YRDominion

Delegate Chris Saxman's General Assembly Update

[Delegate Saxman is a strong supporter of the YRFV and we are proud to count him among our ranks.  Keep up the good work in Richmond Delegate Saxman. Read the update below where the Virginia Democrats wouldn't even support one of their own, Adam Ebbin]

House Republicans Unanimously Support Retention of Virginia's Right to Work Status

House Democrats refuse to record position on a measure sponsored by one of their own

Richmond, VA 24 January 2008: House Republicans today defeated House Bill 852, an effort to wholly repeal the prohibition on collective bargaining by government employees. House Bill 852 was sponsored by Delegate Adam Ebbin (D-Arlington), former Virginia Department of Commerce and Labor Chief Deputy Commissioner under Governor Mark Warner would have allowed state and local government employees to collectively bargain with a union. If approved, the bill would have marked a reversal of Virginia's long-standing status as a Right to Work state.

All House Republicans voted against this anti-business measure, citing it as detrimental to Virginia's economy and likely to endanger the Commonwealth's status as America's best state for business. In contrast, House Democrats, at the insistence of House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong (D-Henry),€“ remained in their seats refusing to cast a vote on this critical piece of legislation, even though sponsored by a delegate in their ranks.

"What we learned today is that Virginia is just five votes away from abandoning its status as a Right to Work state," declared House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem). "The Democrats expressed an unwillingness to have their votes recorded because they don't want the public to know the extent of their fealty to organized labor. The Democrat leadership's refusal to allow their members to vote violated a basic responsibility of elected public service, and did so to allow them to continue their practice of saying one thing to business and another to labor."€

"HB 852 pointed a dagger at one of the fundamental tenets that has enabled Virginia to become the best place in America for business to do business," remarked House Majority Whip M. Kirkland "Kirk" Cox (R-Colonial Heights). "There was a clear choice. A vote 'for' this bill was a vote for giving Virginia's public employees over to union boss control and a vote 'against' was a vote to protect and preserve an essential component to Virginia's business-friendly environment. I am pleased that all House Republicans voted against this assault on public employees and the taxpayers of Virginia and am puzzled why Democrat members chose once again to turn away from tough decisions."€

"Today's vote was another disturbing trend from Virginia Democrats' efforts to erode the positive business climate that Republicans have fought hard to create and continue," noted Delegate Terry G. Kilgore (R-Scott), Chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee.  "House Republicans believe Virginia's status as a Right to Work state is crucial to retaining the vitality of our Commonwealth's economy. Failure to actively vote against this dangerous bill demonstrates that House Democrats do not support this pro-business legislation."€

Senator Jill Vogel with a GA Update

Like Senator Ken Cuccinelli, as part of our 2007 "Do-It-In Virginia" GOTV Program, the Young Republican Federation of Virginia worked very hard on the grassroots level for Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel. We are proud to have her serving as a solid member of the Virginia Senate. Here is her update from Richmond:

General Assembly Update (1-25-08)

This week at the General Assembly stands out because hundreds of people along with outrageously cold weather all descended on the Capitol.  The halls and offices were full of families, students and community groups visiting for the Martin Luther King holiday, while others came later in the week to rally on important issues that the General Assembly addressed in the days that followed.

I worked with constituents this week on important conservation issues and I had many of you visit in person to discuss other bills of interest. Controversial gun votes brought 2nd Amendment groups to the Capitol as well as the families of those killed at Virginia Tech. We also had representatives of the Community Colleges, the ARC, groups representing those with special needs, the Chamber of Commerce, local churches, AARP, police and firefighters associations and teachers to name a few. I am happy to report that we had representatives from home in each group and they crammed the chairs in our small office to visit and to talk about their issues. It was wonderful to visit and have so many people interested in the process.

Two of my bills moved successfully out of committee-a bill to repeal abusive driver fees and a bill to authorize a study of Urban Development Areas and to create a template for further legislation to manage growth and control sprawl.

While I am happy to report that I fought hard, my power line bills and my illegal immigration bills were killed by those who simply don't see things like we do.

I argued yesterday before a subcommittee of Commerce and Labor on the subject of the power lines. I had two bills, one that required burial of the lines and the second which called for compensation for loss of property value for adjacent landowners. Those bills were no match for the utilities and the committee unanimously voted to support Dominion.

I also brought two immigration bills before a subcommittee of Education and Health. I argued vigorously for a bill to restrict college admission to only those who are legally in this country. I presented a second bill as a fall back measure requiring colleges to deny illegal immigrants in-state tuition. The argument is quite simple. We are a nation of laws and we should not encourage unlawful behavior -- and that includes violation of our immigration laws. Consider this. Do you think you could go to England, France, Italy or Japan and have someone not lawfully in the country enroll in one of their taxpayer institutions? Not on your life.

