Area legislators were hard at work during this year’s General Assembly session,
which concluded on Saturday. Supplied photos
Virginia’s General Assembly session ended its regularly scheduled 60-day run on Saturday. The work of the legislature is far from over, however—the divided assembly has not yet agreed on a state budget and has left a number of bills on the table. Once the budget is complete, a special session can be held later in the year to continue ironing out the remaining bills.
For the moment, let’s take a look at some notable bills the six state delegates and senators who represent Charlottesville and Albemarle have been able to pass so far.
Delegate Rob Bell (R) was the chief patron of a bill aimed at limiting the amount of information law enforcement has to turn over under the Freedom of Information Act. The bill passed with broad Republican support and a handful of Democrats, including both Deeds and Hudson, on board as well. The bill means criminal investigative files can’t be disclosed to requesters unless the requesters are family of the victim or an attorney petitioning for the accused party’s innocence. The bill had been opposed by the Virginia Press Association and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, but supported by the families of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington.
Delegate Matt Fariss (R) put forward a bill to increase the penalty for stealing a catalytic converter from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony, increasing the potential penalty to one to five years in prison. Fariss’ bill was tabled in the House, but the Rustburg delegate was a sponsor on a very similar bill from Bell that did make it through. The bill passed the Senate unanimously but was more controversial in the House, where it advanced 57-38.
Delegate Sally Hudson (D) was the chief patron of more than two dozen bills, but almost all were squashed in the Republican-controlled House, including bills to fund school renovation via local sales taxes and to allow localities to conduct local elections through ranked-choice voting. She was the chief co-patron of two unanimously passed bills that will make hospital pricing more transparent.
Like Hudson, Delegate Chris Runion (R) had some tough sledding in the divided legislature—his bills to tighten ballot access and weaken civilian police oversight bodies passed the Republican House but died in Democrat-controlled Senate committees. Runion was the chief patron of a unanimously approved bill requiring the state’s Department of General Services to prioritize purchasing recycled plastic when it acquires plastic for use by state agencies.
Senator Creigh Deeds (D) was the chief patron of a bill that bans health care providers from collecting debt from patients until after the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund, a state program to help victims with medical expenses, has had a chance to decide if those patients are eligible for relief. The bill comes the year after UVA hospital received national negative attention for its aggressive bill collection practices. Deeds’ bill passed the Senate 24-15, with much of the Republican caucus opposing, but passed the House 91-7.
Senator Bryce Reeves (R) proposed multiple bills aimed at loosening gun laws. His initiative to allow concealed carry without a permit was killed in a Senate committee, but he did pass a bill declaring that retired law enforcement officers can purchase service weapons without undergoing a criminal background check. The bill passed the Senate unanimously and the House 61-37.
From the top left moving clockwise, Rob Bell, Chris Runion, Matt Fariss, Creigh Deeds, Sally Hudson, and Bryce Reeves. Supplied photos.
But today I am still just a bill
Virginia’s 2022 legislative session kicks off Wednesday, January 12, in Richmond. Each legislative session, lawmakers are allowed to prefile a number of proposed bills before the session starts. Legislative tracker LegiScan shows that 268 bills had been prefiled as of January 10. Republicans, who control the legislature after November’s elections, have been the more active of the two parties in prefiling thus far. Below, take a look at some of the bills that Charlottesville and Albemarle delegates and senators have submitted.
Delegate Rob Bell (R) House Resolution 2 honors the service of longtime Republican Delegate and Speaker of the House Kirk Cox.
Delegate Matt Fariss (R) House Bill 51 would make it a Class 6 felony, punishable by one to five years in prison, to steal a catalytic converter. Currently, it’s just a misdemeanor.
Delegate Sally Hudson (D) House Bill 71 would prohibit public utilities from contributing to political candidates.
Delegate Chris Runion (R) House Bill 149 would add a hurdle to absentee voting by requiring witnesses to provide their name, date of birth, residence, and the last four digits of their social security number. Currently, witnesses only need to provide a signature.
Senator Creigh Deeds (D) Senate Joint Resolution 8 honors the life of former Waynesboro delegate Pete Giesen, who died last year.
Senator Bryce Reeves (R) Senate Bill 127 would require presenting a photo ID to vote. Currently, voters with a non-photo ID can vote after signing a statement promising that they are who they say they are.
COVID surges
The Blue Ridge Health District has seen a record-breaking coronavirus surge in the last two weeks. On December 30, the district reported 482 new cases, topping the previous record of 453, which was set the day before. Before Christmas of 2022, the most new cases the department had reported in a single day was 245 in February of 2021. Vaccination and booster shot appointments are available all week long—visit vdh.virginia.gov to get started.
Photo: Blue Ridge Health District
In brief
Shine on
This week, the Albemarle Planning Commission considered a special use permit for a new hotel on Pantops. The plan was submitted as The Overlook Hotel—the same name as the haunted hotel in Stephen King’s The Shining. No word yet on whether the new lodge will be possessed by the ghosts of murdered twins.
Oh truck
Just 10 days into 2022, the bridge on the Corner sheared the top off its first truck of the year. The 10-foot-high 14th Street bridge has long menaced unsuspecting trucks, but had a slow 2021: Only one vehicle got lodged under the metal overpass, according to truck-tracking CBS19 weatherman Travis Koshko. The bridge is determined to make up for lost trucks, it seems.
City sued over land use map
Eleven anonymous plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the City of Charlottesville, alleging that the recently adopted Future Land Use map—which raises the maximum allowed housing density on certain parcels throughout the city—should be nullified for violating the Virginia code. One couple “purchased their property due to its location in a single-family neighborhood that was suitable for young children,” but the next owners of the property could build up to 12 units on the lot. Oh, the horror!
The Future Land Use Map was approved last year. Photo: City of Charlottesville
UVA boosts booster mandate
UVA has moved its booster mandate up to January 14. Initially, all students, faculty, and staff were required to get a booster shot by February 1, but the school’s administration cited the dramatic recent surge in cases locally as the reason for the earlier deadline.
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors presented their legislative priorities to a selection of state-level representatives on Monday. Photo: Skyclad Aerial
By Kristin O’Donoghue
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors met Monday morning with area House of Delegates Representatives Rob Bell, Chris Runion, Matt Fariss, and Sally Hudson, and state Senator Bryce Reeves, to discuss legislative priorities for the upcoming year.
The board asked the legislators to pursue legislation that would enable the county to levy civil rather than criminal penalties for violations of local ordinances, expand the county’s authority to use photo speed monitoring devices, and require agricultural buildings used by the public to be subject to minimum safety standards.
