It’s unusual to see broad-based action on an issue that rarely gets consistent media attention. But that’s why we’re so heartened by this year’s onslaught of legislation at the state level to combat human trafficking in America. The Washington Post explains:

So far this year, more than 40 bills have been enacted and roughly 350 introduced. That compares with just eight bills adopted across the country in 2006, according to the Polaris Project, an anti-trafficking group based in Washington. (…)

"We were the first state to start all of this," said [Washington] state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D), the sponsor of much of the state's anti-trafficking legislation. "We've strengthened the law every year." In 2009, she said, the state forced employers who bring in foreign workers to notify them of all labor laws and allow them to keep their travel documents. (…)

"I represent a large number of immigrants and learned more and more about the issue of trafficking," said Virginia Del. Adam P. Ebbin (D), who sponsored one of the new laws. "By putting the code in place, I'm hopeful we can now combat it."

Just how big a problem is human trafficking? Huge. The U.S. State Department estimates that over 12 million people are currently the victims of human trafficking for the purposes of forced labor, bonded labor, or sexual exploitation.

And despite the issue’s low profile here, trafficking remains a systemic problem in the United States. From the Washington Post again:

Statistics documenting the problem are vague and vary widely. The government estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 victims of trafficking are brought to the United States each year. A study funded by the Justice Department found that almost 250,000 children fall into a category of trafficking victims because they are at risk of sexual exploitation.

Hopefully, the new laws at the state level will provide investigators and prosecutors with more effective tools to uncover and shut down trafficking rings in their respective states.

Minnesota and Virginia are two states where rapid suburban growth has reshaped statewide politics in the past decade – tugging both states from "safe" to "swing" status in presidential politics. But redistricting next year promises to reshape both states’ legislative politics as well, as suburbs leverage their decade of growth for additional Statehouse influence.

In Minnesota, suburban growth has centered around the outer suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul:

Minnesota State Demographer Tom Gillaspy expects that lawmakers will have to react to growth on the fringes of the Twin Cities metropolitan area by cramming more of the state’s 201 legislative districts in the outer suburbs and semi-rural areas that are situated just beyond the metro. Gillaspy refers to the area as “the doughnut.”

“The doughnut ring around the Twin Cities has been growing rapidly,” noted Gillaspy, “and much of the rest of the state outside of that has not grown as rapidly. The central cities and inner ring suburbs have not grown as rapidly. Some have declined.”

These “doughnut” areas were initially quite conservative, but they later helped fuel a Democratic surge in state legislative elections in 2006 and 2008.

Meanwhile, the suburbs of Northern Virginia continued their impressive growth this decade, which will probably pull several additional state legislative seats into their orbit during redistricting:

Fairfax has not had the highest rate of growth in the state during the 2000s -- that distinction goes to neighboring Loudoun County -- but the combined growth of Northern Virginia as a whole likely will have political implications during next year's redistricting process.

Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties gained the most new residents of any jurisdictions in the state between 2000 and 2009, and the inner Northern Virginia suburbs of Arlington County and Alexandria also have continued to grow, according to Michael McDonald, an associate professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy think tank, and an expert on elections and redistricting.

Other areas of the state, particularly southwestern Virginia communities, such as Danville and Henry and Buchanan counties, have been losing residents.

Barack Obama performed better than his statewide average in all three of the fastest-growing counties, winning with margins ranging from 8% to 21%. Arlington and Alexandria both gave Obama more than 70% of their votes.

Even in the disappointing 2009 gubernatorial election, the Democratic nominee ran well ahead of his statewide average in Fairfax County, and he performed about at his average in Loudoun and Prince William. Democrats have shown continued strength in the area since then by winning two hotly contested special elections in Northern Virginia, one of which had significant implications for control of the State Senate.

These changes in Minnesota and Virginia will reshuffle the political deck in both states – suburban gains will be offset by losses in areas where the population shrunk or remained static. But regional divisions aside, the changes appear to favor Democrats.

At this week’s Virginia State Crime Commission work group meeting, attendees heard a harrowing story.

Del. Ward Armstrong recalls an incident in which a woman going through a divorce had obtained a protective order against her husband, who nevertheless walked into her workplace and shot her to death.

"If she'd had a little warning, maybe she could've gotten out the back door," said Armstrong, D-Henry County.

The incident prompted him to propose legislation that would allow judges to require Virginians who are served protective orders to wear GPS tracking devices. Such devices can be set up to alert police, the person who requested the order, or both if the abuser gets too close to the victim.

After all, while protective orders are important and useful tools for victims of domestic violence, they’re just pieces of paper; they won’t stop a fist, a knife, or a bullet. Using technology to improve protective orders’ effectiveness is a smart solution to a problem facing over a million Americans every year.

But Minority Leader Armstrong isn’t the only Democrat leading the way in the fight against domestic violence.

