Nothing would suprise me about Tommy Norment. He is a convicted DUI offender and yet voted against Senate Bill 1118 in the most recent session of the General Assembly. What would this bill have done that was so bad? It would have saved lives and prevented DUI offenders from being able to drive drunk again and possibly kill or injure innocent citizens who don't drive drunk and engage in reckless decisionmaking. Last year more than 300 people were killed and 6,000 people were injured in DUI crashes - many of them innocent citizens who were not driving drunk including many children. It is estimated that SB 1118 would have saved at least 40 lives and prevented hundreds of injuries had this legislation been passed by the Virginia Senate's Committee on the Courts of Justice.

Tommy Norment's vote against this bill caused the measure to be defeated by one vote in that Committee and he probably influenced others to vote against it as well. What a shameful action to take by a less than stellar old-fashioned and untrustworhy politician. Tommy Norment's time has come and gone and he should go back to his automobile dealership. We need a more honest and trustworthy candidate who is less prone to doing favors for his cronies and who cares more about protecting innocent citizens. This year, I hope that someone younger, more honest, and less corrupt will both challenge and defeat him in the next election. This would be for the good of Virginia families and honest and law abiding citizens everywhere throughout the Commonwealth. I'm appealing to the electorate in Mr Norment's district to stop his "governing under the influence". He continues to make one bad decision after another. It is time for him to be retired. Howard Katz

Another travesty is the failure of the Virginia Senate's Committee on the Courts of Justice to pass legislation that would have saved lives and prevented injuries due to repeat drunk driving on the part of DUI offenders. The principal opponents of this legislation appeared to be defense attorneys like Chap Petersen in Fairfax and Senator Edwards from Roanoke and Senators who purportedly were for the legislation and then voted against it when it counted such as Senator Puller from Mount Vernon and Alexandria and GOP Senators Quayle from Suffolk, along with the normal opponents of saving lives and curbing drunk driving like GOP Senators Norment and Stuart. They should all be defeated and opposed strongly in the next election and I will contribute to every strong candidate that promises to do so. We must act to save lives, prevent needless injuries and curb drunk driving and we have an obligation to do so for our families and for the community. Please join me as a member of the Silent Majority. We have remained silent on this issue for too long. And we must counteract the actions of the selfish and self-serving and act in the public good if there is to be a safer community for all of us to live in.

I know the scourge of drunk driving only too well having lost my only son to a DUI crash in which he was an innocent car passenger in 2009. I'd hate to see this happen to anyone else but if and when it does, you'll have only the Senators identified above to blame for that terrible outcome. Here's hoping we can replace Senators Petersen, Puller, Norment, Stuart, Qualye, Edwards. They have all been around too long and are mired in the status quo. We can and must do better than that in Virginia.