FOSS, govtech, and open data.
When a candidate is described as “divisive,” generally it’s intended to mean that while his own party loves him, the other party can’t stand him. In what’s shaping up to be a race between Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli for the Virginia governorship, there are two wildly divisive candidates who are perhaps more divisive within …
Continue reading “Neither Cuccinelli nor McAuliffe can win. And yet one of them must.”
A press release from Gov. Bob McDonnell’s office one year ago contained this quote: If we’re going to lead America’s economic recovery, we have to remember that small business, not big government, creates jobs. That’s a familiar refrain, heard often during the recent election, most frequently uttered by people seeking a job leading that very …
Continue reading “Government can’t create jobs. Except when McDonnell does it.”
A lot of people have been asking me what the deal is with the two proposed constitutional amendments that we Virginians will be presented with Tuesday. Here’s a brief explanation of each. Amendment 1: Eminent Domain Shall Section 11 of Article I (Bill of Rights) of the Constitution of Virginia be amended (i) to require …
Continue reading “On the proposed constitutional amendments.”
Here’s the thing about Rep. Robert Hurt: he’s a perfectly average congressman. It’s tough to campaign against average. There’s a reason why just a shade less than 100% of Congressmen seeking reelection are successful: they keep their mouths shut and try not to do anything, while their staff dutifully arranges tours of the Capitol, mails …
Continue reading “Don’t average voters deserve a little representation?”
With last week’s news that Rep. Robert Hurt was a no-show at the Senior Statesmen of Virginia’s candidates forum in Charlottesville, I think it’s time to revisit Hurt’s claim of accessibility two years ago, when he was running to unseat Rep. Tom Perriello: Hurt was also asked if voters should expect him, if he is …
Continue reading “Hurt is failing his campaign promise of beating Perriello’s accessibility record.”
Since March, my 9–5 job has been building The State Decoded, software based on my Virginia Decoded site. Although it would be fun to have spent all of this time adding new features to Virginia Decoded, most of it has been spent adapting the software to support a wide variety of legal structures. I released …
With the Virginia State Board of Elections starting to provide bulk campaign finance data, a whole new world of data has opened up, and I intend to make the most of it. Although the esteemed Virginia Public Access Project has long provided this information (laboriously cleaned up and displayed in a user-friendly fashion), it’s useful …
Continue reading “Opening up Virginia campaign finance data with Saberva.”
In the Daily Progress today, Graham Moomaw’s coverage of the Republican Senate candidates’ remarks to a tiny gathering of Charlottesville Republicans contains a few great nuggets. First, Del. Bob Marshall bragging that in twenty years as a legislator, he hasn’t learned anything: During his speech, Marshall portrayed himself as a savvy hard-liner who would hold …
Continue reading “Gay sex, civil rights, and star-spangled axes.”
I can now say for sure which delegates were actually present at yesterday morning’s vote on Tracy Thorne-Begland’s nomination, and just pretending that they weren’t there. Anna Scholl was kind enough to send me the House of Delegates’ vote tallies for judicial nominations on Monday night / Tuesday morning, towards the goal of identifying who …
Further to the 26 delegates who didn’t vote and the 10 delegates who abstained from voting for Tracy Thorne-Begland’s judicial nomination, I want to highlight Del. Jennifer McClellan’s comments explaining the distinction: For the record, 4 delegates were not present at all on Monday due to “pressing personal business” (which is how excused absences are …
Continue reading “Who can account for the missing nineteen legislators?”