Today the Virginia Senate Democrats filed suit in Richmond City Circuit Court to prevent the GOP from subverting the will of the voters. 

After November’s elections left the state Senate evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, many thought that the chamber would adopt a “power-sharing” agreement, as they had the last time the Senate was evenly split (1996). A Democratic Lieutenant Governor presided over the chamber, but the parties agreed to split the committees evenly. Committee Chairs were selected from both parties. Judicial selection became a bipartisan affair. 

But the current crop of Republicans would rather throw their partisan weight around than acknowledge that the voters of the Commonwealth elected a bipartisan Senate to govern in a bipartisan fashion. 

And the impending power-grab by the Virginia Senate GOP may not even be legal. Virginia Democrats assert that Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling’s vote should not be cast in organizational matters, a category into which committee makeup falls. To that end, Senate Caucus Chair Donald McEachin has just filed suit on behalf of the entire Caucus. The Democrats seek a declaratory judgment acknowledging that the Lieutenant Governor does not have the constitutional right to cast a vote breaking the expected tie about how the Senate organizes. Additionally, the lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction preventing Bolling from voting on organization until the issue is resolved. 

"The voters elected 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans to the Senate. Yet, in spite of that, the Republicans choose to ignore these results and instead claim absolute power and authority," said Sen. McEachin. "In Virginia, only an elected member of the Senate can vote on the rules of the Senate. The Lieutenant Governor was not elected to the Senate. Unfortunately, the Republicans have not shown any inclination to work with us to resolve this impasse. In a 20-20 Senate, power should be shared, but instead the Republicans insist on an arrogant power grab." 

Senate Democrats aren’t the only ones calling for power-sharing in the chamber. Some Republicans – ones who served in the Senate during the last evenly-split session -- are coming out in support of the arrangement. 

John Chichester, a Republican for whom power-sharing was a steppingstone to the Finance Committee chairmanship, the most influential position in the Senate, all but says his party is guilty of a flip-flop by now claiming the lieutenant governor's tie-breaking vote gives the GOP a lock on power. 

"He's simply a figurehead who breaks ties on legislation and is a member of the executive branch," says Chichester. "It was our view in 1996 that he should not have a role in organizing the Senate. That included committees, the majority leader and president pro tempore."

…

"I thought in 1996 that the power-sharing arrangement, which was good for four years, made for greater harmony in doing the business of the Senate," says [conservative former Democratic state Senator and GOP Congressman Virgil] Goode. "I think such would be true today if a sharing agreement could be worked out." 

Perhaps today Virginia Republicans don’t recall what it’s like to have legislative “harmony” or engage in cooperative lawmaking. For the sake of the Commonwealth, they need to take a serious trip down memory lane and adopt the power-sharing agreement of which they were so fond in 1996.

Democrats’ Election Night 2011 just keeps getting better.

You’ve already heard about Democrats’ epic wins tonight in Ohio, Maine, and Iowa.

Victory in a Wisconsin Assembly special keeps Democratic momentum in that state going.

Despite aggressive GOP spending, Democrats expanded our majority in the New Jersey Assembly.

Arizona voters responded to Gov. Brewer’s recent redistricting power-grab by recalling tea party leader and GOP state Sen. Russell Pearce.

Michigan voters recalled a notoriously anti-teacher Republican state Representative.

And despite spending millions and millions of dollars on the effort, the GOP failed to take the majority in the Virginia state Senate.

Democrats even kept the Governor’s mansion in Kentucky.

Well, we’re not done yet.

Today we learned we can add a Washington special election to the Democratic win column.

Democratic state Rep. Sharon Wylie won the seat to which she was appointed earlier this year, soundly defeating her well-known GOP opponent.

This big night for Democrats is more than a sign that the GOP wave of 2010 has receded.

