Half Changed World

Virginia elections

Six months after I first wrote about the Virginia governor's race, six days before the election, and I still haven't quite figured out who I'm voting for.  I've been asking everyone I know who is politically active and lives in Virginia who they support, and I've been finding people who support all three of the gubernatorial candidates, and people who are still undecided.

I've been getting tons of mail from all the candidates.  McAulliffe had a mailer last week where the positions of each of the candidates were described and then you had to scratch off the silver boxes to see who went with each set of positions.  It was very clever, but sort of acknowledged that lots of people have a gut reaction against McAuliffe even if they agree with his positions.  The Post endorsement of Deeds clearly gave him a real boost, and I know some real progressives who are supporting him in spite of his not-so-progressive positions on abortion and gay rights because they think he's got the best chance of winning.  Moran has fewer negatives than either of the other candidates for me, but hasn't made a positive case that ties down my vote.

I'm also still undecided on the Lt. Governor's race.  Singer seems to be somewhat more progressive, and to bring some real grassroots energy.  But Wagner's been endorsed by lots of people I respect.  And I do care about having women in elected office.

I do know that I'll be voting for Kaye Kory for House of Delegates.

Virginia Republicans to unemployed workers: drop dead

That's pretty much the meaning of the House of Delegates vote last week to reject the changes needed for Virginia to receive an additional $125 million of the unemployment insurance modernization funds from the Recovery Act.  (Virginia already has an alternative base period in place, so we automatically get the first $62 million.)  They claim it's because the expansion of benefits would cause taxes on business to go up in the long run.  What they don't tell you is that the Recovery Act provides enough funding to cover the costs of this expansion for 18 years!

Specifically, the two provisions that they shot down last week would have expanded eligibility to people who are only seeking part-time work (because after all, if you only work part-time, your family must not really need the income, right?) and provided extended benefits to people who are training for a new job (because what the 21st century economy really needs is lots of unskilled labor). 

Here's a video of Tim Kaine's reaction and here's a petition to express your outrage. 

Misc political notes

• Good bye Rod, and good riddance.

• I was pleased to hear Obama talking about the outrageousness of Wall Street bonuses.  I do think the bully pulpit can make a difference.

• Tuesday is a special election, to choose a new chair of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, replacing Gerry Connolly who is now in Congress.  Special elections can be crazy, because turnout is generally low and so small groups can affect the results.  Fairfax county's budget is probably bigger than several states.  I strongly support Sharon Bulova, as does the Washington Post. Vote Tuesday, Feb 3, 6 am to 7 pm, at your regular polling place.

• I received a long phone survey tonight that led me to the definite conclusion that Kaye Kory (who represents this district in the Fairfax school board) is considering challenging Delegate Bob Hull in the primary.  A quick google search found that both Not Larry Sabato and the Falls Church News think she is running against him.  Then again, NLS thought she was running two years ago.  I told the pollster that I didn't know which one I'd support.  I have no idea what, if any, policy differences there are between them.

• Still don't know who I'm supporting for Governor.

Choice

I have to admit, I sort of rolled my eyes when I read the plea in my inbox today from NOW with the claim that "Roe is still under attack."  Obama is expected to repeal the global gag rule although apparently not today.  And at the inauguration, we joked that after Justice Stevens swore Biden in, he was saying "thank god, I can finally retire."

But then I read Cecily's posts today.  First, she reminded me of the problem of the lack of availability of doctors who will perform abortions.  And then she notified me that Virginia is once again considering making it a crime to fail to report a miscarriage to the police.

We've defeated this bullshit before.  Let's do it again.  If you live in Virginia, here's the link for finding out who your state senator is.

Update: For the record, here is Senator Obenshain's response to comments, where he acknowledges that the bill is far too broadly drafted for his intent, which he claims was to eliminate the "it was born dead" defense for infanticide.  However, given the history of a very similar bill four years ago, either Obenshain is lying or he didn't even bother to do cursory research before introducing the bill.

Governor?

So, now that the 2008 election season is officially over, it must be time for the Virginia Governor's race to get started-- we're one of the few states that does governor's elections on the odd years.  I have absolutely no idea which of the three Democratic candidates I'll support -- anyone reading here want to make a case for your favorite?

Since we've got a single term limit, Kaine can't run for reelection.  And since both Senate seats are now held by Democrats, he can't run for Senate, which has been the main goal of former governors in recent years.  No idea what he'll do next.

Election night, Chicago

Check out Obama's Flickr photostream.

Fimian and abortion

I went to the homeowner's association meeting tonight and, as is their custom, a number of politicians and their representatives were invited to speak.  Connolly and Fimian were both at a previously scheduled event, but they both sent people to speak on their behalf.  Connolly's representative did a generally solid job, though he went on for too long.  Fimian's representative was a young man, perhaps 20 years old, who began his speech by admitting that he usually spoke to groups of high school student and this was a step up for him.  It was pretty painful listening to him, as basically the entire pitch was that Fimian's not a Washington insider and he knows what it's like to be us.  Since we had just recognized Tom Davis for his years of service to the district, this was perhaps not the best note to hit.

At the question and answer period, one of my neighbors tossed him a bit of a softball, asking about the mailings that she'd been getting about Fimian, and weren't they just accusing him of being Catholic?  (Note that Connally is also Catholic.)  He responded with a long answer about how they were making these accusations based on links on the Legatus website, even though the webpage includes a disclaimer that they didn't constitute an endorsement.

Well, this ticked me off, because it sounded to me like Fimian was trying to hide his strong social conservative positions.  So I asked him about the info from Left of the Hill, that Fimian's company amended its health insurance plan to exclude coverage of abortion, even in cases where the health or life of the mother was at risk.  (I found this via Anonymous is a Woman.)  The speaker had no idea, and so we moved on, but I found myself arguing with my neighbor about how common this is.

When I got home, I started googling, and I found this 2003 Kaiser Family Foundation survey that found that 46 percent of firms that provided health insurance included abortion coverage.  (I checked, and while KFF conducts this survey every year, they seem to have dropped the question about abortion coverage.)  Large employers were far more likely to provide abortion coverage than small ones.  Interestingly, 26% percent of employers did not know whether their insurance plan covered abortion, which makes me think that this is usually a cost-cutting provision rather than an ideological one.

What I can't tell from this is whether plans that don't cover abortion generally have life and health of the mother exceptions.  I can't find this online -- anyone have a source?  Or, if your plan doesn't cover abortion, can you look it up in your benefits handbook?

Other election issues

I don't want to jinx it, but unless all the polls are totally wrong, or something horrendous happens in the next few weeks, the uncertainty on November 4th is not going to be about who is the next President, but about the rest of the elections.*  Do the Dems really have a chance at 60 votes in the Senate?  Is Massachusetts going to commit budget suicide? What's going to happen to marriage equality in California?

Sam Wang makes a convincing case that if you have money left to spend on political contributions this cycle, you should spend it on the Senate races in Oregon, Georgia and Minnesota.  Of those, the one that jumps out at me is Georgia, because I haven't forgiven Chambliss for his utterly sleazy ads about Max Cleland.  (And Jim Martin's making sure the voters don't forget either.) 

