(Re)counting Our Blessings : One group of Virginians who aren't feeling super grateful this November?

Republican members of the General Assembly, now about to be the minority party in both legislative chambers for the first time in over two decades.

Del. Chris Stolle, who lost to Democrat Nancy Guy by 27 votes on Nov. 5, is apparently pretty eager to be a part of that diminished squad. He filed for a recount last week, and this week we’ve learned that ballots in House District 83 will be re-tabulated on Dec. 12 and 13—at which point we’ll know for sure whether Democrats have 55-seats in the 100-seat House are or stuck with just 54.



Which [[checks notes]] is still a majority.

Get Stuffed : Republicans in the Virginia state Senate seem to be struggling to adapt to life as the minority party.

Or maybe just, like, struggling.

The GOP will hold 19 of 40 seats in the upper chamber next year, but the GOP caucus will only have 18 members, apparently. After recent leadership elections kept Sen. Tommy Norment in charge of the Senate Republicans, GOP Sen. Amanda Chase, who’d neither run herself nor had nominated an alternative candidate, peaced out of the caucus to … make some sort of statement, I guess? Honestly, it’s all a little fuzzy. If the name Amanda Chase rings a bell, it may be because her, ah, personal brand seems to involve drawing attention to herself for doing/saying stupid/wrong things. Recent hits include: Yelling and cursing at a capitol police officer over a parking spot Calling the Senate clerk “Miss Piggy,” and Saying rape victims are “naive and unprepared.”

I mean, it’s not like Chase isn’t still a Republican. She’s mostly gonna vote with the rest of the Senate GOP. … but honestly, I get the feeling they’re not really going to miss having her in their caucus meetings.



I’ll Give You My Musket When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Hands: In pre-election polling, Virginians of both parties overwhelmingly favored improving gun safety in the Commonwealth, and elections day results bore that out as voters gave Democrats—the party that favors and campaigned on these measures—majority control of both legislative chambers.

Angry uncle calling you a libruhl liar? He can look through the list of bills proposed so far for himself right here.

Anyway, my point is that no one is going to take away these folks’ guns. Tell your angry uncle.

Turkeys : As an erudite consumer of this content, you probably recall that one of GOP lawmakers’ favorite pastimes after Democratic governors get elected is coming up with creative ways to undermine their authority.

This typically comes in the form of stripping incoming governors of powers that Republican legislators didn’t seem to mind their (Republican) predecessors having.

North Carolina GOPers get credit for establishing the genre. After Democrat Roy Cooper ousted GOP Gov. Pat McCrory, the Republican-controlled legislature eliminated Cooper’s ability to make key cabinet appointments without its approval, drastically cut the size of Cooper’s administration, altered the Board of Elections so that Republicans would control it in election years, and altered the actual judicial process around their new laws to ensure lawsuits had to first go through the Republican-controlled appeals court before reaching the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court.

GOPers get credit for establishing the genre. Last year, Republican legislators in Wisconsin and Michigan sought to put their own stamps on this work. In the Badger State, the power stolen by the GOP-controlled legislature from the Democratic administration includes curtailing the governor’s power to guide economic development, halt litigation on the state’s behalf, and make administrative rules implementing new laws.

and Michigan sought to put their own stamps on this work. In Michigan , Republican lawmakers welcomed their new Democratic women statewide officeholders by passing legislation allowing the (GOP-controlled) legislature to intervene in cases involving the state—a direct attack on the power of the new Democratic attorney general.

, Republican lawmakers welcomed their new Democratic women statewide officeholders by passing legislation allowing the (GOP-controlled) legislature to intervene in cases involving the state—a direct attack on the power of the new Democratic attorney general. Also, Republican lawmakers decided that too many laws they didn’t much like were being passed via citizen initiative (i.e. actual voters), so they moved to usurp the power of Michiganders directly by effectively gerrymandering the signature-gathering process for citizen-initiated ballot measures . Previously, signatures on the petitions to send a proposed new law to the ballot for a statewide vote can come from any voter anywhere in the state. But House Republicans altered this requirement so that now no more than 15 percent of the signatures can come from any one of Michigan’s 14 congressional districts. That’s not only a garbage requirement intended to make signature-gathering harder by preventing canvassers from racking up totals in accessible and densely populated urban areas, but it also effectively gerrymanders the ballot measure process by creating arbitrary caps based on Michigan's extremely GOP-skewing congressional map.

effectively gerrymandering the signature-gathering process for citizen-initiated ballot measures Anyway, fast forward a year. Right now, GOP majorities in the Kentucky legislature are feeling less than thankful that they’re about to have a Democratic governor (even though basically everybody hated Matt Bevin—even his own lieutenant governor didn’t vote for him). On one level, though, Republican lawmakers don’t have too much to worry about in terms of effective loss of legislative power. You see, Kentucky is one of just six states where a simple majority vote of the legislature is all it takes to override gubernatorial vetoes. So when Republicans pass a bill soon-to-be Gov. Andy Beshear doesn’t like, he’ll veto it, but Republicans will essentially just vote to pass it again. But stealing power from new Democratic governors who had the GALL to get themselves elected is just so in vogue with GOP lawmakers right now that Kentucky Republicans just had to get in on the trend. GOP leaders in the Kentucky legislature are pushing a bill that would effectively remove Democratic Beshear’s control over the state’s Department of Transportation. This legislation would limit the governor to nominating a transportation secretary from a list chosen by a new board whose nine members would be selected by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and local government associations—and those board members are subject to a veto by the Republican-controlled legislature. Lawmakers would also have veto power over Beshear’s nominee, making this the only cabinet position in Kentucky government requiring Senate confirmation. So, basically, Republicans are trying to take control of a key government post away from the governor and instead hand it over to corporate interests, setting themselves up as a backstop if they somehow don't get their way in the process. And remember how I mentioned that veto override votes require a simple majority to succeed? Yeah, so this measure doesn’t even have to pass before Beshear takes takes office on Dec. 10. He can veto it all he likes, and Republicans have plenty of spare votes to override it (39 D/61 R House, 9 D/29 R Senate).



Welp, that’s a wrap for this Turkey Day. Time to enjoy some holiday-specific victuals. Since you took time to read this and illuminate your friends/relatives/mortal enemies you have a temporary truce with because pies are delicious about the true origins of Thanksgiving and recent goings-on in statehouses, you deserve ALL THE PIE. Just print this out and show it to the fam, I’m sure they won’t mind.