Virginian Pilot Endorses Tim Kaine, Elaine Luria and Donald McEachin

Elaine Luria and Tim Kaine - the best choices on November 6, 2018

While be too soft on why Scott Taylor is not acceptable for re-election to the House of Delegates for the 2nd Congressional District, the Virginia Pilot nonetheless went on to endorse Tim Kaine, Elaine Luria and Donald McEachin for the U.S. Senate, 2nd congressional district, and 4th congressional district, respectively. In the case of the Republican candidates for Senate seat and the 4th congressional district, the Pilot properly notes that the GOP candidates are right wing whack jobs who would not properly represent the interests of Virginia and the 4th district.  In the case of the 2nd district, the Pilot correctly notes that Luria is the better candidate, particularly in light of Taylor's staff's involvement in felony level fraud in seeking to keep Shaun Brown on the ballot to split the non-Republican vote. Taylor's blatant dishonesty on his voting history and his unbelievable claims of ignorance about the effort to put Shaun Brown on the ballot in my view, disqualify him from re-election.  The following are excerpts from the Pilot editorial endorsements: 

 2nd Congressional District:

Taylor's opponent, [Elaine] Luria, also is a Navy veteran of 20 years, and a small business owner in Norfolk. She has never held elected office, but she seems to have a good sense of the district’s concerns, particularly when it comes to health care, the protection of social safety net programs, and the needs of veterans.

Taylor has tried through advertising to paint her as an acolyte of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Luria projects as a centrist Democrat, which is keeping in line with the moderate electorate in the 2nd District. And her insistence on improving the way Washington works — improving the process by which Congress governs — is an issue with particular resonance in a place that depends so much on federal budgeting and spending.

Both Taylor and Luria are capable candidates, and both could represent the district well. But Taylor’s involvement in the cynical effort to place Brown on the ballot, his inability to account fully for the behavior of his staff and his lack of understanding of how his decisions raise legitimate questions about judgment and trust is a disqualifying offense.

Voters can be confident that by replacing him with Luria, they will be in good hands for the next two years.

4th Congressional District: 

Democratic incumbent Rep. Don McEachin . . . . remains the best candidate, as his opponents cannot make a compelling case to replace him. 

Libertarian Pete Wells is a well meaning and earnest candidate, but he lacks detailed knowledge of the issues facing the district.

And Republican Ryan McAdams might have enjoyed a turn in the spotlight when Vice President Mike Pence came to campaign for him recently, but his refusal to endorse the science of climate change — along with his endorsement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accord and his belief that carbon might not be the cause of global warming, in opposition to countless scientific studies over decades — is unacceptable in a district where sea-level rise is an existential threat.

The 4th District needs McEachin to be a more familiar face in Hampton Roads — but it needs him to be the representative, above all.

U.S. Senate:

Finally, for U.S. Senate, incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine faces Republican challenger Corey Stewart and Libertarian Matt Waters in what should be a straightforward choice for Virginians.

Voters might not know Waters, who is running a lightly funded, almost Republican-lite campaign on his party’s ticket. But they are probably by now familiar with the bombastic Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

He came to statewide attention in 2016 as the chairman, for a time, of the Donald Trump campaign in Virginia before last year mounting an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

His time in the spotlight has done little to make him a palatable option to represent Virginia. The Minnesota native seized on the issue of preserving Confederate statues as a path to political relevance and has worked in the year since to distance himself from Jason Kessler, organizer of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, with whom Stewart appeared at a different 2017 rally.

In contrast with his GOP opponent, Kaine has conducted himself as a senator with the type of affable, common-sense professionalism that distinguished his four years as governor and his time as mayor of Richmond before that.

The 2016 Democratic Party nominee for vice president has been a pointed voice in favor of reasserting congressional authority on military engagement and on behalf of service members, veterans and their families, a great many of whom live and work in this region.

A former civil rights lawyer, Kaine advances policies promoting diversity and inclusion, rather than pushing the politics of division and bringing more anger into the public square. And he helped lead the effort to thwart repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the mechanism by which some 400,000 Virginians will soon have access to coverage through Medicaid expansion.

The Daily Press likewise endorsed Tim Kaine here.