Increasing the margin in the House is probably less of a priority, but I'm still trying to find some money to toss towards a couple of races:

• Judy Feder's contest to beat Frank Wolf in Virginia -- she's awesome, and is one of the half dozen or so people in the US who I actually think understand health care reform.  That said, he's a popular incumbent and he trounced her two years ago.  Virginia polls close early -- 7pm Eastern time** -- so that's a good race to keep your eye on -- if she wins, it's a sign that the Dems are really riding a wave.
• Dennis Shulman in New Jersey.  He's a blind rabbi, a psychologist, running against someone who is incredibly conservative for his district.  And I know his daughter.

I'm finding it hard to get too excited about my own Congressional race, but Anonymous is a Woman has some good posts about it here and here.  I haven't seen any polling, but I think Connolly should win easily -- the district has moved to the left, and the seat has only stayed Republican as long as it has because of people's respect for Tom Davis and appreciation of what he's done for federal workers.  I got a very annoying push poll from Fimian last week (although even the poor sap they had doing the poll couldn't pronounce his name.)

As far as I can tell, we don't have any wacky policy referenda on our ballot here in Virginia.  Here in Fairfax, there's a parks bonds referendum, which I'm probably going to vote against.  Given the huge budget deficit the county is running (due to the collapse of property tax revenue), I just don't think that it makes sense to borrow for things that are nice, but not essential.

* Not that I'm complaining about this.  After the last two Presidential elections,I'd really like one where I'm not sure it's worth staying up to watch the California returns come in.  My dad and I were talking about this and we decided that the question we wanted to ask is: what's your prediction for what time you go to bed on election night?

In 2000, I was 6 months pregnant, had a brutal cold, and had to catch a flight to go to a work meeting in Cleveland at 5.30 the next morning.  At about 2 am, I finally gave up and went to bed.  In 2004, I gave up when they moved Florida back from Kerry to too close to call.

** If you're likely to be stuck at work and racing home to vote, you might consider going ahead and voting absentee early.  If you're at work *or commuting* for at least 11 hours that day, it's an approved reason to vote absentee.  That sounds like a lot, but a 9 hour day and a one hour commute each way qualifies you.

Low turnout

It looks like there may be record low turnout in the Congressional primaries in Northern Virginia --  the State Board of Elections site is showing about 1 percent turnout so far, but I can't tell if the denominator is all voters or just the precincts that have reported.  (Ok, I checked again, and it's up to 1.6 percent, so it must be all voters.)  I don't know if voters are suffering from campaign fatigue after the presidential primaries, are just disgusted by the generally negative campaign, or can't figure out any real policy differences between the candidates and so just don't care.

In any case, this race has to set some sort of record for most money spent per vote cast.  VPAP only has info on candidates for state office -- is the info for federal candidates somewhere?

I haven't checked to see what precincts are reporting, but with about a third of the precincts in, it looks like Connolly is winning easily.  Interestingly, Byrne seems to have done best in Prince William county, which I think is generally more conservative than Fairfax county.  (I looked it up, and in the 2004 Presidential race, Kerry got 53 percent in Fairfax and 46 percent in Prince William.  I'd guess Fairfax has gotten more blue since then.) But Connolly presumably has much lower name recognition there than in Fairfax.

I think Connolly should win easily in November.

More politics

We've been receiving a torrent of mailings and autodialed calls about tomorrow's primary for the open 11th Congressional district seat.  I'm going to vote for Byrne.  I think the mailings (from Women Vote, not Byrne) calling him a war profiteer were pretty over top, but I do find it a little queasy-making that he works for a defense contractor in "community relations" while chairing the Fairfax Board of Supervisors.  And fundamentally, the only criticisms I've heard about Byrd are that she's "divisive" (e.g. has opinions) and is "shrill" (e.g. has opinions and is female).

There's been lots of talk about Jim Webb as a possible running mate for Obama.  I'm not nearly as opposed to him as Kathy G.  While he's said some incredibly stupid things about women in the past, from listening to him during both his Senate race and as Senator I believe that he's truly learned since then (and not just gotten PC drummed into him).  And he's been consistently out there on the economic justice issues I care about.  But he's a dreadful campaigner -- he won in 2006 because it was a tidal Democratic year and because George Allen couldn't keep his foot out of his mouth, not because of his own campaigning.  And I'm not at all confident that the Dems could keep his seat if he vacated it.  (Well, unless the Republicans keep nominating the likes of Jim Gilmore.)

I can't say I'm particularly enthusiastic about Tim Kaine as a running mate either.  He's a nice guy and a solid governor, but I don't really think he brings the evangelical vote with him, and he's not someone I particularly associate with changing the way Washington works.

Here's my wild and crazy VP suggestion:  Coleen Rowley.

Who's your VP suggestion?

11th Congressional District Primary

While the presidential primary grinds its way to a conclusion, things are heating up here in Virginia's 11th Congressional District Primary.  Tom Davis isn't running for re-election, and the district is widely believed to have high potential to swing Democratic.  Leslie Byrne and Gerry Connolly are slugging it out, with the primary coming up on June 10th.  We've gotten something in the mail pretty much every day this week, with people coming door to door as well.  (And this is a hilly neighborhood -- the canvassers looked like they hadn't quite realized what they were signing up for.)

The campaigns have released competing poll results, each claiming that they're way ahead of their opponent.  I don't know what the truth is, but I can say that in the campaign literature I've received, Byrne's name and face are clear on the outside, while you have to open up Connolly's to see who it's from.  That makes me think she's got the advantage. 

Payday loans and strange bedfellows

For those of you who don't live in Virginia, the key piece of background information here is that the Virginia House of Delegates is generally controlled by the lunatic right.  These are people who aren't sure that contraception should be legal, who would rather see all of Northern Virginia permanently frozen into gridlock than raise taxes to build roads, who think that preschool for poor kids is a socialist plot.  The Senate is usually more reasonable, even before the Democrats took back control in the last election.

So, I'm more than a little bit shocked to find myself supporting the payday lending reform bill adopted by the House of Delegates, rather than the sham reform being sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw.  It's not a perfect bill --while it theoretically imposes a 36 percent cap on interest rates, it allows for fees to be charged on top of that, which drives the real cost of lending far higher.  But it would be a good start, and would help prevent people from getting caught into an endless cycle of taking out another loan to pay off the first one. 

By contrast, the folks who have been fighting payday loans -- including the AARP, the AFL-CIO, the NAACP, Voices for Virginia Children, and the Virginia Poverty Law Center -- say that the Senate bill could be worse than nothing.  It's hard not to conclude that campaign contributions are driving policy. 

As previously discussed here, there's a real need for low-cost small dollar loans for people without great credit.  Even usurious rates can be worthwhile if the choice is losing your job when your car breaks down.  I'm not sure what the best solution is.  But a study from North Carolina -- which banned payday loans a couple of years ago -- shows that low-income people aren't reporting hardship as a result of the ban.

