Politics

Delagate Jason Miyares The honor of my life is representing the citizens of Virginia Beach in the Virginia House of Delegates.  In 1965, my mother Miriam Miyares fled Cuba as a scared, penniless 19-year old girl, leaving a country where the government has no consent of the governed to almost fifty years to the day in 2015 being able to vote for her son to represent her in one of the oldest democracies in the world.   This is truly an example of the American Miracle.  2019 is the 400th Anniversary of the founding of the oldest continuous democratic body in the Western Hemisphere, the Virginia General Assembly.   Virginia has come a long way since the first meeting of the legislative body in a Jamestown church on a hot July 30th, 1619.  However, the same d...

Senator Bill DeSteph Elected to the Senate of Virginia in 2015 and 2019, Senator Bill DeSteph is a veteran, entrepreneur, leader, and father whose chosen pursuit is to serve and protect our nation’s citizens. Senator DeSteph represents the 8th District in the Senate of Virginia. The 8th District includes portions of the city of Virginia Beach. As the 2020 General Assembly session ended its first full week of business, Virginia’s Capitol was surrounded by 6-foot-high chain-link fencing. This followed the historic ban on weapons in the General Assembly imposed by the Joint Rules Committee. We have not had such restrictions imposed at the Capitol in anyone’s memory, but the new majority implemented changes in advance of Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, which has long been the bu

By Bruce Meyer - Publisher There is an old saying:  “Elections have consequences”.  2019’s Legislative Elections are a prime example of that saying.  Believe it or not, the results of this election were not about partisanship, but rather regionalism and the “Power Grab” by Northern Virginia. Prior to the 2019 General Assembly Elections, Hampton Roads held two of the most important House of Delegates committee chairmanships for our region: Appropriations and Transportation.  Those two committee Chairmen – Delegate David Yancey of Newport News and Delegate Chris Jones of Suffolk were our primary champions in the House for all of our transportation projects.  After the 2019 Elections, the House flipped and the Democrats took control for the first time in 20

Hampton Roads Weekly had the opportunity to discuss the impact of changes in committee assignments in our House of Delegates and Senate with Hampton Roads Chamber President and CEO, Bryan K.Stephens.    HRW: As we all know, a historic shift has occurred in the Virginia General Assembly as a result of our last elections.  Democrats are now the majority party in both the House and the Senate.  When new committee assignments were announced recently by our new Democrat Speaker of the House Filler-Corn and Majority Leader of the Senate Saslaw, both of whom are from Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads Delegates and Senators were removed from and left out of many influential committees.  Leadership and committee assignments for the most powerful committees in the Gen...

By Bruce Meyer The 2019 Election cycle has come and gone.  The Democrats outspent, out-organized and turned out more voters than the Republicans.  They achieved great success.  Voter turnout in Virginia Beach averaged a little over 40%.  In the Richmond area, it averaged approximately 50%.  An off-year election typically averages approximately 20-30%. The Republicans lost 6 seats in the House of Delegates and 2 seats in the Virginia Senate, giving the Democrats control of the Governor’s Mansion, the House and Senate for the first time since 1993.  That is 27 years! The big question being asked is “What Happened”? This is not a simple question.  There were numerous factors that contributed to the Republicans losing control.&nb