The Richmond Times-Dispatch has this editorial, commenting on Governor Bob McDonnell’s requests to the Virginia legislature to alter certain bills that the legislature earlier sent to him. At the end of the editorial, the writer criticizes McDonnell for suggesting that HB 1151 be altered.
HB 1151 passed the legislature unanimously. It said that when U.S. House redistricting is late (as it was this year), ballot access petitions are valid whether they use the old districts or the new districts. The Governor suggested to the legislature that the effective date of the bill be postponed. The legislature had passed it as an urgency bill, to take effect immediately. The Governor wants it effective next year, and also wants presidential petitions to be excluded. The Libertarian Party and the Green Party have already been circulating their presidential petitions, which must contain 400 signatures from each U.S. House district, and if the legislature amends the bill as the Governor wants, those signatures will be wasted. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
McDonnell wants to lock women up in the home and throw away the key – see the thesis he wrote about 18 years ago. Romney is smart to distance himself from wackos like him, and its a shame he’s such a putz on social issues because he really has done some hard work in balancing the state budget. Thankfully he has to go by law after one term; I think the off-year elections, a lack of judicial elections, and one-term governors help promote nonpartisanship here. Virginia has a tradition of not being overly partisan, a number of legislators switched parties in the 70s and you still have some conservative democrats like Phil Puckett in the western part of the state. In the 80’s they actually came close to removing party designations from ballots. Hopefully this fair, nonpartisan tradition is continued and McDonnell’s callousness will be ignored by the legislature.
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