In Connecticut, Democratic Speaker of the House Christopher Donovan created a task force last year to identify trends relating to domestic violence matters and developing a series of legislative recommendations. In May, the biggest group of domestic violence reforms in 25 years passed the Democratically-controlled state legislature. These reforms include:

• The creation of a pilot program for electronic monitoring for the highest risk domestic violence offenders;
• Enhancement of information sharing in family violence cases among appropriate state agencies;
• Authorization for prosecutors to consider out-of-state offenses for persistent family violence offenders;
• The creation of three additional domestic violence court dockets.

Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo sponsored a bill, the final version of which was passed unanimously by the state House and Senate in April, known as Amanda’s Law.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, sponsored the bill in response to the Sept. 11 shooting death of state worker Amanda Ross in Lexington. Former state Rep. Steve Nunn was charged with her murder and has pleaded not guilty. Ross sought court protection from Nunn before she was gunned down.

Amanda’s Law would allow judges to order electronic monitoring in domestic-violence cases if certain violations of protective orders occur, such as assault, burglary or kidnapping.

Oklahoma Democrats took on domestic violence issues in their legislative session, as well. Minority Floor Leader Mike Brown and Senator Jim Wilson authored legislation which would stop the shameful practice of insurance companies in Oklahoma of denying coverage, refusing to renew, or canceling a person’s health benefit plan on the basis of that person’s status as a victim of domestic abuse. The measure passed on the last day of the legislative session, and once it is signed by the Governor, domestic violence will no longer be a “preexisting condition” in Oklahoma.

Efforts to address and prevent domestic violence are ongoing across the country. Democratic state legislators are tackling this issue head-on, and we can look forward to even more progress toward domestic abuse prevention and victim protection in legislative sessions to come.

Virginia’s 26th Delegate District is an inhospitable place for Democrats. Based in Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, it typically gives statewide Republican candidates between 60%-70% of its votes. But local issues and candidate recruiting have made next week’s special election here a potential sleeper race for Democratic candidate Kai Degner.

First, Degner has proven to be a formidable candidate. He has high name-recognition as the popular Mayor of Harrisonburg, the district’s population anchor, and he’s been an effective fundraiser – outraising Republican nominee Tony Wilt $108,000 to $96,000. He'll have enough resources to run a solid campaign and an effective Get Out the Vote operation in the compressed special election time-frame.

Meanwhile, Republican Tony Wilt is stumbling to the finish line in this race. He supports a controversial method of retrieving natural gas from shale deposits in the area, known as hydrofracking. According to the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record, “Hydrofracking involves high water pressure and a mixture of chemicals to break the rock apart,” releasing natural gas.

Local landowners are concerned that the process would contaminate the underground aquifers they rely on for water, and there are additional concerns that companies could use eminent domain to force residents to give up their property for infrastructure like pipelines. Despite these concerns, Wilt failed to disclose his own family’s financial interest in shale energy development before making it a campaign issue, leaving many to question where his loyalties really lie.

Degner still has a tough hill to climb in this race, but with his advantages as a candidate, strong engagement by Democratic organizations in Virginia, and the unique weaknesses Tony Wilt brings to this campaign, no one should be shocked if Kai Degner pulls off the upset this Tuesday - June 15th.

After defeating scandal-plagued Republican Delegate Phil Hamilton in 2009, Virginia Democrats made ethics reform a priority in the 2010 session. Yesterday, despite their minority status in the House, Democrats successfully passed an ethics overhaul authored by DLCC Finance Chairman and State House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong.

But while Armstrong is credited with writing the legislation, it was truly a team effort among House and Senate Democrats:

Armstrong, a Democrat from Henry County, said the Hamilton case demonstrated that the Assembly's self-policing system is broken and the voters expected it to be fixed.

"The next time something like that happens - and it will - we'll have a mechanism in place to deal with it," he said.

Armstrong's bill incorporated proposals from Del. Robin Abbott of Newport News, the Democrat who unseated Hamilton. She ran on a platform that included ethics reform.

"I'm very pleased" by the Senate vote, Abbott said Wednesday. "It gives us some transparency in the process, and it also provides protection against frivolous complaints. I got everything I wanted."

The vote was a vindication of sorts for Sen. Ralph Northam, a first-term Democrat from Norfolk, who sponsored a companion bill that closely tracked the Armstrong measure and was unexpectedly shelved by a House committee last week.

Senate Republicans voted en-mass for the bill on final passage, but not before trying to kill the bill on a technicality. All 18 Republicans voted for an amendment that made a “minor wording change” that did not affect the substance of the bill. Had the amendment passed, the bill would have gone back to the House of Delegates, where the Republican majority could have quietly let the measure die.

Democratic senators voted unanimously to keep the decision in the Senate’s hands, and because of their narrow majority, the bill now awaits the governor’s signature.

