. Note that the vote occurred after numerous pro-choice activists, but no anti-abortion activists for whatever reason, spoke. I DO find it odd that no anti-abortion people spoke at that meeting, especially since I hear they were well aware of this and had spoken up previously; what’s up with that exactly? “Strategery?” Hmmm.
*Just for comparison, it’s interesting to note how Fairfax COUNTY defines “medical care facility”. It’s an extensive list, but also explicitly states that it shall “not include a physician’s office, first aid station for emergency medical or surgical treatment, medical laboratory…” Got that?
*One big question is to what extent the public should have input into zoning applications, and to what degree the process should be based on clear, objective criteria (e.g., parking) as opposed to subjective ones. My understanding is that Fairfax City was attempting to figure out a way to facilitate public input while maintaining objective criteria for making zoning decisions. The question is, did they succeed?
*Council member Dan Drummond pointed out on his Facebook page that one of the council’s goals was to “[clarify] language from a 30-year old zoning ordinance, [given that] the nature of these kinds of uses has evolved over time.” Drummond added, “I strongly believe City Council and the public needed to have a voice in such important matters as they relate to the City of Fairfax, a locality of 6.3 square miles and 23,000 people.”
*Drummond strongly argued on his Facebook posting that, although “[t]his issue has been cast as one about abortion,” in his view “it is not...[i]nstead it is about giving the community and its Council the opportunity to have another layer of review and input.” He also argued that “requiring [a Special Use Permit] is not out of the ordinary,” that “[w]e do it for dancing and entertainment licenses, drive through restaurants and in other circumstances.” Nor, Drummond adds, “is this ordinance out of keeping with what various other jurisdictions require, although there are variations in how every jurisdiction deals with zoning matters as these.”
*In stark contrast, I checked with a leading Virginia advocate of women’s health care and reproductive freedom, and she argued that “this ordinance was spurred by a very specific action (a women’s health clinic attempting to relocate within the city) and a fundamental misunderstanding of the care women’s health centers provide.” She further argued that “[t]his ordinance makes it MORE difficult for a clinic that provides first trimester abortion care to locate in the city by subjecting them to the same zoning requirements as hospitals, when we know clinics are much more similar to medical offices.” And, she concluded:
… the ordinance doesn’t clarify or provide structure to the permitting procedure for clinics. Rather than establishing a clear set of criteria, or who they might apply to, the council instead determined that these special use permits (which cost ~ $4800 and can take up to six months to process) are subject to the judgement and approval of the council. I think the council proved last night they have very little grasp of how a women’s health center operates or the valuable services it provides to women in the community. Putting the subjective decision in their hands so its even MORE vulnerable to the political process instead of establishing a firm set of criteria and rules was incredibly ill advised.
*In her letter to the editor, Catherine S. Read says she was “shocked when the Fairfax City Council voted on Tuesday July 9th to require women’s health centers to undergo a new, arbitrary and expensive zoning permit process,” arguing that this was “a thinly veiled attempt to keep an abortion clinic from moving into a building on Main Street,” and that this will force women’s health centers “to jump through hoops to move into or relocate within the city, while the zoning laws relating to other doctors and dentists offices remain unchanged.”
*Council member Dan Drummond and Mayor Scott Silverthorne definitely don’t see it that way. In their view, from what I’ve gathered on “background,” they feel that they are most definitely NOT targeting one type of facility, but were trying to provide transparency and public input in a place where it wasn’t previously.
*One aspect of this I find fascinating, but also confusing, is how the new, onerous TRAP regulations targeting women’s health clinics in Virginia relate to what’s happening in Fairfax City. I’d say that at the minimum, the new TRAP regulations have been playing a major role in the NOVA Health clinic’s options of where it might move, what it can afford, how much parking it needs, what type of facility is required, etc. TRAP clearly limits all of those options, and of course makes it much more difficult – as clearly was the intention by anti-choice zealots like Ken Cuccinelli – for these clinics to operate at all. You certainly can’t blame the Fairfax City council for any of that, but the question is are they making it even MORE difficult for these clinics, at a time when the state has already been harassing them?
*Dan Drummond made a great point in our conversation, that the health care delivery system in this country today doesn’t align very well with our zoning ordinances. There are lots of gray zones, where it’s not clear exactly how to characterize a particular facility for zoning purposes.
*One argument I heard from supporters of the Fairfax City council vote was that Fairfax County, which is a pretty progressive county, has a process which is almost identical to the one Fairfax City just passed. If correct, that’s a strong argument, IMHO.
*Another issue is whether this women’s health facility needs to jump through the state TRAP regulation hurdles before it can even get to the local zoning process. That’s another layer of confusion, as far as I can determine.
*The question now is whether the Fairfax City council will vote to reconsider last week’s vote, defer a final vote for further study, more public input, etc. For whatever reason, Dan Drummond’s motion to defer was not seconded. Personally, I think that Catherine S. Read makes a fair suggestion, that “Mayor Scott Silverthorne and other members of the City Council [should] reconsider this ordinance at the next city council meeting on July 23rd.” The only problem is, I’m not sure that any amount of discussion will resolve this issue so that everyone is satisfied. Also, from talking to opponents of what the council did last week, I’m hearing significant amounts of distrust and skepticism that, in the end, this wasn’t about restricting abortion rights. The fact that Eric Cantor’s chief of staff had his fingerprints all over this certainly doesn’t inspire confidence, that’s for sure. It would be fascinating to see the email correspondence he (and others on the council, for that matter) was having with anti-abortion groups/individuals. Anyway, we’ll see what happens.
UPDATE: Sources close to Rep. Gerry Connolly tell me he is not at all pleased with the Fairfax City council’s vote last week.
A friend of mine posted four words on her FB page shortly after the Zimmerman verdict Saturday night, “Sad I’m not stunned.” 
In just six months, NC Voters are dissatisfied with their new governor. Extreme tactics, catering to the rich, and especially the GOP war on women have consequences. I refer you to my previous diary on the 
I just got off a call with Virginia reproductive rights and progressive organizations (
by Paul Goldman
