The VLW Blog

Two recent opinions from Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli should come as a relief for a member of the Wise County School Board. The opinions also appear to strengthen the governor’s power to restore civil rights to former felons. Rocky Cantrell’s ability to serve as an elected school board member was called into question because of [...]

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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 [...]

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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, [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Virginia House majority leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, is hoping to challenge long-time Rep. Rick Boucher for the 9th District Congressional seat, reports The Roanoke Times . “It’s going to take a lot of time and money, but I believe it can be done,” Griffith told the paper this afternoon. “I just have to make sure [...]

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Shenandoah County Circuit Judge Dennis Hupp said the county board of supervisors waited too long to ask for sanctions against a former board candidate. In a letter opinion and accompanying order last month, Hupp closed the case, declining to rule on the county’s sanctions motion against Mark Prince and his lawyer.  He held the county [...]

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