The Virginia political scene was recently rocked by reports of Republican Delegate Bob Marshall’s news conference in which he said that children born with disabilities were God’s punishment for women who’ve ever ended a pregnancy:

State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God's punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy. (...)

"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children," said Marshall, a Republican.

"In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest."

Even more outrageous than the remarks themselves, Marshall used them to support a bill he sponsored to cut off state funding for an organization that provides low-cost pre-natal health care for women – exactly the sort of care that can prevent complications during pregnancy, including some birth defects.

Amazingly, Marshall still refuses to apologize for what he said. Marshall told the Washington Post that he “regret[s] any misimpression” he “may have created,” but just two days later he threw a tantrum and denied he ever said such a thing. He now claims the words “never came from my mouth,” and that the media keeps repeating the story "without anyone producing the smoking-gun tape.”

But we have the tape, provided through the Staunton News Leader website, and we think it speaks for itself.

So listen for yourself, and then sign our petition calling for Bob Marshall to resign from the legislature.

Virginia Democrats continued their rebound last night by keeping control of the vacant 41st Delegate district in a Fairfax County special election. Like the special Senate election in January, most observers gave Republicans the edge in this race, coming so soon after the 2009 gubernatorial race. But Democrat Eileen Filler-Corn leads unofficial returns by 42 votes over Republican Kerry Bolognese:

Education was the issue that dominated this race. Filler-Corn clearly struck a chord with voters with her message of fighting back against devastating cuts to Fairfax County schools proposed by Republicans in the legislature -- cuts that would lay off hundreds of teachers and support staff in a rapidly-growing county.

Congratulations to DLCC Board member and Virginia House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong and the Virginia House Caucus for running a great campaign.

Something unprecedented happened over the weekend in Virginia when a Republican former Delegate, who served in the legislature for over 30 years, endorsed the Democratic candidate he once defeated in one of his re-election campaigns:

Former Republican delegate James H. Dillard II, who served as Virginia's 41st District House delegate from 1972 to 2005, endorsed Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democratic lobbyist who served as an adviser to two former Virginia Democratic governors.

Dillard defeated Filler-Corn in 1999 in a hotly contested race for the 41st House District, which is in Fairfax County and includes the areas of Burke, Fairfax Station and Springfield.

The 41st House seat opened up again when Sen. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax), who succeeded Dillard in 2005, defeated Republican Stephen M. "Steve" Hunt by 324 votes in a Senate special election in mid-January. He resigned his House seat a day later.

Filler-Corn is now the Democratic nominee in the special election to fill Sen. Marsden’s House seat, to be held March 2nd.

Cross-party endorsements are rare but not unheard-of, especially in state politics. But none of us can ever remember a situation like this happening before. In a statement announcing the endorsement, Dillard praised Filler-Corn for her honesty, civic commitment, and her strong support for Virginia’s public schools:

“As a Republican I am willing to cross party lines to support a moderate who cares strongly about providing excellent educational opportunities for our children in our public schools and institutions of higher learning. Unlike her opponent, who believes we spend 'excessive' amounts on public education, Eileen will fight to get our fair share of education dollars…”

For more information about Eileen Filler-Corn or to help with her campaign, visit eileenfordelegate.com.

We've become accustomed to hearing ridiculous statements from the likes of Virginia Republican State Delegate Bob Marshall. After all, this is a man who last year compared the federal economic recovery package to slavery, and who once said "[S]ometimes incest is voluntary" when talking about abortion.

But Marshall's newest rant is shockingly offensive, even for him:

State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God's punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy.

Speaking at a press conference over the weekend, Marshall told reporters:

"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children."

"In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest."

At the event, Marshall announced that he would sponsor a bill to eliminate state funding for Planned Parenthood in Virginia.

This week, Democrats in the Virginia House and Senate introduced a sweeping package of ethics reforms that would prevent scandals like those involving former GOP Rep. Phil Hamilton. Hamilton came under fire last year when officials learned that he negotiated a job offer for himself with Old Dominion university even as he worked to secure public funds for the school.

The bill would create a five-member ethics advisory panel, which would be empowered to investigate potential misconduct by lawmakers -- even if they resign -- and hold meetings in public.

Additionally, the bill would require:

--A legislator to disclose any wages or salary paid to him or an immediate member of his family, regardless of the amount, by a state or local government or advisory agency employer:

--the Clerks of the House and Senate to establish a searchable electronic database, available to the public through the Internet, containing the information from the disclosure of personal interests statements filed by legislators, legislators-elect, and candidates for the General Assembly.

--That payments to a member for office expenses and supplies may be made only upon the member's submission of a voucher for the expenses.

--A member of the General Assembly to disclose in his annual disclosure of personal interests any salary and wages in excess of $10,000 paid to him or his immediate family for employment with a state or local government or advisory agency.

If passed, the legislation would be the first overhaul of Virginia's General Assembly Conflicts of Interest statutes in more than 20 years.