Last time I posted about banking, reader Dave S. posted this link for the Predatory Lending Association.  I assume that anyone who spends a minute on that site will figure out that it's a parody put up by the opponents of payday lending.  By contrast, I'm not sure that it's immediately clear that the folks who were advertising on CNN during the coverage of the Potomac Primary results, with the URL "www.ReformPaydayVA.com" is the payday lending industry.

Fairfax school board

It occurred to me earlier today that tomorrow is election day and I still hadn't figured out who I was voting for in the school board election.  There are 8 people running for the 3 at-large seats, and I didn't have a good sense for the issues or the personalities.  It's a non-partisan election, but the parties do endorse candidates.

So I started looking at the endorsements.

The Post endorsed Moon, Braunlich, and Cooper.
The teacher's union endorsed Hone, Hunt, and Moon.
The Connection newspapers endorsed Cooper, Hone, Moon, Hunt, and Braunlich.
SLEEP (which wants Jr High and High Schools to start later) endorsed Hunt, Hone and Moon.
Fairfax Democrats endorsed Moon, Hone and Raney
Stop Redistricting endorsed Braunlich, Hunt, and Raney.

After reading the endorsements and looking at some of the websites, I think I've made my choices -- Moon, Hone, and Cooper.

I haven't figured out why the Dems endorsed Raney -- his website just sounds like he's drunk the management consulting kool-aid (everything is couched in terms of the "business case).  I seriously considered Hunt, as I do think it's important for the board to be more than an echo chamber for the schools administration, but just couldn't get past his letter to all the principals recommending ex-gay videos.

And I don't really know all the issues around redistricting, but it seems like a mistake to take it off the table as an option.  Yes, redistricting can be traumatic.  But boundary lines weren't handed down to Moses on tablets.  I'm almost certainly biased from our experience at D's old school, but my perception of anti-redistricting advocates is that they're trying to keep what they have, and tough luck to anyone else.

Good news, bad news on SCHIP

The good news is that the House passed the SCHIP reauthorization bill.  The bad news is that the 265-159 vote margin is not going to be enough to override a veto.  Congress will presumably include SCHIP in the continuing resolution that it will need to pass by September 1, and it will continue at current levels until at least sometime next year, probably until 2009.  That's going to mean real cuts in some states.

Here's the roll call.  What immediately jumped out at me is that my representative, Tom Davis, is one of the Republicans who voted against the original House bill but for the compromise bill.  I had been wondering about that after getting his response to my email plea for SCHIP last week, which said, in part:

"H.R. 3162 was not SCHIP.  It was an excessive expansion of a good program, an expansion that could undermine the program's effectiveness and a backdoor effort to move toward government run health care....   

Given the wide range of problems with this legislation I voted against it when it came before me in the House. It passed, however, by a vote of 225-204.  The Senate passed a narrower expansion of the SCHIP program. I am hopeful that as we proceed to a conference we will return to the core principles established in the original SCHIP."

I assume that Davis is going to run for the Senate seat that John Warner is vacating.  I think this vote will hurt him in the Republican primary, but help him in the general election if he gets nominated.  Or maybe I'm being too cynical -- many Republican voters support health care for kids too.

Added: I heard this afternoon that there's been another recall of Thomas trains for lead-based paint.  Unlike the first go-around, we do have some of the affected pieces, and will send them in for an exchange.  But I still wish that the American public was half as outraged about SCHIP as it is about lead in toys.  Nick Anderson got it right a month ago.

Get Women Elected Now!

I spent this evening at a meeting for GWEN -- Get Women Elected Now.  It's a local group with the goal of supporting progressive female candidates in Northern Virginia.  It's obviously somewhat inspired by EMILY's List, but aiming to build personal connections as well as raise money.  One of the founders is Libby Garvey, and she's very clearly thinking about the gendered paths to political involvement that I wrote about two years ago when she wrote for delegate.

It was quite an interesting group of people, including several current and former elected officials.  Two men, the rest women.  I'd guess that most of the people there were in their 50s or older, although there were a few younger members.  Garvey mentioned that someone had emailed her asking about child care at the meeting (which was not provided).  There was clearly a hunger for ways to be involved that didn't involve writing checks, and that were more substantive than stuffing envelopes or making calls.

I volunteered to update their website for them.  As T said when I told him, "of course you did."

Contraception still legal in Virginia

I'm happy to report that contraception is still legal in the commonwealth of Virginia, in spite of Bob Marshall's efforts to the contrary.

• Planned Parenthood of Virginia explains the issue.

• And Not Larry Sabato discusses the political ramifications of the Democrats' move to force a roll call vote on the bill.

Given how close this bill came to passing, sorry Bitch, but I'm not laughing.

Please vote

Please vote.  Please please please.

I've got a little bubble of hope that's been trying to come out, and I keep pushing it down because I don't want to be too disappointed.  I can still feel what it tasted like in 2000 when the initial Gore lead disappeared somewhere around midnight, and the sick feeling in my stomach in 1994 as the size of the Republican win became clear.  I've been obsessively checking the Post website and Not Larry Sabato, even though neither has anything particularly interesting to say at this point.  While individual polls point in different directions, they're all within the margin of error.

I'm going to head to bed soon, because I'm getting up early to volunteer at one of the local polling places.  I'm actually volunteering for the Commonwealth Coalition, rather than Webb, because I really don't think that anyone is going to show up at the polls not knowing who they're voting for in the Senate race, but I actually think that handing people the full text of Ballot Question 1 might sway some votes.  And then I'm going to vote myself, and then head into work, and then come home and obsess.  If you're in the area and want to come obsess with me, you're invited.

I think it's going to be a long night.  If the Dems lose most of the close Senate races in the East, it could be over early, but otherwise we're all going to be waiting for the Montana results to come in.  And I wouldn't be surprised if one or more races were close enought to require a recount.  (The Post suggests that Missouri is the most likely state to have problems.)  So we may not know Wednesday morning who is in control of the Senate.

Hey, Bill Clinton just called me.  Well, sort of.

How about everyone posting tomorrow after they've voted and saying what the lines were like, etc?

Liveblogging (almost) the debate

Webb and Allen are debating tonight.  I'm watching with about a 20 minute delay, because at 8 pm I was putting the kids to bed.  But I'm blogging as I watch, so it's almost liveblogging.

Opening statements:

Allen: Trying to associate Webb with Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and liberal national Democrats.  He'll raise your taxes.

Webb: How you're doing depends on where you stand -- 2/3 of Americans think we're heading in the wrong direction.   Republicans claim Iraq is a front in the global war on terrorism, but aren't willing to risk their family members.   Have great hospitals, but 15 percent of Americans are uninsured.

Iraq:

Allen: Trying to associate himself with Secretary Baker and Senator Warner (who is very popular in Virginia).  Want to bring troops home, but in victory.  "We're liberators, not occupiers."

Webb: Agrees with Baker -- needs to be a diplomatic solution, US needs to state that we have no desire for long-term bases in Iraq.  Can attack terrorism in Iraq from troops that are based outside of the country.  Need creative leadership.

