The Oscars aren’t until next month, but we’ve already had some drama in Richmond. Here are some of the biggest surprises in the General Assembly session so far. We’ll start with the least surprising and work our way up to the most surprising. As with anything political, your results may vary, but here are mine:
1. Two Republicans voted for cannabis
OK, this is a pretty mild surprise, but we have to start somewhere. Virginia is the only state where personal possession of cannabis is allowed but retail sales of an otherwise legal product are banned. Democrats would like to change that by legalizing (and regulating) retail sales. Reality check: I’ve talked to a surprising number of Republicans who would be inclined to vote for legalization but a) they don’t agree with the details of how Democrats want to award licenses or b) they have no real political incentive to try to work out a system they like because they know Gov. Glenn Youngkin will veto any legalization bill. He did last year, he will this year. So why should any Republican take a potentially risky vote when they know the bill won’t become law?
Nonetheless, some Republicans did vote for legalization anyway. They didn’t in the Senate —SB 970 by state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, passed 21-19 on a party-line vote. But two did in the House, where HB 2485, by Del. Paul Krizek, D-Fairfax County, passed 53-46. Del. Chris Obenshain, R-Montgomery County, voted yes last year. This year, Del. Will Morefield, R-Tazewell County, joined him. Morefield said that he was concerned about the safety of cannabis that people are legally consuming and that regulation is the only way to ensure that.
2. Ten Republicans voted for same-sex marriage
In 2006, Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. This was known as the Marshall-Newman amendment after its two legislative sponsors, then-Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, and then-Sen. Steve Newman, R-Bedford County. The U.S. Supreme Court rendered that provision moot in 2015 when it ruled in favor of same-sex marriage. However, that “dead” language remains in the state constitution and would come back into force if the Supreme Court ever changes its mind. That’s why Democrats have pushed a proposed amendment to the state constitution to repeal that Marshall-Newman ban and then write in a guarantee of same-sex marriage rights no matter what Washington does. That amendment has passed both chambers this year, but it will have to pass again next year before it can go to voters in a referendum.
In the House, the amendment picked up seven Republican votes: Robert Bloxom of Accomack County, Carrie Coyner of Chesterfield County, Tom Garrett of Louisa County, Chad Green of York County, Joe McNamara of Roanoke County, Chris Obenshain of Montgomery County and Otto Wachsmann of Sussex County. Two others abstained: Amanda Batten of James City County and Bobby Orrock of Spotsylvania County.
In the Senate, the amendment picked up three Republican votes: Danny Diggs of York County, Tara Durant of Fredericksburg and David Suetterlein of Roanoke County. Emily Jordan of Isle of Wight County did not vote.
3. Democrats forced Earle-Sears to vote on contraception bill
Senate Democrats had the votes to pass a bill by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, to guarantee the right to obtain and use contraceptives (SB 1105). Instead, they used some parliamentary maneuvers to engineer a tie vote — which meant that the Senate’s presiding officer, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, had to break the tie. She voted no, killing the bill. That was exactly what Democrats wanted — to get Earle-Sears on the record on what they believe will be the unpopular side of the issue come the fall gubernatorial campaign when she’s expected to be the Republican nominee. Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, did not vote, and state Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William County, voted no. Any legislators on “the prevailing side” can call for a second vote, so McPike did so — and then switched sides, while Aird appeared, to give Democrats a 20-18 victory on the measure along with plenty of campaign talking points.
4. Campaign finance bills make it to a floor vote
Virginia is very libertarian when it comes to campaign finance laws: As long as contributions are reported, pretty much anything goes. That’s why it was a surprise that any bills attempting to restrict campaign contributions made it out of committee. The Senate wound up voting on two bills but killed both. Sen. Danica Roem, D-Manassas, had a bill (SB 1050) to ban corporate contributions. State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, had a bill (SB 1469) to limit the size of contributions. The House of Delegates did pass a bill by Del. Joshua Cole, D-Fredericksburg, (HB 2165) that would prevent candidates from using campaign contributions for personal expenses.
Another surprise was the odd bedfellows lineup of groups supporting and opposing HB 2670, by Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax County, that would have required nonprofit organizations that get involved in campaigns to comply with the same campaign finance disclosure laws as other groups.
The arguments pro and con were familiar ones: Proponents called this a move to end so-called “dark money” and increase transparency; opponents worried about First Amendment infringements. The lineup of who was on which side was not so familiar, though. Speaking in favor of the bill were two organizations often found on opposite sides: Dominion Energy and Big Money Out VA, along with another liberal group, We of Action. Speaking against the bill were two more groups not usually found on the same side: the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative Americans for Prosperity.