Voters are rebuking GOP candidates and policies all over the country. Republicans exploited their opportunities to legislate by forcing extreme policies through their statehouses, and voters aren’t standing for it. Even millions of dollars in GOP spending can’t obscure the truth:

In 2011 and 2012, Republicans just aren’t a sound investment. 

You’ve already heard about Democrats’ epic wins tonight in Ohio, Maine, and Iowa. Well, we’re not done yet. 

In Wisconsin, Democrats have dominated yet another special election there. Democrat Jill Billings has won the 95^th Assembly District with a whopping 72 percent of the vote. 

Arizonans have responded to Gov. Jan Brewer’s recent redistricting power-grab by recalling one of her GOP accomplices in that partisan coup. Republican Sen. Russell Pearce, author of the notorious and virulently anti-immigrant SB 1070, has fallen in a recall election. 

Despite Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s best efforts, Democrats have successfully retained majorities in both legislative chambers in New Jersey. 

In Michigan, anti-teacher GOP Rep. Paul Scott became the first legislator in the state to be recalled. An election to replace him will be scheduled for next year. 

And finally, despite the millions of dollars state and national Republican and outside interest groups poured into taking the majority in the Virginia Senate, the GOP came up short. Republicans might be excited about the prospect of a tied chamber, but the one outstanding seat, SD 17, remains too close to call. Wednesday morning canvasses have yet to be held, and provisional ballots throughout the district have yet to be counted.  Also, some reported incidents during Tuesday night’s tabulation deserve further attention during the canvassing and certification process. We look forward to monitoring this situation throughout to ensure that every vote is fairly and accurately counted. We expect that Senator Edd Houck will ultimately prevail in the final outcome and that Democrats will continue to hold a majority in the Virginia Senate.

State-level Republicans just can’t help themselves when it comes to Paul Ryan’s Medicare bill – you know, the one the conservative Wall Street Journal said “would essentially end Medicare” – and Virginia’s Ben Loyola is the latest GOP candidate to pledge his support for the idea.

But Loyola, running in the competitive 6th state Senate district, went even further than most Tea Party candidates. Not only is there “a lot to like about the Ryan plan,” according to Loyola, but the only problem he saw was that ending Medicare as we know it “didn’t go far enough:”

Ryan, R-Wisconsin, became the House GOP's point person on the budget after Republicans retook control of the chanber following the Nov. 2010 elections. He offered a budget plan that included austere cuts to the federal budget and a plan to revamp Medicare which would essentially end the program.

In a web chaton dailypress.com Tuesday, Loyola was asked by a reader if he supported Ryan's budget plan.

“Actually, there was a lot to like about the Ryan plan, although with the problems we face in Washington, DC, some say it didn't go far enough. I'm sympathetic to that point of view," Loyola responded.

Virginia Democrats quickly put Loyola’s comments in their proper context. Job creation is clearly the top issue in this November’s elections, but Virginia’s struggling middle class will not be helped by a plan that could throw tens of millions of seniors into crushing poverty:

“It’s bad enough that Ben Loyola embraces Paul Ryan’s Tea Party plan to end Medicare as we know it, but saying it doesn't go far enough is outrageous,” said DPVA Executive Director David Mills. “What other cuts on the backs of working families would Ben Loyola require before the Ryan plan goes far enough for him?

Ultimately, though, Loyola’s comments are just a symptom of a larger problem vexing Virginia Republicans: a slate of Tea Party state Senate candidates who are extreme and out of touch, pretty much across the board.

Since taking over a majority of the country’s state legislatures in January, statehouse Republicans have launched repeated and continuous assaults on voting rights. 

We’ve known for some time that at least 38 states have introduced legislation that would effectively restrict voters’ access to the ballot box. Twelve of those states have already enacted suppressive measures, and more may do so as state legislative sessions continue. 

We’ve also had an idea of the impact these laws will have on the electorate, but much of the available data up to this point has been five or more years old. 