By amending Virginia law to institute a schedule of civil penalties, localities would be empowered to decriminalize numerous activities.
“As a former prosecutor, defense counselor, and criminal trial judge during my time in the Navy, I have long been troubled by overcriminalization of minor misconduct,” said Supervisor Donna Price.
Most representatives present expressed a desire to meet with the police department to discuss their perspective on the proposal.
The second proposal calls for an expansion of the use of speed cameras, specifically to target secondary roads with speed limits above 35 mph where speeding has been identified as a problem.
Hudson wanted to ensure that the cameras would be placed equitably, and not target certain neighborhoods. Supervisor Ned Gallaway said the camera locations would be determined by safety concerns and reports from the police. Like the proposal regarding civil penalties, proponents of the measure say it would free up law enforcement officers to do other critical police work.
The third proposal would beef up safety standards for agricultural buildings used by the public, which requires changing the legal definition of “farm building or structure” and adding a new designation for “public use agricultural buildings.”
“This is about people and safety,” said Supervisor Diantha McKeel.
The delegates also shared their priorities for the session.
Reeves wants to focus on combating illegal gambling, which he says is taking place across the commonwealth under the guise of “charitable gaming,” in addition to restoring funding to state police.
Bell hopes to address crowding in state hospitals, and wants to extend a policy instituted during COVID that assists those with special needs by allowing the parent to be the paid provider for the person in need of services.
Runion wants to pass the Virginia Tuition Aid Assistance Grant for private education, work on digitizing historical records, and respond to the over-capacity problem observed in local and regional jails.
With the virus still mutating, Hudson said she believes that the commonwealth should focus on providing support to people who have offered essential services during the pandemic.
She said the rising cost of living in Virginia was a recurring theme on the campaign trail, and that she’ll be working on the consumer protection front to lower the cost of energy and prescription drugs, and to protect patients from medical debt.
“These are things we can do to make it easier to make ends meet,” she said.
Delegate Sally Hudson recently launched Ranked Choice Virginia, a nonprofit aimed at educating people about ranked-choice voting.
PC: Eze Amos
If you’ve voted in more than a few elections, there’s a chance you’ve cast a ballot for a candidate you didn’t particularly like. Maybe you would have voted for someone else, but you knew that candidate didn’t have enough party support to win the race, and you didn’t want to “throw away” your vote. Under our country’s winner-take-all election system, this predicament is all too common.
But in the past two decades, more than 20 cities and several states have turned to a different system that gives voters a wider range of options in elections: ranked-choice voting. 57th District Delegate Sally Hudson is working to bring this system to localities across Virginia.
“Right now we have a problem,” says Hudson. “We have lots of people running for office…but our ballots just aren’t built to let voters choose who they really want when more than two people run.”
Beginning this July, all cities and counties in Virginia will be allowed to use ranked-choice voting for their elections, thanks to Hudson’s bill, which was passed last year by the General Assembly. After the bill’s passage, Hudson set up a nonprofit, Ranked Choice Virginia. The aim of the organization is to do educational and advocacy work across the state, encouraging local legislators to take advantage of the new law.
Under a ranked-choice voting system, voters can rank candidates in order of preference, without their other rankings hurting the chances of their first choice. They can also vote for as many candidates as they want. If their favorite candidate doesn’t win a majority of the first-choice votes, their vote then counts toward their second choice.
“This way you ensure that whoever wins has genuine broad-based support from the community,” says Hudson. “You can’t just win by rallying a small, vocal slice.”
Hudson points to Virginia’s crowded gubernatorial race as an example of the merits of ranked-choice voting. Five candidates are competing for the Democratic nomination, with former governor and fundraising powerhouse Terry McAuliffe currently leading in the polls.
“When you have lots of people on the ballot…it’s really hard to tell who the consensus nominee is,” says Hudson. “Voters often have to choose between voting for who they really like and the person they think can win.”
With ranked-choice voting, “even if it turns out your candidate doesn’t win, you can still weigh in on the consensus with your second choice,” she adds.
Our ballots just aren’t built to let voters choose who they really want when more than two people run.
Delegate Sally Hudson
In cities that have implemented this alternative voting system, candidates have significantly changed how they’ve campaigned. Instead of slinging mud at the opposition, they focus on the important issues in their communities, making races more positive, clean, and productive.
“It forces candidates to reach out to voters from a lot of different corners of the community and talk about what really matters to people,” says Hudson. “If all you’re doing is dunking on your opponent, it’s going to be hard to win those second-, third-, and fourth-choice votes.”
In addition to increasing voter turnout and engagement, ranked-choice voting has led to a major uptick in women and people of color running for office—and winning. Over the past decade, women have won nearly half of municipal ranked-choice elections, according to electoral reform nonprofit Fair Vote.
Localities with ranked-choice voting also can skip party primaries or runoff elections, saving them a lot of time and money. While parties can still endorse their preferred candidate, they no longer keep the underdogs off the ballot.
According to Fair Vote research analyst Deb Otis, some groups have argued against ranked-choice voting, mainly because they strongly benefit from the winner-take-all system. However, both Democrats and Republicans have supported ranked choice, and adopted it for a variety of elections.
“In some cases, cities or states need to upgrade their election equipment before running ranked-choice elections. All modern voting equipment is ranked-choice capable, but cities or states who are using equipment that is more than 15 years old may need to upgrade,” says Otis.
“There are plenty of other reasons that cities and states update their voting equipment, such as better election security, so time is on our side as election administrators are already in the process of phasing out older equipment,” she adds.
Though most Republicans in the General Assembly opposed Hudson’s bill, the Virginia GOP will use ranked-choice voting this year to nominate their candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general.
On the municipal level, Arlington County is already exploring adopting the new voting system. The locality’s elected officials and registrars office will have to collaborate to make the shift.
“We should expect to see [Arlington] be one of the first movers,” Hudson says. “It would be great to see Charlottesville consider it as well.”
Carolyn Johnson is one of millions of Virginians burdened by costly energy bills. PC: Annabel Jones
By Caroline Challe
For Carolyn Johnson, a Charlottesville homeowner and care worker, the financial strain of the pandemic has been exacerbated by her high energy bill—almost $300 last month.
“Water bill and electric–them the highest thing I got. It’s really hard. I am struggling trying to get it done,” Johnson says. Though her household’s energy habits are typical, Johnson says, “by the time we pay up everything, we end up with maybe $200 left.”