Virginian Pilot Endorses Scott Taylor and Donald McEachin

It what must be a blow to ego of the perennially worthless and rabidly anti-gay Randy Forbes, that the Virginian Pilot has endorsed his GOP primary challenger, Scott Taylor, for Virginia' 2nd Congressional district.  For the 4th District which Forbes fled after its redrawing which took away his insured re-election, the Pilot has endorsed Democrat, Donald McEachin who is a long time supporter of LGBT and women's rights. Thankfully, in the editorial, the Pilot lists out Forbes' lack of constructive legislation over his tenure.  The only thing left out of the take down is Forbes' love of and advocacy for ever right wing Christian resolution coming down the pike.   Here are editorial highlights:

When federal judges in Richmond forced a redrawing of Virginia’s eastern congressional maps, Forbes’ reliably conservative 4th Congressional District seat became demographically untenable for a man known more as a Christian social warrior than an effective lawmaker.

So Forbes decamped into the 2nd District from the 4th, where he still lives. Because the 2nd District grew more Republican in that process, the June 14 primary is likely to determine the prohibitive favorite in November.

A candidate’s physical home may matter less than it once did, but it’s not irrelevant. Neither is a candidate’s record.  On that score, Forbes’ performance in Congress has been wanting since his election in 2001. The only bill to become law under his name was the one to rename a post office.

Forbes built his current candidacy on support for the military, his membership on the Armed Services Committee, and his chairmanship of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. But the record during his time in Congress presents its own problems.

• Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach suffered an existential threat during the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission round because Florida was better positioned and prepared than Virginia.

• A few years later Forbes fought to give Virginia localities the right to veto a new outlying landing field for Oceana, which would’ve tied the Navy’s hands.

• In 2011, the Pentagon disestablished the Joint Forces Command in North Suffolk, a decision that damaged the region’s push to make modeling and simulation a vector for growth.

• Just last month, in an Editorial Board interview, Forbes said he now opposes drilling for oil and gas off Virginia’s coast because of Pentagon concerns. Forbes’ reversal is curious because the Pentagon has said since at least 2006 that drilling off Virginia would imperil its training mission.

If Taylor brings inexperience to the task, Forbes’ tenure doesn’t inspire confidence.

Neither does his willingness to dwell on issues that divide rather than unite, including in 2013 waging “a lengthy crusade to convince his colleagues and the National Republican Congressional Committee brass they shouldn’t back some gay candidates,” according to Politico.

The 36-year-old Taylor has vowed to avoid such distractions, and has made it a point to strive toward the kind of big tent that has been missing from too many GOP campaigns. . . . . he’s also a candidate of intellectual heft, and his relative moderation would serve the voters of the 2nd District — as did Scott Rigell’s — better than the alternative.

The 4th District, which Forbes vacated, also has decisions to make. The vacancy attracted four candidates — two Democrats, two Republicans — and the winners of this month’s primary will face off in November.

The revised 4th District is more compact than its previous incarnation, with the furthest boundary moving east. It now includes Richmond and Petersburg, which means the center of power has shifted from Hampton Roads.

On the Democratic side, state Sen. Don McEachin appears best positioned to succeed in that role. A lawyer with 16 years in the General Assembly for the people of Henrico County, McEachin has family ties to the Peninsula and experience serving a diverse constituency.

He was quick to admit that he has a learning curve when it comes to advancing issues on behalf of Hampton Roads, and it shows. Though passionate on matters of social justice, he is more tentative when asked about the military or when to deploy it.

He shows a willingness to learn, however, and his success in the legislature inspires some confidence that he has potential as a D.C. lawmaker.

Daily Press Slams Randy Forbes; Forbes to Disingenuously Rent Apartment in Virginia Beach

4th District Congressman Randy Forbes who seeks to be a carpetbagger in Virginia Beach

My former law school classmate Randy Forbes continues to show the extent to which some elected officials will go to put their personal interests ahead the interests and well being of their constituents. Two stories looks at Forbes' self-centered agenda.  First, WAVY- looks at Forbes' plan to rent an apartment  in Virginia Beach in lieu of purchasing a home in the 2nd Congressional District (can we say cheap?) so that he can claim with at least a somewhat straight face that he lives in the District even though 100% of his past ties are in Chesapeake/.the 4th District.   The second piece is an editorial from the Daily Press which basically rips Forbes a new one.  Here are highlights from the WAVY TV piece:

10 On Your Side has confirmed Congressman Randy Forbes (R) 4th District is now in the process of renting an apartment in Virginia Beach.

His Campaign office told WAVY Forbes and his wife “have put down a security deposit and look forward to spending a great deal of time there.”

Forbes’ Communiction Director Hailey Sadler did not say where the apartment is.  Three sources confirm Forbes is getting an apartment at the Mayflower Apartments on 34th Street. Mayflower would neither confirm nor deny the Forbes application to rent an apartment.

Hailey Sadler also says, “Randy and Shirley intend to retain their generational home nine miles outside of Virginia Beach.”

