Luanne Rife is the executive director and co-founder of Cardinal News. You can send questions to luanne@cardinalnews.org.
What happens when you ask Virginia’s top lawmakers from opposing political parties to lunch?
When we did this last year, the answer looked collegial. Upon entering the Shenandoah Club in Roanoke, Senate Democratic Caucus Leader Mamie Locke and Senate Republican Caucus Leader Mark Obenshain enjoyed a quick welcoming hug — perhaps they were just pleased to have escaped unscathed from Interstate 81’s truck traffic — before settling down to say they agree on 85% of the issues. That other 15%? There’s not much chance they will deviate from hard party lines on issues such as abortion, guns and tax strategies. Those divisive issues often dominate news cycles, leading to barrages of blistering rhetoric that can make even supporters tune out. Locke and Obenshain agreed with the adage that one can disagree without being disagreeable.
Last year’s event was held after statewide elections and before lawmakers headed to Richmond for the General Assembly session. This time, they will have just finished the session and will be embarking on the 2025 state election trail. Will that change the tone of the discussion?
Let’s find out. We have again invited the top leadership from Virginia’s Senate and House of Delegates to lunch for the second Cardinal Way: Civility Rules gathering. We hope you can join us Feb. 27 at Fitzpatrick Hall at the Jefferson Center in Roanoke. You can find the details and a registration link through Eventbrite. We’d like to thank Gentry Locke Consulting for sponsoring our event.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a Fairfax County Democrat, and Senate Minority Whip Bill Stanley, a Republican from Franklin County, along with Speaker of the House Don Scott, a Democrat from Portsmouth, and Deputy House Minority Leader Israel O’Quinn, a Republican from Washington County, have agreed to come.
We will ask them to tell us about legislation that required collaboration by the political parties to ensure passage, and we will ask them to tell us about particular bills that they support but that failed because the parties are too far apart.
Are they feeling pressure from their constituents to dig in harder on divisive issues?
Governance used to look a bit different than politicking. While that hasn’t been so on the national scene for far too long, what of Virginia?
Our Cardinal Way project is steeped in the idealism that we can find ways to talk with each other about difficult topics, and while we still might not agree, we can at least remain civil. We embarked on Cardinal Way to fulfill the role of news organizations to lead their communities through difficult conversations.
There are plenty of days when I’m uncertain whether we as a people will ever bridge the brutal national political divides. But I remain hopeful that we can start on the local level to build the types of communities that we want to live in. That takes effort, but sometimes all it requires is sharing a meal with someone whose viewpoints differ from your own.
At Cardinal, we take seriously our role in helping to encourage civic engagement and civil and informed conversation.
To that end, members of our team are also available to come talk to your organizations. While we’ve been doing this from our launch, we are stepping up efforts to let people know that we are happy to come talk about Cardinal, journalism, nonprofit journalism or any of our coverage.
You can make a request by sending and email to speakers@cardinalnews.org.
Also, please feel free to reach out directly to me anytime.