Also curious was what happened next. The House Privileges and Elections Committee passed the bill unanimously and sent it on to House Appropriations, from which it never emerged. Maybe that last part wasn’t surprising since most campaign finance bills don’t pass. (Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.)
5. A bill to help Bristol deal with a blighted property hit an unexpected roadblock
Many of the bills that move through the General Assembly are decidedly technical ones, often dealing with a specific local situation. Two examples were the matching bills by Del. Israel O’Quinn and state Sen. Todd Pillion, both R-Washington County. Both were intended to help Bristol get control of the former Virginia Intermont College property, which has sat vacant nearly 11 years — and parts of which were destroyed in a spectacular fire in December. The Senate passed Pillion’s version by a wide margin, with the smattering of opposition coming from fellow Republicans who worried that it gave government too much power. Senate Democrats had no such concerns. O’Quinn’s measure was expected to be just as routine in the House, so routine that he wasn’t required to be at the committee meeting. Instead, he was in a committee room next door when the House Cities, Counties and Towns Committee unexpectedly voted down the bill. Five legislators — all Democrats — who had voted for the bill in subcommittee suddenly changed their minds and voted no. None have responded to inquiries by Cardinal News to explain what happened. We’ll see what happens when Pillion’s bill comes before that committee. Bristol is pretty eager to get state authority to deal with what has become a blighted property.
6. Appalachian Power rates take center stage
Dominion Energy is usually the utility that gets the most attention, good or bad, in Richmond. It’s the state’s biggest utility and it also serves the most populous parts of the state. Appalachian Power, which serves the western part of the state, is usually an afterthought in the capital. This year, though, Southwest Virginia legislators rolled into town, furious about Appalachian’s rates. State Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County, had the most eye-popping proposal: to let Appalachian customers buy power from other utilities if they wanted to. That measure (also backed by Pillion) got switched off (see what I did there?) as far too radical a proposal. It looked for a while that the only Appalachian-related proposal going forward was a technical one that would allow the utility to securitize some of its assets, on the theory that it would lower rates. Then came a flurry of surprise amendments and bipartisan coalitions on Tuesday that saw Deeds and Del. Irene Shin, D-Fairfax County, joining the fray.
When all was done, both those securitization bills were amended, albeit in different ways. The House version now prohibits rate increases until March 2026, bars any rate increases between November and February when bills are the highest, and requires the utility to adopt seasonal rates. The Senate version now prohibits rate increases from December through February and would prohibit customers from being disconnected for nonpayment between July 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2026. For more details, see this story by Cardinal’s Matt Busse.
The surprise here is that legislators spent a lot of time debating a utility that for most of them isn’t their provider.
7. A Democrat from ‘Data Center Alley’ killed an energy bill feared by rural legislators
Deeds said his SB 1190 was a simple bill that would help rural localities deal with an influx of proposals for solar projects. Opponents feared it was the first step toward having the state override local zoning authority to mandate solar projects in counties where they’re not always wanted. Monday’s debate was a fierce one that exposed the state’s regional divide. “What we have is Northern Virginia trying to dictate to Southwest and Southside what you can do,” said state Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County.
McPike, from Prince William County, said it did just the opposite: “This bill puts a requirement on the evil empire of Northern Virginia to take action,” he said, invoking an image of how he believes rural legislators see his part of the state.
Deeds lamented that “I’ve never brought a bill that caused such consternation.”
The expectation had been that the bill would pass on a 21-19 party-line vote. It didn’t. Sen. Russet Perry, D-Loudoun County, unexpectedly voted no, killing the measure.
I did not have on my General Assembly bingo card that the senator from Data Center Alley would vote against a bill that might have helped the state produce more power — albeit over the objections of many rural areas.
Aird did not vote but the official record says that was a technical error, that she intended to vote no, as well.
Of note: Unlike most Democrats, both Perry and Aird have rural areas in their districts. About 10% of Perry’s competitive district is in Fauquier County, while 39% of Aird’s strongly Democratic district is in various rural counties. Rural localities who feared a state takeover (rightly or wrongly) should thank those two legislators.
Are there other surprises in store? Probably. That’s the nature of politics.
A mammoth debate in the General Assembly
Debates in the General Assembly often taking surprising turns. One recent debate dealt with . . . woolly mammoths. I’ll explain who, how and why in this week’s edition of West of the Capital, our weekly political newsletter that goes out on Friday afternoons. You can sign up for that or any of our other free newsletters below:
