Seemed pretty obvious when they nominated a terrible candidate for the top of the ticket (and then national and VA GOP only dumped money into Miyares for months) that GOP delegates had been thrown under the bus. Not sure Kilgore's to blame for most of that.

No words for how vile and disgusting this is. And dangerous, frankly, to rile up a MAGA mob about not wanting *those kind of people* in this state. Where have we seen this before? 🤔

Oh, don't worry, @abigailspanberger.com IS going to pack up and go home--just as soon as Youngkin moves out of it!

Democratic colleagues Simon, Ebbin, Watts and Locke wrote in their letter to OSIG that they are “deeply concerned” Miyares may have pressured VADOC “to adjust its practices in ways that advantage” his campaign. “If true, this would represent a profound breach of the public trust,” they wrote.

Sen Mulchi speaking passionately and heart-breakingly about domestic violence and how many victims of domestic violence are re-victimized in court, labeled as having mental illness. And I can't help but think about how Miyares did that to this victim: vanow.org/news/article...

@ssurovell.bsky.social before Virginia Senate passes redistricting amendment: What do you do when one side refuses to play by the rules? Do you continue to play by the rules and concede defeat? Or do you take actions, even if unsavory, to protect the principles of democratic government?

@senatorlocke.bsky.social points out that the GOP keep saying "We don't react to things happening elsewhere," but all year long we've been responding to Executive Orders coming from DC, whether they follow the law or constitution or not. While other states are fighting back, Miyares is not.

Weird how it's the "death of our democracy" here in Virginia to offer the voters a chance to engage in mid-decade redistricting. So do we all agree that Trump's actions are the death of democracy?

We keep hearing occasional peeps from VA GOP members during this redistricting discussion insinuating-sometimes downright stating-that Trump's coerced mid-decade redistricting in TX & elsewhere to rig Congress's majority is wrong. But none of them said a single word before this.

GOP Senator Peake says something good was said down the hall from someone "we rarely hear good things from, [GOP] Delegate Lee Ware" OUCH!

It's cute for the Senate GOP to argue about what constitutes an intervening election and whether voters have a chance to oust legislators if they don't like how they vote on this amendment when it ISN'T THE SENATE THAT IS UP FOR ELECTION. So there's no risk to them either way.

Oh goody, we're going to have a constitutional law duel on the Senate floor on this Friday morning. 🫠

@ssurovell.bsky.social on early voters: They voted before the shutdown, before the East Wing of the White House was torn down, before they knew whether the government would extend the health care subsidies, lots of things people were unaware of but made up their mind to vote early anyway.

Senate rejects GOP floor changes to redistricting amendment that'd undermine the intent of this plan, which is to give Virginians the opportunity to ask legislature to respond to unfair redistricting taking place in other states, watering down their representation in Congress.

Probably wouldn't matter, but the Senate GOP kinda hamstrings themselves by not all showing up to work. They're missing 3 members when the majority has a one vote margin.

If they love redistricting comissions show much, why have they never rebuked trump's efforts to "find me more seats?" Why have they never demanded federal legislation prohibiting mid-decade redistricting? Of course, the answer is they don't care about process, they care about power.

It is RICH to hear these GOP Senators fervently singing praises of the Redistricting Commish. @creighdeeds.bsky.social & others drafted redistricting commish amendments for YEARS, and the GOP rejected every single one of them UNTIL they were in minority & could no longer draw own districts.

Sen Obenshain says that the decision on how many Republican-leaning and how many Democratic-leaning Congressional seats Virginia has shouldn't be one of those "cats and dogs issues" that Democrats and Republicans aren't supposed to agree on. Huh?

The Virginia Senate has a Charlie Kirk memorial resolution on the floor this morning. I will not be reporting any further on it.

Senate Privileges and Elections reports out redistricting amendment resolution to the floor.

@aaronrouse.bsky.social: Speaking of unprecedented, it has been five weeks since the US House has convened to seat a duly-elected member from Arizona. What happens when that becomes Virginia? Do we ignore what happens at the federal level?

@creighdeeds.bsky.social says doing Congressional redistricting with a bipartisan commission when other states don't do the same is like unilaterally disarming, and says that this resolution probably doesn't go far ENOUGH, but it's an important start to responding to Trump's power grab.

@russetperry.bsky.social: "If they don't want it, they can say so!" But I think the concern, and you're right to be concerned about that, I think they're going to decide that too, is that voters will want to take this action. It'll be the voters decision--that's the foundation of democracy.

@scvanvalkenburg.bsky.social points out that early voting is defined in the code as voting 45 days "prior to the election." Meaning that "the election" is not defined as the broad time period over which people vote, but rather the Tuesday in November that is Election Day--words matter.

"Who's to say the next President won't be even worse?" Senator Travis Hackworth (GOP).

By 51-42 vote, the Virginia House votes to pass a resolution that would allow a mid-decade redistricting. This must pass the Senate and then pass both bodies once more after the upcoming election, and then the voters of Virginia will weigh in.

These GOP members just keep saying over and over how the voters have spoken on redistricting, five years ago, etc. If they are so sure that the voters don't support this, what do they care if it's put before the voters? Put your money where your mouth is and trust the voters.

