Remember last year's transportation deal, the one that granted regional taxing powers to the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads Transportation authorities? The Virginia Supreme Court has a bit of a problem with it.

The state's high court ruled without dissent that the General Assembly overstepped its bounds in delegating taxation powers to a non-elected political subdivision. The authority "is not a county, city, town, or regional government, and thus it is not a political subdivision to which the General Assembly may constitutionally delegate its legislative taxing authority pursuant to Article VII, Section 2" of the Virginia Constitution, the court wrote.

It's not clear what sort of reaction the opinion will get in the Senate and House of Delegates, but it is certain to add a whole new wrinkle to the state's ongoing budget discussions.

Download the full opinion here.

Reaction from Gov. Tim Kaine, House Speaker Bill Howell and Attorney General Bob McDonnell:

"I am disappointed by the Supreme Court's finding that the limited authority to impose taxes granted by the General Assembly in 2007, by an overwhelming vote by both bodies, was unconstitutional," said Governor Kaine. "I remain committed to working with the General Assembly to ensure that the Commonwealth provides adequate funding for our transportation needs.  Over the next few days, my legal staff and I will work closely with the Attorney General's Office and members of the General Assembly to determine what alternatives are available to provide adequate transportation funding."

 

"We intervened in this case as is our obligation to defend challenges to the constitutionality of legislation passed by the General Assembly," said Attorney General Bob McDonnell. "The Virginia Supreme Court has spoken, we respect their decision, and we will advise our clients appropriately based on today's ruling. It remains critical for Virginia's future prosperity that we improve our transportation system."

 

"The complicated decision of the Court, and its effect on the regional components of the Comprehensive Transportation Funding and Reform Act of 2007, are disappointing to those of us who continue to support improving our roads, reducing congestion and increasing mobility for all Virginians," said Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford).  "We will be reviewing this decision carefully and remain committed to sorting out the long-term prospects for the regional plans in a timely manner.  Fortunately, the statewide components of the Act - which by themselves incorporate the largest single investment in transportation in a generation - are working right now to improve our roads, railways, and public transit."

We get boatloads of questions in here at Cheap Seats HQ, some of them marginally related to politics. So while there's a brief lull in Richmond and Washington, here are a few answers to go with your questions.

Why do bills pass the Virginia House and Senate as many as four times, when bills in Congress only go through the process once?

The short answer is that Virginia's legislative system is far more complicated than the federal system.

Congress keeps a bright line between House and Senate for the most part. Bills are introduced, go through their chamber's committee system and then come up for a vote. If two versions of the bill emerge from each house, the bills go to a conference committee, where the two sides hash out their differences. The committee report then has to pass both houses. If it does it goes to the president's desk for signature or veto.

Virginia is different. A bill can be introduced in only the Senate or House of Delegates and still make it into law. Bills that pass one chamber are automatically forwarded to the other at "crossover," the mid-point of the session.

The same bill then climbs the ladder all over again, with amendments and changes made along the way. If the two versions are different, the two sides play a game of legislative "chicken," cajoling each other to accept their version of the bill. If no one blinks, the bill goes to committee, where the two sides try to make a deal and come to a compromise.

The resulting committee report then goes back to both chambers for another vote.

Once both chambers agree on a bill, it heads to the governor's desk, who can then act as a "third chamber" and make his own amendments. If all three can agree on the wording of the bill, it becomes law. If not, then the governor can either veto the original bill or accept the House and Senate version.

Complicating matters further, senators and delegates often introduce identical legislation on both sides so they'll have a "back up" piece of legislation should something untoward happen to their bill on the way through one chamber. That often leads to duplicate pieces of legislation landing on the governor's desk. Both bills often wind up being signed or vetoed in tandem.

In a story earlier this month, Gov. Tim Kaine referred to having members of the Virginia National Guard on the border with Mexico. What was he talking about?

No, Virginia hasn't unilaterally decided to fix problems on the Mexican border. Kaine made his remarks when speaking in Winchester on two occasions last year, detailing his opposition to signing a "287(g)" agreement that would allow state officials to begin the deportation process for criminal illegal immigrants.

