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Column by David Reynolds Submit guest columns: [email protected] “Where you stand depends upon where you sit,” has eight simple words which explain politics. But it need not. Stands have and will be taken during the discussions over where to cut our local school budgets in these tough fiscal times. Mostly they spring from where…
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Report by Chris Graham [email protected] Jody Grogan thought, like a lot of hardcore health-care reform advocates, that Congress was thisclose to passing … something. “I’m one of these real cynics about Congress now,” said Grogan, a retired teacher who lives in Staunton, and worked locally last summer as an organizer on the reform effort,…
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A long-time friend in the local media who covered the Tim Kaine visit to Staunton last week with me for the News Virginian felt, shall we say, slighted at the treatment accorded him by the Kaine traveling party, and called me to get my input on what had transpired. The media folks on hand, including…
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Against a backdrop of brisk, sunny fall weather, an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 10,000 flocked to the 43rd annual Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale held Friday evening and Saturday, Oct. 2-3 at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Preliminary receipts totaled $283,246 for the worldwide relief and service program of Mennonite Central Committee. Last year’s sales total was…
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Is the Democratic National Committee holding on to the $5 million it has committed to the Creigh Deeds gubernatorial campaign out of concern for the campaign’s direction? The short answer to that is no, looking at campaign-finance records. The DNC has contributed $1.225 million toward the $5 million it committed to the Deeds campaign last…
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We’ve been hearing from more and more from the left and the center in the Democratic Party in terms of criticisms of the way the Obama administration has handled the health-care reform issue. Add U.S. Sen. Jim Webb to the list of Obama critics. “The most difficult thing for me as a senator has been…
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“Which one of your candidates is the one that fired his campaign manager?” I happened to be standing at the Staunton-Augusta Democratic Party booth at the Augusta County Fair last week when that question was directed at a volunteer. The reference was to a report from University of Virginia politics professor Larry Sabato from earlier…
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Looks like we’re going with the expansive definition of the Shenandoah Valley for the conclusion of the Deeds Country Tour. The closest the tour will get to the actual Shenandoah Valley is on Sunday when it wraps in Deeds’ home Bath County with a homecoming event. Which is all well and good, but we’re leaving…
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There were no polls, as one of the candidates for the Republican Party nomination in the 20th, Dickie Bell, famously tried to assert upon the departure of State Del. Chris Saxman from the 20th District race two weeks ago, but conventional wisdom would have had Saxman ahead of Democrat Erik Curren if there had been…
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The 20th District Republican Party nomination is Dickie Bell’s to lose, just as it appeared this time last week in the hours after Chris Saxman’s stunning announcement that he was dropping out of the race. Bell is an ideal candidate in more ways than one. The 62-year-old moderate is in his fourth term on Staunton…
