UPDATE
1-8-2014 1:20 AM Results in for first matchup.
Democrat Lynwood Lewis wins 6th district Virginia Senate seat by 22 votes. Count on a recount.
Special election - Virginia's 6th Senate District
DISTRICT-WIDE RESULTS
Candidate
B. WAYNE COLEMAN (R) 10,175 Votes Pct. 49.93%
Candidate
LYNWOOD LEWIS, JR. (D) 10,197 Votes Pct. 50.03%
Candidate
Write-in 8 Votes Pct. 0.04%
PRECINCTS REPORTING: 56/56
Lynwood Lewis ekes out win in 6th district for state Senate seat
Lynwood Lewis, the Eastern Shore's four-term delegate, eeked out a razor-thin victory in the race for the state Senate seat for the 6th district, which includes Mathews County, the Shore and much of Norfolk, in Tuesday's special election.
The Democratic party candidate received 10,197 votes to Norfolk businessman Wayne Coleman's 10,175, in a surprisingly large turnout for a special election on a bitterly cold day, according to the unofficial State Board of Elections tally. The election was to fill the seat held by Lt. Gov.-elect Ralph Northam.
The result gave Democrats a chance to keep the Senate split at 20 Democrats to 20 Republicans, which would give Northam, a Democrat, a tie-breaking vote.
But the margin is narrow enough that Coleman could ask for a recount. And there will be a special election later this month in the Northern Virginia district Attorney General-elect Mark Herring had represented. The Democrats would need to hold on to that seat as well to keep the Senate evenly split.
Stakes in the 6th district were high, since Republicans had controlled the evenly split Senate for the last two years two years under outgoing Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.
Those high stakes were reflected in the huge sums poured into the race. Coleman raised more than $689,000 as of Dec 27. Lewis raised more than $415,000.
The two candidates split sharply over the issue of expanding Medicaid, using more than $2 billion a year of federal money from the Affordable Care Act. Lewis supports it and Coleman opposes it.
Lewis has emphasized his experience in the House of Delegates, where he has represented the Eastern Shore since 2004, saying he has a track record of working with legislators from both parties.
"We've focused this campaign on my proven record as a bipartisan legislator, and how I already possess the skill set needed to do the job," he said.
Coleman, on the other hand, has said the fact that he is a newcomer to politics meant he would have brought a fresh perspective.
"I'm a local job creator who has spent the last 40 years working in the maritime industry," he said. "When it comes to the challenges facing the bay and those who earn their living from it, I have the background and experience to get better results. I'm not a politician – I'm a small-business owner who faces the same challenges brought to us by career politicians like my opponent."
Lewis and Coleman both said encouraging businesses to create jobs is a top priority. Lewis says the key is to keep taxes low and regulations simple, while Coleman emphasized the role of the port and the need to reduce regulatory burdens.
Lewis said his second top priority is working on funding and reform for K-12 education. On education, Coleman said he wants to empower parents, teachers and local business leaders to find new approaches, adding that the state needs more trade schools and apprenticeship programs.
Lewis carried the district's largest locality, Norfolk, and won a large margin in rural Northampton County. But Coleman's big win in the Chincoteague precinct tipped Lewis' home county to the Republican. Coleman racked up large margins in Mathews and Virginia Beach, too.
The election of state Sen. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, as Virginia’s next lieutenant governor gave Democrats reason to cheer by providing what is potentially a critical tie-breaking vote in an evenly divided Virginia Senate.
But the apparent election of Sen. Mark Herring, D-Loudoun, as attorney general — and the time involved in a recount challenging his razor-thin victory over Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg — raises the distinct possibility that winning the statewide offices could put Senate Democrats at a numerical disadvantage when the General Assembly convenes on Jan. 8.
Currently the Virginia Senate has 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans. Ties on most issues are broken by the vote of the lieutenant governor, who presides over the chamber. For the past eight years, that has been the prerogative of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican.
Since 2012 when the Senate became evenly divided, Bolling’s tie-breaking vote has enabled the GOP to effectively control the chamber and organize its committees with Republican majorities and chairmen.
It has also given support to legislation passed in the House of Delegates, where Republicans hold a 2-1 advantage. For example, Bolling’s vote helped pass legislation — sponsored by Obenshain — that starting next year will require voters to present photo identification.
With Northam in the job in 2014, the numerical advantage would presumably shift to Democrats — if Herring’s 165-vote margin prevails ( and it did hold, now the trickier part) in the recount and the party holds onto Northam’s and Herring’s seats in special elections for their seats.
Democrats interviewed said they are confident they can hold onto Northam’s seat, which covers Norfolk and the Eastern Shore, as well as Herring’s seat, which covers most of Loudoun County and part of Fairfax in Northern Virginia.
