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VaNews Oct. 29, 2019
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Today's Sponsor:


** Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance
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REBA is leading a coalition to expand renewable energy access in the Commonwealth. Learn more at rebuyers.org ([link removed])

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** FROM VPAP
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** NOW LIVE: PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCLOSURES ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

General Assembly candidates have provided the public with the final full accounting of their finances before Election Day. The disclosures, which were due at midnight, show activity during the first three weeks of October. VPAP ranks candidates by the most money raised and cash on hand as of last Thursday. For each district, there is a side-by-side comparison of candidates. Die-hard political junkies can browse a complete list of each candidate's contributions and expenses.


** TARGETED RACE: HD27 IN CHESTERFIELD COUNTY ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

House District 27 runs along Hull Street Road in Chesterfield County, starting with older suburbs close in to Richmond and extending southwest to newer subdivisions in the Woodlake area. Del. Roxann Robinson (R-Chesterfield) faces a rematch with Democrat Larry Barnett. Their 2017 contest was decided by 125 votes. VPAP provides a look at the district's demographic, voter profile and partisan trends in recent statewide elections.


** TARGETED RACE: HD31 IN PRINCE WILLIAM AND FAUQUIER COUNTIES ([link removed])
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The Virginia Public Access Project

House District 31 extends from Interstate 95 near Quantico north to Warrenton. Nearly eight of 10 voters live in southern Prince William County. First-term Democratic Del. Elizabeth Guzman is being challenged by Republican D.J. Jordan. VPAP provides maps and charts that illuminate the district's geography, demographics and partisan tendencies in recent statewide elections.


** EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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** 'MATH ISSUE' DRIVES NEW NORTHAM ADMINISTRATION PUSH FOR BUDGET SAVINGS ([link removed])
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By MICHAEL MARTZ, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration is looking to state agencies — including public colleges and universities — to help solve a “math issue” that could complicate plans for new spending in the next two-year budget. Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne challenged the governor’s Cabinet last week to look for savings from existing spending and programs, as Northam prepares to propose a budget for 2020-2022 that is increasingly driven by the cost of public education and health care.


** STATE ELECTIONS
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** VIRGINIA BEACH MASS SHOOTING TAKES CENTER STAGE IN SENATE RACE ([link removed])
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By MARIE ALBIGES, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A Navy veteran is using the topic of gun violence prevention to try to swing a GOP senate district blue during a crucial election year for the General Assembly. The site of the Virginia Beach mass shooting lies in the 8th Senate District, where the two candidates — Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal and Republican Sen. Bill DeSteph — are fighting over the airwaves on what to do about gun violence.


** BELL, ALCORN BATTLE OUT 58TH DISTRICT RACE ([link removed])
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By IAN MUNRO, Daily News Record (Subscription Required)

As Republicans hold a majority in the House of Delegates and Senate by only one seat in both chambers, Virginia has become an election fundraising powerhouse, with money going to campaigns at record levels, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.


** HEALTH AND THE BAY ARE CENTRAL AS A DOCTOR AND A PHARMACIST SEEK DELEGATE SEAT IN MIDDLE PENINSULA ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

There will be a lot of health care expertise on the ballot on the Middle Peninsula as incumbent Del. Keith Hodges, a pharmacist, faces Ella Webster, a doctor from Gloucester County. For Hodges, R-Urbanna, the issues at the top of his agenda involve the health of the Bay and jobs for the rural Middle Peninsula. For Webster, top issues include tackling health care costs, expanding broadband access and making it easier to vote.


** WITH CHRIS PEACE OUT AS DELEGATE, 2 SEEK HIS SEAT ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

One of the hardest-fought campaigns the race for the next General Assembly has already been fought as incumbent Del. Chris Peace, R-Hanover, lost his bid for his party’s nomination. Instead, Hanover County supervisor Scott Wyatt, who entered the race in part because he disagreed with Peace’s support for Medicaid expansion last year, will face Democrat Kevin Washington, a New Kent IT specialist who is making his first run for elected office.


** REDRAWN DISTRICT, SIMILAR INTRIGUE ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Last time, their hard-fought race for Newport News’ 94th House of Delegates district ended in a tie, with Del. David Yancey, R-Newport News, returning to Richmond thanks to a lucky lot-drawing. That kept Republicans in control of the House, 51-49. The rematch, in a district that’s been tweaked to lean even more Democratic, puts GOP maverick Yancey against Newport News School Board member Shelly Simonds,


** PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER BATTLING 59TH DISTRICT HOUSE OF DELEGATES INCUMBENT ([link removed])
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By ERIN CONWAY, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

The November 2019 election is next week and the race for the House of Delegates seat in the 59th District of Virginia offers up two very different candidates. Incumbent Republican Matt Fariss, from Campbell County, is up for re-election while his challenger, Democrat Tim Hickey, a teacher in Albemarle, is running for public office for the first time.