Race/macaca

Allen: "Baseless allegations."  Look at my record in Congress.  "I don't recall using that world."  lists his endorsements.

[Allen is doing a much better job of looking at the cameras.  Webb keeps looking at the moderator, and when he's not look at him, he seems to be casting his eyes down -- at notes? at the live audience?]

Webb: Been talked to death.  "bullying" of a staffer.  Lists his diverse endorsements.

Women in the military:

Webb: Article was 27 years ago.  Look at my record as Secretary of the Navy -- opened up positions for women.  Look at my campaign staff -- lots of women leaders.  Very comfortable with the current US military position on women in combat.  Raises Allen's record of opposing women at VMI.

Allen: Webb has written stuff more recently 1997-1998.  Allen is proud of his record as Governor.

Secrecy in Government:

Allen: More information should be online.  Should be more sunlight on the spending process.  More scrutiny of taxpayers money -- no more bridges to no where.  Should be a line item veto.

Webb: Number of classified items has skyrocketed.  Sign of the weakness of Congress and a one-party system.

Marriage Amendment

Webb: I oppose it, and will vote against it.  I'm a Christian, and believe marriage is a union between man and a woman, but government isn't going to take sacrament away.  Second paragraph goes too far, takes away rights from couples.

Allen: Support it and will vote yes.  Marriage is fundamental to society.

Immigration

Allen: Nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.  Shouldn't reward illegal behavior.  Opposes amnesty, supports fence.  Voted against Senate bill.

Webb: Oppose both House and Senate bills.  This Administration has failed to address illegal immigration -- talk about it, but haven't done anything.  Shelters for day laborers remove the burden from local businesses.

Debt/international security.

Webb:  I have been talking about China for 19 years.  China is developing a strategic relationship with Moslem world.  Have allowed them to devalue their currency.

Allen: Taxpayers Bill of Rights.  Balanced Budget, line item veto, supermajority for spending faster than the rate of inflation.

Fossil fuel

Allen: Biodiesel is great.  US needs to reduce dependence on foreign fuels.  But can't be piped, needs to be trucked.  Need more plants.

Webb: Allen's energy plan is to give tax breaks to oil companies.  We need government incentives -- solar, biodiesel, nuclear.

Affirmative Action

Webb: Designed to remedy the evils of slavery.  But now expanded to every ethnic group -- only white males are excluded.  Should be restricted to African Americans, who suffered from

Allen: American Indians have also been excluded -- went back to energy question.

Allen to Webb: Tax Relief -- you said we can't afford war and tax cuts

Webb: Tremendous migration of wealth toward top 1 percent.  Huge deficits -- need revenues.  Where is that going to come from?  Suggests closing loopholes in corporate taxes.  Can't keep spending like this without increasing revenue.

Allen: Do you know how many Virginians benefit from tax cuts you oppose.

Webb: you allowed tuition tax credit to die.

Webb: How can you vote for Congressional pay raise and not for minimum wage?

Allen: needs to provide relief for small business -- supported minimum wage [as part of trifecta that would have provided $10 million estate tax exemption, tax cuts]  Class warfare, Hillary Clinton.

Webb: You've never voted for a clean minimum wage increase.  I actually thought the estate tax cut proposal was reasonable.

Allen: Wiretapping/Habeas Corpus.

Webb: We all want security.  But with no oversight, don't know who you're listening to.  This Administration rejects any type of oversight, whether from Congress or Judiciary.  Need to make sure they're not listening to Colin Powell or George Allen.

Allen: Don't need detainees filing lawsuits asking for DVDs and high speed internet. 

Webb: Listen to McCain, Warner, need to make sure that whatever we're doing is compliant with Geneva Convention -- need to have the moral high ground.

Webb:  Asked about some islands off the coast of Taiwan.  Allen had no idea what he was talking about.  Neither did I.  Webb passed on his 30 seconds at the end.  I have no idea what he was trying to accomplish here.

Should Hastert resign?

Webb: How leadership handles these questions demands accountability.  Haven't followed this in detail.

Allen: I find this behavior despicable.  I support a full investigation -- anyone who is guilty should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, stripped of pensions.

Allen: Susan and I thank you.  Ideas, experience, track record matters.  Tax cuts, 9/11, not letting enemies clog our courts matters.   Hillary Clinton.

Webb: "how absurd some of the things George Allen has said."  Referendum on this administration.  Allen votes with Bush 97 percent of the time, 100 percent of the time on foreign affairs.  Opportunity to return to the Democratic party. Principal duty of elected officials should be to speak for those who have no voice. 

My reactions:

I have to say I think Allen did a better job with the debate.  Not on substance, but I think he looked more relaxed and stayed on message better.  Webb got bogged down in details and was a bit too reactive -- got stuck saying "you're mischaracterizing me" rather than "this is what I believe in."   He needs to be more aggressive on the tax cut issue -- that spending eventually needs to be paid for, and that most Americans don't want to saddle their children with debt.

See also my post Why liberals should be enthusiastic about Jim Webb, over at Gather.com.  I think you can read it without registering, although you need to register in order to comment.

Back online

Well, I can't say I had any epiphanies while I was gone, but I think I benefited from taking a step back.  I enjoy blogging, but sometimes it just feels like another thing on the to-do list.  There have been some horrific stories in the news, and I can't imagine what I could have said that would have been meaningful.

The details are a little up in the air, but I've been invited to post several times over the next month as one of a group of political bloggers at Gather.com.  Gather seems to be something of a cross between a social networking site and a set of community blogs.  I'll let you know when things firm up.  In the meanwhile, tomorrow (e.g. Thursday), their front page poll question is going to be who do you think is going to win the Virginia Senate race, Allen or Webb.  At this point, I think it's probably too close to call -- Allen is still ahead in the last set of polls, but Webb has momentum and finally enough money to get on TV.

Virginia Senate race

I didn't get to hear Jim Webb speak this evening, because just when Barack Obama was starting to introduce him, N insisted that he needed to use the potty.  Not a message I was able to ignore, I'm afraid.  We raced off to the bookstore that has public toilets and got back just in time to hear his last line, which was that "if you know me, you know there will be beer there!"  I assume that this was in reference to his victory party in November.

It was nice to hear Obama speak, although he didn't say anything especially memorable.  His main line was that he didn't ordinarily quote Newt Gingrich, but that Gingrich had said that if he were running as a Democrat this year, his campaign line would be just two words: "Had enough?"

I did get to see my recording of Meet the Press debate from Sunday, and think Webb did a good job, especially in the first half of the debate, which focused on Iraq.  Even if he didn't have the huge advantage of his personal story, his argument -- that this Administration doesn't understand that you have to use diplomacy as well as force -- would be a strong one.  Allen ducked hard on the question of whether he's going to support Bush or Warner on the interrogation of prisoners, but he's going to have to vote one way or the other before the election. 

