In my conversations with Virginia General Assembly members, one subject that keeps coming up is short legislative sessions and what effect those have. If you’re not aware, in Virginia, General Assembly sessions run “60 days in even-numbered years and for 30 days in odd-numbered years, with an option to extend annual sessions for a maximum of 30 days.” This compares to 90 days in Maryland; about 5 months in North Carolina in odd-numbered years (and around 2 months in even-numbered years); 60 days in West Virginia; 30 or 60 days in Kentucky; about 6 months in New York State; and 5 months in Illinois.

For a state of Virginia’s size – 8 million people; 12th in the country – it’s even shorter. For instance, New Jersey has about the same population as Virginia, but its legislature meets for about 6 months. Connecticut has just 3.6 million people, but its legislature meets for 6 months in odd-numbered years (when the budget is completed) and 3 months in even-numbered years. In Pennsylvania, they meet pretty much year-round, as do the New York General Assembly and California State Assembly.

The bottom line is that Virginia’s legislative sessions are among the shortest in the country, most similar to southern states like Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee. The question is whether this schedule remains optimal for a Virginia of 8 million people in the earliest 21st century. Based on my conversations with several Virginia General Assembly members, three major issues keep coming up.

1. There’s no time to really know what’s going on or to understand the bills members are voting on.

2. The people who do understand are the lobbyists, who spend all their time, year ’round, on their specific issue(s).

3. The Executive Branch is there pretty much 365 days, which puts the Legislative Branch at a serious, structural disadvantage.

On the first point, based on what I’ve observed the past few years of following Virginia politics, I’d have to agree. You know how we occasionally point out seemingly crazy votes by Democrats for legislation that they never should have voted for? Well, I’m sure some of it really is crazy, with no excuse whatsoever, but how much of it comes about simply because the legislators have little or no clue what they’re voting on? That’s what I’m hearing, over and over again, from General Assembly members.

On the second point, that worries me a great deal, and I’d argue it should worry all citizens of Virginia, especially given the almost complete absence of campaign finance restrictions in our Commonwealth. The question is, are you comfortable with a system which, structurally and by design, gives tremendous power to unelected lobbyists for big business, or for that matter for any special interest group? I’m not.

Finally, on the third point, this seems to me like an issue that would cut across party lines. Thus, one could argue that when Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine were in the governor’s mansion, General Assembly Republicans were at a serious, structural disadvantage, and when Republicans George Allen and Jim Gilmore were governor, same thing for General Assembly Democrats. But really, it affects the entire branch of government, in that the Executive branch has all year to organize, maneuver, plan, strategize, etc. The Legislative branch has much, much less time to do that.

Is it optimal to have a system where the lobbyists and Executive branch have tremendous power vis-a-vis the Legislative branch, and where our Delegates and Senators barely have time to know what they’re voting on? Not in my book. Would lengthening the sessions of the Virginia General Assembly help balance this out? Along with restrictions on the activities of lobbyists, I’d argue that it’s worth a try. What do you think?

OK, well, not exactly Charlton Heston in “The Ten Commandments,” but close enough from Rep. Jim Moran. 🙂

The Egyptian people are rightfully demanding long-denied democracy. Empowered by the internet and social media, the largely young and middle-class protesters reflect the awakening of a powerful grassroots movement whose legitimate call for a more representative and transparent government will not, nor should not, be denied.

As evidenced by the $1 billion gap between military and non-military U.S. aid to Egypt, too often we have chosen security and stability at the expense of democracy and freedom. That equation must be altered to reflect an American support for the Egyptian peoples’ struggle for rights we too fought a revolution to obtain. This is a new day for democracy worldwide, a game-changer that the U.S. should strongly support as the leader of the free world.

P.S. While we’re talking about Egypt, you might want to check out a post I wrote for Scaling Green on whether oil and ethanol are helping drive food price increases that are fueling unrest in a number of countries, including Egypt.

UPDATE: On NPR just now, Rep. Connolly said the U.S. should use its influence to prevent bloodshed  in Egypt (including possibly reviewing the aid we give Egypt), says the stakes are very high, and adds that Egypt should hold free and fair elections.

( – promoted by lowkell)

Last week, a subcommittee of the Virginia House of Delegates’ Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee approved legislation introduced by Del. Scott Lingamfelter to halt increased use of red light cameras across the Commonwealth.  That legislation is expected to be voted on shortly by the full committee, focusing public debate on the utility of the cameras.

Clearly, Del. Lingamfelter is a skeptic, but the reality is, there are good reasons to support deployment of red light cameras at some intersections, especially when considering their role in improving and maintaining public safety by reducing collisions and changing driver behavior.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), red light running is the leading cause of urban crashes; in 2009, nearly 700 people were killed and over 100,000 people injured in crashes that involved red light-running.  Furthermore, IIHS data shows that about half of all deaths that result from accidents involving red light running are those of pedestrians, bicyclists, and occupants in other vehicles who are hit by

those running red lights.   Additional IIHS data demonstrates that 27 percent of car crash deaths in 2009 were the result of side-impact crashes, the most dangerous of crashes and the ones red light cameras were designed to reduce.

