Richmond, VA – In case you missed it, Governor Youngkin late Monday night took a further turn to the right by vetoing uncontroversial bipartisan bills for his own personal politics, attempting to overturn the will of the people by forcing early elections for the Loudoun School Board, and retaliating against Senator Ebbin. 

The Washington Post: Youngkin vetoes bipartisan bills while stoking political rancor

04/12/2022

• Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) continued to stoke partisan rancor this week with a flurry of unusual vetoes and bill amendments that political opponents and analysts saw as punishing Democrats and agitating culture-war talking points.
• Youngkin vetoed 25 bills that had bipartisan support in the General Assembly, throwing sharp elbows particularly at lawmakers who represent blue areas of Northern Virginia. For instance, he vetoed nine of the 10 bills sponsored by Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria) while signing identical House bills in six of those cases.
• “Some of the vetoes involve very uncontroversial measures … which is not the norm,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington. “This is a further example of how partisan politics has become in Virginia.”
• Youngkin took office in January promising to be a unifying governor, working with a divided legislature where the House of Delegates is controlled by Republicans and the Senate by Democrats. But since then, as his national political profile has risen, Youngkin has repeatedly riled political divisions, such as seeking to eliminate language about “racial equity” from school programs.
• By vetoing 25 bills and amending 114 in his first legislative session, Youngkin got off to a more aggressive start than recent governors.
• Another item they’ll have to address is marijuana legalization. Youngkin suggested several amendments to a related bill, including creating misdemeanor penalties for possessing more than two ounces of marijuana.
• All of Ebbin’s vetoed bills passed the House and Senate by overwhelming margins; six won unanimous support in both chambers. Those included a measure to bolster consumer data protection and another to require real estate agents to disclose if they have an ownership interest in the transaction.
• In six cases, Youngkin said he vetoed the bill because he had signed a House version that did the same thing. But governors routinely sign both versions of a measure — including Youngkin, who did so several times among the 700 bills he approved or amended.
• “This is another attempt by some Republicans to subvert our democracy and hold it hostage to a right-wing minority,” Reid said in a text message to The Washington Post. “The members of the Loudoun County School Board were elected to serve 4-year terms and they should be allowed to serve the full duration of their terms — that’s why we have scheduled elections.”
• Ian Serotkin, another school board member, said in a written statement that “this is a brazen effort to overturn the will of the people, who democratically elected the School Board to a four year term in 2019. The continued targeting and harassment of Loudoun County by the Governor to score political points does nothing to help our students — that continues to be my sole focus. ”

Read the entire article here. 

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