Free Republic

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring will announce Thursday that he believes the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and that Virginia will join two same-sex couples in asking a federal court to strike it down, according to an official close to the attorney general with knowledge about the decision. The action will mark a stunning reversal in the state’s legal position on same-sex marriage and is a result of November elections in which Democrats swept the state’s top offices. Herring’s predecessor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli II, adamantly opposes gay marriage and had vowed to defend Virginia’s constitutional amendment banning...

Democrat Jennifer Wexton bested two veteran Loudoun County politicians Tuesday night to earn a seat in the Senate of Virginia and almost assuredly give Virginia Democrats majority power in Richmond for the first time since 2009. Ms. Wexton's victory over Republican John Whitbeck and former Republican state Del. Joe May, running his Senate race as an independent, caps a momentous two months for Democrats in Virginia, whom last November swept the top three offices in the commonwealth – the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general posts – for the first time in two decades.

.... as Mr. Whitbeck was quick to point out, he is the only aspirant who resided in the district as recently as four months ago. (First reported by the Times-Mirror, both Mr. May and Ms. Wexton took up residences in the 33rd District boundaries in the second half of 2013.)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Almost overnight, Virginia has emerged as a critical state in the nationwide fight to grant gay men and women the right to wed. Related Stories Okla. gay marriage ban struck down; ruling on hold Associated Press Judge rules Oklahoma gay marriage ban unconstitutional AFP US judge strikes down Oklahoma gay marriage ban as ‘arbitrary, irrational' Christian Science Monitor Utah appeals gay marriage ruling to top US court AFP The Supreme Court Puts Utah's Gay Marriages on Pause The Atlantic Wire This purple state was once perceived as unfriendly and even bordering on hostile to gay rights....

If you ever doubted that money outweighs principles in contemporary politics, then the case of Richmond campaign consultant Boyd Marcus should permanently erase such ambiguity in your mind. Marcus, a prominent figure in Virginia politics for two decades, made headlines in August when he abandoned a lifetime of supporting Republicans to endorse Democrat Terry McAuliffe for governor. McAuliffe’s team and Marcus trumpeted the conversion as an important political sign that mainstream Republicans were rejecting the tea party conservatism espoused by GOP candidate Ken Cuccinelli II. Instead, we learned Thursday, the primary motive was entirely mercenary. An e-mail was made public...

The House of Delegates panel widely known as the graveyard of gun-control bills consigned a slew of them to oblivion Thursday. The Republican-controlled subcommittee of the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee tabled a series of gun-control measures, meaning they are unlikely to be revived. The hours-long session delighted pro-gun forces, arrayed on one side of the room wearing "Guns Save Lives" stickers, and infuriated gun-control advocates on the opposite side wearing "Background Checks Save Lives" stickers. Rejected by the panel were these measures, all proposed by Democrats: -- HB812, to required universal criminal background checks for firearm purchases. --...

Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe is appointing a long-time GOP operative Boyd Marcus to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Republicans panned the move shortly after it was announced Wednesday as a political payback for a GOP defector.

For nearly 40 years, faith-based families have been able to homeschool under Virginia’s religious exemption statute with the quiet peace and security of knowing that their right to teach their children that God is the beginning of wisdom in every subject was unquestioned. Last week, however, Delegate Thomas Rust (R-Fairfax, 86th District) filed a legislative measure (HJ 92) that throws your rights into question and confusion by urging the Virginia General Assembly to ask the Department of Education to “study” the religious exemption statute. Asking to conduct a study is a back-door way of saying that something should be questioned....

RICHMOND For years, gay rights has been one of the hot-button social issues that serve as fodder for partisan warfare in the General Assembly, with Democrats favoring gay-friendly measures and Republicans opposing them. But the partisan lines are starting to blur a bit. This year, several lawmakers have introduced legislation to prohibit discrimination in state employment based on sexual orientation, and one of them is a Republican: Del. Ron Villanueva of Virginia Beach. The 43-year-old delegate, who is beginning his third two-year term in the House, said Monday his decision to try to help protect Virginia's gay minority was rooted...

[snip] Invoking predecessors Thomas Jefferson and Timothy M. Kaine, his good friends Bill and Hillary Clinton standing directly behind him, McAuliffe promised transparency and a renewed commitment to finding consensus in a GOP-dominated state Capitol.

Until Virginia Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe (D) was elected on November 5, Beretta USA had the Old Dominion on a short list of states in which it could build a new factory.