Johnson is one of the three-quarters of Virginians who have an unaffordable energy bill according to federal standards, says Cassady Craighill of the climate advocacy organization Clean Virginia.
“We have a real crisis in Virginia where our energy bills are too high. They’re the sixth highest in the country,” Craighill says.
The prices are all the more galling given that Dominion, Virginia’s energy monopoly, has an enormous cash stockpile. Dominion has near-total control over swathes of the Virginia energy market. In exchange for that power, its profits are traditionally limited to a rate agreed upon with the state—in recent years, 10 percent. Profits above that threshold are supposed to be refunded to customers.
In the last three years, however, Dominion pocketed $500 million more than that rate of return, because a 2018 law allows it to keep excess profits as long as it invests the profits in clean energy projects.
Delegate Sally Hudson believes that over-earnings leave Virginia residents economically vulnerable.
“I’ve met lots of constituents struggling to make ends meet, and between sky-high rent and utilities, just affording safe shelter is a major struggle,” say Hudson, who represents Charlottesville and part of Albemarle County. “The burden of electric bills also hits hardest for the families that already struggle most, because they typically live in units without the more modern energy efficiency measures like improved windows, insulation, and thermostats.”
Despite the astronomical over-earnings, Dominion claims that its rates are low, and consumer error is the reason many are facing astronomically high prices.
“Hopefully, people you know, set their thermostat at the right temperature so that they’re not driving those bills up,” said Rayhan Daudani, Dominion’s manager of media relations.
Daudani says the company’s re-investment of the over-earnings winds up benefiting customers. “Instead of charging customers the costs of the projects, we would take the extra revenue and offset those costs, so that they get the benefit of the project without seeing any rate increase.”
I’ve met lots of constituents struggling to make ends meet, and between sky-high rent and utilities, just affording safe shelter is a major struggle.
Delegate Sally Hudson
Dominion opponents have concerns about those clean energy projects, however. One of Dominion Energy’s newest projects involves building wind turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach. The company says the project requires large over-earnings in order to produce this expensive form of clean energy.
“Dominion receives a 10 percent annual rate of return on anything that they’re building. So instead of cost-efficient renewable energy like rooftop solar that is distributed all over Virginia, they’re going to choose to build a much more expensive renewable energy project so that they can get that rate of return as high as possible,” says Craighill. “And that’s how a monopoly works.”
As the pandemic rages on and millions of citizens struggle, a bill was proposed that would have required the State Corporation Commission to return 100 percent of the amount of a utility’s earnings back to customers’ bills. On February 1, that bill was killed by the Virginia Senate Commerce and Labor committee. In an 11-3 vote, the bill was “passed by indefinitely,” effectively terminating its chances. Eight Democrats and three Republicans decided to tank the bill, while three other Democrats voted in favor of it.
When the bill failed, many advocacy groups like Clean Virginia cited Dominion’s hefty donations to state officials as the reason why. Dominion has long been the largest contributor of campaign funds to both political parties in the state, although recently some Democrats have sworn off its contributions.
“When you have a company like Dominion giving those same legislatures hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, that’s a huge conflict of interest since clearly, those legislators are going to have a hard time convincing their voters and constituents that they’re acting in the best interest of them when they’re routinely passing legislation that favors Dominion,” says Craighill.
Hudson, who works with many legislators who have accepted Dominion’s donations, believes the company uses its capital to maintain influence over the General Assembly.
“The state guarantees that Dominion will recover its costs for those projects anyway. The company doesn’t need to over-earn to make clean energy investments,” Hudson says. “Dominion writes its own rules, and some legislators just sign off. They don’t want you to understand why you’re not getting a fair deal. Fortunately, there are fewer and fewer of those legislators every year.”
State Senator Creigh Deeds and Delegate Sally Hudson will prioritize criminal justice reform, expanded unemployment benefits, and school funding during the upcoming legislative session. PC: Photos courtesy subjects
By Geremia di Maro
Amid a surging number of COVID-19 cases in the state, and political turmoil at the national level, the Democrat-controlled Virginia General Assembly will convene Wednesday (remotely in the House) for the 2021 legislative session. Charlottesville’s local lawmakers have an ambitious agenda planned for the marathon 46-day session. Delegate Sally Hudson and state Senator Creigh Deeds will both prioritize criminal justice reform, expanded unemployment benefits amid the pandemic, and increased school funding, among other things.
Hudson plans to serve as the chief patron for seven bills in the House of Delegates, and said at a virtual town hall Sunday that each one represents one of her central lawmaking priorities. At a time when new COVID-19 cases continue to break daily records in Virginia—more than 5,700 new cases were reported January 9 alone—three of Hudson’s proposed bills aim to lower utility bill costs, prevent illegal evictions, and streamline unemployment benefits for Virginians beleaguered by the still-worsening pandemic.
“Unemployment payments are a crucial part of our social safety net and our economic recovery,” said Hudson on Sunday. “They ensure that—while there are a lot of people out of work and a lot of businesses that aren’t safe to operate—we can still continue to help all of our residents pay for rent and groceries and keep the wheels of our economy churning.”
More specifically, Hudson says her proposed bill would address some of the administrative hang-ups within the Virginia Employment Commission that have delayed the disbursement of benefits for as many as 70,000 Virginia residents this year. According to Hudson, 1.4 million people—or one in six Virginians—have applied for unemployment benefits during the past year.
On the Senate side, Deeds has related bills. He will propose that the state allocate $100 million to the Virginia Employment Commission for the purpose of providing long-term benefits for unemployed low-income and part-time workers. Deeds says these funds would come from a $650 million allocation to Virginia’s reserve fund proposed in Governor Ralph Northam’s budget.
“The reserve fund is somewhat supplementary to the constitutionally required rainy day fund, but in this pandemic, it’s raining on a whole lot of families,” says Deeds. “There have been people that have been thrown out of work because of the pandemic. [This proposal] is a one-time deal, for one year of funding, to provide long-term unemployment benefits for some of those people who have lost their job because of the pandemic.”
Hudson has also proposed a sweeping bill that would decriminalize the simple possession of any drug or controlled substance, meaning that the maximum penalty an individual could face for possessing a given substance would be a misdemeanor charge rather than a felony. The simple possession of marijuana was decriminalized by the General Assembly during the 2020 legislative session. Hudson says her long-term goal is for drugs to be completely decriminalized in Virginia, citing the state of Oregon as a model for how to go about the process.
