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At a press conference in Richmond on Thursday, members of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses stood together to denounce the dozens of extreme, divisive bills passed over the first month of session. Republican leaders then responded with a press event aimed at highlighting what they termed their “positive reform agenda.” “Republicans are so focused…
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The buzz in conservative media is that former Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, a Democrat, now regrets that she voted for Obamacare. Dahlkemper is Roman Catholic, and she says she didn’t realize that Obamacare would force “all private insurers, including Catholic charities and hospitals, to provide free coverage of contraception, sterilization procedures, and the “week-after” pill.” Sixth…
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Members of the House Democratic Caucus are vowing to protect school funding in the budget prior to next month’s vote. Education remains a point of contention in Gov. McDonnell’s 2012 biennium, with the overwhelming majority of new money going into Virginia’s retirement system instead of into the classroom. Del. Ken Plum (D-Fairfax) spoke on Monday…
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The jobs situation seems to continue to be getting better, with Friday’s announcement that unemployment fell two-tenths of a percent in January, to 8.3 percent. But it’s not getting better fast enough, says Fifth District Republican Congressman Robert Hurt. “A drop in the national unemployment average is always good news. However, the jobless rate remains…
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Ron Paul finished second in the New Hampshire primary. To be more precise, he finished second in both of that state’s primaries – Republican and Democrat, the latter as a write-in vote. Though President Obama is running virtually unopposed in the primaries, 2,289 New Hampshire voters felt that Ron Paul would be a more suitable…
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The 2012 session of the General Assembly is moving by rapidly. Deadlines for the submission of bills and budget amendments have long passed, and both houses of the Assembly are in full swing. There were both good and bad signs of things to come this past week. On the hopeful side, Democrats and Republicans worked…
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The black-white debate on energy production between Republicans and Democrats generally speaking comes down to the merits of oil production vs. clean energy. It doesn’t have to be an either-or proposition, though. “We need to use every domestic source that we have. But I think we ought to be preparing for a long-term shift toward…
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Good people across the country and in the Sixth Congressional District recently handed Bob Goodlatte a major defeat. Goodlatte had drafted, introduced, and co-sponsored the now infamous SOPA “Internet blacklist” bill. This lousy legislation contained assaults on the First, Fourth and 14th amendments – and Bob, who read the Constitution as recently as last January…
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With my campaign to unseat the 20-year incumbent and rubber-stamp Republican Bob Goodlatte, we have an opportunity to achieve something of real importance, something that reverberates far beyond our Sixth District in Virginia. Sure, it’s true, as the newspapers like to point out, it’s an uphill fight. Sure, my opponent will far outspend me. Sure,…
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The 2012 Session of the General Assembly got off to an inauspicious start. Precedent was ignored and the 60 day session began under the shadow of a lawsuit. A brief explanation: Twice before, houses of the Virginia General Assembly have been evenly divided. In 1996 the Senate was divided, 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans. In…