No longer: 

Restrictive voting laws in states across the country could affect up to five million voters from traditionally Democratic demographics in 2012, according to a new report by the Brennan Center [for Justice at New York University School of Law]. That's a number larger than the margin of victory in two of the last three presidential elections. 

This study breaks down the affected voters by type of law, such as voter ID laws, anti-voter registration drive laws, and laws curtailing early voting periods and absentee voting opportunities. 

Speaking of absentee voting, Virginians may want to start practicing their penmanship if they want their absentee votes to be counted by the state’s GOP-appointed elections board. 

The Republican-controlled State Board of Elections withdrew one set of rules governing absentee ballots - they gave election officials more leeway to count the ballots of voters who made mistakes filling them out - and substituted them with less-flexible guidelines…. 

Removed from the current state absentee ballot regulation is language in the previous version that made it clear that illegible voter or witness signatures on a ballot wouldn't invalidate it, and a catch-all paragraph that specified ballots wouldn't be tossed if a voter's identity could be otherwise confirmed by election officials. 

Fun fact: In the 2008 election, 13 percent of Virginia’s voters cast absentee ballots. How many of those would have been disqualified for having “illegible” signatures? 

And thus Virginia joins the ignoble ranks of GOP-governed states taking unprecedented measures to prevent citizens from exercising their right to vote—and to have those votes counted. 

The effects of all of these voting restrictions will be staggering, particularly on the elections of the very state legislators who are working so hard to make voting so difficult. 

Consider that in 2010, more than 90 state legislative races across the country were won or lost by fewer than 100 votes. Two states where newly GOP legislative chambers passed restrictive voting measures (Ohio and Maine) had sixty-four 2010 statehouse races decided by 500 votes or fewer. Two of the Wisconsin recall elections this summer were decided by only about 2000 votes. 

Even a few thousand uncast or uncounted votes have the potential to tip majority control of a legislative chamber from one party to the other… as well as affect races all the way up the ballot. 

Republicans understand that as surely as we do. And sometimes they let the true motivations behind their suppressive voting laws slip. 

Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers flatly claimed voting was “not a right” during debate over a photo ID bill (a statement he later partially walked back). So, too, did Florida state Sen. Mike Bennett in a similar debate. Republican legislators and party leaders in Wisconsin, Maine and New Hampshire said all sorts of disparaging things about the civic qualifications of college students in the process of seeking to keep them from voting on campus. 

Statehouse Republicans across the country seem to feel that legitimate means of influencing elections are insufficient to maintain a right-wing domination of state governments. Their voter suppression tactics are a reflection of conservatives’ pathetic desperation. The GOP war on voting is simultaneously an assault on democracy and an outrageous power grab. Its effects are far-reaching and potentially long-lasting. And it’s far from over.

The battle for control of the Virginia state Senate continues to intensify. 

This week, Republican Governors Association chair Bob McDonnell threw his national-level weight behind two of the most extreme candidates in the Commonwealth. 

Yet he gave that weight as though trying to cross a frozen Virginia river: tentatively. And with these two candidates’ extreme backgrounds, it’s no wonder. 

Former GOP Delegate Dick Black (of plastic fetus fame) proudly posted Gov. McDonnell’s endorsement on his website. 

Dick Black is an excellent candidate for Senate in the 13th District. As a Member of the House, Delegate Black played a major role in making dramatic traffic improvements on Rt. 28 and Rt. 15. 

That’s right: Del. Black championed some of the most extreme right-wing legislation ever seen in Virginia’s General Assembly and was best known for his crusades against choice and gay rights, and all Gov. McDonnell can say is, Hey, good job with those roads. 

(By way of contrast, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s endorsement makes direct reference to Black’s conservative bona fides.) 

Virginia’s Republican Governor is scheduled to host a fundraiser for Black at the end of October… which is more than he’s apparently willing to do for his other recent endorsee, former Republican Party of Virginia chair and Del. Jeff Frederick. 

