We’ve got the results of the candidate survey over at Virginia Family Values. Thirty three candidates completed the questionnaire, each and every one of whom support the conservative model of government promoted by VFV. There were only two instances of competing candidates both responding to the survey, in the 44th and the 88th.
My favorite response was from Del. Mark Cole. (I’m not being facetious here — it really was my favorite response.) He earned condemnation from Virginia Family Values back in January, after he introduced HB1918, titled “Unborn child; guarantees right of life to preborn human beings from moment of fertilization.” It was premised on his misunderstanding of the difference between conception and fertilization. It was tabled in P&E, thankfully. Given that Del. Cole supports the availability of the birth control pill, which is capable of preventing conception after fertilization, I can only conclude that he’s changed his mind on the matter, which is wonderful.
We’ll use these responses, along with voting records and, where appropriate, candidate interviews, to issue endorsements shortly.
404 on that second link.
Hopefully the bill will be altered, with conception in place of fertilization, and
reintroduced next session.
D’oh. Thanks, Jon, I appreciate it.
Yeah, I Publius. As if such a law would have the slightest effect whatsoever on the real world. Roe v. Wade unfortunately makes the entire effort a complete waste of time. Now that Bush has nominated not one but 2 social liberals to SCOTUS (including one who stated clearly that he won’t go near “settled law”), it’s going to be a long, long, long time before there’s any point to writing that kind of legislation. But that’s not the point, is it? The point is writing what amount to fake laws in order to rally the base and look like you’re actually doing something about stopping abortion while ensuring that the abortions continue to happen, thus keeping the issue alive.
I can’t believe that you suckers trusted Bush on this in ’04. The Republican party will never, ever in a million years do anything to actually overturn Roe v. Wade. Note how even the partial birth abortion ban was written with a poison pill to make sure it would be overturned. Gotta keep those late-term abortions happening to use as a bogeyman. What would they run on if they successfully banned abortion? Half of their base would disintigrate overnight. You’d have better luck voting for pro-life Democrats like Harry Reid. They don’t depend on the pro-lifers continuing to have the issue in order to stay in power.
Bills like this are a carrot on a string, dangling in front of the pro-life donkey to keep him forever marching behind the elephant in pursuit of a reward that he’s never going to get for fear that he might then go his own way. Suckers.
Wow. Some glaring absences in that list. It certainly points out who lacks a sense of humour on the Democratic side, doesn’t it? Or, at least, who has staff who are paranoidly winnowing endorsement surveys.
On the other hand, I am so pleased to see so many challenger-candidates on the list, such as Rommelt, Fulk, Englin, and Crandell. Englin of course is a shoe-in; I hope the Virginia Family Values PAC will be making new allies in the General Assembly with the other three as well.