Cows, Corn and Uranium Don't Mix

One of the things you learn when you show up in Richmond is the way that laws can affect people you never even think about. 

For example, when I put in my legislation to raise Virginia's lowest-in-the-United-States misdemeanor-felony threshold from $200 to $500 I thought I was home free when the VA Association of Prosecutors supported me along with the Attorney General.  Then I found out that the large retailers didn't like the idea and I got one vote on subcommittee. 

Similarly, some people came to be about being allows to hunt on a Sunday.  Hunting during the week outside of NOVA is no big deal because you just drive 10 minutes and you're in the woods, but for Northern Virginians who need to escape traffic, it usually takes the better part of a day and weekends are more convenient.  Turns out the major antagonist is The Farm Bureau - farmers like to have one day per week they can go out on their farm and not worry about dodging bullets from stray hunters.

During that debate, I discovered how influential The Farm Bureau is in Virginia.  While the majority of Virginia's delegates now hail from the suburbs, they still have a ton of pull.  They also speak for a significant sector of the Virginia economy. 

History of U.S. 1: Introduction

Back in 2005, the Mount Vernon Gazette ran a series of articles by local author Michael K. Bohn on the history of U.S. 1.  They provide some interesting history and context to why U.S. 1 runs where it is today.

The following was written by Michael K. Bohn and ran in the Mt. Vernon Gazette in April, 2005:

Introduction to the Route One Series
Michael K. Bohn
Mount Vernon Gazette, April 2005  

Route One. To some, it’s just a road, a way to get home after work. Residents close by, however, view it as their Main Street, the commercial center of their community. Others use “Route One” as a pejorative term to describe an area that has been down on its heels—a place of strip malls, fast food joints, and yellow crime-scene tape.

However widely impressions vary of Route One in Mount Vernon, there is one perception of the highway that is rarely acknowledged—the history of Route One is the history of southeast Fairfax County. Travelers along what started as an Indian path have witnessed the spread of English settlements north from Jamestown, the construction of colonial churches and court houses, and the creation of the grand plantations owned by Virginia’s first families—Mason, Fairfax, and Washington. Known in Colonial times as the Potomac Path, the route served General Washington and his French ally, Comte de Rochambeau, during their march to destiny at Yorktown, just as the route carried both Federals and Johhny Rebs during the Civil War. The road’s ford at Little Hunting Creek--Gum Springs--became not only a key intersection on the way to post-war Mount Vernon, but also a growing refuge for African-Americans living in segregated Fairfax County. World War I saw the opening of Fort Belvoir, with the Army paving the section of the highway between the new installation and Alexandria. The onset of the automobile, and later the motel, made Route One a prominent feature of the county during the middle of the 20th century. The route is a four-hundred-year timeline, one that began when the forest knew only the Dogue Indians.

NOVA v. ROVA = Massachusetts v. Georgia?

Tom Jackman has an interesting analysis up on The State of NOVA blog comparing results in Northern Virginia v. the rest of the Commonwealth and looking at differences in Virginia exit poll results from 2008 and 2012.  Not Larry Sabato (Ben Tribbett) also recently started a series on his blog comparing House of Delegate electoral margins to different states to give some perspective to how different Virginia is.  I thought I'd take a shot at merging both.

Defining NOVA as Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, including Fairfax City, Falls Church City, Manassas City and Manassas Park and using the Unofficial Results (not including the Fairfax County absentees & provisional votes (over 90,000 votes).  Here were the margins:

• President Obama's wins NOVA by 21.4% (60.7% v. 39.3%)
• Governor Romney's margin in the "Rest of Virginia" or ROVA was 3.4% (48.3% v. 51.7%). 

If you compare that to other states, NOVA's margin sits between Massachusetts and California and ROVA's margin sits between North Carolina and Georgia (see chart below from Nate Silver at the New York Times).  Well I knew that Massachusetts was a Commonwealth like Virginia, but I did not realize we also had that much in common politically.  Quite a juxtaposition which perhaps gives you some perspective about our challenges in Richmond.

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VA Leads the National Way Foreclosure Settlement Diversion

Sometimes I wonder why voters get so cynical about the government.  Then there are days that I join the chorus.