Del. Frederick, who famously compared then-Sen. Obama to Osama bin Laden in 2008, was ousted from his position as state Party chair after ignoring public calls to resign from McDonnell and other state Republican officials. 

Gov. McDonnell may have had a change of heart towards Frederick. In an email to supporters on Monday, Frederick announced McDonnell’s endorsement. The endorsement itself made no reference to any accomplishments Del. Frederick may have had during his House tenure; it was just boilerplate GOP blandishments about how Frederick will help improve the economy and stuff if elected. 

Unlike Black’s, Frederick’s endorsement apparently doesn’t come with a fundraiser attached. According to McDonnell’s political adviser, the Governor has no appearances with Frederick scheduled. 

Are Dick Black and Jeff Frederick just too extreme even for Bob McDonnell’s conservative palate? As much as the Governor would like to see more Republicans elected to the state Senate, Black and Frederick may be bitter pills for him to swallow.

As one of the few states with off-off-year elections, Virginia steps into the spotlight in the fall of odd-numbered years. 

Virginia is ready for its close-up, particularly as the GOP attempts to wrest control of the state Senate from the Democrats, who have held the majority since 2007. 

But when some of the GOP’s candidates for state Senate are held up to the light, it becomes impossible to ignore their less attractive characteristics. 

One Virginia columnist described former Delegate Dick Black, running in Northern Virginia’s District 13, as “best known for bashing gays, thundering about pornography and handing out life-size plastic likenesses of fetuses as testimony to his opposition to abortion.” (In case you need a visual for that last bit, a VCU photographer immortalized the stunt here.)

Former Delegate Jeff Frederick, who failed to receive the endorsement of GOP U.S. Senate candidate George Allen in the District 36 primary, gained some national notoriety when he compared Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden during the 2008 presidential race—and encouraged GOP volunteers to spread that characterization around. He’s not too keen on evolutionary theory, a scientific doubt which likely contributed to his 0 percent rating from the Virginia Education Association in 2008. The Virginia GOP also ousted him as state chair after he ignored public calls for his resignation from almost every top-ranking officeholder in his Party. (Here’s a fun video retrospective.)

Ben Loyola, who’s running in the Eastern Shore-based 6^th District, is a proud Tea Party endorsee. He believes in getting rid of all taxes on wealthy corporations, as well as the income tax generally, and he’d like to do away with the Department of Education while he’s at it. 

Adam Light, running in the southwestern Virginia-based 38^th District, has advocated ending Social Security and Medicare, programs relied on by thousands of the Virginians he hopes to represent. 

Tom Garrett, who proudly touts himself as a “Cuccinelli conservative” and is running in central Virginia’s 22^nd District, wants to obliterate Virginians’ right to privacy by instituting mandatory drug testing for those who receive public assistance. He also supports eradicating protections for Virginia’s natural resources and abolishing the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. 

This is a whole lot of crazy to keep straight. You might find this brief video helpful. 

This fall we’re clearly fighting to prevent the brand of GOP extremism that’s taken hold across the country from taking control of the Virginia legislature. If these right-wing zealots win, all Virginians lose. 

A Virginia legislator has asked the state Attorney General’s office to investigate whether the administration of Republican Governors Association Chair and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell violated state law by holding government reform commission committee meetings in secret. 

Del. David L. Englin (D-Alexandria) wrote to Cuccinelli (R) after The Washington Post reported Saturday that committees that will make recommendations to the Governor’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring have been meeting out of public view and with no input from Democrats for two months. 

“Virginia is routinely lauded for how our government is run, and a key aspect of that is remaining constantly vigilant about any potential misconduct in the name of the taxpayers of this Commonwealth,’’ Englin wrote in a letter dated Tuesday. “I hope you will investigate this matter and do your part to preserve that sterling reputation for good government.’’ 