But when those special elections are held could end up being the most critical component to determining which party controls the Senate.
By law, the governor cannot call for a special election until he has received a letter of resignation from a sitting lawmaker.
While Northam could issue his resignation at any time, the uncertainty in the attorney general’s race makes it unlikely that Herring or Obenshain would issue a letter before being declared the winner. Officials familiar with the current recount expect it to be resolved in mid-December.
McDonnell, the current governor, has already called for a Jan. 7 special election to fill the House of Delegates seat of retiring Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke. The 2014 General Assembly convenes on Jan. 8.
“It is imperative we move as quickly as possible to fill this vacancy, and ensure that the people of Roanoke have full representation in Richmond,” he said Wednesday.
McDonnell could potentially call a special election for the vacated Senate seats for the same day — provided the recount concludes in time for the voting machines to be available in those districts and for printed ballots to be made where they are still in use for voting.
If that were not possible, in order to preserve their respective 20-vote standing in the Senate, Northam, and Herring or Obenshain, could decide not to resign their seats until they are compelled by law to relinquish them on Jan. 11 — when they take the oath for a higher office.
That would guarantee an evenly divided chamber — albeit one still controlled by Republicans with Bolling’s tie-breaking vote — for the three days of the General Assembly session that precede Inauguration Day.
But it would also mean that a special election would likely not take place until at least a substantial portion of the legislature’s 60-day session had passed. And by law, because the legislature will be in session, it would also mean that the president pro tempore of the Senate — and not Terry McAuliffe, the newly elected Democratic governor — would be in charge of setting the date for the special elections.
The current president pro tempore of the Virginia Senate is Sen. Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico. The law does not prescribe a timetable for when a special election would have to take place, making it possible for the president pro tempore to call for an election after the legislature has completed its business for the 2014 term, when it passes the two-year state budget.
Such a move would effectively render Democrats the minority in the chamber for the entire session, even though Democrats will control the lieutenant governor’s office. Democrats interviewed said that scenario is not likely to happen and believe the chamber will be at full strength once the 2014 session begins in earnest.
“I anticipate that by January 13, Ralph Northam’s first day presiding over the Senate as lieutenant governor, I think we’ll be a 20-20 legislature, divided evenly with Republicans and Democrats,” said Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, the Senate Democratic
Caucus chairman.
Senate Republicans take a different view, envisioning a scenario that could keep them in charge of committees even if their numbers are even and they’re without a GOP lieutenant governor.
“It is the position of the Senate Republicans that the Senate organized for a period of four years, which it did in January of 2012,” said Senate Republican Caucus spokesman Jeff Ryer.
“And we anticipate that it will continue to operate under the organizational parameters set up at that time.”
Of course, a Republican victory in any of the special elections for Senate seats currently held by Democrats would cement the GOP advantage in the chamber and diminish the influence of a Democratic lieutenant governor.
Even then, the prospect of a GOP advantage in the upcoming session could be mitigated by the possibility of Democratic control the following year once special elections are completed.
Democrats will control the governor’s office for the next four years — and McAuliffe’s veto power could effectively prevent the GOP from using their legislative advantages to push bills through both houses with the expectation that the legislation will be signed into law.
Those factors have given rise to the notion that Republicans who find themselves out of all three statewide offices after four years in command, may be willing to negotiate a power sharing arrangement with Democrats while the Senate is in flux.
Bolling, the outgoing lieutenant governor said both sides should talk it over.
“With a new lieutenant governor coming in, the Senate has a chance to reset the table,” he said.
“If the Senate remains divided at 20-20 … If they can agree on some sort of power sharing arrangement I think that would be great, and it would probably avoid a lot of potential conflicts in the first week or so of the administration,” he added.
“But that’s something the members of the Senate have to decide.”
ACVDN
Obama Obliterates the GOP Claim that Extending Unemployment Benefits Hurts the Unemployed
The president began by listing the ways that the economy is on the rebound. Obama said we should build on our economic progress by extending insurance for the unemployed. He called unemployed insurance a lifeline for people while they are looking for a new job. The president said that, “If we don’t provide unemployment insurance, it makes it harder for them to find a job.”
Obama said, “This is not an abstraction. These are not statistics.” He reminded Republicans that the unemployed are your friends, your neighbors, and in an economic downturn, they could be you. The president also made the economic case that unemployment insurance creates jobs. He talked about the history of bipartisan action to extend unemployment benefits. The president said that if unemployment benefits don’t get fixed it will hurt 14 million Americans.
