The bipartisan, bicameral bill from Virginia lawmakers would increase the minimum age for those prohibited from “purchasing or possessing tobacco products, nicotine vapor products, and alternative nicotine products.”
Will The Commonwealth Continue To Evade The Natural Right Of Religious Freedom?
“We are free to declare, and do declare that the rights hereby asserted, are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right,” said Thomas Jefferson regarding any enacted premise that would strip Virginians, and indeed Americans, of their religious liberty.
Carrie Coyner Begins 2019 Campaign For 62nd House Of Delegates District
“In this time of great division, we have proven that when we work together we can achieve great things,” Republican Carrie Coyner said in announcing her candidacy for the House of Delegates.
Republican Rocky Holcomb Announces 2019 Bid For House Of Delegates
Former Virginia House of Delegates member Norman Dewey “Rocky” Holcomb III announced his candidacy for the 85th House District Wednesday morning, promising to bring “strong, effective leadership” to the General Assembly on Bank Street in Richmond. Holcomb represented the district in the lower chamber of the state legislature from 2017 to 2018 after former delegate Scott Taylor won the Virginia Beach seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In a video to his supporters, Holcomb, a former marine and current chief deputy of the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office, described how his fighting spirit began as a young child, which has fueled his work ethic in representing everyone in his community.
Holcomb said that many of the challenges faced in the statehouse are on account of “dysfunction in Washington, D.C.,” especially on the issue of healthcare.
The Virginia Beach Republican said, if elected, he will work to fix the state’s broken healthcare system, calling it a “complete mess.” He explained that he will find solutions to lower skyrocketing premiums and protect Virginians with pre-existing conditions.
“We must have leaders who will put working families first and develop commonsense solutions to today’s problems…solutions that provide accessibility to affordable healthcare while ensuring those with pre-existing conditions are protected,” he said.
Highlighting his time in local law enforcement, Holcomb is also calling for criminal justice reform in the Commonwealth.
“As a career law enforcement officer, I can speak firsthand about the need to reform our criminal justice system. Locking people up is not the only answer. We must find programs for rehabilitation and re-entry into society,” he remarked.
On his campaign website, the Republican hopeful states that he will work to grow Virginia’s economy, strengthening small businesses and create a pro-business environment based on low taxes and a balanced state budget. Furthermore, he posited that reform will be coming to Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) program while rewarding teachers for their achievements and making sure more tax dollars reach the Commonwealth’s classrooms.
Solving the state’s transportation woes and pushing for tuition freezes at colleges and universities is also a part of his campaign to provide for a better future for all Virginians.
Holcomb added that the hyper-partisan political environment that is beginning to consume much of the lawmaking in Richmond could lead the Commonwealth down a “path similar to Washington.” Following 2017’s “blue wave” that erased the GOP’s 2-to-1 majority in the House, progressive Democrats have attempted to usher in “New York-style regulations,” which included over $770 million in new tax increases that were voted down by the Republican majority in last year’s 60-day session.
“We must fight back against the extremes that want to stifle small business growth with higher taxes and more regulations that kill jobs,” Holcomb stated.
Delegate Cheryl Turpin (D-Virginia Beach), whom Holcomb will challenge, is part of the Democratic Party’s progressive left-wing that has proposed numerous job-killing economic measures. The liberal caucus has forwarded legislation that would levy taxes on, as Holcomb explained, “everything from electricity to plastic bags…and the list goes on.”
In the beginning of the 2019 General Assembly session, Turpin suggested repealing Virginia’s Right-to-Work law, which has enjoyed strong bipartisan support for over 70 years, providing employees the right to not be forced to join a union or pay membership dues as a condition of employment. Moreover, she even tweeted a photo of herself in December along with three fellow Democratic House candidates standing in front of a poster declaring “Right to Work is WRONG.”
Instead of governing on partisanship, Holcomb he said he will “fight for an agenda that represents the interests of ‘all of us’ in Virginia Beach…not just a few.” He will also ensure that Virginia upholds a “common sense government that works for everyone.”
Democrat Proposes Statewide Wholesale Gas Tax To Fund Interstate 81 Upgrades
“Providing a wholesale tax of 5% will go unnoticed by people filling up at the pump,” says Senator John Edwards (D-Roanoke).