“People who are struggling with substance abuse need economic support, they need jobs, they need connections to their community—they don’t need to be in cages,” says Hudson.
Also on her agenda: ending the abortion ban for those who receive health care from Virginia’s version of the ACA; retiring coal tax credits in an effort to incentivize green energy; repealing right to work laws; and prioritizing school funding when crafting the budget.
Hudson says she feels empowered and obligated to press forward on issues such as criminal justice reform in the General Assembly due to her district’s desire to see such changes.
“Charlottesville is continuing to push the leading edge of the conversation in Richmond, because I think what our constituents want is often a little further ahead than where Richmond is ready to go,” says Hudson.
Deeds, meanwhile, says one of his central legislative priorities is for the General Assembly to provide significant long-term funding for the modernization andconstruction of schools across the commonwealth. Deeds hopes to fund the infrastructure upgrade through tax increases on wealthy Virginians. The plan is to raise taxes from 5.75 percent to 5.9 percent on income greater than $150,000 a year. The increase would generate about $134 million and $144 million in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The plan wouldn’t just fund schools, though. According to Deeds’ proposal, 45 percent of the new revenue would be devoted to schools, and 55 percent would be used to provide raises for deputy sheriffs officers throughout Virginia. Deeds says deputy sheriffs are tasked with law enforcement and many other duties in rural localities, but are often underpaid. After the General Assembly passed laws to raise training and conduct standards for officers during last year’s special session, Deeds says the pay increase for these officers is appropriate.
“I’m interested in coming up with a sustainable source of funding because I think it’ll take pressure off where we’ve got a well-documented need,” says Deeds about the schools portion of his bill. “If we’re serious about providing opportunity through our public school system, we ought to be serious about making sure we provide that opportunity.”
McIntire Skate Park, photographed at its opening last year, has been a popular destination during the pandemic.
PC: Tristan William
Grinding to a halt
Last week, a final warning was issued to all skaters: If more than 25 people were seen gathered at the Charlottesville Skate Park—or other city parks and recreation areas—over the weekend, the city would consider shutting down all of its outdoor facilities until the declaration of emergency is lifted.
Officials stopped by the skate park throughout the weekend, and noticed an immediate improvement, compared to the gathering of more than 75 people witnessed at the park two weeks ago.
The threat of closing was enough to spark outrage among young skaters.
“There are some ways we could keep it open COVID safe,” said 12-year-old Skippy Norton during public comment at Monday’s City Council meeting. Norton, who claimed they’ve been encouraging fellow skaters to comply with safety rules, said, “If I’m having a hard day, I can go to the skate park and I’ll be happy…And I know it means a lot to a lot of kids.”
“Skating helps a lot with mental health…it can put you in a much better mindset,” added 12-year-old Alice Christian. “I’ve met many people at the park who have made my life a little bit more happy.”
“There certainly was a lot more compliance” with mask wearing and social distancing, said City Councilor Heather Hill during the meeting. “But it really is going to be the onus of the skate community to ensure that they’re following the rules…so [it] can continue to be open.”
Several parents joined the kids in speaking out against closing the park, urging council to consider less extreme measures.
“It’s a lifeline for my children,” said parent Kerri Heilman. “The lack of things they’re able to do, and being able to get to the skate park and be outdoors, it is really great for their mental health.”
“Skating rules!” her 8-year-old child chimed in.
_________________
Quote of the week
“I would not mind spending Christmas with my family.”
—UVA football player Joey Blount, on whether or not he wants to play in a bowl game over the holiday break
__________________
In brief
Sally forth
Unsurprisingly, Charlottesville’s delegate, Sally Hudson, has announced her campaign for re-election. In 2019, Hudson took down former city councilor Kathy Galvin in a primary before running unopposed in the general election. She says her priorities for next session include COVID relief, as well as continuing the work of the last session on education and the environment.
Sally Hudson PC: Supplied photo
Tree time
Charlottesville’s Christmas tree sellers are seeing record sales this year, reports NBC29. With everyone gloomy about the virus and eager to get out of the house, firs and pines are flying off the lots. If you’re hoping to get your holiday decorations set up early, don’t wait around.
Oh, shit
Charlottesville has recently begun wastewater testing to detect coronavirus cases, reports The Daily Progress, in an effort organized in conjunction with the state health department and the CDC. It sounds nasty, but the testing has proven an effective way of detecting the presence of COVID early in the virus’ spread—UVA has been running a successful wastewater testing program at its residence halls since September.
It takes two to HueHuetenango
At Monday’s City Council meeting, counselors decided to begin the process of becoming sister cities with HueHuetenango, Guatemala. The 120,000-person city is located in the west of the country and is known for a distinctive set of Mayan ruins nearby. Familial bonds between municipalities aren’t formed overnight, though—for the first three years, the two cities will just be “friendship cities,” says the commission.
Protesters gather in front of City Hall to demand more power for the Police Civilian Review Board.
PC: Zack Wajsgras
For more than a year, the Charlottesville Police Civilian Review Board and Charlottesville City Council have been locked in a dispute over how much power the recently established law enforcement oversight board should have. But clarity is coming soon, thanks to new legislation from the Virginia General Assembly.
Over the course of nearly 12 weeks this fall, Virginia lawmakers passed a string of criminal justice reforms, sparked by the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. The assembly’s new Democratic majority brought a variety of progressive changes to policing in Virginia—including allowing for civilian review boards with real power, a common request from activists seeking reform nationwide. The changes will take effect July 1, 2021, giving lawmakers time to expand the bill to include sheriff’s departments.
“We can pass as many laws as we want governing law enforcement behavior, but this is the one that ensures that there is meaningful oversight and accountability if things do miss the mark,” Delegate Sally Hudson told the CRB during its November 12 virtual meeting.
In June, the CRB voted to expand its own powers, adopting a set of bylaws that were drawn up by an initial panel of activists and experts last year. At that point, City Council delayed approving the decision until the legislative session had concluded.
In stark contrast to the CRB’s current limited advisory role, the new reforms will allow the board to receive and investigate complaints involving police officers or department employees, with the power to subpoena documents and witnesses. If the accused party is found guilty, the board can issue a binding disciplinary ruling for cases “that involve serious breaches of departmental and professional standards,” including demotion, suspension without pay, or termination.
Outside of these duties, the CRB will be able to review all of CPD’s internal affairs investigations and issue its own findings on each ruling. It will also have the power to request reports on the department’s annual expenditures and suggest changes—answering local activists’ recent calls for transparency on CPD’s whopping $18 million budget.