** NEARLY ALL OF AREA'S 8 HOUSE OF DELEGATES SEATS CONTESTED ([link removed])
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By TYLER HAMMEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Every seat in Virginia’s General Assembly will be up for election Nov. 5. The GOP is defending a slim majority in the House of Delegates, with one seat vacant. All 100 seats are up for grabs. Central Virginia voters will see both familiar and new names on the ballot.


** INGRAM CALLS BYNUM-COLEMAN'S STORY OF NOT MEETING MISLEADING ([link removed])
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By MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Sheila Bynum-Coleman, a Democrat challenging Republican House Speaker Kirk Cox in Chesterfield County, says she first ran for office in 2015 after her then-delegate, Riley Ingram, declined requests to meet with her. But Ingram, R-Hopewell, who represented Bynum-Coleman until court-ordered redistricting in January, says her claim is not the full story.


** PENCE TO PROMOTE TRUMP’S TRADE POLICIES IN VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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Associated Press

Vice President Mike Pence is coming to central Virginia to promote President Donald Trump’s trade policies. America First Policies announced Monday that Pence would visit a manufacturing company in Louisa on Saturday. The group is a nonprofit founded to support Trump’s policy agenda. Pence is also set to headline a campaign rally Saturday in Virginia Beach to help local GOP candidates ahead of next week’s election.


** DEMOCRATS OUTRAISE REPUBLICANS IN OUT-OF-STATE DONATIONS ([link removed])
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By PATRICIA CASON, VCU Capital News Service

Virginia Democrats have raised millions more than Republicans in out-of-state cash donations ahead of the Nov. 5 elections that will determine control of the General Assembly. Democratic legislative candidates last month outraised their Republican opponents by more than $2.4 million in out-of-state money, according to a Capital News Service analysis of data from the Virginia Department of Elections.


** EXPENSIVE VIRGINIA ELECTIONS SET STAGE FOR REDISTRICTING FIGHT ([link removed])
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By REID WILSON, The Hill

Virginia Democrats are on the brink of reclaiming total control of state government next week, the first in a series of expensive battles that underscore just how critical state legislatures will be in the years following the 2020 census.


** LOOKING AT ENTHUSIASM WITH CNU’S WASON CENTER ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The student pollsters at Christopher Newport University’s Wason Center for Public Policy have been asking a critical question about November’s election — how enthusiastic are the partisans on either side? And while they’d so far found signs of an enthusiasm gap favoring Democrats, the center’s focus on teaching proper techniques of polling and analysis and always-detailed explanation of methodology is a good reminder of what polls say, and what they don’t.


** COUNTY, CITY SEES RISE IN ABSENTEE VOTING ([link removed])
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By JESSICA WETZLER, Daily News Record (Subscription Required)

The last time all 140 seats in the General Assembly were up for grabs, the area had only two districts with contested races. Four years later and every district representing Rockingham County has at least two people seeking the seat — and absentee voting is up.


** 2018 REPORT: NEARLY 7,000 ABSENTEE BALLOTS MAILED TOO LATE ([link removed])
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By ALIVIAH JONES, VCU Capital News Service

Virginia voters have already returned more absentee ballots in 2019 than in the November 2015 election -- the last time all 140 seats in the General Assembly were up for reelection. In the last few elections there has been an uptick in absentee ballots, but not all returned ballots are counted. A Virginia Department of Elections 2018 post-election report found that 6,771 absentee votes did not count in the 2018 election because they were returned to the registrar’s office after Election Day.


** YALE DEMS CANVASS IN VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By VIVIAN VASQUEZ, Yale News

The Yale College Democrats traveled to Virginia Beach during fall break to knock on thousands of doors in the hopes of helping Democrats regain control in the Virginia General Assembly.


** A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIRGINIA’S OFF-YEAR ELECTIONS ([link removed])
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By BEN PAVIOUR, WCVE

Virginian voters never get a break. This year, the General Assembly is on the ballot; next year, the president; in 2021, the governor. Virginia’s unusual election calendar dates back to the state’s 1851 Constitution, which gave all white male property-holders over the age of 21 the right to vote and to directly elect the governor. The first statewide gubernatorial elections were held that December and continued in off-years ever since.


** STATE GOVERNMENT
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** A GOVERNOR-APPOINTED COMMISSION BEGINS WORK ON IMPROVING BLACK HISTORY EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By MECHELLE HANKERSON, Virginia Mercury

The commission charged with making recommendations to create a more accurate and complete representation of black history in state education guidelines plans to finish its work by the time the state makes changes to the Standards of Learning again. The 34-member Virginia Commission on African American History Education in the Commonwealth started about 10 months of work Monday at the University of Virginia.