As early as 2006, the Federal Highway Administration reported that the use of red light cameras resulted in a 25 percent decrease in those perilous side-impact crashes, with a 16 percent reduction in injury stemming from them.  Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Tony Zucaro of the Virginia Beach Police Department says that his city has seen reductions in violations as high as 73 percent in some intersections thanks to camera installation and use.  Representatives of Chesapeake, Alexandria, Fairfax County, the Virginia Municipal League, Nationwide Insurance and the AAA Clubs of Virginia testified against Del. Lingamfelter’s bill, along with opponents of the legislation from Virginia Beach, like Zucaro.

The reality is that red light cameras enjoy popular support, nationwide and in Virginia because they do help save lives.  IIHS data from 2003 shows that that 84 percent of Fairfax residents supported right light camera deployment; a much more recent 2009 Public Opinion Strategies Poll however found that 69 percent of Americans back the use of red light cameras at the most dangerous intersections.

There are legitimate reasons why local officials should not be blocked from installing red light cameras, as the city of Falls Church recently has done along Route 7 (Broad Street).  According to Falls Church councilmember Robin Gardner, “What I’ve seen at the intersections in question is that they’ve been a help in the past and they’ll be a help now” (the cameras are a pure public safety measure, and not designed to add to Falls Church’s revenue stream).  Delegates should be sure to review the facts and hear folks like her and Deputy Chief Zucaro out before casting a vote on Del. Lingamfelter’s legislation– hamstringing local officials where public safety is concerned is risky business.

 

Today, we are going to take a brief look at the race for supervisor in the Dranesville district of Fairfax County. Why should any of us care about a contest for supervisor in one part of one county of Virginia?  A couple of reasons: 1) Fairfax County is the largest jurisdiction in Virginia, with over 1 million people; 2) each of the 9 “magisterial districts” in Fairfax have more than 100,000 people, larger than the vast majority of counties in Virginia, just a bit smaller than the City of Alexandria and similar to the City of Portsmouth; and 3) this year, we have a race between one of the most outstanding local officials in Virginia (current Draneville Supervisor John Foust) and one of the absolute worst (Herndon town council member Dennis Husch).

What’s so great about John Foust? From my perspective, having known him for several years, a short list includes: honest, responsive, personable, funny, smarter-than-hell, progressive, principled, and great on issues like Tysons development (Foust was a strong ally of the Tysons Tunnel effort). In sum, reelecting John Foust should be a complete no-brainer, one of the easiest choices Dranesville residents could possibly have walking into the voting booths.

Now, what’s so bad about Dennis Husch? For starters, he’s a highly divisive anti-“illegal immigrant” warrior. He’s also a standard-issue, hard-right-wing Teapublican, mouthing the usual demagogic nonsense about how “anyone seeking public office who does not ascribe to ‘first principles’ will be rejected by the voters” and how “the people will force the federal government to constrain its activities as demanded by the Constitution.”

Yet, despite this supposed concern for the Constitution, Husch is clearly not a big fan of citizens coming before him and speaking their mind. For more on how Dennis Husch (mis)treats his constituents, click here or watch the video below. This really says it all about Dennis Husch. However, if you need any more, click here, or watch the video on the “flip,” in which Husch cites the 13th Amendment – the one which abolished slavery – to defend his, uh, questionable political behavior. The 13th Amendment? He’s comparing his situation to that of African American slaves? As I said above, a key word to describe Dennis Husch is “divisive, and once again, he has lived up to that reputation. Go John Foust!

I wrote an extensive article on this last night, quoting Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) that the Virginia Republicans’ anti-immigrant piling-on is “a ridiculous blame game and just plain wrong.” Now, here’s DLOV adding its thoughts.  I couldn’t agree more; this demonization of Latinos by Republicans is utterly disgusting.

Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia Statement on Republican Immigration Subcommittee Hearing

The Democratic Latino Organization of Virginia (DLOV) released the following statement following Friday’s meeting of a special subcommittee of the House Courts of Justice Committee organized to hear a slate of immigration legislation proposed by Republican legislators:

“To say that this committee was ‘stacked’ to push through as much anti-immigrant legislation as possible is a serious understatement,” said DLOV President Andrew Rivera. “The Republicans who comprise this panel are the ones who most often go out of their way to score points on the backs of hard-working immigrants in their own districts. This hearing was nothing more than a staged opportunity for Republicans like Dave Albo, Todd Gilbert and Jackson Miller to prove that no one is more obsessed with intimidating and demonizing decent and hard-working people than they are.”

“While it’s disappointing that these elected officials would use the power we gave them to put an agenda aimed at scaring people out of Virginia ahead of  job creation, education or any other issue that matters to people’s lives, I can’t say it’s surprising coming from these particular individuals.”

Delegate Patrick Hope, one of two Democratic members of the subcommittee said, “We just voted out a series of bills that will further cast into the shadows individuals who want to contribute to our society and be a positive influence on our economy. This is nothing more than an attempt to score political points and cast blame for everything under the sun, including the Commonwealth’s budget problems, high unemployment, taxes, and overcrowding of our schools.”

There were many Virginians at the hearing who spoke against the various GOP-sponsored bills. The diverse coalition of speakers included:

*Latino students from the University of Virginia

*DREAMERS from Harrisonburg

*Members of the business community including representatives of the retail industry, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the travel Industry

*Faith and community groups such as the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations and Virginia New Majority