Beretta has eliminated Virginia from its short list of states to move its company because anti-gun Democrat Terry McAuliffe was elected governor. The firearms manufacturer made the decision to scratch Virginia off the list after the McAuliffe campaign fixated on restricting gun owners’ rights after receiving over $1 million in campaign donations from billionaire New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “The anti-gun ads that McAuliffe ran in northern Virginia were particularly offensive,” Jeff Reh, general counsel of Beretta USA, told me in an interview. “And the fact that he could gain a voting advantage by doing so caused us additional...

On this date in 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge, American forces were surrounded in the town of Bastogne when a group of German soldiers passed a message to the American commander demanding his surrender. General Anthony McAuliffe, the American commander, was said to have reacted to the message by saying, "Us surrender? Aw, nuts!" The reply was then written: To the German commander: NUTS! The Germans attacked Bastogne, but the American soldiers held on until bombers and reinforcements could arrive. The Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive in World War II, ended in late January,...

The Justice Department has reportedly delayed until next year a decision on whether to indict outgoing Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife in connection with a gifts scandal — a decision that came after a face-to-face appeal by the couple’s lawyers. A report by The Washington Post late Wednesday night said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente told lawyers for the governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell a week ago that he planned to ask a grand jury to return an indictment by this past Monday over allegedly inappropriate help they gave dietary supplement maker Star Scientific after receiving gifts from...

A friend sent this to me. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21591624-republicans-should-worry-unmarried-women-shun-them-marriage-gap?fsrc=nlw|hig|12-12-2013|7186683|35023729|NA It is exceedingly well written and I think the analysis is pretty much on the mark as far as it goes (who knew that the home for non-moonbat crazy lefties [admittedly a pretty much extinct creature] would be The Economist?). I especially appreciated their commentary on the Virginia election. But I think there is a much more visceral reality at play here. The McAuliffe Campaign made a calculated strategy that proved to be inspired and profound, which if followed skillfully without an equally skillful response from Republicans will, I think, result in the...

Virginia gun sales reached a new record for number of firearms sold on Black Friday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Gun transactions in Virginia totaled 3,902 on Black Friday, a 1.2 percent increase over the previous record of 3,856 transactions on the same day in 2012, according to the latest Virginia State Police figures of mandatory criminal-background checks of gun buyers.The Black Friday numbers helped boost Virginia’s overall gun transactions to 429,154 through the end of November, or 17.5 percent more than during the same period last year, Virginia Firearms Transaction Center data show.With an additional 2,539 transactions processed during the first...

Terry McAuliffe won't take his place as the Governor of Virginia until January, but he isn't wasting any time when it comes to getting ahead on his anti-gun agenda. During the campaign, McAuliffe advocated for a ban on semi-automatic rifles and standard capacity magazines. Now, he's hired Lori Haas, the Virginia State Director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence [CSGV], to help with his transition team. Haas' daughter was shot during the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007. More from the DC: Despite claiming support for the Second Amendment, Haas’s appointment to this position to help assemble his Administration sends...

Virginia Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe’s first cabinet appointment was his deputy campaign manager and a former GreenTech Automotive executive Levar Stoney. McAuliffe announced Monday that Stoney will be secretary of the commonwealth. Before joining McAuliffe’s campaign, Stoney served as director of public and government affairs for GreenTech, McAuliffe’s scandal-tainted electric car company, for nearly three years. GreenTech is currently under multiple federal investigations regarding its improper use of a foreign investor visa program. The company has also failed to meet multiple job promises and production estimates.

The news is filled with stories about nervous Democrats up for reelection who are worried that the terrible roll-out of HealthCare.gov will force them to involuntarily spend more time with their families. And that’s a valid concern. But Terry McAuliffe’s win in Old Dominion shows that involuntary early retirement can be forestalled if African American voters are fired up. A truism of American politics is that turnout in off-year elections is low. A corollary is that African Americans especially won’t show up at the voting booth. This belief bled over into the 2012 presidential election because Republicans thought black voters...

Take a look at this map. It's a map showing the results of the voting in Tuesday's Virginia election for governor. All the solid red areas voted a majority for Cuccinelli. The small Dark blue ares went Terry McAuliffe (Yes, I know those are the most densely populated areas of Virginia). The rest were mixed. Notice that the map seems to be almost solid red. And yet, Ken Cuccinelli somehow very narrowly lost to his Democrat opponent. To me, something smells about all this and I suspect Ken Cuccinelli actually won Virginia, but certain things happened to ensure that that...