** FEDERAL JUDGE RULES VIRGINIA MUST STOP ASKING MARRIAGE APPLICANTS TO ID BY RACE ([link removed])
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Associated Press

A federal judge has ordered Virginia to stop asking marriage applicants to identify themselves by race. The order issued Monday by U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston in Alexandria comes in response to a lawsuit filed by three couples challenging the requirement. Their lawyer, Victor Glasberg, said the requirement was a vestige of the state’s Jim Crow era. Alston had already ruled in favor of the couples earlier this month, but he was asked to clarify his ruling.


** ECONOMY/BUSINESS
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** REGULATORS SAY VIRGINIA FIRM CAUGHT MORE MENHADEN IN BAY THAN ALLOWED ([link removed])
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By DAVE RESS, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

A panel of fisheries regulators took a first step Monday that could lead to a freeze on catching menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay. The menhaden panel of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission unanimously found Virginia was out of compliance with the sharply lower cap on the Bay catch the commission set two years ago.


** NAVY SECRETARY: LEARNING OF FORD ELEVATOR DELAYS FROM SHIPYARD WAS ‘GUT BLOW' ([link removed])
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By HUGH LESSIG, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said frustration regarding weapons elevators on the USS Gerald R. Ford stem from how senior leaders at Huntington Ingalls Industries communicated the problem, not the effort from employees. Spencer spent part of Sunday at sea with the $13 billion aircraft carrier, which left HII’s Newport News shipyard Friday. The Ford is undergoing sea trials after spending 15 months at the yard for extended repairs and upgrades.


** BON SECOURS SIGNS DEAL TO BUY 3 HOSPITALS IN VA. ([link removed])
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By JOHN REID BLACKWELL, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

One of the Richmond region’s major health care providers is buying three hospitals in Virginia, including Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg. Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health, a not-for-profit Catholic health care system with more than 40 hospitals, announced Monday that it has signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire the three hospitals from affiliates of Community Health Systems Inc.


** SPARKLING WINE PRODUCER TO OPEN NELSON COUNTY FACILITY ([link removed])
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By MATT BUSSE, News & Advance (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)

A sparkling wine producer will establish a new facility in Nelson County with an investment of $590,000, creating six new jobs, Gov. Ralph Northam's office announced Monday. Virginia Sparkling Company, an affiliate of Afton-based Veritas Vineyard & Winery, will produce Champagne-style sparkling wine under the labels of wineries with which it will collaborate.


** TRANSPORTATION
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** METROBUS LINES IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA REMAIN SHUT DOWN AFTER STRIKE ([link removed])
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By DANA HEDGPETH AND JUSTIN GEORGE, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

A Metrobus garage strike continued for a fifth day Monday, leaving 15 routes in Northern Virginia shut down and three others on limited service. Metrobus operators, mechanics and utility workers at the Cinder Bed garage in Lorton have been on strike since Thursday, seeking better wages, benefits and working conditions.


** HIGHER EDUCATION
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** HERE’S WHY THESE WORKERS ARE UNIONIZING AT WILLIAM & MARY ([link removed])
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By LUCRETIA CUNNINGHAM, Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Metered paywall - 3 articles per month)

Members of the William & Mary Workers’ Union are launching their campaign to demand better treatment, pay, and benefits for employees at the historic college Monday. Jasper Conner, a spokesman for the union, said in a news release they’re planning to rally publicly and are presenting demands to the Dean of Graduate Studies for graduate workers to have their health, vision, and dental insurance paid as part of their yearly compensation and benefits that parody those of workers in PhD programs.


** LOCAL UNIVERSITIES ADJUST COUNSELING CENTER SERVICES TO MEET INCREASED DEMAND ([link removed])
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By GRAHAM SCHILTZ, Harrisonburg Citizen

College students at Harrisonburg’s universities are increasingly seeking out help from counseling centers — part of a nationwide trend of colleges trying to keep up with mental health issues among this generation of students. That has forced JMU and EMU’s counseling centers to get creative in order to serve every student that comes through their doors.


** VIRGINIA OTHER
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** CHARLOTTESVILLE LAWSUIT PUTS RISING INTOLERANCE ON TRIAL ([link removed])
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By NEIL MACFARQUHAR, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

The most sweeping lawsuit against the promoters of the Charlottesville white power rally has been churning toward trial for two years, ever since hundreds of white supremacists and Nazis staged a torch-lit march that set off a weekend of violence. ...To pursue participants in the Charlottesville rally, lawyers are relying on 21st century technology as well as a seldom-invoked law from the Civil War era.


