Virginia@: Your April 18th Sunday Summary

Dear Friend of TJI,

“Nine seems to be a good number. It’s been that way for a long time. I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the court. If anything would make the court look partisan, it would be that — one side saying, ‘When we’re in power, we’re going to enlarge the number of judges, so we would have more people who would vote the way we want them to….The court has no troops at its command, doesn’t have the power of the purse, and yet time and again, when the courts say something, people accept it. … I dissented from that decision (Bush v. Gore Florida recount). I thought it was unwise. A lot of people disagreed with it. And yet the day after the court rendered its decision, there were no riots in the streets. People adjusted to it. And life went on.” – Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Meanwhile …

1.) The Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Senior Fellow, Steve Haner, offered up two pieces in Bacon’s Rebellion on Virginia’s election laws and Republican proposals. In Part I (here) he refutes the sort of claim that earned President Biden “Four Pinocchios” from the Washington Post (here). Part of the problem in the election law debates is that people actually have to read the bill.

2.) In Part II (here), Haner (a recovering political operative who used to win elections) tells Republicans and conservatives to stop whining and use the laws as they exist to the benefit of their candidates. That involves hard work instead of blog posts from the comfort of your couch, but something suggests if the “souls to polls” movement for Sunday voting suddenly included a lot of conservative churches (including churches led by conservative black ministers), the Left might choose to rethink its positions. By all means, work to ensure the votes are legitimate. But also work to make certain they include all your votes, as the Left does.

3.) And the Left surely does. The 2020 Census counted Virginians where they were, including those in prison. But a new Virginia law requires assigning those prisoners, for purposes of redistricting, to their last known residential address … even though they don’t live there now and may never live there again (no, it does not do the same with illegal immigrant populations). The effect is to further empty out and decrease representation in rural (Republican) areas while increasing clout in urban (Democrat) areas. The Virginia Public Access Project graphically exhibits the changes here.

4.) In other voter suppression news, the Virginia Department of Elections shut down for maintenance its voter information portal on the last day before voters in Fairfax County could register for the Republican convention (here). The portal supplied voter registration information needed to register as a delegate.

5.) The redoubtable Mr. Haner also reminds us that the Transportation and Climate Initiative Model Rule is open for public review and comment (here). This is the interstate compact that Governor Northam wants to join but which he promised to bring to the General Assembly for a vote. It’s also the compact that would raise your gasoline taxes to 50 cents a gallon, ration fuel at the wholesale level and reduce funding for road repair and construction. Virginians should want to read, understand, and comment on it – but it is best summed up by a liberal activist from New Jersey here.

6.) TCI remains an issue that will be bad for the poor, bad for rural communities and bad for our roadways. This week, the Thomas Jefferson Institute opens a campaign to educate the public, and you can get a “sneak peak” of our video by clicking here. You can also sign our petition against it by going to www.StopTCI.com.

7.) In two weeks, localities will be permitted to collectively bargain with their local teachers, police, fire and office worker unions. They don’t have to, but the government employee unions are already working hard to maneuver them into it (see here and here), including training their activists (here). Jefferson Institute Visiting Fellow F. Vincent Vernuccio outlines some of the challenges of collective bargaining here, as well as the costs (here). We’ve been warning about the negative effects on children and teachers for more than a year (here).

8.) Collective bargaining agreements (or Monopoly Union Contracts) make it nearly impossible to hold public employees accountable, too. Philip K. Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense, and chair of The Campaign for Common Good, will talk about that issue in an online webinar on May 6, at 7:00 pm. There is no cost for the webinar and you can register by clicking here.

9.) Private sector union contracts aren’t cutting it for workers, either. The multi-million dollar campaign to unionize 6,000 workers at Amazon in Alabama lost 71-29 percent, and the unions were left to complain about a mailbox being set up outside the company facility (we thought they favored making it easier to vote!). Eighty-five percent of Amazon’s workers are black, and the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley demonstrates that those workers voted their economic interest (here).

10.) There is evidence that pent-up pandemic demand will mean an improving economy. But Jim Bacon, publisher of Bacon’s Rebellion, argues it isn’t as good as it could be, and we are a victim of dysfunctional government policy here.

11.) And the Green New Deal will take out more casualties as economist Steve Moore points out here, noting that National Association of State Energy Officials report that fossil fuel and nuclear power jobs paying $32 to $40 an hour are being replaced with wind and solar jobs paying $24-$26 an hour. Coming to Virginia soon, courtesy of the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

Finally ... taxpayers get an extra month to pay their taxes this year. So why aren’t you happy?

Happy Sunday, Everyone!

Keep those receipts.