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Prison Reform Advocates Call for Change to Solitary Confinement in Virginia 

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David Smith doesn’t cut the figure of a man who’s been to prison, let alone one who spent more than a year in solitary confinement.

Dressed in a button-up white shirt, with tan khakis and a blue blazer, the impression Smith gives is more of a white collar worker. This impression isn’t out of place in the homely lower level of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, which served as the setting for a forum on Virginia solitary confinement on October 27. For Smith, this misconception is one of many aspects of a long-standing issue that prison-reform advocates want the state to address. 

“When I meet with a Senator or Delegate, and I say ‘Yeah, hey, my name’s David, I spent sixteen-and-a-half months in solitary,’ the jaws drop,” Smith said. “And all of a sudden, it’s no longer that guy from the bad side — it’s ‘This could be my son, this could be my brother right here.’ So that begins to change the conversation.” 

For Virginia, one of the most recent shifts in that conversation came in May with a 67-page report from the ACLU of Virginia. The report detailed the extent of “the negative impacts of solitary confinement as practiced in Virginia, the systemic difficulties prisoners have in escaping it and returning to the general population, and the State’s failure to exclude individuals with serious mental health problems from solitary confinement.” 

The report was preceded by a letter to Governor Ralph Northam calling on him to sign an executive order that would limit the practice in Virginia. This request was joined by more, urging for state action from multiple advocacy and religious groups in the weeks following the report’s publication. These came largely through the Interfaith Action for Human Rights (IAHR), a coalition whose member organizations reside in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, and for which Smith serves as a representative. 

As detailed by Kimberly Jenkins-Snodgrass, Vice-chairperson of the IAHR, the lack of forward movement on this matter from state officials leaves many prisoners subject to a system of incarceration that includes “putting inmates in a cell that’s basically the size of a parking space.” 

“When an individual is put into solitary confinement, they are participating in an illegal court,” Snodgrass said. “You have security guards with a high-school education looking at inmates, giving them time — in some instances, more time than a judge gives them in a courtroom. And this is the issue.” 

On October 27, Smith moderated a panel of speakers that included former inmate, author, and community advocate Tommy Cox; Jenkins-Snodgrass; and Bill Farrar and Mateo Gasparotto of ACLU-VA. Jenkins-Snodgrass was open about effects that “the United States’ best-kept secret” had for her son, Kevin D. Snodgrass Jr., his health, and a loving family. 

“When we say ‘stop solitary confinement,’ we’re not saying open the floodgates and let everybody out of jail,” Snodgrass said. “We’re just saying to treat them like human beings while they’re in there.” 

The details of the years Snodgrass says her son spent in solitary confinement are a far cry from the statements that the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) has given in the past. They also contrast heavily with VADOC’s recent attempts to better the treatment of its prisoners. These include a 21-month initiative started in early 2017 with the Vera Institute of Justice, focused on reducing the use of what officials call “restrictive housing,” among other efforts. 

“When it comes to state prisons, Virginia stands out for operating a corrections system without the use of solitary confinement,” VADOC wrote in a press release posted the same day the ACLU report documenting widespread use of the practice was released. VADOC’s press release noted the praise it’s received from Governor Ralph Northam and the U.S. Department of Justice. “The Virginia Department of Corrections serves as a national model for the limited use of restrictive housing.” 

These statements and measures constitute some of the few pieces of public information available about the experiences of Virginia’s prisoners, something the panel repeatedly emphasized during the discussion. 

“This is a completely unregulated practice,” said Farrar, who serves as ACLU-VA’s communications director. “There’s nothing in the Virginia Code that even says what solitary confinement is, and that allows the Department of Corrections to lie about it.” 

“They say they don’t do it. They do.” 

In the absence of more accessible research or data on the state of Virginia’s prisons and their treatment of offenders, groups like ACLU-VA & IAHR and individuals like Tommy Cox are more than willing to fill in the gaps. 

“The people that came to the cell were nasty. They talk to you any kind of way, you took one shower once a week, and it was living hell,” said Cox, who described the physical degradation he suffered as the result of the conditions in solitary across two incarcerations, totaling almost 40 years. Cox’s time included one confinement which lasted three consecutive years during a stint in a New Mexico prison as a Virginia offender, which made him the very first inmate in the Commonwealth to be shipped out of state. 

Other testimonies and criticisms ranged from the withholding of food by guards to the mental effects solitary confinement has on inmates and the lack of accountability present in the VADOC and other agencies. Even the measures taken by the VADOC to create easier pathways out of “restrictive housing,” namely the Administrative Step-Down Program instituted in 2012, were sharply criticized for resulting in harsher treatments for Hispanic and African-American inmates. 

“Their treatment is completely arbitrary, there’s no sense of cohesion, and there’s no sense of fairness or justice,” said Gasparotto, who has spoken with several inmates at the Wallens Ridge and Red Onion State Prisons. The latter was the focus of a hunger strike by prisoners in 2012 as well as an HBO documentary released in February. It is part of an investigation into prison abuse by Attorney General Claude Walker of the Virgin Islands. 

“Ultimately, their goal is institutional control,” said Gasparotto, who works in ACLU-VA’s Legal and Public Policy departments, of the VADOC. “It’s not about rehabilitation, it’s not about building you back as a human being, it’s about you serving your time, keeping quiet, and getting out the door. And when you step out of line… solitary confinement is used.” 

The solutions the panel recommended to help in solving this problem proved to be the same method that defined much of the discussion — speaking up against solitary confinement, and championing the humanity of those incarcerated. 

Audience members were asked to call their representatives. Lobbying by the ACLU-VA has already led to the introduction of a “reporting bill” into the Virginia House of Delegates ahead of the 2019 General Assembly by Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, that would, according to Farrar, “help us understand who is being held in solitary confinement, why, for what reason, for how long,” and lead to further legislative action. Efforts are underway to introduce similar a similar bill in the Senate, in addition to continued advocacy work focused on the Northam Administration. 

Delegate Hope was one of several people the speakers mentioned as “interested” in tackling the issue of solitary confinement — including legislators in both the Democrat and Republican parties — who “are waiting to see who will move first,” said Snodgrass. 

“Not everybody in the state government is turning a blind eye to this. There are advocates within the system,” Smith said. 

One of those advocates, Peter Wells, who ran as a Libertarian against A. Donald McEachin and Ryan McAdams in Virginia’s 4th District, was present to share his thoughts. Touting the prominence of criminal justice reform as part of his platform, Wells impressed on the audience the potential attention this issue would receive if his campaign made a strong impact in the midterms. 

While McEachin eventually claimed a sizable victory in last Tuesday’s midterms elections, with Wells pulling in around 1% of the overall vote, the then-Senatorial candidate was optimistic he would have the chance to bring the topic into a wider spotlight. 

“I’ve already had one offer to sit down after the election and talk about some issues,” Wells said. “So I’m going to get some logging time with whoever wins just by coming out of this.”

As for Smith, he and other advocates are already looking ahead to next year’s local elections to establish connections with politicians sympathetic to their goals, regardless of party affiliation. 

“Because you need to have that across the board,” Smith said. “It’s not a left issue, it’s not a right issue. This is a human rights issue.” 

Photos by George Copeland

Mayoral Candidate Ben Davenport’s Millennial Vision for Virginia’s Largest City

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If Ben Davenport is elected Mayor of Virginia Beach, the 38-year-old city councilor and mayoral candidate will join the fast-growing ranks of millennial officeholders in Virginia. The surge of young politicians has changed the focus of elected governments, and outside impressions of the areas they serve. Perhaps the most comparable figure to Davenport is Richmond’s Mayor Levar Stoney, 37, who he credits as inspiring his run.

“Levar Stoney has been an inspiration to me. I want to emulate what he’s done down here,” Davenport said. “Look at the success he has had. When people look at Richmond now, they see a young, vibrant city with a great future ahead of it. That’s what I think I can do, not only for Virginia Beach but for the whole region of Hampton Roads.”

At the crux of Davenport’s sales pitch to voters is a promise to extend the work he’s already done as a city councilor, bringing new jobs in the technology industry to an economy that currently relies on defense, tourism, and agriculture. On city council, Davenport established a technology initiative council that helped bring “the two most powerful subsea cables in the world, in partnership with Microsoft, Facebook, and Telefonica, and now we are finalizing a deal with Google to build a third and a fourth cable.” These cables carry internet traffic from America to Europe, and the upcoming cables will connect Virginia Beach to Africa and South America. While he sees places to expand and strengthen the existing industries, he stressed the importance of adding technology as a fourth, all part of “creating a 21st-century economy for the region.”