I do think Webb's answers on the role of women in the military were pretty weak.  I would have liked him to have said flat out that, with the benefit of hindsight, he wishes he hadn't written that article about women in the Academy.  And I just don't get the argument that says that it's ok for women to be shot at and blown up (as they are when "attached" to combat units as military intelligence, translators, etc.) but not ok for them to be part of the combat units and shoot back.  But Allen calling him on it is a classic case of Pot, meet Kettle.

Webb is incredibly lucky that Allen screwed up with that macaca line.  Not because I  think that many voters are ultimately going to decide based on that moment.  But the Webb campaign was suffocating from lack of money -- according to the Post, at the end of June, Allen had $6.6 million in the bank, and Webb less than half a million.  That's a brutal disadvantage, since this is an expensive tv market.  Webb clearly hates to ask for money, and is bad at it.  Bu the macaca quote got the race back onto people's lists of competitive races.  And that in turn brings in the national donors.  (Webb's now #3 in the ranking of candidates who have raised money through the Netroots campaign on ActBlue.)

The fine print

I spent a couple of hours yesterday knocking on doors for the Commonwealth Coalition, which is the main group that is organizing against Virginia's anti-gay marriage (or anything that might vaguely resemble gay marriage constitutional amendment).

Mostly we were IDing voters on our side to target get-out-the-vote efforts, but we were also trying to raise the issue for people who might be undecided or not have heard about the measure.  Our strategy was mostly just to hand people the full text of the amendment and ask them to read it:

BALLOT QUESTION NUMBER 1

Question: Shall Article I (the Bill of Rights) of the Constitution of Virginia be amended to state:

"That only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions.

This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage. Nor shall this Commonwealth or its political subdivisions create or recognize another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage."?

That second paragraph is so overreaching that you could just see the gears turning in people's heads as they read it.

Here's an ad that makes the same point.

***

I tivoed the Webb-Allen debate this morning but haven't watched it yet.

Virginia Senate Primary

I realized yesterday that I'm going to be out of town for the Senate primary next month, so I need to vote absentee.  It's not a big deal -- you can just stop by the elections office and do it on the spot.

At this point, I'm leaning toward voting for Jim Webb.  I don't agree with him on every issue, but he's a powerful voice against the Administration's Iraq policy, and I like his populist economic message.  While he's not perfect on gay rights (he supports don't ask don't tell), he opposes the hideous constitutional amendment that's going to be on the ballot in the fall.

And I think he's got a better chance of beating George Allen than Harris Miller does.  Miller's policy stances are fine, but as far as I can tell he's got the charisma of a dishrag.  He's got a bunch of endorsements from state elected officials who he helped as chair of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, but it's hard to imagine anyone getting really excited about him.  Anonymous is a Woman has a nice post explaining why it's a bad year for a "consummate insider" like Miller to be running for the Democratic nomination; she argues that his insider status is counter to the story that the national party is trying to tell.

I know that there are a bunch of bloggers who are hot for Webb.  If anyone who reads here wants to make the case for Miller, I'm willing to listen.

School board election

I spent the evening at a forum for candidates for the local school board.  For some odd reason, Alexandria elects its City Council and School Board on a cycle completely separate from the state and national elections -- every 3 years, in May.  (The official explanation is that the local races would be overshadowed by national ones and wouldn't get as much attention.  The unofficial explanation is that it keeps more control in the hands of the local party committees, by depressing turnout.)

The Alexandria School Board has 9 members, divided into 3 geographic regions.  (This is a compromise between having board members representing specific neighborhoods, and having city-wide elections, which would make it harder for minorities to be represented.)  None of the three current members from my district are running for reelection, so all three seats are open.  There are five candidates running:

• Elliott Branch
• Sheryl Gorsuch
• Sanford Horn
• Scott Newsham
• Eileen Cassidy Rivera

It was interesting to see what everyone had to say.  There wasn't a whole lot of controversy -- everyone supports fiscal responsibility, improved communications, reducing the achievement gap, challenging all students, retaining good teachers, etc.  Everyone agreed that the laptop inititive had been poorly implemented.  No one supported intelligent design.

Overall, I was most impressed by Branch.  I particularly liked what he had to say about individuation in the classroom.  I'm torn between Rivera, Gorsuch and Horn for my other two votes.  Rivera's bio is impressive, but she did such a good job of staying on message with her three priorities that I didn't get as much of a sense of her overall.  Horn's a teachers, which is a plus for me.  His literature talks a lot about improving school lunches, but he didn't mention it at all.  Gorsuch seems like a classic PTA lady, but showed an impressive understanding of details.  Newsham didn't seem to have any specific goals that he wanted to accomplish, but just talked about general management experience.

If there's anyone reading this who wants to sell me on one of the candidates, I'm definitely up for listening.  More generally, what do you look for in a school board candidate in the absense of burning controversies?

Politics, Virginia style

Which of the following are true?

a)  A Virginia Delegate accidently fired a handgun in his office  -- where he hit a bullet-proof vest that happened to be hanging on the wall.

b) The Virginia Legislature passed bills to amend the state's 230 year-old Bill of Rights to ban gay marriage.

c) Virginia Democratic activists are trying to recruit Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Navy to run for the Democratic nomination for Senate.

Answer:  All of the above.

I don't know what to say about Jack Reid.

I'm just nauseated about the gay marriage bills.  They're pure political posturing, since Virginia already has an "affirmation of marriage" law on the books. And the language is so sweeping, it's quite possible that it could be used to throw out private contracts and designation of medical powers of attorneys on the grounds that they attempt to "approximate the effects of marriage."  I'm already a member of Equality Virginia, and they'll be getting more of my money before November.

The Draft James Webb movement is interesting.  Webb is an opponent of the war in Iraq, and last week he published a very strong op-ed in the NY Times, slamming the "extremist Republican operatives" that have been consistently slandering the military records of anyone (McCain, Cleland, Kerry, Murtha) who opposes George W. Bush.  And he'd have the potential of reaching voters who ordinarily don't vote Democratic.

I don't know enough about either Webb (especially his views on domestic policy) or the only declared candidate so far -- Harris Miller -- to be signing up for either one, but I'll definitely be tracking the race as it progresses.  I will say that I consider one of the points that Lowell at Raising Kaine lists as one of Webb's pluses -- that he lobbied for the addition of the three soldiers to the Vietnam memorial -- a clear negative.  Webb was one of those who thought that Maya Lin's design -- which has become almost universally acclaimed -- was "a mass grave" and a "gash of shame" and wanted something more traditionally heroic.  The addition of the statue didn't destroy the Wall as Lin feared it would, but doesn't add anything.   We're not swimming in good candidates enough for me to write one off for his lousy aesthetic judgment, but it's not a plus.

While I'm on the subject of Virginia politics, is anyone running against Jim Moran?  If the unions can't come up with someone to even run against him, as one of the "CAFTA 15" (the 15 Ds who voted for CAFTA), then the labor movement is really dead.

Here we go again

As some of you may recall, last year a Virginia delegate introduced a really stupid bill that would have required women to report all miscarriages to the police within 12 hours.  Largely due to a bunch of really ticked off infertility and parenting bloggers, the sponsor was flooded with outraged emails and calls, and soon withdrew the bill.