“When a Commission charged with increasing government transparency and accountability conducts its business in secret and in possible violation of the law, these are serious allegations,” Del. Englin said in a statement today.  “The Attorney General should be the chief watchdog on behalf of taxpayers and citizens, and I urge him to investigate these allegations to ensure the bipartisan transparency and accountability that Virginians expect and deserve.” 

Committees formed to make recommendations to GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring began meeting behind closed doors two months ago, according to The Washington Post. Some legal experts, as well as the executive director of Virginia’s FOIA Council, say that these meetings are “in violation of the law.” 

Even Virginia’s GOP House Speaker wouldn’t defend these secret committees. 

House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), who serves as commission vice chairman and sits on one of the work groups, said he does not know why the committee structure changed. “Call the governor,’’ he said. “It’s his commission.’’ 

Gov. McDonnell’s administration seems to think it can skirt Virginia’s open meetings laws by claiming that these closed-door committees were formed by the Governor (and therefore are exempt). 

What kind of true government reform can take place hidden from the public eye? Virginia Democrats are right to ask, and Virginia citizens have a right to know.

A cloud of corruption continues to bedevil Virginia Republicans.

According to the law and court precedents, when an elected or other public official conditions the honest performance of his or her public duties on the extraction of something of value from another party, honest services fraud has occurred.

So, did honest services fraud happen at a recent GOP gathering in Virginia? Lobbyists who attended the recent Republican campaign event hosted by Virginia’s GOP House Speaker are suggesting that yes, it might have:

But the message delivered by the GOP at the gathering has been interpreted by some in attendance as an appeal to withhold financial support from Democratic candidates.(…)

Republican officials emphasized the GOP's strong majority in the House (…) They also remarked about the wisdom of contributing to Democratic candidates, according to lobbyists at the event, who said House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong (D) was specifically mentioned.

GOP Speaker Bill Howell, though, clearly doth protest. But doth he protest too much, and in too much detail?

"I can assure you no one said 'We’re going to remember who you give to and punish you for it later,' or anything to imply that," Howell said. "That’s just silly on its face."

If there’s anything to this story, or if there were similar events where Republican leaders made a similar pitch, it won’t remain a secret for much longer. Speaker Howell may have recent experience hiding his own chamber’s ethics investigations, but he has no authority over prosecutors or the media.

Two significant GOP figures from the 2008 presidential election are jumping back into politics as rivals for their Party’s nomination in Virginia’s 36^th state Senate district, and one of them already has a national 2012 figure in tow.

Sara Palin introduced us to “Tito the Builder,” or Tito Muñoz, during the last presidential campaign. Muñoz briefly became a GOP star in 2008 and remains a conservative radio talk show host.

Former Virginia Delegate Jeff Frederick chaired the state Republican Party through the last presidential cycle and famously encouraged GOP canvassers to connect Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden since “they both have friends who bombed the Pentagon.” Frederick served three terms in the House of Delegates, declining to run for a fourth so he could focus on his role as Chair of the state GOP—a position from which he was ousted after multiple public accusations of mismanagement and incompetence.

Tito “the Builder” Muñoz will officially announce his candidacy this Thursday with GOP former Governor and Senator George Allen at his side. Allen’s forthcoming endorsement of Muñoz marks the U.S. Senate candidate's first, but likely not last, foray into Virginia General Assembly races this year. Muñoz says he is “proud to have [Allen] on my side.”

Former GOP Del. and state Party chair Frederick shot back at Muñoz’s pre-endorsement announcement by reminding us all that he’s “not running to please the political establishment.”

One political establishment actually welcomed Frederick to the race for the 36^th Senate District seat, but not in a way he likely appreciates.

The Democratic Party of Virginia released a video highlighting some of Frederick’s more embarrassing antics, including a few stunts that caught the attention of MSNBC’s prime time shows. 

Check out Frederick’s greatest hits:

The 36^th Senate District is currently represented by Sen. Linda “Toddy” Puller, who was first elected to that seat in 1999 and can only stand to benefit from what is shaping up to be a bruising GOP primary.