Under the new law, the CRB will evaluate CPD’s practices, policies, and procedures, and recommend improvements. If the department does not implement the changes, the board can require it to issue a public written statement explaining its reasoning.
The CRB’s Vice Chair Will Mendez later expressed frustration over the stipulations put on the board’s law enforcement representative, a position currently held by Phillip Seay. He is able to provide guidance but not vote on decisions, under both the board’s current ordinance and the new state legislation.
“The community didn’t want law enforcement members to vote, because there’s always been a problem with police getting off,” responded Legal Aid Justice Center organizer Harold Folley during public comment. ”We felt like it would be the same way with the [CRB], where the police officer would have bias. …It’s unfortunate that y’all are pushing that.”
As the CRB waits for the bill to take effect, members will use the powerful provisions to revise the board’s existing ordinance and bylaws, which must be approved by City Council. With the bill’s enactment date just seven months away, CRB members agreed to meet twice a month.
“The worrisome part of it for me is having the support of City Council,” said member Dorenda Johnson. “Even with what has been passed, I am just truly hoping that they will be able to and are willing to help us the way that they should.”
Charlottesville's Confederate statues continue to attract nighttime activity.
On March 7, Virginia’s legislature passed the Conference Substitute to House Bill No. 1537, which will allow localities to control the placement of their war memorials. In other words, our city will soon be allowed to remove the statues of Confederate generals from our parks.
After the violence of Unite the Right in August 2017, cities like Durham and Baltimore took down Confederate statues almost immediately. But because of Virginia’s war memorials rule, Charlottesville has had to wait.
Don’t bust out the blow torches just yet, though. The bill lays out a few provisions for the removal of these monuments. Here are the steps the city will have to take:
1. Publish a notice in a local newspaper advertising the city’s desire to “remove, relocate, contextualize, or cover the monument.”
2. Hold a public hearing, at least 30 days after the newspaper advertisement, where “interested persons may present their views.”
3. Upon completion of that public hearing, at least three of five city councilors will have to vote to move the monument.
4. After the vote, the city will have to offer the monument to a “museum, historical society, government, or military battlefield” for 30 days.
5. Finally, the City Council will have “sole authority to determine the final disposition of the monument or memorial.”
A Senate version of the bill would have forced localities to jump through a number of additional hoops, but many of those requirements, like a historical review led by a state agency, were removed in the final version, which passed the House 52-43. In the Senate, Republicans Bryce Reeves (who represents parts of Charlottesville and Albemarle County) and Emmett Hanger joined the body’s 21 Democrats in voting in favor.
Governor Ralph Northam has expressed support for the bill. If he signs it, the new law will go into effect July 1, and the above process can begin. Market Street Park could look very different as soon as this fall.
That doesn’t mean we’ll be celebrating in the streets. On Saturday, members of the Blue Ribbon Commission, the group that produced a 2016 report highlighting the problems with the statues, convened at a Central Library panel to discuss next steps.
“In my opinion, it would be prudent to not schedule” the statue’s removal ahead of time, said Don Gathers, former chair of the commission. Gathers said he expects blowback, and thinks it would be safest to quietly take the statue down in the middle of the night, so that “when folks wake up in the morning, it’s a new skyline to the city.” (Baltimore and New Orleans successfully used this strategy in removing Confederate statues in 2017.)
UVA history professor John Mason, another commission member, said it’s important to consider where the statues go. “We don’t want these statues to become pilgrimage sites somewhere else,” he noted.
Delegate Sally Hudson joined the panel on a video call, and Gathers praised her efforts to push the bill along in Richmond. “We love you, and we thank you for all your hard work, and as a community we’re truly blessed to have you,” Gathers said.
Hudson, in turn, reminded the room of the commission’s work. “We all owe them so much,” she said.
“It is a, dare I say, monumental moment,” Gathers said. “It’s really important that we understand it doesn’t stop here.”
Sex, drugs, and voter ID laws
Statues aside, Virginia’s legislature passed dozens of transformative bills during this session, which wrapped up on March 8. The following selection of new laws will help the Old Dominion lurch into the present.
Virginians will once again be allowed to purchase only one handgun gun per month, a prohibition that was repealed in 2012. That’s just one of many new basic gun safety measures, such as mandatory background checks, which passed. (An assault weapons ban was defeated after four Senate Democrats, including local representative Creigh Deeds, broke ranks to block the bill from advancing out of committee.)
Insurance companies will be forced to charge patients no more than $50 per month for insulin, which people with Type 1 diabetes rely on to survive and which can cost as much as $1,200 per month. Virginia is the third state to pass such legislation, and the new price cap is the lowest in the country.
Sports gambling will soon be legal, and five cities, including Richmond, were given a green light to hold referendums on whether or not to build casinos. Betting on Virginia college sports teams will still be illegal.
Those convicted of a drug-related felony will become eligible to receive food stamps. Current law requires those with drug felonies to pass drug screenings in order to receive benefits.
Marijuana will be decriminalized, meaning possession of the drug will be treated like a traffic ticket, and result in a $25 fine, rather than an arrest.
The minimum wage will gradually increase, jumping from $7.25 to $9.50 an hour on January 1, and eventually reaching $12 an hour by 2023. The slow increase falls short of the $15 an hour that many advocacy groups have called for.
Virginians will no longer be required to show photo ID to vote, a restriction that was implemented in 2013. Any government document with the voter’s name and address will once again be sufficient identification.
The legislature also repealed old laws banning swearing and fornication that had long remained on the books, despite rarely being enforced. Fuck yeah!
Protesters at a Richmond rally hold signs demanding the removal of Confederate statues. Photo: Eze Amos
“No pipeline.” “Climate action now.” “That awkward moment when you burn your own planet.” On December 6, a crowd of about 70 sign-carrying protesters gathered at Charlottesville’s Free Speech wall to demand the city and state government take immediate action against climate change. Carrying their handmade posters, musical instruments, and reusable water bottles, the activists took turns delivering passionate calls to action.
Then Sally Hudson stepped on stage. “For the next three months, turn your eyes to Richmond,” said Charlottesville’s newly elected member of the Virginia House of Delegates. “We have such a special opportunity here, in the year 2020, to finally make progress on climate change.”
Hudson is a member of the Democratic Party’s brand-new “trifecta” government. After the November 2019 elections, the Democrats have a 21-19 majority in the State Senate, a 55-45 majority in the House of Delegates, and a blue—if embattled—governor still in place. The election saw record voter turnout across the state, and handed the Democrats their first trifecta in nearly 30 years.