Kaine, a Democrat, has opposed Republican calls to sign the agreements with the federal government, in part because Virginia already has been doing part of the federal government's job on immigration -- in particular, by answering a request from President Bush in 2006 for 6,000 guardsmen to assist the Border Patrol. About 400 Virginians answered the call.

I heard Congress is sending me a check. Where's the money and what do I have to do to get it?

It took some legislative doing, but both the House of Representatives and Senate agreed a few weeks back on an economic stimulus plan that will send most taxpayers a check for $600 in early summer. Married couples get $1,200. There's also a $300 per child bonus for dependents.

There are exemptions and exceptions all over the place, so check with a tax professional to find out if you qualify. But there is one major hurdle everyone has to jump through to get the money -- file an income tax return by April 15.

Once you file a return, the check will quite likely at some point be in the mail.

For legislative junkies in Virginia, there's been just one game in town this legislative session: the Virginia Senate. With Democrats now control of the body and Republicans rallying in a new-found burst of party loyalty, the conflict has been intense and at times acrimonious.

The 2008 session couldn't be more different from the past years, where the body had an almost country club collegiality, where moderate Republicans and Democrats came to consensus with little debate, all while quietly disapproving of the rabble down the hall in the House of Delegates.

We've touched on the change before here, and others have noted the shift as well. Most of the commentary that's crossed this desk to date seems to be of the opinion that the change is for the worse. But it's worth noting that conflict, rather than collegiality, has been the rule in American politics since before the Revolution. Indeed, since 1789, it's been in place by design:

As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51:

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.

Is conflict better than consensus in government? That's a subject decision to be made by voters. But I'll tell you this: Sitting in the Cheap Seats is a lot more fun when everybody brings their "A" game to the Senate floor.

Mark Tate's court filing of this week was voluminous, to say the least.

From the story:

Among the bigger bombs dropped in the filings are:
• The allegation that Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman obtained Tate’s bank records under false pretenses.
Plowman allegedly told the judge who issued the subpoena for the records that the State Board of Elections “shared his concerns that the a crime had been committed,” MacMahon wrote.
“This claim is simply untrue,” he wrote, referring to a letter from the State Board of Elections to Laurie Letourneau, the Winchester-area resident and Holtzman Vogel campaign volunteer whose complaint to Plowman and the SBE triggered the investigation.
• Subpoena requests for Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Upperville, Plowman and Warrenton Town Attorney Whitson Robinson.
MacMahon and Tate want to flesh out what they say is a series of connections between the prosecution, Vogel and her associates.
The defense wants all three to produce, among other things, e-mails or other communications in which they may have discussed Tate and his prosecution.
A number of people, including officials at the Republican Party of Virginia, seem to have had knowledge of the indictment that they shouldn’t have had access to.

There was far more in the filings than could ever be packed into one story, so we're posting the filings here for our readers to peruse at their leisure.

Motion to Suppress.pdf Motion to Dismiss.pdf Other Motions.pdf Whitson Robinson Subpoena Request.pdf Sen. Jill Vogel Subpoena Request.pdf Plowman Subpoena Request.pdf

The Senate and House of Delegates aren't slated to debate their respective budgets until Thursday afternoon, but that hasn't stopped members of the Virginia Senate from chatting up the issues at the end of each legislative day this week.

Today, Sen. Ed Houck, D-Spotsylvania, Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, and Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, debated the propriety of Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's proposed expansion of the state's pre-K program.

We'll have more on this story in Thursday's edition of the Daily. In the meantime, find audio from the debate here and here.

Some 36 illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes in Virginia have been rounded up and face deportation proceedings, Republican Attorney General Bob McDonnell announced Wednesday.

From the press release:

In 2006, Attorney General Bob McDonnell worked with the Virginia General Assembly on numerous improvements to Virginia’s Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry. In addition, the Attorney General assisted in securing 45 new state trooper positions to ensure compliance with Registry regulations and investigative violations. In July of 2007, with the additional investigative resources dedicated to the Sex Offender Registry, the Attorney General requested that the Virginia State Police check the birthplace of each individual on the Virginia Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry, and share this information with ICE. The Virginia State Police compiled the list and turned it over to ICE in July of 2007. The original list consisted of 527 names.