Do you think we can do it again?

The new legislative season is about to begin in Virginia, so it's time for more idiocies.  As Julie reports at a little pregnant, Delegate Bob Marshall has introduced a bill that would ban doctors and nurses (anyone "licensed by a health regulatory board") from performing or assisting an unmarried woman in any form of assisted reproduction "that completely or partially replaces sexual intercourse as the means of conception."

I feel compelled to point out that Marshall is the author of Virginia's stringent anti-gay marriage law, which prohibits "other arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage."  So, lesbians are out of luck, unless they can find a man willing to enter into a sham marriage with them, in which case everything is fine and dandy according to Mr. Marshall.

But it's not just lesbians who are affected, or single women who want to have babies without finding someone to hook up with for a night.  As Maura pointed out at Julie's site, Marshall has links to the American Life League, which believes that all reproductive assistance is an affront to human dignity.  Fine, he's entitled to believe that.  Even to do his best to convince others that it's true.  But he's not entitled to make it the law of the land.

Via Landismom, I read Trey's post last week about gay and lesbian families moving away from hostile states, like Virginia.  I certainly can't blame anyone for making that choice.  But I do believe that those of us who aren't directly threatened by bills like this (as a married, fertile woman, I'm not) have an obligation to fight against them as hard as we would if we were personally affected.

I'm confident that my delegate will be as opposed to this bill as I am, but I'll drop him a note anyway.  If you live in Virginia, please contact your delegate.  And all of us can give Mr. Marshall a piece of our mind.

Election results

I'm too distracted watching election results to write a book review, so I'm going to skip it for tonight.  Maybe tomorrow.

So far (it's 9:11 as I write this), things are looking pretty good for Tim Kaine.  With 74.4% of the precincts reporting, he's ahead by 2.5% of the vote, or about 50,000 votes.   The data I'm looking at (from Virginia Interactive, which is having some trouble loading, but seems to have significantly more recent results than the Post) suggest that the Republicans are leading on the other two races.  We shall see.

I'm also interested in seeing how the set of Ohio initiatives proposed by Reform Ohio Now does.  The Ohio state website has live results, but doesn't seem to say anywhere what percentage of precincts are reporting, so I don't know how significant the returns so far are.  It looks like they're all going down by large margins.  That's a shame -- I think the partisan gerrymandering of districts is the single factor that has been most destructive of American democracy in recent years.

The Texas anti-same-sex marriage proposal passed easily.  I'm shocked.

I'm not planning on staying up late enough to watch the California results come in. 

Holy Dirty Tricks, Batman!

This Tuesday is the Virginia general election.  I haven't been writing much about it, because, as I've mentioned before, I find it hard to summon a lot of enthusiasm for Tim Kaine except by comparison to the alternative.

This evening, I got a robodialed phone call that began something like "I'm Tim Kaine and I want you to know where I stand on the issues..."  It's too bad I didn't let the answering machine get it, because I really wish I could play it back and get it word for word.  It went on to say that Kaine is a social conservative, religious, served as a missionary, opposes gay marriage, and supports restrictions on partial-birth abortion.

I hung up the phone going "huh?"  Why would the Kaine campaign be calling me with this message?  I am on some Republican mailing lists because I voted in the Republican presidential primary in 2000.  (Virginia does not have party registration, and the only thing that you need to swear to is that you are not participating in the candidate selection process of another party.)  But two days before the election is not the time to be trying to identify possible crossover voters.

The end of the message caught my attention, as it stated that this message was paid for by "Honest Leadership for Virginia PAC," not Kaine for Governor.  A quick google search revealed that this PAC "supports the election of conservative Republican candidates in the state of Virginia, including 2005 gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore."  Moreover, it is fully funded by the Republican Governors Association.  And other Democrats have been receiving these calls as well.  So, this isn't from the Kaine campaign at all -- it's a deliberate attempt by Kilgore's allies to discourage liberal Democrats like me from showing up to vote on Tuesday.

I'm not an elections lawyer.  I don't know if it's illegal to run ads like this.  But it's sure as heck sleezy.  And I'm a lot more motivated to vote for Tim Kaine on Tuesday than I was an hour ago.  So, for those of you in Virginia, or who have friends in Virginia, pass the word.  Don't be duped by Kilgore's dirty tricks.  Read the Post editorial endorsing Kaine.  And please come out and vote, even if it requires a clothespin.

Updated: 

The Post blog has the text of the call.  I poked around the Kaine website, and I'm pretty sure that this radio ad from June is what the RGA outfit spliced to make the recording.

I got another robo-call tonight from the same outfit, this one claiming to be from a pro-choice advocacy group and pointing out that NARAL VA has declined to endorse Kaine, and suggesting independent candidate Russ Potts as an alternative.   The man outside the metro station tonight handing out literature for the local Republican candidate for delegate also seemed to be talking up Potts from what I overheard as I went by.  Nice try.

Results

Politics:  Hey! Both the candidates I was supporting won: David Englin for the Democratic nomination for the 45th district seat in the House of Delegates and Leslie Byrne for the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor.  The 45th is a solidly Democratic district, so Englin should be a shoe-in for Delegate.  Byrne will have a harder time. 

Byrne's pretty liberal for Virginia, and some naysayers over at Virginia2005 have been whining that she'll drag Kaine down.  I think that's wrong -- Virginians are quite comfortable ticket-splitting.  She'll definitely help mobilize the liberal base (like me!) who otherwise would have said "eh" about the ticket.  And while we're in the voting booth, we'll choke down our misgivings about Kaine's position on choice, and vote for him because he's a lot better than Kilgore.

Running: My track group did our time trial tonight.  I ran a 3:33 for 800 meters, which I think is quite respectable -- especially since it was about 90 degrees.

Baseball:  The Nationals got creamed last night, 11-1, bringing to end their 10 game winning streak.  Listened to a few innings of the game on the radio, but it was only 2-0 when I went to bed.  Oh well, an important rule of baseball is that you're never as good as you look when you're winning or as bad as you look when you're losing.  Hmmm, not a bad lesson for politics either.

Politicians and school board ladies

After sitting on the fence for a while, I've decided that I'm going to vote for David Englin for the Democratic nomination for delegate.  I like his policies and I like the energy that he's bringing to the campaign, including reaching out beyond the "usual suspects" to try to engage more people in the process.  (His campaign has also done a good job of staying on top of the internet discussion of the race; I wouldn't be surprised if someone shows up at my doorstep with a campaign sign tomorrow afternoon.)

In thinking things over, I realized that some of my indecision in this race was driven by a  prejudice against people who are confident enough, ambitious enough to run for office at a relatively young age.  This is a common prejudice; Americans are very skeptical of career politicians. Going back to George Washington, there's a long history of sucessful politicians who campaigned as just regular folks, reluctantly setting aside their "real" careers in order to serve.  So I found Libby Garvey's story of her journey from PTA mom to school board member to candidate for delegate compelling.  But I was ultimately convinced by Shayna Englin's argument that safe seats are where you build leaders for tomorrow.