“All the energy’s on the Democratic side right now,” says David Toscano, the recently-retired House of Delegates minority leader and Hudson’s predecessor as the representative for Virginia’s 57th district.
The Republicans are “discouraged and despondent,” says Toscano, while the Democrats are “really fired up.”
“They have a chance to do some really good things,” the veteran lawmaker says. “Hopefully they’ll avail themselves of that chance.”
Climate change is only one item on the Democrats’ long to-do list. The new lawmakers campaigned on a host of issues including gun reform, voting rights, and—in Charlottesville especially—Confederate statue removal. But even with total control of the government, Democrats and their supporters can take nothing for granted during this 2020 legislative session, which began on January 8.
In front of the enraptured crowd at the climate rally, Hudson echoed Toscano’s message.
“The turnover in the majority makes some real progress possible,” Hudson said. “Possible, but by no means guaranteed.”
Del. Sally Hudson
A brave new party
Democrats last held all three branches of Virginia government in 1993—and the party has changed greatly since then. Creigh Deeds, the veteran state senator who represents Charlottesville and a swath of rural area northwest of town, has been a member of the assembly since 1992. This year, he’ll become the only sitting member to have served in a majority and a minority in both the House and Senate.
“When I first got there…there were a lot of rural Democrats, there were a lot more conservative Democrats,” he says.
Today, the party is more liberal than ever before. That last trifecta was “such a different membership,” says George Gilliam, a UVA history professor and a veteran of Virginia politics. Gilliam served on Charlottesville City Council and ran for Congress in the ’70s. Even up through the ’90s, Gilliam says, the party was organized through “that good ol’ boy network.”
“The progression was, you serve on the PTA or on the school board, then you serve in the local government, then you move up to state government,” Gilliam says. “That was pretty rigorously observed.”
“Most of the members of the General Assembly were elite white males,” Gilliam says. “Overwhelmingly lawyers. That pattern has been pretty well broken. We’re seeing a much larger number of women, much larger number of people who are not lawyers, and a generally more diverse membership.”
The Democrats elected Eileen Filler-Corn as speaker of the House of Delegates. She is the first woman and first Jewish person to hold the office in the history of the assembly. Charniele Herring is the first woman and the first black person to serve as House majority leader. The new legislature includes Virginia’s first two Indian American legislators and first Muslim senator.
Tim Kaine’s 2005 gubernatorial campaign marked a shift for the party, according to Deeds. Kaine focused less on rural areas than northern Virginia and the Richmond suburbs, where he performed well. That success reflected the changing demographics and priorities of the party.
In some cases, the shift is literally generational. Deeds fondly recalls serving with Jerrauld Jones, a Norfolk Democrat, in the 1990s. Jones left the House in 2002, but in 2017, his son Jay Jones won the race for his dad’s old seat.
Charlottesville’s delegation is a proxy for the wide range of voices in the majority. Deeds is a career politician who speaks with a Southern twang, and Hudson is a 31-year-old economist with no previous political experience.
“Sally Hudson is going to be an articulate spokesperson for the more liberal side of the Democratic party,” says Gilliam. “Creigh Deeds, I think, presents excellent balance.”
“It would be unfair to say the people I served with weren’t progressive, they certainly were,” Deeds says, but times have changed. “We’ve got a new generation of leaders and a different sort of Democratic party.”
_______________
Remapping Virginia
The above maps show the Virginia Senate makeup in 2020 and in 1993, the last time Democrats had a trifecta. With the exception of a few long-standing rural members, Virginia Democrats won their 2020 majority by dominating in northern Virginia, Richmond, and Hampton Roads. By contrast, the Democratic majority of the ’90s was a much more rural party, with control in southwestern areas that have since become deep red. Dramatic population growth in northern Virginia over the last decade has helped facilitate this change.
The maps also show the shifting sands of redistricting–the borders of these senate districts have moved meaningfully in the last 30 years, and will continue to move as redistricting gets underway following the 2020 census.
_______________
Balancing act
“The first question out of the box will be, ‘How do Democrats want to conduct themselves?’” Toscano says. In his mind, they have two options: pass everything they’ve been denied for the last decade, or focus on a narrower set of more moderate reforms.
“Some people got elected because of Trump, and no other reason,” Toscano says. “Too far, too fast” remains a concern for the party, even though many Democratic voters are hungry for change. Voters who came to the polls to sound off on Washington might be alienated if the party moves left, says the longtime lawmaker.
“People don’t always march in lockstep,” Toscano says. “There will be push and pull within the Democratic party.”
In addition to wrangling their own party, Democrats will also have to contend with a savvy group of opponents.
“The Republicans have the advantage at this point, even though they’re in the minority, because they’ve got legislative leadership experience,” Deeds says. “They can set traps, because they’ve been in charge for 20 years.”
That experience gap could prove especially significant in the House, says Deeds. “Mistakes can happen. They’re smart, they’ve got good leadership, it’s just going to take a little while.”
Democrats will have just 60 days to figure all of this out. The session convened on January 8 and ends March 7.
“The process itself is kind of a barrier,” says Deeds, “You have to move the legislation forward, balance the budget, get it all done in the span of eight and a half weeks.”
Hudson, though she represents the party’s new guard, seems to understand the challenges of the process of lawmaking.
“The number one constraint is time,” she says. “We’re a little bit less empowered than other trifectas might be. The General Assembly is not like Congress, it’s not a slow deliberative body.”
“If the bill of your dreams doesn’t pass by mid-March, it doesn’t mean that we forgot about it,” Hudson says.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, Del. Rob Bell, former Del. David Toscano
In the minority
Rob Bell has represented Fluvanna, Greene, and northern Albemarle as a Republican since 2002. This will be his first session in the minority.
“You end up with the same tools you always have,” Bell says of his new role. “A surprising amount is: Can you craft policy that everybody agrees is a good idea?”
Often, upwards of 600 bills are passed in a session, and Bell emphasizes that the vast majority of those are bipartisan bills that have been vetted by commissions and panels year-round.
“There’s nothing glamorous about most of the work we do,” Bell says. For example, these days he’s working on a project to bring school bus drivers in his district out of retirement, to make up for some shortages.
Every now and then, a high-profile bill comes along. But after the discussion, “everyone in the room empties out, except for the committee,” Bell says, “and then the committee goes, ‘Alright, so now we’ve got 15 more bills to look at today.’”