ICE agents ran the list against two different federal databases. The process led to the following findings and action:

• 84 Convicted criminal alien sex offenders on the list had already left the country or been deported
• 135 Convicted criminal alien sex offenders were incarcerated in the Commonwealth of Virginia (state and local facilities) and are now being processed for removal from the U.S. upon completion of their incarceration
• 36 Convicted criminal alien sex offenders have been recently taken into federal custody through a joint action involving ICE and Virginia State Police and have been put into removal proceedings.

Listen to part of the conference call with McDonnell here, and find the Attorney General's full press release here.

We spoke with Del. Clifford L. "Clay" Athey, R-Front Royal, and Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Upperville, about the ongoing budget battle in the two chambers, and some of the fireworks on the floor of the Senate on Monday afternoon.

You can find our third podcast here.

The big picture. It's a concept that gets a lot of lip service in  Richmond and Washington, and often rightfully so. When you're talking  about budgets of $78 billion or $3 trillion, respectively, fine details are often the first casualty.

But a series of e-mails from the Republicans in the Virginia Senate have contained a tiny change as of late, a change whose importance was illustrated both in the weekend vote to send the Senate budget to the floor for a vote and this incident last week.
 
The Virginia Senate Republican Leadership Trust, a de facto caucus that first registered as a political action committee in 2004, has gone the way of the dinosaur.
 
During its heyday, the Trust was made up of Republicans from the powerful Senate Finance Committee, led by Senate President Pro Tempore John Chichester, R-Fredericksburg. E-mail from the Trust always carried a tag at the bottom with its members listed -- and conservative members such as Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax, and Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, were notably absent.
 
After the retirement of Chichester and Sen. H. Russell Potts, Jr., R-Winchester, and the defeat of some other Trust members in the November election, the GOP tent seems to have gotten a little bit bigger. Now all GOP members of the Senate are listed, and the "Trust" has been replaced by the "Virginia Senate Republican Caucus."
 
What it all means in "the big picture" remains to be seen, but one thing is certain — the 2008 budget fight is shaping up to be a whole new animal.

It's not all work and no play here in the Cheap Seats. So in honor of Friday, and for the amusement of our readers, we swivel around from the legislative gallery toward the big-screen, high definition sports-only screen, and proudly present a display of...

Five Things to Come: The 50th Daytona 500

1. At least two Toyotas will finish in the top 10.
2. At least one Toyota will finish in the top three, causing a number of NASCAR purists to utter a string of colorful words not fit for a family publication.
3. Tony Stewart's new mullet-esque haircut will continue to frighten and delight many fans. Seriously, look at his picture on the Toyota site.
4. At least one fan of Dale Earnhardt Jr., will spontaneously combust when he works with new teammate Jeff Gordon to draft around a car owned by his former team, Dale Earnhardt Inc.
5. Daytona will still not be as much fun as Bristol, even after last year's track resurfacing enhanced the "racing" and de-emphasized the "one huge, spectacular wreck after another" aspects of the world's fastest half mile.

There's no doubt that much of the acrimony between the two warring halves of the Virginia GOP in the General Assembly started to melt away after Democrats won control of the Virginia Senate in November's election.

For proof, look no further than the Dec. 17 press conference in which House and Senate Republican leaders -- who less than a year before had been locked in a political fight to the death over transportation funding -- stood side by side to decry Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's budget proposals. 

But the ghosts of the division that grew out of 2004's budget fight with then-Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner over the car tax and the $1.4 billion budget reform and tax hike can still be found on Capitol Square, if you know where to look. The place to look was this morning's clash on the floor of the Senate over Senate Bill 713. A similar version of the bill was killed in a House of Delegates committee earlier this month.

Four Republicans crossed party lines to vote with the 21-member Democratic majority to pass the 5-cent gas tax hike bill, including Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon, Sen. Fred Quayle, R-Suffolk, and Sen. John Watkins, R-Midlothian. All three were part of a powerful block of moderate Republicans that sat on the Senate Finance Committee, led by now retired Sen. John H. Chichester, R-Fredericksburg, and Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., R-Winchester.

Road funding has long been a sore spot between the two halves of the General Assembly's GOP, and by all appearances it still could be.