At the national technology conferences he attends, seeking to lure major employers to his city, he said he’s already seeing results. “The transatlantic cables have created a buzz around the nation about Virginia Beach,” Davenport said. In the past, he found himself having to start conversations with an explanation of where Virginia Beach is located. Now, he says the companies come to him, reciting a litany of technological advancements the region has made that brought it to their attention.

Virginia Beach has the potential to be the major East Coast digital port for data cables, an industry that requires the support of data centers and high-tech jobs, and Davenport is banking on the fast-growing technology industry to combat one of the major problems he sees for the area: the “brain drain” of talented young people leaving for college and never coming back. “We’re creating a technology cradle that is going to be very beneficial to our younger generation, creating the type of opportunities that keep our youngest from leaving for Denver, Los Angeles, and New York. We want to keep our best and brightest,” he said.

Pointing to the Equinix data center in Ashburn, Virginia, and the data cable plans he has for his city, Davenport said southeast Virginia has the potential to lead the nation on technology. Mostly, he plans to use tax structure incentives to bring large technology firms to the area, but said the cables alone will pull in firms who want to use the data cables. He said, “One of the reasons that Facebook went to the White Oak technical park [in Henrico] was because of the latency range to the cable landing station, in Virginia Beach.” The potential is high; the city currently has four cables built or in the works, and is close to launching a first-of-its-kind cable landing protected zone, which would leave space for 18 additional transatlantic cables. Davenport points to aging cables in Boca Raton, Florida, and New Jersey, and predicts the major carriers will make the leap to Virginia Beach because of its better natural environment for the cables and its proximity to the data center in Ashburn.

Building out the region requires better transportation to Richmond, Davenport said, invoking again his admiration for the mayorship of Stoney. With the I-64 project and Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel projects completed or in their final planning stages, he said high-speed rail would be the next investment.

Ben Davenport. Photo by Landon Shroder

While Davenport sees a bright future for Virginia Beach, he’s also watching the challenges the municipality faces. Chief among those is climate change, which threatens the United States Navy base and the tourism economy that’s developed since the ’70s when Virginia Beach was mostly known for soybean fields. “Sea level rise is something that everybody on the East Coast is dealing with right now,” he said, stressing that he’d combat the problem with a focus on regional collaboration. He said the status quo was “one city going at it alone,” despite Virginia Beach’s shared borders with the largest cities in the commonwealth. “You have the three largest independent cities that share a border, we need to be working in unison on this. Former administrations have seen the borders … but those days are over.”

In the long-term, even a regional solution isn’t enough, Davenport said. He learned about engineering solutions in the Netherlands, while taking a detour from a trip to look at data operations last year. In particular, he came back with an appreciation for the tide gates and dams created in Holland, “the gold standard” in engineering solutions for sea level change. “These are enormous undertakings, and they weren’t taken on by the local municipalities. They were taken on by the entire country and the European Union, because they realized the importance the Netherlands has. The largest ports in Europe are there.” Like the Netherlands, Hampton Roads is low-lying and will be particularly hard-hit by rising sea levels. Also like the Netherlands, Hampton Roads is home to a major port, and Davenport hopes that as Virginia Beach’s mayor, he can turn the region into an economic zone that will motivate a similar scale response from the state and the nation.

For the safety and future of the region, he said, “That’s what’s going to have to happen here.”

Self-Confessed Pedophile and White Supremacist Running for Congress in Virginia

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In what can only be described as one of the most disturbing political interviews ever, The Huffington Post recently spoke with a congressional candidate for Virginia’s 10th District who confessed to being a pedophile. When asked about being a pedophile and writing about pedophilia, he readily admitted, “It’s a mix of both. When people go over the top there’s a grain of truth to what they say.”

Nathan Larson, a 37-year-old accountant from Charlottesville, is apparently running to replace incumbent Republican Barbara Comstock, whose district includes, Clarke, Frederick, Loudoun, Manassas, Winchester, and parts of Fairfax, and Prince William County.

Running as an independent, Larson’s campaign platform is apparently that of a “quasi-neoreactionary libertarian”. Among the litany of bat-shit issues he is running on, is “benevolent white supremacy”, patriarchy, “putting an end to U.S. involvement in foreign wars arising from our country’s alliance with Israel”, (a blatant anti-semitic dog-whistle), and freedom from age restrictions – an endorsement of sexual relations with minors.