Richmond City Councilor Introduces Resolution To Request General Assembly To Grant Authority For Localities To Remove Confederate Statues
Ever since the violent Charlottesville rally one year ago, some localities around Virginia dotted with Confederate monuments have been working to pass measures that will have the General Assembly, in a Dillon Rule state, grant localities the authority the remove state-controlled statues.
Partisan Politics Is The Name Of The Game In Virginia’s Redistricting Fight
False claims of stalling in the courts, false claims of stalling politically, false claims of protecting racial gerrymandering, and the refusal of Democrats to unveil the mysterious map maker are all leading to the frustration of Republicans in the House of Delegates in dealing with redistricting.
Speaker Kirk Cox Talks About Possible Recommendations From Select Committee On School Safety
“We’re going to need to spend some money, but we’re going to need to spend it prudently,” Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) said, remarking on possible recommendations coming from the Select Committee on School Safety, which may include physical and technological security measures, but will be centered around student wellness.
House Democrat Slams Own Party’s Redistricting Plan As A Self-Serving Political Power Grab
This week, Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates rolled out their proposed changes to the boundary lines of 29 legislative districts after a federal court ruled that House districts in the Richmond metro area and in Hampton roads were “racially gerrymandered.” Following the release, Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Page) railed against the Democratic plan saying “it’s clear that this is [a] hypocritical partisan power grab that would fail to pass legal muster.”
On Thursday, Delegate Stephen Heretick (D-Portsmouth) took to the House floor during the special session in Richmond, not to fight against the claims of Republicans, but to uphold them.
“Over the past several weeks, too many backroom conversations about redistricting have been held, out of the public eye, and with no transparency whatsoever,” Heretick said.
The delegate said that situations surrounding the Democratic-led re-drawing of the state’s districts exudes the “time dishonored tradition of gerrymandering districts, that allows politicians to pick their constituents, not the other way around.”
People are “fed up with corrupt political culture,” he proclaimed.
Heretick explained that House legislators must “lead the commonwealth out of this gutter…as we approach our 400th anniversary as a legislature.”
Elected in 2015, Heretick was endorsed by OneVirginia2021, a non-profit organization advocating for a non-partisan redistricting in Virginia. Senator Emmett Hanger (R-Augusta) was also endorsed by the group.
Speaking on the necessity to put constituents ahead of politics, Heretick added that the statehouse must “act without more partisan rancor to demonstrate to this nation, to this Commonwealth, and to each citizen we serve – by our actions and not more mere empty words – what we actually mean by the ‘Virginia Way.'”
Heretick said: “We have the opportunity to carve out a legacy which will stand as a shining testimony to the power of what good men and women – on both sides of the aisle – can do when they put this Commonwealth ahead of petty, partisan politics.”
The Hampton Roads area representative then charged to Speaker of the House Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights) that the redistricting plan forward by Democrats is, in fact, the “hypocritical partisan power grab” that Gilbert spoke of just days before.
“Mr. Speaker, the proposed redistricting map we’ve seen today goes well beyond anything that the federal court has directed us to do – it’s [a] self-serving, political power grab. It’s gerrymandering in response to gerrymandering. It’s tit-for-tat. It’s, in the immortal words of baseball great Yogi Berra, ‘it is deja vu all over again.'”
He added, “It doesn’t settle any scores, it creates new ones.”
For Heretick, a “non-partisan, independent redistricting” plan is needed to better represent the legislative map that governs politics and policy in Virginia.
“The time has come to finally bury this dinosaur of political corruption we all know as gerrymandering,” he said.
Alluding to similar sentiment within the Democratic caucus, Heretick said that “there are many on my side that feel as I do and are ready to stand for this principal over politics.”
Ending his speech on the floor, the Portsmouth delegate said the state legislature needs to “finally, finally make the monumental patriotic act of looking gerrymandering squarely in the eye – calling it out for what it truly is – and establishing genuine redistricting reform, and drawing districts that actually serve the Commonwealths of the citizens of Virginia.”
Following Virginia’s Deadliest Year On Record With Opioid Overdoses, New Programs And Grants Show Promise
The Commonwealth witnessed 1,220 people die from opioid-related overdoses last year, causing the state to act more boldly in 2018.