The number crunchers on Capitol Square have their slide rules in overdrive this week. Both the Senate and House of Delegates have until midnight Sunday to finish off their competing versions of the state budget. But a slowing economy and Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine complicated things a bit this week, announcing that what was a $640 million shortfall was now a gaping  $1.4 billion hole.

Naturally, the finger-pointing was rapid and widespread. Republicans in the House of Delegates blame Kaine for not producing new numbers earlier and rolling out a plan to fix the gap that could hurt local governments, particularly schools. From a House press release:

“There is no doubt that Virginia’s current economic situation presents Governor Kaine and the legislature with difficult decisions on how best to allocate taxpayer funds,” noted Delegate Lacey E. Putney (I-Bedford), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.  “However, that is no excuse to decrease important funding for our local elementary and secondary schools.  Should the Governor’s recommended education cuts be implemented, the negative impact will be felt on school children across the Commonwealth.”

Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling was none too pleased, either.

We spoke with Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, about the situation in our second (and much higher quality) podcast here.

Look for more on the budget situation and its impact on school systems in the Northern Shenandoah Valley in Friday's Northern Virginia Daily.

It's going to be an interesting weekend on the Square. Bring popcorn.

Illegal immigration was a major issue during last year's legislative campaigns. So much so, in fact, that there's still a bundle of direct mail pieces in a desk here at Cheap Seats HQ no less than 6 inches thick, packed full of one illegal immigration-based appeal after another.

Thus far, though, the new Democratic leadership in the Senate of Virginia has been less than receptive to bills aimed at those illegally present in the country. Only a handful survived the committee process, and fewer still made from the floor of the Senate to the House of Delegates.

One exception is Senate Bill 623, brought forward by Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach. SB 623 would make no bail the "default" position for illegal aliens accused of crimes. The bill passed 34-6, seven more votes than it would need to overcome a veto from Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

House Bill 440 does much the same thing, but the Senate version contains an exception for some drug offenses, unless federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials agree to begin deportation proceedings against the accused.

But the bill didn't make it through without opposition. Two Democratic senators from the Richmond area, Henry L. Marsh and Donald McEachin, had hard questions for the bill's patron during floor debate in the hours before crossover on Wednesday.

Audio excerpts are here and here.

Both bills will now work their way back through the committee system, likely toward a final vote before the session ends next month.

... but not by much. The bill cleared the panel on a 21-19 vote late Tuesday afternoon

As drawn, the controversial bill would scrap the current "proffer" system that local governments use to offset the cost of new development for things like schools and public safety, and replace it with a system of fixed impact fees. The fees could be levied on all new developments, while proffers are only sought on properties that are being rezoned.

The bill has some rough sledding ahead of it in the House of Delegates, according to Del. Clifford L. "Clay" Athey, R-Front Royal. Athey answered questions about the study bill he's backing that could de-rail SB 768 for The Daily's first ever podcast, found here.

Senators debated the bill for hours over several days and offered amendment after amendment, leaving a final bill that looked little like the original. Two key excerpts from the debate can be found
here and here.

Look for more on the fate of SB 768 in the print edition of The Northern Virginia Daily or on our Web site at www.nvdaily.com.

The slowdown in the housing market is having more of an impact on the commonwealth's revenue collection than previously thought, Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Tuesday.

From a press release from Kaine's office:

The shortfall for the remainder of fiscal year 2008 and fiscal years 2009 and 2010 totals nearly $1.4 billion.

The Governor’s proposed strategy to meet the shortfall includes increased utilization of the Revenue Stabilization Fund; targeted reductions to the Governor’s initiatives and other programs; percentage cuts to executive agencies; and bonding of capital projects. While the plan does include some targeted reductions in K-12 education and percentage cuts to some local aid, it does not reduce funding for the constitutionally required Standards of Quality program in K-12 education. The Governor’s plan does not include tax increases. 

“Since the November 2007 revenue forecast, the national economy has dramatically slowed,” Governor Kaine said. “While Virginia can weather economic downturns better than most states, we are not immune. In the past week, we have gathered the most recent data and met with our leading economists, representatives of the private sector, and state legislators. The revised consensus revenue forecast indicates that we are now facing an additional shortfall of nearly $1.4 billion over the remainder of fiscal year 2008 and the 2009-2010 biennium.”