Nathan Larson

According to the Huffington Post, Larson has participated in multiple websites and messaging boards for pedophiles and talked extensively about child rape and other forms of gratuitous sexual assault. One such post made under the pseudonym “Lysander”, which identifies him as the administrator, not only directly referenced relations with his daughter, but also said, “Once sex with kids is legalized, I imagine the competition to get in their pants will be fierce.”

Image by Huff Post

In the interview, Larson thankfully acknowledged that he does not have custody of his daughter, relinquishing custody rights in 2015, right before his ex-wife committed suicide. He has also made posts on the now defunct website called Incelocalypse, titled, “Here’s how to psyche yourself up to feel entitled to rape”. The post, reflective of the misogyny and potential violence surrounding incel culture and sub-culture, provides advice for men who believe they should remain celibate due to how they perceive their own physical appearance.  “Why not establish a claim to rape any and all girls,” the post finished by saying, “If it weren’t a disproportionate reward for taking risk…then no one would bother to take risks, and humanity would stagnate.”

Image by Huff Post

The potential for violence surrounding incel culture and sub-culture came about recently after Alex Minassian drove a van into a crowd of people in Toronto killing 10 and wounding 15. On his Facebook page before the incident, he left a message on his feed that said, “The incel rebellion has begun!”.

Larson’s campaign platform “manifesto” is also littered with anti-Semitic language including praise for Adolph Hitler and saying things like, “Jews will cite the Holocaust as an example of the dangers of white supremacist movements. But Jewish supremacists have also brought about the deaths of Gentiles for millennia…it is in the best interests of all races that whites defeat the Jews in the fight for supremacy in America.” This is followed by a call for “benevolent white supremacy” saying, “Like every other human being, I am indeed racist…What makes whites (or at least, the more highly-evolved whites) different from other races is our cultural creativeness.”

Anti-Semitic Imagery Accompanying Larson’s Manifesto

Larson’s pedophilia is woven together with an ideology that fuses a hatred of feminism with a need for upholding the patriarchy by doing away with age restrictions which govern things like the age in which someone can consent to marry. He states that women who marry “the man to whom she gives her virginity is more likely to have a successful marriage than a woman who has had other sexual relationships prior to marriage.” He goes on to state that the average marriageable age should be 17.5 years old. More reprehensibly, he claims pedophilia and “adult-child” sex is only prohibited because of the “Overton window” – a political theory which states that the public will only entertain a certain kind of discourse publically – based on a scale of extremes – and how the issues fit within this scale.   

This is not the first time Larson has run for office, in 2008, he ran for the House of Delegates. According to Ballotpedia, his campaign website claimed his platform was running on the single issue of legalizing “Dignitas-style assisted suicide clinics in Virginia.”

In 2008, Larson was also arrested for sending a letter to the Secret Service saying he was going to kill then President Obama, landing him in prison for 14 months. In 2016, then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe restored civil rights to thousands of felons throughout the Commonwealth, including Larson, allowing him to run for Congress.

Grim.

The Revolution Is Female

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“I believe that women are running for office–I’m sorry, I’m working and just…”

I heard a scuffling of papers in the background while Delegate Hala Ayala paused, early in our conversation about a wave of women candidates elected to the Virginia House of Delegates this past November.

“…Doing a lot. This surge of women are finding out that after this election, and after the Women’s March, we have to have a seat at the table, versus being on the menu. Women are stepping up and striking out against those injustices. We’re saying this is no longer acceptable.”

The scuffling continued, but Ayala, focused, finished our interview and her paperwork without further distraction.

Originally printed in RVA #32 Spring 2018, you can check out the issue HERE or pick it up around Richmond now. 

Multitasking is just one of her many strengths. She’s a single mother of two who served on former Gov. McAuliffe’s Council of Women. She’s a cybersecurity specialist who worked for the Department of Homeland Security and founded the Prince William County chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). She helped organize the Women’s March in Washington this past year and now she’s the delegate for the 51st District in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

And she’s just the beginning.

In the 2017 election cycle, 11 new female Democratic delegates were voted into the General Assembly. This made the total number of women in the General Assembly (GA) rise from 17 to 27, including four Republican delegates – the highest we’ve ever had.

Delegate Vivian Watts described the recent election as a tipping point, saying, “Critical mass is when you reach about a third, so at 27 [women] we’re pretty close to critical mass.” In social dynamics, critical mass means there is a large enough number of independent changes in the innovation of a social system that the rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth. It creates a tradition of collective action, meaning enough people have committed to a cause that they devote themselves to that common cause.