Obama obliterated the Republican argument that extending unemployment benefits hurts the unemployed. He said, Now, I’ve heard the argument that extending unemployment benefits That really sells the American people short. I meet a lot of people as president of the United States, and as a candidate for president of the United States, and as a U.S. Senator, and as a state senator, and I can’t name a time when I’ve met an American who would rather have an unemployment check than the pride of having a job. The long term unemployed are not lazy. They are not lacking in motivation. They are coping with the aftermath of the worst economic crisis in generations.”
The president was anticipating the moral argument that many House and Senate Republicans, including Rand Paul and Paul Ryan, have made in the past and will continue to use as justification for opposing extending unemployment benefits.
Their argument is based on old stigma of American culture that paints the unemployed as lazy and undeserving of help. The roots of this argument go back centuries in our country, and conservatives have used this warping of the Protestant work ethic to justify cruelty towards the poor for decades.
President Obama shattered that argument by putting a face on who the unemployed really are. The unemployed aren’t jobless because of a failing of moral character. The are jobless because the financial collapse destroyed the economy. The failure of moral character came from the GOP’s beloved job creators. The unemployed are the victims of their rampant recklessness and greed.
At a time when Republicans are literally taking food and shelter away from the unemployed, President Obama has their back. The president isn’t just fighting for benefits. He is battling the senseless demonization of hard working Americans.
Republicans have no good reason for not extending unemployment benefits, and Obama and Democrats are stripping of the GOP’s mask of faux populism to show the nation who they really are.
Republicans will stop at nothing in an effort to hoard every dollar for the top 1%.
This is why they refused to extend long term un-employment benefits in an act that President Obama called “just cruel”.
After letting long term unemployment benefits lapse on expire on Dec. 28, Republicans thus far haven’t been swayed by arguments in favor of humanity for an additional 1.9 million Americans who will lose benefits in the first six months of 2014. But even if they can’t be bothered with humanity, Republicans are also making a mess of our struggling-to-recover-still-from-the-Bush-debacle economy.
Republicans drained $400 Million from state economies in unemployment benefits last week alone, according to an analysis by Ways and Means Committee Democrats. But Republicans are not done with their destruction.
Never satisfied until they’ve left Rome burning in complete chaos during which no one will notice a barely working House of Representatives or a cocaine buying Republican, Republicans upped the ante to costing the economy an estimated $1 billion dollars per week, according to Harvard economist Lawrence Katz.
Katz estimates that the expiration of benefits for the long-term unemployed is costing the economy $1 billion per week.
“In state after state, Americans who have lost their federal unemployment insurance in one fell swoop last week are struggling to get by,” said Ways and Means Ranking Member Sandy Levin (D-MI). “Every week that Republicans fail to act tens of thousands of additional long-term unemployed Americans lose this vital lifeline as they look to get back on their feet after the worst recession in generations, and the economy in each state is taking a hit.”
Speaker John Boehner loves to display his “jobs” plan at his pressers, but has yet to actually do anything remotely related to actual jobs. The Republican refusal to renew long-term jobless benefits will cost the economy 200,000 jobs this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO also estimates that extending long term jobless benefits would raise gross domestic product (GDP) and recipients would increase their spending on consumer goods and services.
However, the CBO also noted Republican concerns that extending the unemployment benefits could cause some people to “reduce the intensity of their job search and remain unemployed longer.” Yes, it could do that.
Just like extending oil subsidies could cause oil companies to fail to take responsibility for their operations, and subsidizing WalMart’s employees with federal benefits could cause WalMart to be a lazy, cheap employer.
But that is not a good reason to fail to support the many earnest job seekers or to punish the US economy for a few bad apples. No, just like “guns don’t kill”, jobless benefits do not make someone lazy. In truth, our unemployment benefits are just enough to keep total terror from setting in upon the unemployed. They are certainly no where near a cushy lifestyle.
What we are witnessing is the Republican American dream — starving children from SNAP cuts, “lazy welfare mothers” tossed off of help, desperate Americans searching for work to no avail being tossed off of unemployment benefits that cost the entire economy up to $1 billion dollars a week… And that loss will be blamed upon more of our vulnerable- our seniors, our disabled veterans, our children — and used to justify tossing them onto the cold streets of GOP dysfunction.
The Senate votes tonight on extending long term unemployment benefits, and Speaker John Boehner has said that he is “open” to extending them so long as they are offset. His spokesman Michael Steele put it thusly, “… as long as it’s paid for and as long as there are other efforts that will help get our economy moving once again.” Apparently this is a no since per appearances, Republican are actively seeking to keep the economy from recovery.
In other words, Boehner is saying Americans should pick who is going to die – and leave WalMart and the oil companies out of the rotation of victims. It’s the Hunger Games.
Amherst County Virginia Democratic News
ACVDN
No comments:
Post a Comment