That house is located in Chesapeake in Forbes current district.

Congressman Forbes is switching districts from the 4th where he lives in his Chesapeake home to the 2nd which represents mostly Virginia Beach.

He is running against Delegate Scott Taylor/(R) 85th. Taylor responded to our story “His first political plan of abandoning his people for a better district while living in Chesapeake has failed. Now he wants to try to deceive everyone by renting an apartment? Everyone knows Randy Forbes lives in a big house in Chesapeake, not a small apartment in Virginia Beach.”

It is unsure whether Forbes can and will move his voting precinct to Virginia Beach.

Del. Taylor has repeatedly said, “How can you vote for Randy Forbes who can’t even vote for himself?”

While I generally shun Republicans, it should be noted that Forbes's opponent for the GOP nomination, Del. Scott Taylor, is one of the few Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly who is NOT a homophobe.  Meanwhile. an editorial in the Daily Press slammed Forbes for his shameless opportunism and desire to stay in offence at the cost of the best interests of his constituents.  Here are excerpts:

Instead of a district that resembles a squashed salamander and purports to say bits and pieces of Newport News, Norfolk and Richmond connected by strips of mud along the James River shore make up a community, we will get something different from redistricting.

It's a basic question when lawyers look into something: Who gains?

Lawyers, being lawyers, have to ask it in Latin — they say "Cui bono" — but the point can't be obscured by a dead language. And the point was clear as Fourth grade English when the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about the court-ordered redrawing of the 3rd Congressional District last week.

Who benefits if the Supreme Court eventually throws out the redistricting?

Members of Congress. The one name that kept coming up in last week's arguments before the Supreme Court was Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Chesapeake.

The lawyer for the Virginia members of Congress who challenged the lower court's redistricting argued several times that redrawing the map injured Rep. Forbes.

"Every time your district is changed and you believe it hurts you, you have a right to go to court and say what?" Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked at one point.

"He suffered injury-in-fact to what?" asked Justice Anthony Kennedy, referring to Rep. Forbes.

"To his ability to be re-elected," the delegation's lawyer said.  Huh?

So members of Congress are special. Their rights to that $174,000-a-year gig, and to districts carefully crafted to ensure re-election, are different than yours. Your right, that is, to a vote that matters to our Capitol Hill solons, most of whom romped home to re-election in 2014 with a 20-percentage-point margin from their carefully gerrymandered districts.

Here's the dirty little secret about congressional redistricting in Virginia: The General Assembly enacts it, but it does so with the wishes of members of Congress uppermost in its mind.

And now there's this: Risking an election loss is an injury — an injury! — to our professional politicians.  Nonsense.

The real injury lies in an environment where politicians don't risk losing elections.  The injured parties here are Virginia voters. We're injured when elected officials no longer have to listen to us because they are so secure in their seats.

Ouch!  But the truth is that the editorial is 100% on point.  Forbes has no right to be assured of re-election.  For years he has had a handcrafted safe seat which has allowed him to be re-elected while doing little or nothing for his constituents and pandering to the most lunatic fringes of the Christofascists in the GOP base.  It is far past time that Forbes be forced to participate in a competitive nomination and election process.  If the voters don't want the theocratic crap that he is peddling, then he deserves to be defeated and forced from office.  

Virginia 3rd District Case Before SCOTUS Tomorrow

Republicans may well see themselves set to lose a congressional district in Virginia and deservedly so given the obscene gerrymandering that was forced through by the Republican controlled House of Delegates.  Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the case and Republicans will have to convince the Court - likely an impossible task given the even split now on the Court - that the deliberate loading of black voters into the 3rd District to create a safe district for Randy Forbes is not illegal.   Here are highlights from the Daily Press:

Virginia's long-running legal battle over the state's 3^rd Congressional District lines will be taken up Monday before the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is the last hurrah for Republican members of Congress hoping to block a redrawn map likely to send an extra Virginia Democrat to Congress later this year. Already U.S. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott's old district has been found unconstitutional, twice, by a lower court.

The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case, and set oral arguments for Monday. But the court declined to keep the old lines in place while the matter was pending. Election preparations are proceeding under the new lines a three judge panel approved in January.

The new map took black voters out of Scott's district, moving them to the 4^th District and making it a likely Democratic pickup.

The high court's decision to proceed toward June Congressional primaries with that new map in place signaled, to some, that reversal is unlikely. But the court is hard to predict, though Justice Antonin Scalia's death last month changed the math.

