I would have expected Abigail Spanberger, as a former member of Congress, to be better at the legislation part of her job than she has demonstrated to date.
It makes zero sense that the governor didn’t involve her staff in the legislative back-and-forth in the General Assembly in January and February, and has had to resort to issuing a series of amendments and now the liberal use of the veto pen – all of this compounded by the fact that she was trying to amend and is now vetoing legislation passed by supposed fellow Democrats.
I say supposed, because Spanberger is looking more and more like her predecessor, the MAGA-lite Glenn Youngkin, than the supposed Democrat who was elected with 57 percent-plus six months ago.
Like Youngkin, Spanberger vetoed a bill that had passed with massive bipartisan majorities that would create a Prescription Drug Advisory Board.
She also vetoed a bill that would have forced local governments to recognize the collective-bargaining rights of public-sector employees; you can’t get any more Chamber of Commerce Republican than taking that particular stand.
ICYMI
- Now we have Spanberger vetoing the Affordable Medicine Act: Make it make sense!
- Spanberger tries, and fails, to explain Affordable Medicine Act veto
- Spanberger vetoes collective bargaining: Who does she think she’s fooling?
Then there is the veto of a measure to protect naturalized citizens at the polls and immigrants at schools, hospitals and our courts, that has the prim and proper League of Women Voters fire-breathing mad at her.
“While we understand an executive order is coming, we do not understand why this legislation, which has the power of law, was vetoed,” the League said in a statement, which concluded:
“The governor’s actions are a profound disappointment, but the League will do what we have always done: persist.”
That’s about as sick a burn as you’re ever going to see from the League of Women Voters.
Spanberger ally Scott Surovell, the State Senate Majority Leader, is similarly at a loss over the vetoes of two bills that would have brought uniformity to security and electronic device policies in local courthouses, which he said in a statement “rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of what these bills do.”
Allies in the cannabis community, similarly upset at the veto of legislation to create a legal cannabis market in the Commonwealth.
“For five years, Virginia has been stuck in a limbo where adults can legally possess, share and grow cannabis, but there is still no regulated way to purchase it. By rejecting the retail bill, the governor has chosen to extend that chaos rather than move us toward a transparent, accountable retail system that centers public health, public safety and justice,” said Chelsea Higgs Wise, the executive director of Marijuana Justice.
All of this, plus: we still don’t have a budget!
How can we not view Year 1 as being a big swing-and-miss?
Seriously, the question needs to be asked: does Spanberger not have a legislative liaison?
I mean, I see a name there; I don’t see any evidence that this Gerica Goodman person made any inroads with supposed fellow Democrats as any of this legislation was making its way through the General Assembly.
I have to say this: I don’t know how Winsome Earle-Sears would approach any of these issues any differently than Abigail Spanberger is right now.
This, I guess, is what we get from having a presumptive nominee scare everybody else off, and not having to face scrutiny until, well, until it’s too late.
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Chris Graham