The revenue shortfall for the remainder of this fiscal year is projected to be $339 million. It is expected to be $520 million in fiscal 2009 and $532 million in fiscal 2010. 

“My recommended revisions include an additional withdrawal from the Revenue Stabilization Fund, targeted reductions in spending, and percentage cuts to executive branch agencies,” Governor Kaine said. “We sought to minimize the impact of the cuts on services and balance the burden of the cuts, keeping in mind that some agencies made bigger reductions in the first round of cuts we made in October.”

Read the rest of Kaine's press statement here, and his budget reduction plan here.

Today is "crossover,"  the last chance for the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates to act on legislation authored by their own members. Thus, legislation that hasn't passed at least one house of the General Assembly by midnight is truly dead for the year.

Both chambers have been working hard and fast to beat the clock, passing some significant bills in the process. They include:

• House Bill 1319, from Del. Joe May, R-Leesburg, a pilot program for building high-voltage transmission lines underground.
• House Bill 1516, from Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, which would put tolls on Interstate 81 off limits until the General Assembly signs off on them.
• Senate Bill 742, from Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon, which defuses a potential budget tripwire that could allow a moratorium on annexation by cities to expire. Current law forbids cities from expanding their boundaries unless the state doesn't pony up the money it's required to under law for law enforcement. A tight budget could make that happen this year, so Hanger's bill pushes back the moratorium tripwire another two years.
  

But there are some good legislative scrums teed up for the last day of the first half, including a possible fight over Senate Bill 768. The bill, from Sen. John Watkins, R-Midlothian, would rework the "proffer" system some local governments use to offset the costs of development.

It would replace proffers with a system of impact fees. Debate over the bill has been both passionate and complex. Some of the blogging policy wonks at Bacon's Rebellion discussed the bill here.

Regardless, it's almost half time for the 2008 General Assembly session. See you at the concession stand.

The results of the latest round of Mason-Dixon polling aren't pretty for the two Arkansans in the presidential running.

Former Arkansas first lady Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are both trailing their opponents in Virginia, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., by wide margins.

Obama holds a 53 percent to 37 percent lead over Clinton, while McCain holds a 55 percent to 27 percent lead over Huckabee, according to a poll by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research done for The Northern Virginia Daily and other papers.

One of the more interesting findings of the poll was the contrarian nature of the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia. Huckabee fights to a draw and Clinton wins in the western third of the state. But McCain and Obama are winning in the most important areas — Northern Virginia, metro Richmond and Hampton Roads — the areas that have the most people.

What does it all mean? Ask again Wednesday.

The Cheap Seats are normally empty on Saturday, especially Saturdays when NASCAR is preparing to wake from its months-long slumber.

But matters political forced their way to the front row Saturday morning when the phone rang. The automated voice on the other end said it was a poll. After a few minutes, it was obvious that this was a push poll — the kind of survey designed not to elicit information, but to "push" possible voters toward one candidate.

The questions in this poll were apparently designed to push possible Republican voters away from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and toward former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee by calling into question McCain's conservative credentials.

Other Virginia political observers, including blogger Greg Letique of Black Velvet Bruce Li also received the calls and were not pleased.

Huckabee has denied any coordination with the group behind the calls, Common Sense Issues, but the group has made millions of calls for the candidate in the run up to other Republican primaries.

Will it make a difference?

Huckabee has won a number of states where the robo-calls were made, including Tennessee, but recent polling shows the former governor has a steep hill to climb in Virginia.

They're not quite ready to pull the plug yet, but the Virginia Senate thinks it's a good idea to start looking for the exits in the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The Senate voted 39-0 in favor of Senate Bill 490 to tell the State Board of Education to start looking for a way out of the federal education program if the commonwealth doesn't get Congress or the Bush administration to make significant changes to the program.

As it stands, No Child Left Behind requires local school districts to make "adequate yearly progress" for all students, including groups that have lagged behind their peers in the past, such as minorities and students who speak English as a second language. Those that don't make adequate progress can face federal sanctions.

But Virginia has its own accountability system that was working quite nicely before the federal government implemented its plan, according to Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon. Hanger told his colleagues that he'd rather see Virginia walk away from the act and its federal funding entirely.