A snide anonymous comment at Virginia2005 referring to Garvey as a "school district lady lol" made me think about the degree to which these different paths to political involvement are gendered.  Debbie Wasserman Schultz aside, it is still almost unheard of for young women to run for political office.  And yes, the PTA and the school board are the classic first steps in that direction for people who never imagined themselves as politicians.  It was shrewd marketing for Sen. Patty Murray to describe herself as "just a mom in tennis shoes," but it worked because it was true.

Lt. Governor candidates, etc.

Any one want to make an argument for why I should support Viola Baskerville or Leslie Byrne for the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor?  They both seem to be solid liberals, but I haven't heard a convincing case yet for why I should support one over the other. 

Playing the "follow the money" strategy, the one thing that jumps out at me from the VPAP data is that Byrne is clearly the choice of organized labor. 

Speaking of money, I had previously noted that in the delegate race for the 45th, Mandela had received 2/3 of her money from a single donor.  According to the Virginia2005 blog, it's from her boyfriend and she's using it to buy cable TV ads.  (The things I miss by having TiVo.)

Update on VA-45

We're getting closer to the primary to choose a Democratic candidate for Delegate in the 45th district, so I thought I'd provide an update on the race.

When I last wrote about the candidates, Doug suggested looking at the money.  Some contribution and spending reports are now available.  A few thoughts based on looking at them:

• Dick Hobson has raised significantly less money than any of the candidates.  That, combined with the fact that he still doesn't have a campaign website, makes me wonder how seriously he's really taking this race.  Or maybe he thinks that only ADC members are going to bother to show up for the primary.
• Laura Mandala has raised the most money, but nearly 2/3 of it is from a single donor (Edward Spoden).  It doesn't demonstrate widespread support.
• Englin, Garvey and Mosqueda have raised more of their money in small amounts. 

The local Democracy for America group sent all of the candidates a questionnaire, and has posted the answers they all provided.  They've also set up forums where anyone can discuss the race.

Senator Warner

My Senator, John Warner, is on everyone's list of the swing votes in the Senate on the "nuclear option" to prevent use of the filibuster. 

I disagree with Warner's positions on the vast majority of issues, but I will always respect him for standing up against his party and saying that Oliver North was unfit to be a member of the U.S. Senate.  As Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, he's been active in investigating the abuses at Abu Ghraib.  Most recently, he was one of the few Senators to oppose intervening in the Terri Schiavo case.

He's one of the few Republicans who I've voted for.  I supported him over Mark Warner in 1996, who seemed to have nothing going for him but a lot of money (made flipping telecom licenses, no less), as well as in 2002, when the Dems didn't nominate anyone.  He may well get my vote again in 2008.  But tomorrow, he's getting a phone call.

Candidates for Delegate

As I've mentioned before, my representative in the House of Delegates, Marian van Landingham isn't running for reelection.  This is a solidly Democratic district, so all the action is likely to be in the primary.  So far, there are 6 announced candidates:

• David Englin
• Libby Garvey
• Richard Hobson
• James Lay
• Laura Mandala
• Elsie Mosqueda

The Alexandria Democratic Committee will be having a candidates' forum this Sunday, March 6, 2:00 pm. at the Durant Center, 1501 Cameron St, Alexandria.  Open to the public, no charge. I'm planning on going, because I honestly don't know who I'll support.  Several of the candidates have impressive experience.  Garvey is a current member of the Arlington school board, Hobson is a former delegate, and Mosqueda is the legislative aide for Brian Moran, the delegate for the adjoining district.  Englin has the most detailed issues statement on his website, and his politics look very close to mine.  He's young, but he's got an interesting bio -- a liberal Democrat from the Air Force, with degrees from both the Air Force Academy and the Kennedy School of Government. 

If anyone wants to make a case for one of the candidates, I'd love to hear it.  And for the majority of my readers, who don't live nearby, I'd be interested in your general comments about how you pick a candidate to support, especially in a wide-open primary.

Family values

The Post reported yesterday that Russ Potts is jumping into the Virginia Governor's race as an independent candidate.  Both the Kaine and the Kilgore campaigns are busily spinning that Potts will take away more votes from the other guy.  I honestly have no idea which is more likely.  Raising Kaine (an independent, pro-Kaine blog) argues that Potts is more conservative than not, and suggests checking out his record on VoteSmart.

What jumped out at me on VoteSmart was the ratings under "Family and Children's Issues."  These turn out to be based on the ratings of a group called the Family Foundation of Virginia.  Their definition of pro-family is anti-same sex marriage, anti-choice (they want to make Virginia "the most pro-life state in the nation"), and anti-taxes.  That's not my family values.

I'm not blaming Vote Smart.  They explain that "Project Vote Smart collects performance evaluations from special interest groups who provide them, regardless of issue or bias."  It seems that no groups with a progressive definition of what constitutes family and children's issues are putting out scorecards in Virginia.  (The Children's Defense Fund does so at the national level.)

This seems like a gap that's easy enough to fill.  We'd need to figure out a set of specific votes to use, and then fill out a spreadsheet showing all Delegates and Senators voting records.  I'm going to contact Voices for Virginia's Children and see if they're interested; the Virginia Family Values PAC might be another possibility.  Anyone want to join me in this project?

(If you're in another state, check Vote Smart to see whose issuing ratings in your state.  If you want to develop a similar project, the state affiliate of Voices for America's Children is probably a good place to start.)

Want to run for the House of Delegates?

Unchallenged Republicans in Northern Virginia:

Via the Women's Information Network and the Virginia Grassroots Coalition:

As far as we know, two Republican members of the House of Delegates, Gary Reese in the 67th District and Tom Rust in the 86th District are currently running unopposed.   Both these districts are on the Fairfax/Loudon County border. If you live in one of those districts and would consider running for Delegate, or if you think you can recruit someone, contact Jim Edwards-Hewitt and he'll get you hooked up with the Fairfax Democrats.  As we all know, it's important  to contest every race, even in areas that lean Republican, both to make each Republican spend money (and keep them from raising money for other Republicans), to put Democratic issues on the table, and to take advantage of any unexpected opportunities.

EMILY's List Candidate Training

On March 18th and 19th, EMILY’s List will be offering a terrific training opportunity for pro-choice Democratic women in Virginia.  We would like to extend an invitation for you to participate in the training.

As you may know, EMILY’s List is a political donor network and political resource for pro-choice Democratic women candidates. EMILY's List has initiated a program designed to recruit and train women to run for and serve in elected office in the states.  Whether you are currently serving on the school board, or in the State Assembly, or if you are just beginning to think about running for elective office, we are certain this training will provide you with the skills and inspiration you need.

The program will begin on the evening of March 18th with a welcome dinner and short session.  Saturday, March 19th will be filled with training on fundraising, message development, direct mail and other important campaign issues.  

The program, including materials and meals is free, however space is limited.  Partial participation is not possible- you must commit to attending the full program in order to be allocated a seat at the training.