Even so, the new majority means uncertainty for Bell and his Republican colleagues. Bell says his group isn’t despondent so much as unsure what to expect. “I don’t even know what my committees are going to be,” he said before the session. (Bell wound up on Courts of Justice, where he’s served in the past, though he will no longer be the committee’s chair.)
In the Virginia House of Delegates, committee assignments matter a lot. Bills must pass through a committee before making it to the House or Senate floor, where the whole chamber can then vote. Speaker Filler-Corn will determine the composition of committees and also determine which committees vote on which bills.
“In many ways, Speaker Filler-Corn has more power than the Governor over what gets out of the next session,” Hudson says.
“Most bills that are supported by a committee then pass the floor,” Bell says. “Where [Filler-Corn] assigns the bills will impact the reception they receive.”
Matt Fariss and Chris Runion, the two other Republican delegates whose districts include pieces of Albemarle County, did not respond to request for comment.
Toscano knows a thing or two about serving in the minority—he was House minority leader from 2011 to 2018.
The Republicans “really don’t know what’s going to happen,” Toscano says, which might be a humbling change. “They’re actually going to have to go to Democrats to get anything passed. In the past they didn’t have to do that at all.”
“I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been,” Hudson says of her colleagues who spent so long in the minority. “Imagine you’re a hard-working, talented legislator going back to Richmond every year and seeing good ideas die. That’s gotta be heart wrenching.”
“It’s a little bittersweet not being there,” Toscano says. “At the same time, I’ll be able to watch my colleagues and know that I played a role in helping a lot of these folks get elected, to make the change that I think ought to be made.”
_______________
Taking the lead
Del. Eileen Filler-Corn, Del. Charniele Herring, Del. Todd Gilbert
Eileen Filler-Corn – Speaker of the House of Delegates
Filler-Corn has represented Fairfax in the House since 2010, and now she’ll have a chance to guide the whole caucus. Filler-Corn, a D.C.-insider lobbyist and consultant, won the internal election for speaker against Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, who represented the more progressive wing of the party.
Charniele Herring – House Majority Leader
In 2009, Herring became the first African American woman from northern Virginia to be elected to the General Assembly, and she’ll now be the first African American and first woman majority leader. Herring has advocated for expanding voting rights and access to abortion while remaining more moderate on economic matters.
Todd Gilbert – House Minority Leader
Gilbert took over as House majority leader in 2018, but now he’ll be in the minority. The experienced Shenandoah Valley delegate has a reputation as a GOP hardliner, and has taken strong stances against reproductive rights and Medicaid expansion.
_______________
On the agenda
Climate
As the scene at the climate rally shows, voters are eager to see environmental reform and legislators are eager to work on it. This new crop of lawmakers campaigned on climate. Cassady Craighill, the communications director at energy nonprofit Clean Virginia, points out that every flipped seat went to a candidate endorsed by her group.
Hudson identifies joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an interstate coalition to limit CO2 emissions, and preparing infrastructure to meet Northam’s emissions targets as short- and medium-term climate priorities.
In Virginia, making change in the energy sector means doing battle with our powerful energy overlord, Dominion Energy. Craighill says her group is excited about bills like the Fair Energy Act, which would help regulate the amount that Dominion can charge customers, and the Virginia Energy Reform Act, which would seek to regulate the monopoly system on a broader level.
“Every year we have this major problem, where we have Dominion giving way too much money,” Craighill says. The energy company donated $1.8 million to a variety of candidates during the 2019 state election cycle and has long been among the highest-spending donors in the state, giving large sums to both parties. Hudson was among a spate of candidates who refused to accept contributions from Dominion during her campaign. Deeds has received more than $100,000 from Dominion since 2001, but stopped accepting the corporation’s donations in 2016.
Governor Northam still has deep ties to the energy giant. He’s accepted more than a quarter million from the energy company over the course of his career, and recently hired a former Dominion public relations director as his communications chief.
Dominion’s dominance is bad for the planet and for Virginians’ pocketbooks, Craighill says. “Not only is there a climate crisis nationally, but in Virginia there’s also an energy burden crisis,” she says. “Our electricity bills are too high, and we pay the seventh highest in the country…Even large retail customers are really limited, both for cost and for clean energy.”
Legislation like the Virginia Energy Reform Act, which has sponsors from both parties, seeks to curb Dominion’s influence. “The General Assembly has allowed Dominion to write their own regulatory process in the last few years,” Craighill says. “These bills are a response to that.”
Legislators looking to bolster renewable resources will have limited resources to work with.
“One of the challenges to confronting climate change at a state and local level is the revenue required for serious infrastructure upgrades,” says Hudson. The Virginia General Assembly is constitutionally required to balance the budget each year, which hampers its ability to make moves that environmentalists might hope for, like an overhaul of the public transportation system.
Still, there’s reason for optimism in a state with a poor environmental record. “Among the 50 states, we’re 49th in per capita expenditure on natural resources,” Deeds says. “We have an opportunity to change our whole focus with respect to environmental policy.”
Guns
Since the November election, more than 110 localities across Virginia have declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries.” Hundreds of people have attended town halls to express concern that the new Democratic legislature will mean harsh restrictions on gun ownership in the commonwealth.
Mike Fox is the legislative head for the Crozet chapter of Moms Demand Action, a nationwide organization advocating for common-sense gun reforms. “We certainly expect the reforms that have been stonewalled and blocked and rejected for so long to finally become the law of the land,” Fox says, especially given that many of the incoming legislators campaigned hard on tightening gun laws.
Moms Demand says its top legislative priorities are bills that expand background checks and enact “red flag laws,” which temporarily disarm those who might pose a threat to themselves or others.
Northam plans to reintroduce a package of gun legislation that failed in the last session. The reforms include limiting the purchase of handguns to one per month and a ban on the sale and possession of assault weapons. The bill does have a grandfather clause for existing firearms, stopping just short of Beto O’Rourke’s famous debate-stage promise that “hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15.”
“The background check legislation is, based on polling, the most popular legislation that the Democrats have on their agenda,” Fox says.
The gun debate shows the effect of subcommittee assignments on the legislature. Gun reform has been a central issue in Virginia since the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. But, for the last decade-plus, many of these popular, common-sense reforms have been nixed by subcommittees full of pro-NRA legislators. That dynamic has shifted, according to Fox.
“We have made it a winning issue,” Fox says. “I’m confident that, in this past session, if some of that legislation had made it to the house floor, it may have even passed. There was such a narrow majority for the Republicans.”
Moms Demand isn’t phased by the outpouring of feeling in the second amendment sanctuaries. “Our organization believes that every community in Virginia should be a sanctuary free from gun violence,” Fox says. “Even the folks who don’t agree with us.”