Watts represents the 39th House District, a seat she has held intermittently since 1982. “I really do find some element of that critical mass” after the recent election, she said. “I know for myself, that I’m much more willing, or I feel much more comfortable speaking out on some issues because I know [there is] a better understanding of the issue around me. There’s only one thing worse than just enduring in silence, and that is to say something and have it absolutely dismissed.”

Watts has had a distinguished career, including service on over 35 boards and citizen task forces, and is the author of two books on criminal justice. She’s been a state legislative aide, president of the Fairfax League of Voters, and has two children and four grandchildren. She remembers when the few women who were in the House simply did not appear after hours at social functions.

“You can’t do business that way, especially when we have such short six and eight-week sessions,” Watts said. “You’ve got to get to know each other. That was one of the things I was determined, when I got elected, [that] I would be sure and participate as much as I possibly could. [I was determined] to also make sure that I kept relaxed and kept a sense of humor. Just try to be more part of a collegial setting, rather than assuming that there wasn’t a place for me.”

Watts says it’s far more common for women to have real connections with the other female members of the General Assembly. The shared experience among the women in the GA allows for a larger conversation than the male-dominated discussions of the past, and Watts knows she can stand up, talk about an issue pertinent to women, and have it understood by at least one-third of the room. “I look to ever greater influence, in the years to come, of this shared experience being a part of the legislative considerations about what really is in the best interest of all involved,” she said.

The number of women in office is just one of many significant firsts from the November elections, especially for the Democratic delegates.

Kathy Tran, who represents the 42nd district, is the first Asian-American to serve in the GA. She fled from Vietnam with her parents at just seven months old, on a perilous sea journey. Delegates Hala Ayala and Elizabeth Guzman are the first Latino women in the GA. Local journalist Danica Roem became the first transgender person to ever be elected to a state legislature, and Dawn Adams, a nurse practitioner who also works for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, is the first openly lesbian delegate.

In total, 43 Democratic women, nine Republican women, and one independent ran in House races in 2017. Those numbers are record-breaking.

Emily Brewer (R), a small business owner and delegate representing the 64th House District, attributes the change to modern technologies and abilities, which she says make it easier for women to juggle their lives and also feel empowered to bolster change. “There are a lot of women now that are small business owners and leaders, entrepreneurs, and it’s a different time for women to really lead. And I think that’s led to having more women in politics,” Brewer said. “I don’t see a marked difference [in the GA]. What I do see is a sense of excitement, especially since women have more representation on both sides of the aisle.”

Ayala, along with several other women who ran for office this past year, sees the change as a direct result of dissatisfaction with the current president. “I left everything I knew and my blanket of security because I was unwilling to sit on the sideline and watch this leader that we have, of the free world that I honor and am so proud of, implement the policies in my backyard that he plans to implement,” Ayala said. “He comes with every attribute I don’t believe a leader should have.”

Another debut this election cycle was the #MeToo movement, which Watts sees as a major factor in women running for office and winning elections. She sees the movement as a way to not only address predatory sexual behavior but to go farther and tackle the systematic patriarchal power structure that has oppressed women, including herself, for centuries.

“It’s the fact that women in a professional setting are so often put into a no-win situation,” Watts said. “What you have in the Me Too movement is also that expression of, ‘I want to be the whole person that I am professionally as well as be a woman. I don’t want to have to be in a situation where that is compromised or dismissed.’ The Me Too movement I see is far more than just the issue of broadly stated sexual harassment.”

Not only are women sitting at the table, they’re bringing their experiences to it. Delegate Brewer, who was adopted, has already passed a new bill supporting and amending foster parent adoption. As many new mothers and women bring their dynamic life roles to the House, they are swaying the conversation.

“My interest is in looking at policy from a holistic lens that takes into account the interconnectedness of life experience and how we make policy that supports quality outcomes in our lives,”  said Dawn Adams, who represents the 68th House District. “I put forward a bill to create the Commission for a Healthy Virginia. I think that’s a different kind of suggestion than male counterparts make, in that it’s a really broad lens on how we get to where we want to go, looking at it from an all-encompassing perspective, rather than just piecemeal and trying to put out fires from a policy perspective.”

Social movements like #MeToo are not lost on these women. They talk about community fears with empathy and foresight, where those concerns were previously dismissed as unimportant or matters of personal weakness. One policy, in particular, stands out to Delegate Watts as vital.  