For details, contact Kate Coyne-McCoy

[My district's wonderful Delegate, Marian Van Landingham, isn't running for reelection due to personal health issues.  For about 24 hours, I considered trying to run myself, but since there are already about six Democrats running for the seat, I decided it wasn't worth quitting my job to run.]

Thoughtful discussion of abortion

Via and I wasted all that birth control, I found this truly thoughtful discussion at Arwen/Elizabeth's site about a key question behind the abortion debate, namely when does a fetus become a human being with rights of its own. I'm not sure anyone's opinion was changed, but people were listening, not shouting past each other.  (And Cecily is one of the world's classiest people.)

I was particularly intrigued by the comments that some people made about how their positions on this issue were affected by their experiences of pregnancy.  I found that having my children made both the reality of the potential life growing within and the horror of forcing a woman to continue an unwanted pregnancy more vivid to me.  It didn't change my position on what I think the laws should be, however.

The NYTimes today has an article on how pro-life counseling centers are buying ultrasound machines to use to convince women not to have abortions.  I know such centers sometimes (often?) get women in under false pretenses and put a lot of pressure on them.  But, if you're going to trust women to make these decisions, I don't think it's right to protect them from reminders of the potential for life.  (Although personally, I couldn't see a thing on any of my sonograms; the simple heartbeat was much more impressive to me.)

Hugo Schwyzer has an interesting post this week on what it means to be male, pro-feminist, and pro-life.  He concludes that his most important work is in the area of changing men's attitudes and of supporting male responsibility. 

The Nation had a powerful piece a couple of weeks ago on how Mississippi laws have made abortion "out of reach, buried under state laws that make the process unnecessarily difficult, discouraged by a sense of shame enforced by practically every public authority, and inaccessible for many who lack money to pay for it."  This is clearly the strategy being used in Virginia as well.   Unfortunately, this approach makes the sort of honest back and forth discussed above almost impossible.

****

Rad Geek People's Daily is promoting a bit of googlebombing to ensure that searches for Roe v. Wade get you to the text of the decision rather than to an advocacy site. 

What depresses me (Virginia politics part 3)

Ema at the Well-Timed Period writes:

"The saga of HB 1677 has made me realize that the lives and health of tens of millions of women are literally at the mercy of legislators of Del. Cosgrove's caliber. This realization is enough to subdue even the most optimistic person.  [By all means, if you were already aware of the existence of legislators like the Delegate, please, carry on with the celebration.]"

I knew that there were legislators like Cosgrove, here in Virginia and even in more "enlightened" states.  That doesn't even depress me all that much; while they can introduce bills like this, they're unlikely to get them passed.

What depresses me is that Tim Kaine, who is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Virginia (we have odd year elections) argues that the "partial-birth" (e.g. dilation and extraction) abortion ban should have an exception for the life and health of the mother -- but only because the Supreme Court has ruled that such laws are unconstitutional without them.  Reading his letter to the editor, I'm left with the impression that he would have opposed such an exception if it weren't for that meddling federal court.

Chap Petersen, who is one of the leading contenders for the Lieutenant Governor position, also has taken some positions that I'm pretty horrified by.  In addition to supporting the ban on dilation and extraction (without an exception for the life and health of the mother), he also opposed the recommendation that the feticide bill be amended to clarify that it should not be construed as limiting the right to an abortion.  And he voted for HB751, the anti-civil-union bill that became law last year. (To be fair, he did introduce a bill today, HB2940, that would amend that law to say that it "shall not abridge the right of any person to enter into a lawful contract that pertains to the ownership or devising of joint property, the maintenance of personal health, or the protection of private assets. ")

If that's what the Democratic candidates look like, I'm more than depressed; I'm scared.

(Most of these legislative links are thanks to Maura's posting on Daily Kos.  Thanks.)

More Virginia politics

First, an update on HB1677 -- Maura has posted Del Cosgrove's email to her, in which he indicates that he will be working with legislative staff to revise the bill language to narrow its application.  (Apparently, he's been totally swamped with email in the past day or two.  I'm shocked.)  I wouldn't totally assume the problem is fixed, but it makes sense to at least wait and see what the bill says.

Next, I thought I'd shine a little light on some other proposed legislation.  HJ586, also offered by Del. Cosgrove, would amend the Virginia Constitution to say, under the heading BILL OF RIGHTS:

"Marriage is the legal union of one man and one woman as husband and wife, and no other combination of persons may be licensed to marry or recognized as a marriage by the government. A civil union, domestic partnership, or similar civil arrangement that purports to bestow the rights, privileges, benefits, status, or obligations of marriage upon unmarried persons may not be created, recognized, or enforced by the government. A civil arrangement forbidden by this section shall be void and unenforceable even if lawful elsewhere."

Del Cosgrove feels compelled to propose this amendment, even though the Legislature passed a law just last year that clarified the existing law defining marriage as between a man and a woman, in order to say:

"A civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage is prohibited. Any such civil union, partnership contract or other arrangement entered into by persons of the same sex in another state or jurisdiction shall be void in all respects in Virginia and any contractual rights created thereby shall be void and unenforceable."

This law has already come into play in at least one custody dispute.  It strikes me as pure political grandstanding to push for a Constitutional amendment on top of the existing law, and it just turns my stomach to have it under the heading of Bill of Rights.

Finally, I'd like to point out the really well designed Legislative Information System which makes it possible to find out what bills have been introduced on a subject and their current status with just a few clicks of a mouse. 

Yes, I live in Virginia.

Although sometimes I wonder what I'm doing here.

As reported by Maura at Democracy for Virginia (duplicated here if the first link is down) and updated here, Delegate Cosgrove is introducing a bill, HB1677, that would make it a class 1 misdemeanor for a woman to fail to report to law enforcement within 12 hours a fetal death that occurs without medical attendance.  And because another Virginia law defines a fetal death as one that occurs regardless of the duration of the pregnancy, this would affect everyone who miscarried or even had a slightly delayed pregnancy.  I'm not going to try to describe just how stupid and callous this proposal is; instead, read the posting and discussion at Chez Miscarriage for much more eloquence than I could achieve.

Cosgrove is supposedly concerned about the stories you occasionally hear about women giving birth and leaving the bodies in dumpsters.  If it can't be proven that the baby was born alive, the only crime the woman can be charged with is improper disposal of human remains.  But the proposed response is totally disproportionate to the goal.

It appears that Cosgrove introduced a similar bill in 2003, which died in committee.  (Oddly enough, the 2003 bill was explicitly limited to women who miscarry more than 24 weeks after their last period.)  My guess is that even in the crazy-house that is the Virginia House of Delegates, this bill doesn't have much of a chance of going anywhere. 

But don't leave it to chance.  Write or call Cosgrove and tell him what you think of this bill.  If you live in Virginia contact your legislators, and let them know what you think too.  Contact the members of the Committee for Courts of Justice and ask them not to let the bill get out of committee.

And pay attention to what else is happening in your statehouses.  It doesn't get the attention of what's happening in DC, but it can make just as much, or more, difference in your life.