With his seat vacant, eight justices will hear the case.  "I think it's a four-four issue at best," said Brian Cannon, executive director of OneVirginia2021, a redistricting reform group that has a separate lawsuit targeting House of Delegates districts in Virginia.

"I think the new districts will stay in place," Cannon predicted.

Randy Forbes to Change Districts to Save His Job

I have known 4th District Congressman Randy Forbes for almost 40 years and the man has gotten crazier and more of a religious extremist with every passing year.  Now, with his district redrawn to undo some of the GOP gerrymandering of Virgina's congressional districts, Forbes has announced that he will physically move his residence and run for the 2nd District seat being vacated by Scott Rigell.  It apparently never crossed Forbes' mind that he could be competitive in the redrawn 4th District if he shed some of his right wing Christian lunacy and focused on issues that matter to voters outside of knuckle dragging Christofascist circles.  One can only hope that the Democrats find a strong candidate to challenge Forbes who is not well known in the 2nd District outside of Republican circles.  A Virginian Pilot editorial takes some shots at Forbes.  Here are excerpts:

U.S. REP. RANDY Forbes announced Monday that he’s running for Congress again. But after 15 years in Virginia’s 4th District, Forbes is jumping to the 2nd Congressional District, based in Virginia Beach. He said he’s seeking the seat U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell is vacating to keep the power of a House Armed Services subcommittee in the hands of a Virginian.

In his announcement, he never mentioned that he’s abandoning the Chesapeake district he’s represented since 2001 — the district where he was born and grew up — to have a better chance of remaining in Congress.

He didn’t mention that the district that was drawn specifically for him in 2002 — a district so solidly Republican that Forbes has had only token opposition in his re-election bids — has been redrawn by the federal courts and is now more Democratic.

The conservative congressman, who touts his protection for the unborn, his A rating from the NRA and his stands for religious liberty as important identifiers, would have a hard time defending his record successfully in the redrawn 4th. He’d also have to defend his sponsorship of only one piece of successful legislation: To rename a post office.

This effort at self-preservation is why drawing districts for Congress and the General Assembly should be the responsibility of an independent commission, not lawmakers seeking to maintain jobs for themselves and their political allies. State lawmakers drew a safe seat for Forbes in 2002 and again in 2012 by packing African American voters from Richmond to Norfolk into the 3rd Congressional District.

The Conservative Review describes Forbes this way: “Forbes is primarily a backbencher, except when it comes to national security issues, which are his passion. ... He is also a leading voice warning against the rise of China as a global power. He formed and chairs the Congressional China Caucus which studies the rise of China.”

Forbes’ legislative battles and abiding passion have centered on social issues, an unnecessary and divisive distraction in a Congress marked by its inability to do anything constructive.

With the courts’ redrawn districts, Forbes had an opportunity to defend the record he’s compiled in his home district and the clout he’s accumulated. Instead of fighting for what he believes in, Forbes fled next door.

I hope Forbes' gambit fails and that he is voted out of office in November.  Hampton Roads needs a serious, objective reality accepting member of congress.  That doesn't describe Forbes.

Supreme Court Rejects GOP Stay Request on NewVirginia Congressional

Redrawn Districts

In other news, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the petition of the Virginia GOP to stay the lower federal court ruling redrawing Virginia congressional districts.  While the Court will hear arguments in the case next month, the refusal to grant a stay of the lower court ruling often can signal that the petitioning party is likely to lose the case on the merits.  The ruling leaves Christofascist pander Randy Forbes of the 4th District with a dilemma of whether to run for re-election in his current district which may change significantly or move his residence and run for the open seat in the 2nd District.  The Washington Post looks at the development.  Here are article excerpts:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a request from Republican members of Congress to put on hold an election map that gives Democrats a chance to pick up a seat in this year’s election.
 
The ruling is the latest in a series of decisions triggered last year by a panel of federal judges who said Virginia’s map illegally packed African American voters into one district at the expense of their influence elsewhere.

Last month, the judges sought to change that by imposing a map that increases the number of African American voters, who reliably vote for Democrats, in a district that stretches from Richmond to Norfolk. It is represented by Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R).

Democrats viewed Monday’s decision as a sign that the June primary will take place under the new lines.  

It also increases the pressure on potential congressional candidates who are considering running in the newly drawn districts.

Forbes is reportedly considering a run for the seat currently held by Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.), who is retiring in 2017. State Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Henrico) has said he would be interested in running for the district currently represented by Forbes.

Because of the special nature of redistricting challenges, appeals from three-judge panels go directly to the Supreme Court.

