*NEW* Scared For His Political Life, Tricky Tommy Norment Fires Retired Army Colonel From Unpaid Position On Veterans Commission

Don't be shocked: Virginia Republican Leader Tommy Norment used his taxpayer-paid position in the Senate to pull a dirty political trick.

While partisan bullying is old hat for Tricky Tommy, kicking his 2019 political opponent - a 30 year Army veteran with two tours in Iraq - out of a volunteer position helping other veterans might just be a new low.

"With his caucus making this move, Tommy Norment proved today he values his own political skin more than Herb Jones' two tours of duty in Iraq and decades of military service. Virginia needs more honorable servants like Herb Jones and less unsavory, dirty tricksters like Tommy Norment," said DPVA Communications Director Jake Rubenstein

See article from the Richmond Times-Dispatch HERE and below...

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Senate Republicans strip Norment's opponent of appointment; remove DeBoer as agency director

Patrick Wilson, Richmond Times-Dispatch 

Senate Republican Majority Leader Tommy Norment has ensured that his Democratic opponent this fall will have one less item on his résumé.

Gov. Ralph Northam in September appointed Herb Jones of New Kent County to the Virginia Military Advisory Council. But the governor's appointments need to be confirmed by the General Assembly.

Jones is running against Norment, of James City County, in Senate District 3. On Tuesday, Republicans on the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee removed Jones from a long list of governor's appointments that the General Assembly will approve.

The move drew condemnation from the Democratic Party of Virginia.

"With his caucus making this move, Tommy Norment proved today he values his own political skin more than Herb Jones' two tours of duty in Iraq and decades of military service," party spokesman Jake Rubenstein said. "Virginia needs more honorable servants like Herb Jones and less unsavory, dirty tricksters like Tommy Norment."

Norment spokesman Jeff Ryer was unmoved by the opposing party's outrage.

"It is my understanding that Mr. Jones is looking for other ways to serve," Ryer said, when asked about the appointment being removed.

Jones is a former county treasurer in New Kent who served in the Army and Army Reserve. He said he doesn't have any prior relationship with Norment, and was disappointed he's being removed from the advisory board because as a disabled veteran he had hoped to advocate for other veterans.

Republicans on the Privileges and Elections Committee also removed Jay DeBoer as director of the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, the state agency that licenses professions from architects to cosmetologists.

The agency last year received an audit from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission showing it was not effectively supervised and its leadership had not addressed known problems.