God bless Jeff Frederick.

I love this man. The DPVA needs to have a dinner in his honor. He’s the best thing to happen to Virginia Democrats since Ed Matricardi. He’s just… I just can’t say enough about him.

Shaun Kenney provides a rundown of today’s debacle. In a nutshell, freshman senator Ralph Northam (D-Norfolk) was ready to jump ship, swinging the 21-19 senate the Republicans, since Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling would break the 20-20 tie. But then Frederick went and Twittered about it around noon, sending senate Democrats into emergency caucus, where they twisted Northam’s arm to get him to remain a Democrat. Now the part of the base who thinks that Frederick is doing a good job thinks he’s a maroon, leaving him a man without apparent political support. This is bad news for Democrats, because this may hasten Frederick’s departure as RPV chair.

The moral of the story here, though, is that the party with a one-seat margin shouldn’t govern like they’ve got a ten-seat margin. Senate Democrats haven’t been nearly as punitive as they could have been, but I’m guessing around noon today they were wishing they could have done a few things differently.

We’ve got a tenuous margin, one that could flip for any number of reasons at any time—even, apparently, mid-session. Let’s govern with that in mind.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

5 replies on “God bless Jeff Frederick.”

  1. I’m particularly amused by the quote in Shaun’s post from Sen. Obenshain, discussing a move to put Republicans in charge of two key committees in the name of “good government,” but “partisan fever” prevailed over “good government.”

    Can someone remind me of all the times, when Republicans controlled the state Senate, when they put Democrats in charge of key committees in the name of “good government” and “bipartisan cooperation”?

    Anyone? Apparently it’s only “partisan fever” when the Democrats do it…

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