As a state with booming housing starts and population growth in the late 2000's Virginia was hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.  Prince William and Loudoun were hit hard.  It also hit the Route 1 Corridor.  When I knocked doors in new townhouses around Huntington in 2009, neighbors were complaining to me about people purchased claiming rental homes are primary residences, putting 10% down, and then bailing.  There have been other pockets of foreclosures along U.S. 1 as people over committed into homes they couldn't afford.

Last year, forty-nine attorneys general and the federal government announced a $25 billion settlement with five of the largest banks.  As part of that, $2.5 billion was paid to states.  The Court ordered the following regarding that money:

In Virginia. we took $66,525,233.00 and it initially went into the Attorney General's Regulatory, Consumer Advocacy, Litigation and Enforcement Revolving Trust Fund.   You can read the court order for yourself - it's pretty clear:

Each State Attorney General shall designate the uses of the funds set forth in the attached Exhibit B-1. To the extent practicable,such funds shall be used for purposes intended to avoid preventable foreclosures, to ameliorate the effects of the foreclosure crisis, to enhance law enforcement efforts to prevent and prosecute financial fraud, or unfair or deceptive acts or practices and to compensate the States for costs resulting from the alleged unlawful conduct of the Defendants. Such permissible purposes for allocation of the funds include, but are not limited to, supplementing the amounts paid to state homeowners under the Borrower Payment Fund, funding for housing counselors, state and local foreclosure assistance hotlines, state and local foreclosure mediation programs, legal assistance, housing remediation and anti-blight projects, funding for training and staffing of financial fraud or consumer protection enforcement efforts, and civil penalties. Accordingly, each Attorney General has set forth general instructions for the funds in the attached Exhibit B-2.

Maryland Goes for NOVA's Discretionary Income

There's an interesting article in today's Washington Post about Congresswoman Donna Edwards lone stance against the effort to bring casino gambling to National Harbor (Question 7).  I've always been impressed by her independence.  It got me thinking. 

I had to suffer through about 20 gambling industry sponsored ads for an against this while trying to watch Hurricane Sandy news tonight.  The money being spent is incredible - and it's because the stakes are high.

The problem is that the ads are completely disingenuous.  I don't think this fight is about keeping $500 million of Maryland's money in Maryland.  I think it's more about attracting Northern Virginia's discretionary spending into Maryland which is why they are going to park the casino a 10-minute car ride from my front door and just about everyone else with an Alexandria post office address just in time for the completion of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Hurricane Sandy Emergency Information

Update 10/31/12 - 11:00 P.M.

Dominion Power's Outage Map appears to show that nearly all outages in the 44th District have been resolved.  They just hit the one down the street from my house about an hour ago. 

 

Go check out Great Falls tomorrow if you want to see some serious water power!

Update 10/30/12 - 7:00 A.M.

Fairfax County is warning of possible flooding in Belleview and New Alexandria today and this evening.  Keep your fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

Fairfax County Emergency Blog

Update 10/30/12 - 6:30 A.M.

While it appears that the Mt. Vernon-Lee Area was spared from the kinds of extremely damaging winds we saw during the Derecho, there are approximately 5,000 homes without power in the Mt. Vernon-Lee area and about 2,500 in the 44th District.

I-495 Express Lanes Set to Open

Last week, I attended a briefing given by Transurban - the company constructing the I-495 Express Lanes that will run between the Mixing Bowl and the Dulles Toll Road on I-495.  You can see the briefing we were given at the end of this post. 

These lanes are sometimes called High Occupancy Toll Lanes.  The basic concept is that users will be pay tolls via transponders that vary depending upon traffic on the lanes.  The more traffic, the more the tolls.

If you have three people in the car, you ride free.  However, you have to purchase a new transponder with a switch so the system can differentiate your car from others. 

The project is funded partially with public funds, but mainly with private money pursuant to an agreement with the Commonwealth guaranteeing a specified rate of return to the investor group. 

Whether you use the lanes or not, you should educate yourself about not only how the lanes work, but also where the exits are located - there are not exits at every Beltway exit and there are some exits off the HOT lanes that do not exist on the Beltway.