The problem is "one of federalism, that the federal government is forcing something on the states that they have no constitutional right to do," he said. Nonetheless, Hanger asked them to support a watered-down version that starts planning an exit if the federal government doesn't come around to Virginia's way of thinking.

The bill now heads to the House of Delegates.

Press release from the office of Speaker Bill Howell:

RICHMOND, VA – Providing for the mental health, research and anticipated enrollment needs of Virginia’s burgeoning student population, as well as adding an immediate stimulus to the state’s economy, Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) today praised members of the House Appropriations Committee and its chairman, Delegate Lacey E. Putney (I-Bedford), for their outstanding work on House Bill 1547, the 21st Century Capital Improvement Program for Virginia Higher Education, Mental Health and State Parks.

Read the rest of the press release: 20080208 - Speaker News Release - House Capital Infrastructure Bond Package.doc,

Supporting documents:
zHANDOUT - HB 1547 House Capital Program (2-8-08).ppt

zHANDOUT - Side By Side HB 1547 - GOB Matrix FINAL (2-7-08).pdf.

Sunday morning, that is.

Which way is the commonwealth leaning? Obama or Clinton? McCain or Huckabee?

Watch this space and the front page of our main site for the results of Mason-Dixon's poll leading up to Tuesday's presidential primary. We'll post some on the results here and a full story on our main site as soon as the embargo lifts bright and early Sunday morning.

Via Extreme Mortman, a look back at "the finest ad ever shown in the Commonwealth of Virginia."

Former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney may have folded up his campaign and with it much of the GOP nominating contest today, but there's still a fight going on for the Democratic nod.

And the battlefront is moving to Virginia. How do I know? Let's go to the reporter's inbox.

Mass e-mails from Team Obama since the polls closed on Super-Duper Tuesday: 5, 6 not including missives from Democratic Gov. and Obama backer Timothy M. Kaine.

Mass e-mails from Team Clinton since the polls closed on Super-Duper Tuesday: 12.

Both Obama and Clinton are slated to be at the Democratic Party of Virginia's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Richmond on Saturday, three days before Virginia's presidential primary.

Senate Bill 437, by Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Upperville, died in the Senate's Education and Health Committee Thursday on a 10-5 vote.

The bill would have required abortion clinics in the commonwealth to "be licensed and to comply with the requirements currently in place for ambulatory surgery centers except the requirement for a certificate of public need."

The outcome isn't terribly surprising. Senate Health and Education has long been a graveyard for bills that would restrict or ban abortion, due in large part to the chairmanship of Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., R-Winchester.

But the timbre of the hearing was apparently different now that Democrats are in charge of the upper house.

The Family Foundation, a conservative group that backs anti-abortion legislation issued a statement taking note of an apparent difference this time out.

“Today’s decisions by the Senate Education and Health committee to reject reasonable legislation regarding women’s health and abortion was not unexpected. While we are disappointed, we will continue to bring these bills to the committee and to the General Assembly until reason and logic replace ideological politics," wrote Chris Freund, vice president of the organization in a press release.

“That said, The Family Foundation wishes to thank the committee’s new chairman for the professional manner in which he guided the committee," wrote Freund. "That is indeed a vast improvement over previous leadership.”

Just what this world needs, another political blog. Right?

At this moment there are no fewer than 7 billion (give or take) political blogs on the planet, about half of which are based in Virginia. So, why are we doing this? What’s the point of setting up a separate channel of communication with our readers?

There are several reasons. The most pertinent is the fact that there’s a lot of stuff that goes on in Richmond, Washington and other places that we don’t have the time or space to put in the newspaper that lands on your doorstep every morning.

We’ll try here to give you a little more insight into what’s going on in the halls of power. And have a little fun along the way, too.

Also, journalists run the risk of adopting an ivory tower mentality and talking down to their readers. This blog is one effort to make sure that political coverage at The Northern Virginia Daily doesn’t reflect that ivory tower thinking.

To that end, we want to hear what you have to say about our political coverage. Did we get something wrong? Tell us about it. Are we missing an important part of the story? Speak up and be heard. Is our coverage leaning toward one side or the other? Here’s your chance to say so. That’s not to say this blog is going to be one big gripe fest. Far from it.

So let’s talk. We’d like to hear what you have to say.