As I see it, a finite amount of education resources exists. Colleges in Virginia turn away the vast majority of students who apply and therefore it is disturbing that any slot should be given to someone who is in this country illegally.

Unfortunately, we have pro-immigration groups that are very well organized and the subcommittee voted unanimously to kill both bills. I understand that for the last ten years, near identical bills have come before the committee and each time they die. It is a sad commentary on how we feel about the prize of citizenship in the greatest nation on earth.

There are many more debates in the days to come over mental health funding, transportation, education and the budget. In addition, I have made requests for amendments to the budget to provide desperately needed resources to fund law enforcement, the battlefields, museum projects and certain historic preservation.

I want to remind you that if you are in Richmond during this year's session, please stop by our office, located in Room 307 of the General Assembly building. I would love to speak with you about any issue that is of interest and/or concern. You can contact me by email at jillvogel@senate27.com or call our office at 804-698-7527. Please call or write if you have any concerns.



Jill Vogel

Save the Date: YRFV 2008 Convention Set for Richmond, April 4-6, 2008

Save the Date! The Young Republican Federation of Virginia will Host its Annual Convention this year in Richmond. We will hold our Convention at the Richmond Omni Hotel. Details to follow...

Also, the Young Republican Leadership Conference hosted by the Young Republican National Federation is also around the corner and will be held in Washington, DC from April 30--May 4!

Two memorable events that will be a lot of fun.

Senator Ken Cuccinelli continues fight to protect our private property rights against the Democrats

[With the efforts of the YRFV and support from the Young Republican National Federation, we are proud to have helped Senator Cuccinelli win re-election through our GOTV effort. Here is yet another reason, why we need good Republican Senators like Senator Cuccinelli, the Democrats are already trying to undo our private property right protection from last year.]

Dear Fellow Republican:

Remember the three year fight to get protection for property rights in Virginia?  Well, Fairfax Delegate David Bulova is trying to utterly destroy all of the successful work capped last year by the passage of our bi-partisan property rights bill.

In the 2005 session, I put in a bill to define “public use” in such a way as to finally protect our long-languishing property rights in Virginia.  Note that I submitted this bill before the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous decision gutting property rights in the Kelo case.  That bill did not succeed.

Then came Kelo, the infamous ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 23, 2005, that gutted our 5^th Amendment protections for property rights.  In that case, the Supreme Court said that virtually any ‘public purpose’ will support a taking of private property.  And what lawyer or politician can’t come up with some lovely sounding ‘public purpose?’  For all intents and purposes, the Supreme Court eliminated protection for private property under the U.S. Constitution.

That leaves us only with the protections we enjoy under the Virginia Constitution and Laws.

Thus, in the 2006 session, there was a great deal more public pressure to pass property rights legislation, because now it was clear that only Virginia’s laws stood in the way of state and local governments, on their own behalf and on behalf of some developers, taking our citizens’ property.

My bill made it all the way to the last day of session, but it died in conference committee after passing both the House and Senate in different form. Those of us that were taking a hard line to protect property rights refused to agree to a watered down bill.  And so no bill came out of the 2006 session.

Finally, in 2007, after years of hard work at the grassroots level and the slow gathering of bi-partisan support, we were able to pass a good bill protecting property rights last year.  Note that we have still not been able to get a constitutional amendment passed; nonetheless, Virginia’s laws now solidly protect property rights.

Part of the protection that you now have under my 2007 bill is a good, tight definition of "public use."  This is important because property can only be taken for a "public use," such as a road.  The definition of "public use" is found in Title 1 of the Virginia Code, in new section 219.1.

So, along comes Delegate Bulova with his HB 387, the destruction of property rights act of 2008.  In the local government part of the Virginia Code, Delegate Bulova proposes to change the definition of “public use” for local governments from:

“Public use as used in this section shall have the same meaning as in §1-219.1.”

to…

“Public use as used in this section shall include the definition of ‘public use’ in §1-219.1, or any other use as reasonably determined by the locality to be in the public interest.”

I could drive two trucks through that obvious loophole!  Wouldn’t it be nice if Delegate Bulova simply pulled his bill and stopped assaulting your property rights?

What would George Mason think? Madison? Jefferson? Patrick Henry? Can you imagine?

The bill has been sent to the House Committee on Rules.  I think that it was sent there because the Speaker thinks the bill is so bad that he may let it out on the floor of the House so that all of the Delegates will get a chance to go on the record on whether they want to destroy our property rights protections… again! We'll see what happens!

That’s all for now.  I hope I will see many of you in Richmond!

Sincerely,

Senator Ken Cuccinelli

Virginia 37^th District

Others can sign up for The Compass at Senator Cuccinelli’s website at:

http://www.cuccinelli.com