The VLW Blog

Sen. J. Chapman Petersen, D-Fairfax, who had been mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2013, took himself out of the running late yesterday.
In a lengthy post on Facebook, he explained his reasons.
He said he had been getting many inquiries, which he did not discourage.
But “[t]o run for public office, a lot of pieces [...]

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A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wasted little time in rejecting a bid by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to get on the Virginia GOP primary ballot.
Perry appealed Sunday from a district judge’s refusal to add his name to the ballot. The appeals court responded Tuesday with a 23-page order, saying [...]

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Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told staffers Thursday he plans to run for governor, setting up a likely primary showdown with Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.
The Washington Post obtained a copy of an email sent by Cuccinelli to members of his staff Thursday afternoon.
“[A]as the rumors swirl, I find it necessary to put them to rest,” [...]

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A veteran prosecutor may have to run for re-election as a write-in candidate after a judge rejected his bid for a court order to get his name on the ballot Thursday.
Richmond County Circuit Judge Harry Taliaferro dissolved his temporary injunction and allowed the county registrar to report the names of qualified candidates to the State [...]

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Update: (9/8/11, 3:50 p.m.) Judge Harry Taliaferro has upheld the local electoral board’s decision invalidating Wayne Emery’s petition. According to the Northern Neck News, Emery plans to file further injunctions immediately.
A 16-year Virginia prosecutor could be unseated this year because his election paperwork was found to be defective after the registration deadline passed.
Richmond County [...]

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A Charlottesville lawyer plans to run as a Republican for the seat of state Sen. Creigh Deeds. Elsewhere, two incumbent commonwealth’s attorneys announce bids for re-election.
“T.J.” Aldous, the Charlottesville lawyer, described himself as a “committed conservative” as he told The Daily Progress he hopes to unseat Deeds, D-Bath County, who’s been in office since 2001. [...]

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Sen. Fred Quayle, a lawyer in Suffolk and the senior Republican on the Courts of Justice Committee, will not seek reelection to a sixth term.
The redistricting plan approved last month put Quayle and another Republican, Sen. Harry Blevins of Chesapeake, in the same district. Blevins announced yesterday that he will seek reelection and Quayle told [...]

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An Alexandria federal judge ruled yesterday that the ban on direct political contributions by corporations to federal candidates is unconstitutional.
Senior Judge James C. Cacheris said the logic in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year in Citizens United v. FEC compelled that holding. His ruling came in the context of criminal charges filed against two [...]

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Politico is reporting that Virginia’s congressional delegation has reached a redistricting deal that likely will ensure eight of the state’s 11 seats will remain Republican for the next decade.
You might ask how they can do that when the General Assembly has the final say on redistricting, but the article suggests that state legislators are likely [...]

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U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson has upheld a Virginia law that will keep a Spotsylvania County man from appearing on the 7th District congressional election ballot.
Herb Lux lives in the 1st District but wants to run for Congress in the 7th District, something he is allowed to do under the Virginia Constitution. But Virginia election [...]

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