Rep. Gerry Connolly today says he wants to shine a light on the proceedings of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Democrat, who represents portions of Prince William and Fairfax counties in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, will reintroduce his Cameras in the Courtroom Act.
Virginia public radio station WCVE in Richmond retracted a column posted to its website today — a fact check piece about former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
The piece, which was also shared by statewide news aggregator Va News from the Virginia Public Access Project, called out McAuliffe for falsely claiming his Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, praised him during a panel discussion the Youngkin hosted in 2018, on which McAuliffe was a panelist.
We’re on the road to the November 2 General Election here in Virginia – one of the few elections in the U.S. this year.
While the eyes of the nation are on Virginia, our eyes are on the candidates vying to fill the seats that are up for grabs this year.
When Jennifer Carroll Foy was crisscrossing the state on a tour bus in 2019, she seemed like the perfect candidate for governor.
Recently elected to a second term in the House of Delegates, representing Woodbridge, and the northern portion of Stafford, the Democrat won a landslide victory over her Republican challenger. Young, female, African-American — it seemed like she had it all, especially in 2020, a year that saw many calls to elevate more minority, progressive candidates to higher office.
Stafford County has run into another stumbling block when it comes to its redistricting efforts this year.
The county’s Board of Supervisors was to vote on a resolution that would replace a series of committee meetings with a pre-redistricting public information session. The move was designed to make the mandatory political redistricting process more inclusive.
County residents face a major redistricting effort as officials look to redraw the seven political districts used to set voting precincts and to guarantee equal representation on the Board of Supervisors and School Board. In February, the county had planned to host a series of committee meetings with a select group of county residents to assist in the redistricting process.
However, the county has experienced unprecedented delays in receiving the data from the 2020 Census, which is used to not changes in population and demographics.
Multiple residents spoke on the matter and balked at the thought of opening up the process to the community in a town hall meeting format. Many asked the Board to reconsider, saying the change believing it to be a "backward step in transparency and inclusion."
Ironically, it's the exact opposite of what was intended by the resolution.
State law requires redistricting to occur every 10 years, where political districts are redrawn, taking into account changes in population. They were last redrawn in 2010, and the pandemic forced officials to delay the redistricting process to 2021.
In response, the board decided to defer the decision at the suggestion of Hartwood District Supervisor Gary Snellings. The Board decided to defer until the next meeting to make a further look into the resolution.
While the board members were open to the deferral, some took issue with implications made by residents during the public comment time.
Falmouth District Supervisor Meg Bohmke took exception to the idea that replacing the series of committee meetings with a town hall meeting is an attempt to close off transparency in the redistricting effort and keep it behind closed doors. Boehmke mentioned that the only meetings held behind closed doors were subjects that required the Board to have closed meetings.
In recent months, closed meeting topics have included the county’s recent legal, including the legal issues raised with a federal lawsuit involving the issues with the All-Muslim Association of America and a cemetery site in North Stafford. Personelle matters and bargaining positions are also regularly discussed behind closed doors, allowed by state law.
The delayed 2020 U.S. Census has hampered the redistricting effort in Stafford County. Data from the decennial census, also delayed by the pandemic, has yet to be passed down to the county, making any decisions based on hard data difficult, officials said.
The Board will question whether to keep the stakeholders or go with the public information session at their next meeting on June 15.
Publisher's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed a statement about the county's legal issues with the All-Muslim Association of America to Supervisor Meg Bohmke.
Terry McAuliffe, the former governor seeking a return to the Executive Mansion, will represent Democrats this fall in a closely watched contest that will test Democrats’ political hold over the state in the post-Trump era.