@delciaprice85.bsky.social goes OFF! "As if basic civics knowledge does not tell us that what happens at the federal level can affect is here." Example: NC redistricted and went from 7-7 to 10-4 that gave Congress the 218 majority.

Del. @marcussimon.com: We're here bc a) we asked the Governor on a bipartisan basis to call us into this special session & gave ourselves authority to decide what business we could take up; b) to give voters the ability to push back against Trump's power grab in other states if they want.

House P&E reports redistricting resolution. @delciaprice85.bsky.social says "the threat to our FEDERAL democracy, the threat of the fall of the Voting Rights Act are an unprecendented threat to Virginians. 5 years may not seem like a long time, but not when your democracy is under attack.

Public testimony in support of the redistricting amendment coming from huge number of other-issues advocacy groups--Planned Parenthood, environmental, affordability, and disadvantaged communities. Because it's apparent that when our democracy fails, it affects every other issue.

GOP Del asks patron: Do you know how many times there's been a temporary change to the constitution? @delciaprice85.bsky.social helps him with an answer: The same number of times as a sitting President has asked other states to FIND him Congressional seats. 🔥🔥🔥

Preamble to upcoming court case happening in the House P&E as they're somewhat "litigating" the old code requiring court clerks post a constitutional amendment resolution "on the courthouse doors"--even though they likely haven't done so for any prior resolution for decades.

@delciaprice85.bsky.social demonstrates why she is chair of this committee (she's one of the most skilled chairs in the legislature), keeping the scope of questions being asked narrowly restricted to those pertaining to the language of this proposed resolution and nothing else.

🚨BREAKING: A Virginia judge Wednesday rejected a Republican request to immediately block Democrats from advancing a constitutional amendment that could let the state redraw its congressional map— a win, for now, for Democrats and voting rights advocates. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Ridiculous exchange in Senate, as LG Sears claims the resolution needs a 2/3 vote to pass (it passed by simple majority), her ruling is overturned by the body of the Senate, and she refuses to acknowledge that the resolution thereby passed but the record WILL reflect so.

The amendments aren't any actual legislating or engaging in serious work on behalf of their constituents, fear not, they're just a political stunt to try to gotcha Democratic Senators into condemning Jones' texts. Because thought policing is their most important issue.

There are apparently floor amendments from GOP Senators to the HJ6006 resolution regarding the scope of this special session. They haven't been distributed and are not publicly available, so there's a floor scuffle now.

Senate once again discussing whether to read another letter from Youngkin chastising the Senate Dems. Since he continues to refer to the "Democrat Party" in the classical MAGA grammar, @ssurovell.bsky.social once again moves to skip the reading, and the majority votes it so.

The proposed Constitutional amendment would allow Virginia's General Assembly to "modify one or more congressional districts" before 2030 standard redistricting, if and only if another state has altered their districts b/w decades without court mandate. lis.virginia.gov/bill-details...

Do you know who is NOT joining the lawsuit to sue Trump to protect SNAP benefits? Jason Miyares, that's who. Do you know who is NOT trying to protect low-income Virginians from being unable to feed their families? Jason Miyares. THIS is why we need to elect @jonesjay in a week.

Imagine sitting back while trump attacks our Commonwealth and our democracy then complaining about Virginia dems refusing to bow down.

“If they’re saying that 78 deaths are attributable to [enhanced early sentence credits], then that’s clearly wrong and they’re either misinterpreting the data or they can’t understand it,” said Doug Ramseur, a criminal defense attorney based in Richmond, after reviewing the list.

And @scvanvalkenburg.bsky.social adds the reason we're here is that the President's ideas--Nat'l Guard in our cities, health care costs rising, ICE abducting people--are unpopular. He doesn't want us to be able to express our anger w/ our vote so he's rigging the system in TX and elsewhere.

@barbarafavola.bsky.social:--Congress & Trump are making choices that hurt real life voters--SNAP cuts, health care spikes, etc. And democracy RIDES on the notion that if we don't like what our elected leaders do, we can VOTE THEM OUT. And Trump's interference in TX undoes that!

Listening to these GOP members cry about redistricting, and history of losing "their seats" (they ain't YOUR seats anyway) is a tell--they KNOW exactly how Virginia voters are feeling and how they would vote on retaliating against Trump's redistricting if given the chance.

@ssurovell.bsky.social is on 🔥🔥 talking about this hyperpartisan governor who from day one was running for president & hasn't worked at all w the legislature, plus the utterly corrupt US President w a Congress that can't or won't stand up to him and a SCOTUS that won't protect rights now.

Shortly after we hear from GOP Sen Stanley about the good ol' Virginia Way, Sen Obenshain takes his moment to read Youngkin's letter. If anyone contributed more to the "lack of civility" that now dwells in the legislature, it is very much this hyperpartisan hack governor.

FINALLY! Senator Locke tells it like it is! As someone who actually sat on the allegedly "bipartisan redistricting commission," she says they were constantly gridlocked on every minor detail & THAT is why it went to the Supreme Court to draw--what should have been a last resort.

Youngkin sends a note to the Senate to share his sad feelz about their reconvening to take up a response in Virginia to Trump's interference in redistricting in Texas. @ssurovell.bsky.social moves to skip its reading on the Senate floor, and the Senate votes to skip it.