Federal Judges Change Gerymandered Virginia Congressional Districts

Change in Districts - watch the boundaries shift

As noted in prior posts, I once lived in the 2nd Virginia Congressional District until Republicans gerrymandered Virginia's congressional districts to lump blacks - and in my case white liberal neighborhoods - into a few districts in order to protect incumbent Republicans.  Thus, I suddenly found myself in the 3rd District rather than the 2nd District.  Now, after federal lawsuits were filed challenging the GOP's grotesque district boundaries, a panel of federal court judges has redrawn the boundaries for the 3rd congressional district and those surrounding it, all of which are held by Republicans.  Will it change results in congressional races this November?  There's no guarantee, but if the Republicans win, their margins may be diminished. The district map above changes to show the new, compact and much more contiguous districts. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot: 

A federal court ordered a congressional redistricting Thursday that reassigned millions of voters and changed the racial and political makeup of districts served by Reps. Bobby Scott and Randy Forbes.

Federal judges in Richmond ordered state officials to use the new boundaries for this fall’s congressional elections.

While the changes were ordered in time for eligible candidates to file to run, the judges' order could be stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear opposition arguments from lawyers for the state's eight Republican members of Congress.

Unless the high court halts the order, the 3rd District, represented by Scott, will lose its black majority, shrinking from 56 percent black to 45 percent. At the same time, the white majority in Forbes' 4th District shrinks from 63 percent to 51 percent, giving black voters more clout.

The 3rd, which currently stretches from Newport News to Richmond, will become more centralized in Hampton Roads. It will take in all or part the cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampton and Newport News and Isle of Wight County. Scott lives in Newport News.

The 4th District continues to represent Chesapeake, Forbes' hometown, but loses part of Suffolk and Isle of Wight County. The cities of Richmond and Petersburg - both with significant black populations - had been part of Scott's district but will move to Forbes' district.

The 2nd's population remains concentrated in Virginia Beach but the district's territory has been expanded to include the Williamsburg, York County, part of James City County and nearby communities. It also loses a chunk of its Newport News precincts.

I suspect that Randy Forbes is not trilled that he might actually have to strive to represent all voters in his district and not just the Christofascists and white supremacists.

Congressman Randy Forbes: A Do Nothing Extremist

I've noted before that I've known 4th District Congressman Randy Forbes for 37 years and I don't know what became of the young law student I once knew.  Forbes has become increasingly a willing prostitute for far right religious extremists and compared to other members of Congress, including other members from Virginia, has little in the way of legislation to show for his years in Congress.  Crazy Christofascist backed bills and obstruction are about all he has to show for his years drawing a nice congressional salary.  A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at Forbes' dismal record and how he stays in office thanks to districts that are racially gerrymandered.  Here are excerpts:

Randy Forbes has not been a consequential member of Congress.

By almost every measure of effectiveness, he trails his peers in the House of Representatives, not just among the 435 members of Congress, but among the 11-member Virginia delegation.

In Forbes' 13 years in office, only one piece of his legislation has been signed by a president, according to Congress's database. It was a bill, in 2002, to "designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3131 South Crater Road in Petersburg, Virginia, as the 'Norman Sisisky Post Office Building.' "

In the current Congress, Forbes has sponsored legislation:

-- "Affirming the vital role that prayer has played throughout the more than 200-year history of our Nation..."

-- Expressing "the sense of the House of Representatives that the funds made available for the cost of the President's trip to Africa instead be used to compensate those who have been placed on an administrative furlough as a result of sequestration."

He's also introduced bills that would bar the use of embryonic stem cells and rein in the IRS (the "Prevent IRS Overreach Act of 2013").

Late last year, Politico reported that Forbes was creating "friction" within the House leadership by pushing to have campaign funds denied to gay GOP candidates.

The bills a member of Congress sponsors say something about his priorities. The legislative success of a member of Congress says something about his influence among his peers.

The fact that none of Forbes' legislation since 2002 has made it to the president's desk argues that he's not representing the residents of the 4th Congressional District as they deserve and have every right to expect.

Forbes has instead wasted his time in Congress on inconsequential and unnecessarily divisive issues (does Congress need to inform Americans about the role of prayer?) that appeal to a narrow band of the electorate.

Which is all he needs to get re-elected.

This is what happens when elected officials get to tailor their own electoral districts. By packing Democrats into Scott's district, the General Assembly has made the 4th Congressional District so reliably Republican that, not only is Forbes in no danger of losing next month's election, but the Democratic Party has consistently failed to find or support a credible candidate to oppose him.

Forbes, instead, seems content to keep his head down and run for the finish line in his sharply tailored district, confident that he won't be held accountable for his stunning lack of influence and legislative success.