I’m trying to figure out what is going on with the list of appointments to various college and university Boards of Visitors that we got from the office of Gov. Abigail Spanberger at the end of the business day on Friday.
Among the 56 appointments were nine that were straight-up reappointments of folks who were first installed by Spanberger’s MAGA predecessor, Glenn Youngkin.
That list is headlined by Amanda Pillion, the wife of Republican State Sen. Todd Pillion, a vocal MAGA who stands in the way of pretty much everything Democrats want to do in Richmond.
Amanda Pillion somehow got herself a reappointment to the UVA Board of Visitors yesterday.
WTAF, right?
Pillion served on the search committee leading the process that led to the appointment of MAGA fellow-traveler Scott Beardsley as the 10th president of the University of Virginia, who Spanberger pretended to not be a fan of, before the new Spanberger-majority Board of Visitors gave its approval to the selection in March.
The other MAGA reappointments announced yesterday:
- Christopher Newport University University Board of Visitors: Ronald Tillett, the Secretary of Finance in the administrations of George Allen and Jim Gilmore.
- JMU Board of Visitors: Jack L. White, a candidate for the 2021 Republican nomination for attorney general, who finished in third place in the four-way race.
- Longwood University Board of Visitors: Ronald O. White, the district director under former GOP congressman Randy Forbes, who lists his pronouns on his socials as “masculine male.”
- Radford University Board of Visitors: Jennifer Wishon Gilbert, the Senior Washington Correspondent for CBN News. CBN is Christian Broadcasting Network, in case you were wondering. OMFG, indeed.
- Virginia State University Board of Visitors: Thomas J. Cosgrove, a lobbyist for Newport News Shipbuilding, and a frequent GOP donor.
The reappointments we could put an asterisk beside:
- University of Mary Washington Board of Visitors: Lee Murray, a financial advisor appointed by Youngkin, but who also made a small $250 donation to the Spanberger campaign last year, so, he can also play both sides.
- Norfolk State University Board of Visitors: Conrad Hall, whose $419,750 in political donations since 2017, per the Virginia Public Access Project, includes $125,000 to Glenn Youngkin and $78,500 to Ralph Northam, so, seems he tries to buy favor from both sides.
- Virginia State University Board of Visitors: Victor Branch, who was a Youngkin appointee here in 2022, but was also a Northam appointee to the William & Mary Board of Visitors in 2018.
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Chris Graham