“We need to have a comprehensive workplace harassment policy so that the public feels very comfortable about what the procedures are, should they be concerned about anything that they are experiencing or that happened to them,” Watts said. “It needs to be broadly defined to include all of the public, not just employees of the GA, and I believe strongly that it needs to include our activities year-round. It’s not just walking in here for eight weeks in the building that has my desk in my office, but it is the entire interface with the public. They need to have that comfort level where there is full protection as well as proper procedures to make sure there is nothing where people might use their position of power inappropriately.”

Small changes have been enacted at the GA already, such as the addition of two nursing rooms, but some delegates say the changes don’t address systemic issues and hurdles.

“We cannot let up over the next couple of years, and we need to have that voice of diverse women jumping in,” Adams said. “If we’re just sitting in seats and we’re not able to make effective policy, we haven’t helped anyone. We have to stay engaged and I hope that more women with more diverse life experience will get in and support each other.”

Adams worries that because of the influx of Democratic Party members to a GA still dominated by Republicans, a vein of contention has been sliced open, driven by a fear of losing control. “My personal perception is that nothing has changed,” she said. “It may even not be as Democratic-friendly because of the big shift in people who are now in the GA.”

She says most bills proposed by Democrats are killed at the subcommittee level, often moving to pass by them indefinitely. “It kind of doesn’t matter how strong the policy, or what the policy might have to say,” Adams said. “There seems to be a very regimented process where you can almost tick the boxes. It’s prescriptive.”

Despite the challenge, Adams says this is exactly why women, or anyone with new ideas to tackle patriarchy, cannot back down. Critical mass has just begun. It’s time to create further growth.

Our vision of a typical politician is changing because of these women. They’re delegates, but they are also mothers, grandmothers, small business owners, advocates, nurses, cybersecurity analysts, authors, artists, humans. And they’re angry. And they’re doing something about it.

“Women are no longer willing to remain silent or on the sidelines,” Ayala said. “We’re grabbing our clipboards, we’re grabbing our sneakers, and we’re knocking the hell out of a lot of doors to make a lot of change.” And that’s all before lunch.

Inside the General Assembly with a Legislative Assistant

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Last Friday, I had the experience of a lifetime. I visited the Virginia General Assembly as a legislative assistant for Del. Dawn Adams of the 68th District, working with her assistant –  Maureen Hains. I first met Adams during a phone interview last year, which actually ended up becoming an article for RVA Mag. A few weeks later, she won her delegate seat and my family was invited to the swearing-in ceremony. After the main event, she talked to me about the Legislative Aide for a Day program.

Henry Haggard

I was intrigued, so of course, I said yes. After pages of forms, I was finally ready to skip school last Friday so I could work at the Capitol during the morning session. Right away, I was put right to work – starting with converting the long list of sign-ins from the guest book to an excel spreadsheet. This was interesting but tedious. As you can imagine, it was extremely difficult to read some people’s handwriting, abbreviations, smudges, and messy cursive. On the other hand, it was cool to learn how delegates in the General Assembly actually care about their constituents and visitors; enough to spend hours writing thank you’s and messages to the people.

I can’t think of any other political office that does that. After being paid in chocolate, juice, soda, and chips, it was time for session, which started at 10:00 am. We went to the General Assembly Delegate building, and while everyone was waiting for session to start, I started flipping through the schedule to look at the bills and voting schedule. Apparently, the delegates read through and discuss bills three times before they vote. Unfortunately, this was only the second reading, which was a bummer because I wanted to see the voting process in action. The speaker eventually banged the gavel, which happened to be much bigger than the gavels we use at Model UN – and then the session would start – or so I thought.

We started with the Pledge of Allegiance. At school, I sit during the pledge to protest institutionalized racism on the basis of economic disparity, gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement and restrictions, monopolized industry of pharmaceuticals, and the threat of congressionally-assisted gun massacres.  I was fine standing this time despite my anger over the “Under God” section. Anyway, I thought that would be the only sketchy part of the day, but afterward, we were introduced to a priest.

Head Down, Hard at Work.

This was a little strange for me especially when the priest started leading everyone in prayer. It wasn’t even subtle; he specifically mentioned following Jesus Christ to lead a successful and fulfilling life.

Some lines cannot be crossed, especially when it is a constitutional violation to merge religious beliefs and the people’s government. Taking the constitution out of my pocket, I quietly asked Hains how this was legal. Apparently, the courts ruled that it was, despite the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” After that disquieting event, the delegates proceeded into session.

