PA Blogger Successfully Encourage Legislation

While Ben and other Democratic bloggers are celebrating their role in James Webb's primary win, a Pennsylvania blogger is enjoying his role in affecting that other commonwealth's public policy. The bill, which criminalizes demonstrating near funerals, is hardly controversial but is such a good idea that even Fast Eddie is supporting it.

Hotline on Allen-Webb

In this week's Weekender, Hotline has an interesting post on the conventional wisdom surrounding November's Allen-Webb race.

Breaking: NOVA GOP Stuggling

The front page of today's Washington Post reports "Northern Va. Republicans Try to Regroup". It's good to see that the Post is still on top of this story that has had little movement since they reported essentially the same story, five months ago.

In the article, VCU professor Robert D. Holsworth points out that"Fairfax is now a Democratic county. Certainly the Democrats believe that they have an opportunity to be very competitive." WOW! I wonder if he was tipped off by the decade-old Democratic control of the Board of Supervisors or the fact that a county with a million people only boosts 4 state delegates? I certainly hope this is an excerpt from a much longer complicated quote that the Post didn't think its readers would fully understand.

The Post also reports that Senators Ken Cuccinelli and Jay O'Brien "might be vulnerable in elections next year." That bombshell is released after a paragraph discussing Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis' efforts to allow localities to raise taxes for transportation issues.

The article then closes with Deputy AG Bill Mims saying that Northern Virginia "is a very practical electorate looking for solutions and not ideological debate".

Mims' statement would make sense if GOP loses were limited to races where conservative ideologues lost to moderate "pragmatic" Democrats, but that simply has not been the case. Delegate Tom Bolvin campaigned as a centrist in 2003 when he lost re-election to the ideologically liberal Mark Sickles. In 2004, Fairfax voted for a liberal Massachusetts Senator while the rest of the Commonwealth re-elected President Bush by an 8-point margin. In 2005, when voters in the HOD 37th were given a choice between two qualified centrist candidates, they went with the Democrat.

The problem is not that Fairfax voters dislike ideology, the problem is that many of them dislike Republicans. In 2003, Cuccinelli and Devolites both showed this can be overcome with strong organizations, smart strategy, and attractive personalities. To win in 2007, they will have to do it again.

D.C.'s Chief Executive

I don't always agree with him, but he is awfully hard not to like. Between bringing us the Nats, managing the District in a decent fashion, and not doing crack, Mayor Williams is one of my favorite Democrats.

Heat Win!

The Big Aristotle didn't have his "A game" but a win is a win, and its great to see Mark Cuban and Dirk lose at home after being up 2-0!

Cuccinelli Guest Blogging at Too Conservative

Vince is hosting a live chat with State Senator Ken Cuccinelli tonight at 9:00 over at tooconservative. Cuccinelli represents a moderate Fairfax district (shares precincts with Dave Marsden, David Bulova, Steve Shannon, Tim Hugo, and Chuck Caputo) but is one of the Senate's most conservative members so he should have some interesting insights on 2007. He also carries heavy bill loads on a wide variety of issues so he should also be able to answer many questions about this session's policy battles too.

Webb Already Ducking Allen

Jim Webb wants a series of debates with Senator Allen. Makes sense, most challengers want as many opportunities as possible to appear on stage with an incumbent and gain exposure for their campaign.

Jim Webb wants the debates limited to a narrow range of issues. Makes sense, most single issue candidates want to avoid public events contrasting their generally unpopular positions and lack of knowledge to a popular former Governor and one of the US Senate's greatest heavyweights.

Chad has a post up that contains Dick Wadhams' great reply to Webb's request for limited debates.

Veterans Still Backing Allen

Today's RTD has a small article about the warm reception Senator Allen received at yesterday's Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Richmond.

Liberal Military Men

Norm has a post up about Peggy Noonan's WSJ piece in which she calls Jim Webb a "Nancy Pelosi with medals." Much more significant than that line, are the ones two paragraphs earlier where she states:

Mr. Webb says he is "pro-choice" on abortion, "pro-gay rights," and "pro-Second Amendment." I don't doubt the sincerity of his views. I've never met a career military man who was a conservative on social issues. I think they tend to see questions such as abortion and marriage as essentially uninteresting, private and not subject to the movement of machines.

Military men are generally socially indifferent? Not in my experience. US military personnel are disproportionately from the south and to say they generally fit the "God, Motherhood, and the Flag" stereotype isn't too much of an overstatement. I bet President Clinton sure wished the military was indifferent to social issues when he was pushing to open the military for open homosexuals in the early 1990s.