by Joe Fitzgerald
First, there was the plan to build a casino in Fairfax County despite objections from the local authorities. He knew more than the supervisors of the county. The governor vetoed the bill.
Scott Surovell, the leader of the State Senate Democrats in his third term as leader, has suffered three major failures.
Second, he pushed for the appointment of an anti-immigrant district court judge to an area with a high immigrant population. Although the appointment was successful initially, it was not a good decision. Surovell, however, knew better than the local Democrats.
Third, he pushed for a referendum on redistricting based on weak legal grounds. Many people who supported redistricting expected that the referendum would fail due to constitutional reasons. Surovell was more knowledgeable than the skeptics. However, today, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with the skeptics.
The governor suffered the greatest harm from the referendum campaign. She lost ten percentage points of her approval rating in part because she supported the referendum. It was a bad idea, even though many of us voted for it. The damage to the Democratic Party is more widespread, as they have been flip-flopping and making a mess of redistricting.
Immigrants who appear in court for minor traffic violations and disputes will suffer the most from the new judgeship of the 26 th Judicial district, which includes Harrisonburg.
Surovell should suffer the most from Surovell’s casino veto. He did not use his position and power for the good of Virginia but rather for a project that the local government was against.
He would be unemployed if he were, for example, a woman speaker of the House. It will be fascinating to see the excuses that his fellow senators use for reappointing him.
Joe Fitzgerald was a former Harrisonburg mayor. This column has been republished from his blog, Still Not Sleeping.
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