The delegates were very down to earth. They were all visibly grateful that it was Friday and everyone cheered when the motion to close session passed. They were, contrary to what most expect, very polite and nice to the colleagues that they disagree with. Popular belief suggests that political debate is chaotic and immature. While this is true in some cases, our state legislature rises above those expectations.

Other than doing a couple votes to reschedule debates and committee meetings, there were a few speeches. Before the speeches, a delegate made an announcement that the delegate next to him just had his tenth grandchild, to which everyone cheered. The speeches reminded me of Model UN – more specifically when someone you didn’t expect to speak walks up with a few messy notes and gives a speech that leaves the opposers stunned. This happened with an anti-expanded Medicaid speech and a speech about the people who should be commemorated for their outstanding work in the Civil Rights Movement during Black History Month.

Although I dislike the idea of not expanding Medicaid, I could respect the work put into the research, notes, and public speaking. The delegate who gave the speech had enough decent ideas about politics to be in office, and it showed in his work. This kind of respectful opposition and debate is what I like about politics. Politics, if not respectful and well-articulated, does not belong in any office, especially in a time where ad hominem fallacies, or personal attacks, are thrown around like cats and dogs.

After that, we went back to the Pocahontas Building to do some extra constituent data work. I put the information I could read into a site that tracked what district people live in. Then, it was almost noon and time for my legislative aid session to end.

As I was leaving, Adams introduced me to other delegates. I met Schuyler Vanvalkenburg, Deborah Rodman, and a few other delegates who took some pictures with me. I had seen a couple in the halls, but didn’t know that they were delegates. I wondered how many delegates, senators, or other important people I had bumped into in the elevator or the halls without knowing it. Once again, I saw how down to earth these people were. I told them about my petition to demand police transparency, and Vanvalkenburg asked me when I would rule the world, right before another delegate gave me his card telling me to hire him when I’m older.

Maybe next time I’m there I’ll be a page, a Legislative Assistant, or a representative.

 

Virginia Politics Sponsored by F.W. Sullivans

 

7th District Democrats to Move Forward on Primary

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Sunday night, the Democratic Committee for the 7th District House of Representatives seat decided to hold a primary to choose the nominee to compete against the Incumbent Republican Dave Brat in the November election.

The first vote taken by the Committee ended in a 10-10 tie – the second vote, which was taken without public discussion, or disclosing the vote tally, was apparently skewed heavily towards a primary. The latest reports are that the primary will take place on June 12.

Dan Ward, one of the candidates vying for the nomination, spoke on the decision:

“Tonight, after careful consideration, the 7th Congressional District Democratic Committee decided that our nominee will be chosen through a primary.”

“I’d like to thank the members of the committee, especially Chairwoman Abbi Easter, for the thoughtful, deliberate and transparent process which led to this decision. I appreciate that it was not easy, but I believe it was in the best interest of democracy.”

The four candidates running for the nomination are Abigail Spanberger, Dan Ward, Helen Ali, and Diane Frazier. Dave Brat is the incumbent and has been facing mounting opposition from members of his district. The Democrats want to build on the “Blue Wave” momentum of 2017 and ride that way to Washington this year.

Diane Frazier, spoke on the decision:

“Today, the citizens and voters of Virginia’s 7th District won an important victory for democracy. A primary to choose the Democratic Party nominee for Congress will afford the greatest opportunity for civic education, public engagement, participation and eventual success in November. We in the 7th are proud stewards of the legacy created by sons of the 7th – Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the architects of our Constitutional government. I’m proud to be a daughter of the 7th, and look forward to a lively examination of critical issues and a fierce commitment to restoring our democratic principles and ideals not only in the halls of Congress, but across the United States of America.”

Abigail Spanberger, the candidate that this website has endorsed, spoke on the decision:

“I am very pleased that the 7th district committee has made its decision, and I thank the committee members for their work and commitment to our common goal of winning this seat in November.

With nearly 500 volunteers already signed up to support our campaign, we look forward to continuing to strengthen our volunteer and grassroots network throughout the primary process so that we are strong and organized enough to win in November.”

This debate is finally over – now we are looking forward to months of campaigning from the candidates. It will truly benefit the party for all candidates to stay respectful and positive. It will also be very beneficial for all candidates to pledge to support the winner of the primary. Dave Brat is vulnerable, and he knows it. The Democratic party must take advantage of this opportunity and seize this seat from a reliably-conservative area prior to 2017.

 

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