If you would like more information, you can review the I-495 Express Lanes website here:

I-495 Express Lanes Website

Voting Law Changes Have Consequences

Here is an email I received from a constituent regarding her experience trying to vote four months ago in Riverside Precinct.

Allow me to relate to you my recent experience while trying to vote at the [Riverside] precinct located in the Riverside Elementary School, Old Mt. Vernon Road, Alexandria. This happened during primary elections this past June.

I have voted at the [Riverside] precinct during every election since moving to the Mt. Vernon area in August l975. My husband and I are now retired. When we came to the registration desk, I discovered that I had left my driver’s license in my other purse.

Weekly Column: Should Virginia Put Its Port on the Auction Block?

The following is my column that will appear in the Mt. Vernon Gazette, the Mt. Vernon Voice and Patch in the week of October 1, 2012. 

Should Virginia Put Its Port on the Auction Block? 

Largely out of sight in the Northern Virginia media, there has been a controversy raging in the Hampton Roads area about the privitization of Virginia's Port.

Governor McDonnell is very passionate about privatizing government functions. Everyone is familiar with his effort to privatize the state liquor stores. He has also announced multiple efforts to privatize Virginia's roads by selling tolling rights to foreign investors for I-95, US 460 and a new tunnel between Portsmouth and Norfolk.

In May, APM terminals offered Virginia $540 million to run the Virginia Port for 48-years. Governor McDonnell is now soliciting proposals from other private entities. After a flood of criticism about the timing of the proposal, the lack of information provided to elected officials, and the short timeframe for accepting proposals, the Governor slowed the process down a bit.

Eminent Domain Amendment: Well Intentioned, But Bad Amendment

As absentee voting starts, I've been receiving a lot of questions about the Question #1 on the ballot which is a constitutional amendment regarding eminent domain (Questions #1).

I am going to vote No and would encourage all Virginians to vote No.

Background

First, some background.  In the case of Kelo v. New London, the U.S. Supreme Court held that there was nothing in the United States Constitution prohibiting the government from condeming private property from an individual or business and giving it to another private person or entity.  The case held that the general benefits a community receives from redevelopment were sufficient to justify that action as a "public use" of the property.  However, the Supreme Court noted that while the United States Constitution did not prohibit the action, there was nothing to prohibit the states from having more restrictive provisions in their state constitutions.

The United States Constitution's Bill of Rights is based upon the Virginia Declaration of Rights that makes up the first article of the Constitution of Virginia.  Therefore, the Constitution of Virginia also contains no prohibition. 

Thoughts On The Democratic National Convention

Last week, I attended the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Patch asked me to do a series of daily diaries.  I was able to do something for the first three days.  I had to drive home after Day #4.

Day #1 - Delegate's Diary: Democratic Convention 2012

Day #2 - Delegate's Diary: Democratic National Convention Day #2

Day #3 - Delegate's Diary: Democratic National Convention Day #3

I also wrote this column for the local papers recapping the entire convention which ran in Patch, The Mt. Vernon Voice and the Mt. Vernon Gazette.

National Democratic Convention: An Inspiring Experience  

I would like to share with the community some of my reflections on the recent Democratic Convention in Charlotte, North Carolinaat which delegates nominated President Barack Obama for re-election.

Dominion Power Town Hall Follow Up

About 80 people turned out for last night's Town Hall Meeting on the undergrounding of utility service.  There was some discussion about the cost and two studies.  I have posted the 2005 study by the State Corporation Commission done in the wake of Hurricane Isabel on undergrounding power lines below along with a link to the Thomas Edison study referenced as well.

Edison Electric Institute Study: Out of Sight, Out of Mind Revisited, An Updated Studyon the Undergrounding of Overhead Power Lines

 

The cost of a specific undergrounding project is a function of many variables. 

I am also conducting a survey of the views of 44th District residents to measure their level of interest in this issue and willingness to pay for undergrounding.  Click on the link below to complete the survey.

 

Mount Vernon-Lee Community Underground Utility Survey



 

2005 State Corporation Commission Report Underground Lines