Elections
“From day one, my top priority has been election reform,” Hudson says. “I think that’s work that is actually destined to move in this session.”
How people vote, who gets to vote, and where people vote could all change in the next two years.
Deeds is the chief patron of three election law bills that were filed before the session even began—same-day voter registration, removal of the photo ID requirement at the polls, and restoring voting rights to felons. These measures were unthinkable under the previous majority. “We just didn’t have the numbers before. Even if we got things passed in the Senate, the House was a dead end,” Deeds says.
Everything is a process, though. Hudson says that Virginia’s election infrastructure isn’t strong enough to support these reforms right away. Allocating funds for things like improved ballot boxes and voting systems will make those reforms more feasible down the road. “Some of the more ambitious projects, like same-day registration, are going to have to wait for that IT upgrade,” Hudson says.
On the other hand, some election projects have a hard deadline. “I know we’re going to do redistricting reform in this session,” Hudson says. “The census is this year and the maps will be drawn in 2021, so that puts a clear clock on it.”
Every 10 years, following each census, Virginia’s voting districts at the state and federal level are redrawn.
“When redistricting went on in 2011, the Republicans really were in the driver’s seat in the majority of states,” says J. Miles Coleman, who writes about elections at UVA’s Center for Politics. “So on the Democratic side, non-partisan, fair redistricting became one of their biggest issues.”
Last June, the United States Supreme Court supported a lower court’s decision that the 2011 Republican maps included illegal racial gerrymanders in the Richmond suburbs. In the 2016 congressional elections, Republicans won seven of Virginia’s 11 congressional seats, despite losing the total popular vote across the state.
Now, Virginia Democrats will have a chance to draw their own maps. This leaves the caucus with an important question to answer. Dems could “stick with their principles and still talk about non-partisan redistricting,” Coleman says—but on the other hand, “There are some Democrats also who are like, ‘we have to fight fire with fire.’”
On the federal level, fighting fire with fire could mean a new congressional representative for Charlottesville. Coleman says the Democrats might move Charlottesville into the 7th district, where Abigail Spanberger won a narrow victory over a Republican incumbent in 2018. The switch would turn the 5th and 7th districts, which both historically lean red, into a solidly red and a solidly blue district, respectively. Election adjustments like that—as well as the reforms proposed by Hudson and Deeds—could shape the course of Virginia politics for the next decade.
Some Democrats hope to pass legislation allowing Charlottesville to finally remove our Confederate statues.
Statues
“If our General Assembly cannot act now to remove these beacons of hate, I don’t know when we will have the courage to do so,” said former city councilor Wes Bellamy at a December 26 rally for Monumental Justice Virginia, a new campaign advocating for the removal of Confederate monuments across the state.
With a blue General Assembly in place, there’s now a glimmer of hope that Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson statues might finally come down. Hudson has promised to introduce a bill to give localities control over their own monuments, which would allow Charlottesville to move the statues, which are currently protected as “war memorials.”
Will the legislation actually pass? “That’s one of the more interesting questions of the whole session,” Toscano says.
“Even though the Democrats are in the majority,” Toscano says, “the polling data around the state indicate that a majority of Virginians don’t want to give the localities authority on statues.”
That means that Democrats in swing districts might not be able to support the controversial measure. “It’s got to be done in a very sensitive way,” Toscano says. “There’s going to be a lot of behind-the-scenes maneuvering.”
Republicans like Bell plan to stand firm. “I have voted against that,” Bell says of local control of statues. “I don’t support that measure. It’s going to go to a committee with a different makeup, and we’ll just have to see how the new members vote. It did not pass the last couple of years.”
Hudson thinks the success of the bill will depend on elevating the issue beyond its local significance. “My hope is that we see this as a statewide project, and not the hashtag-Charlottesville bill,” Hudson says. “There are patrons from the Hampton Roads area, and the Richmond area, hopefully from NoVa as well.”
“Our community lived through a particularly painful and acute conflict over the statues and everything they symbolize,” Hudson says, “But the public reckoning with our history is a broader Virginia project.”
_______________
Bills to watch
HB1: Absentee Voting
The first bill submitted in each session is understood to represent one of the top priorities for the new leadership. This session, the Democrats kicked things off with a bill that would “Permit any registered voter to vote by absentee ballot in any election in which he is qualified to vote,” with no exceptions. Currently, voting absentee requires submitting an application in advance with a justification of the need to vote absentee. Expanding ballot access has long been a priority of progressive groups around the country, and this bill represents a solid first step.
SJ1/HJ1: Equal Rights Amendment
The passage of this joint resolution would make Virginia the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, an addition to the U.S. Constitution that would formally outlaw discrimination on the basis of sex. Thirty-eight states makes an amendment official, but the legal history of this particular amendment is complicated, and the ERA will face a long legal battle even after Virginia’s ratification. The bill was passed through the Privileges and Elections Committee, chaired by Sen. Deeds, on the second day of the session.
SB2: Marijuana Decriminalization
This bill would decriminalize simple possession of marijuana, limit the fines for a civil offense to $50, and increase the amount of marijuana required for an “intent to distribute” arrest. Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring have both spoken in favor of decriminalizing simple possession as well as expunging misdemeanors from existing criminal records. Virginia-based Altria, one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies, has been heavily investing in Canadian marijuana companies in anticipation of loosening rules in Virginia.
_______________
In it for the long haul
The Virginia General Assembly is entering its 401st year. It’s the oldest continuously operating lawmaking body in the Western Hemisphere. Virginia is a historic state with a historic government—and historic problems. Legislators agree that change doesn’t happen overnight. For all the excitement over the blue wave, the greatest challenge now may be tempering liberal voters’ expectations.
“There’s an awful lot of good we can do that will make a real difference in real people’s lives,” Hudson says. “I hope the people will get excited about that work, celebrate it, and come out of the session reinvigorated to invest in that work for the long haul.”
Winning the 2019 election was important. But the real work is just beginning.
Since its creation, Gilliam says, “the story of the Virginia General Assembly has been, not steady, but persistent growth towards a more liberal approach to solving problems. With the election this past November, we’re seeing another stage of that generally more liberal approach.”
This session will be a short chapter in a long story.
“Instant gratification is not going to cut it,” says Deeds. “You have to be invested in the long game.”
Correction: This article was corrected on 1/20 to reflect that Abigail Spanberger represents Virginia’s 7th district, not Elaine Luria.
