Danica Roem – C-VILLE Weekly

In brief: Killed bills, uneasy homage, big checks and more

Dead or alive

The General Assembly has been in session two weeks, and it is whittling down the more than 2,000 bills legislators filed. Here are some bills that have survived so far—and others that were DOA.

Alive

An in-state tuition bill for undocumented students made it out of the Senate Education Committee January 8 on an 8-7 vote, with one Republican senator joining the ayes.
The General Assembly doesn’t often consider freedom of the press, and this year it will look at two bills. Delegate Chris Hurst, a former reporter and anchor for WDBJ in Roanoke, carries a bill that protects student journalists from censorship and their faculty advisers from punishment. Former print journalist Delegate Danica Roem’s bill shields reporters from revealing sources in most cases.
A bipartisan group in both houses of the General Assembly want to raise the minimum age to buy cigarettes and vapes from 18 to 21.

Dead

The Save Niko bill, which allows dogs found dangerous to be transferred to another owner or shipped to a state that doesn’t border Virginia, made it out of an agriculture subcommittee last week, only to have members change their minds this week. The bill could have freed cat-killer Niko, who has been on doggie death row at the SPCA for about four years.
The ’70s-era Equal Rights Amendment passed the Senate 26-14 January 15 and headed to the House of Delegates, where it traditionally dies in committee. This year was no exception—the amendment was tabled by a Republican-led Privileges and Elections subcommittee January 22.
More than a dozen gun safety bills, including universal background checks, temporary removal of firearms from the home of someone deemed a risk to himself or others, and Delegate David Toscano’s bill restricting open carry at permitted events like the Unite the Right rally, were swiftly dispatched January 17 in the rural Republican-controlled subcommittee of the House Committee on Militia, Police, and Public Safety, chaired by southern Albemarle’s Delegate Matt Fariss.
Several bills that would decriminalize or even legalize pot died January 16 in a Courts of Justice subcommittee, with Delegate Rob Bell voting to prevent Virginia from going soft on personal marijuana use.
A bill that would raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 made a rare appearance on the Senate floor January 21, where it died on party lines 19 to 21.

Quote of the week

“I believe there are certain people in history we should honor that way in the Senate . . . and I don’t believe that [Robert E. Lee] is one of them.”—Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, a descendant of slaves, tells the Washington Post after ceding the dais and gavel during a tribute to Lee January 18

In brief

Shutdown scams

Attorney General Mark Herring warned about scams that target furloughed employees. Don’t accept an employment offer for a job you didn’t apply for, he says, and be cautious of predatory lending, including payday, auto title, open-end, and online loans. And those seeking to help should be cautious too—Herring says to avoid cash donations and only give if you can confirm the charity or fundraiser is legit.

Biggest donations in local races

Local philanthropist Sonjia Smith wrote a $100,000 check to UVA prof Sally Hudson, who wants the seat now held by Delegate David Toscano, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Smith also gave $10,000 to Sena Magill for City Council, $5,000 to Albemarle sheriff candidate Chan Bryant, and $20,000 to an Andrew Sneathern for Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney committee, which donated $9,635 to Jim Hingeley, who will announce his run January 23.

Government heavy

The Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau came closer to being stacked with elected and government officials when county supes voted 5-1 for a 15-member tourism board in which industry experts would be outnumbered 9 to 6 by government people. City Council had its first reading of the changes January 22.

$2.3 million roof

Carr’s Hill’s $7.9 million renovation went up another couple of mil when workers discovered the 14,000-square-foot manse’s roof needed to be replaced, not repaired. It’s the first major overhaul of the 1909 Stanford White-designed home of UVA presidents, and Jim Ryan is temporarily housed in Pavilion VIII on the Lawn while the work goes on.

Power to the people: Getting off on the hero myth

“Catnip for reporters.” That’s how Metallica fan and Democratic newcomer Danica Roem described her winning campaign in Virginia’s 13th District last November. She is, after all, the transgender woman who defeated the anti-LGBT incumbent Bob Marshall.

Nevermind that her platform was all about lines of stalled traffic and not lines outside bathroom stalls. The simple narrative of vindication, course correction, redemption—whatever you want to call it—proved irresistible to many observing that race. Good vs. evil, progress vs. tradition, insider vs. outsider, rebel vs. authority? Those are fun stories to write.

Such was the undercurrent for Nikuyah Walker’s visit to “The View,” too. Nazis and Klansmen march on Charlottesville and just a few months later a black woman is named mayor? Why that’s enough to get Whoopi and the gals feeling better about the state of the world. Enjoy the buzz, viewers at home, and meanwhile let’s sidestep the part about how mayor is a ceremonial post in this town.

Yep, there’s no shortage of simple narratives, and their appeal crosses every divide.

A couple of weeks ago, I worked security for one of the women’s marches, and doing so put me directly up against a reporting crew from Alex Jones’ Infowars. Positioning my body between InfoWarriors and the marchers as per non-violent training protocols, I heard nearly an hour of nonstop right-wing commentary from behind me.

The terms reporter Owen Shroyer used to describe the scene didn’t match the assembly I saw before me, yet his vocabulary was familiar. At first I recognized his talk of things that were the “greatest” or the “best” as being the lexicon of the 45th president.

Indeed, when he wasn’t comparing the marchers to Satan and decrying their obviously slavish devotion to fake news, he was talking about the “massive success” of the administration, with “record high” thises and “record low” thats. Bestest, worstest, beautiful… Sounding like nothing so much as Donald Trump himself when he’s dishing the base a simplistic world view that’s two parts stimulant and three parts red meat, Shroyer could have been a “Daily Show” regular from the Jon Stewart days.

Yet his schtick was more comic book than comical. These days, it’s Marvel’s world, we just live in it. And pay for the privilege while we’re at it. Six of the top 10 highest grossing movies in the U.S. last year were superhero fantasies, earning a tremendous sum of $2.29 billion in box office receipts. We’re desperate to live in these simply drawn stories, eager to watch a powerful guardian—no! the most powerful guardian of all!—rise from the rubble and set things right. After the credits roll, we hope we’ll find her or him out in the parking lot kicking ass and taking names. But as Roxane Gay has put it so bluntly, in truth no one is coming to save us.

Not Oprah. Not Mark Warner. Not Elizabeth Guzman, the new Virginia delegate who was tapped to give the Democratic response to the State of the Union address in Spanish, not Robert Mueller, Devin Nunes nor any of the folks at the Riverside who want to oust three Charlottesville City Councilors.

It’s time to remind each other that when we get high off simple delicious rhetoric, we can’t do the painstaking work that lies ahead. As a great master named Ben Kenobi once put it, “The truth is often what we make of it; you heard what you wanted to hear, believed what you wanted to believe.” In other words, mind the catnip, Padawan.

Yes, Virginia is a monthly opinion column.