** LOCAL
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** NO CHESTERFIELD SCHOOL BOARD INCUMBENT IS SEEKING RE-ELECTION ([link removed])
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By SEAN GORMAN, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

There will be no incumbents on the Chesterfield School Board next year because none of those serving on the panel opted to seek re-election. This November, voters will choose from a slate of candidates who are seeking their first term overseeing the fate of the school system that has about 62,000 students.


** THERE'S A CONTESTED RACE FOR EVERY CHESTERFIELD BOARD OF SUPERVISORS SEAT ([link removed])
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By STAFF REPORT, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Democrats are hoping to chip away at the Republican advantage on the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, where the GOP currently holds a 4-1 advantage. There are two open seats on the board because Republican incumbents - Dorothy Jaeckle in the Bermuda District and Steve Elswick in the Matoaca district - are not seeking re-election.


** EXECUTIVE CHARGED WITH BRIBING EX-NORFOLK SHERIFF FOR OVER A DECADE HAS HIS TRAVEL RESTRICTED ([link removed])
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By SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

The founder of a large jail medical service provider charged last week with bribing former Norfolk Sheriff Bob McCabe was briefly in federal custody Monday. Gerard F. Boyle, of Franklin, Tenn., was released after he agreed to sign an unsecured bond, surrender his passport and restrict his travel — at least a little.


** CHESAPEAKE “SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING” WHETHER TO STOP RECYCLING ([link removed])
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By BRIANA ADHIKUSUMA, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

Facing a significant increase in recycling costs, Chesapeake’s program is at a crossroads as the city decides whether to charge a fee, pay more or stop doing it. While the city’s current recycling contract with Tidewater Fibre Corporation expires on Friday, negotiations are ongoing to extend its $2.7 million recycling deal for three months. For now, the option of suspending the service is being “seriously considered,” said City Manager James Baker.


** IS 15 TOO OLD TO TRICK-OR-TREAT? ONE CITY SAID YES ([link removed])
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By LAURA M. HOLSON, New York Times (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Are you too old to go trick-or-treating? That’s a question some residents in Chesapeake, Va., will be asking this Halloween after the city passed an ordinance earlier this year capping the activity at age 14. That’s less restrictive than the previous ordinance, which warned people older than 12 could go to jail. But the city changed the rule after an outcry last year on social media turned Chesapeake into the butt of late-night television jokes.


** SOLAR POWER IS COMING TO FIVE SCHOOLS IN NEWPORT NEWS ([link removed])
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By JULIA MARSIGLIANO, Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Metered paywall - 3 articles per month)

The city’s public school system has partnered with Sun Tribe Solar to add solar power panels at five schools....The partnership with Sun Tribe Solar is just one of the many energy efficient upgrades the district has implemented in its schools. The upgrades include energy efficient windows, installation of LED lighting and sensor lighting at night as well as adding tankless on-demand water heaters, Price said.


** CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST 14 CURRENT, FORMER OFFICIALS ([link removed])
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By JOSH GULLY, Northern Virginia Daily

The misdemeanor misfeasance and nonfeasance charges leveled against 14 current and former county officials were dropped Monday in Warren County Circuit Court because Judge Bruce Albertson said misfeasance and nonfeasance are not crimes in Virginia.


** MCDONALD CHARGED ON FOUR ADDITIONAL FELONIES ([link removed])
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By JOSH GULLY, Northern Virginia Daily

Jennifer McDonald, the former Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority executive director who had been facing 28 felony counts, was arrested Monday on four additional felony charges related to alleged improper financial transactions. She now stands charged on 32 felony counts of obtaining money by false pretenses, money laundering, fraud, and embezzlement.

Today's Sponsor:


** Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance
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REBA is leading a coalition to expand renewable energy access in the Commonwealth. Learn more at rebuyers.org ([link removed])


** EDITORIALS
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** MAKE A PLAN TO CAST A BALLOT IN ONE WEEK ([link removed])
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Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)

We're almost to the finish line, Hampton Roads. Virginia voters head to the polls in only one week’s time. For many, it can’t come soon enough. The local television has been inundated by political advertising for weeks.


** OP-ED
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** GODFREY AND COX: LET'S TURN THE PAGE ON ENERGY IN VIRGINIA ([link removed])
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By HARRISON GODFREY AND MATTHEW COX, Published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)

Change versus more of the same. It is the fundamental question underlying every election. This November, as Virginians go to the polls, it is more true than ever. The delegates and senators who gather in Richmond in January will have the opportunity to turn the page on a variety of policies. We urge them to start with Virginia’s energy policies, where the benefits of change and the costs of staying the same are clear.

Harrison Godfrey is executive director of Virginia Advanced Energy Economy. Matthew Cox is founder & CEO of The Greenlink Group.
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