Rappahannock Candidates Forum October 16
The Rappahannock County Candidates Forum will be held on October 16 at the Rappahannock County High School from 6 to 9 pm. Bring your questions for the candidates for School Board and Board of Supervisors!
Countdown to the Election!
Countdown to the November 2, 2021 General Election
For yard signs, please email Mary-Sherman Willis
- Offices on ballot: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, House of Delegates, Board of Supervisors, School Board.
- First day of in-person early voting at local voter registration office: Friday, September 17, 2021.
- Deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration: Tuesday, October 12, 2021.
- Deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you: Friday, October 22 2021. Request must be received by local voter registration office by 5:00 p.m.
- Voter registration offices open Saturday, October 23, 2021 and October 30, 2021 for early voting.
- Last day of in-person early voting at local voter registration office: Saturday, October 30, 2021at 5:00 p.m.
- See who is on your ballot by viewing the candidate lists.
- Register to vote or apply for a ballot online using the Citizen Portal.
REMINDER: The terms of the officers (and the at-large Executive Committee members) of the Rappahannock County Democratic Committee will end with our biennial reorganization in January 2022. If you think you might like to serve as Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, or Treasurer, NOW is the time to step up. We’d love nothing more than to hand the reins over to a younger, more diverse slate. If you’re interested, simply reply to Mary-Sherman Willis to get more information.
Washington Post Opinion–Glenn Youngkin’s economic plan would run Virginia ‘into a ditch’
Opinion by the WP Editorial Board, 7/31/2021
As Virginia Democrats have run the table in every statewide election since 2009, Republican gubernatorial aspirants have reverted to the same failed three-step playbook:
- Declare the state’s economy is in a tailspin.
- Promise to jump-start it by drastically slashing taxes, while insisting no harm would result to critical state services.
- Pledge to shrink public spending by eliminating unidentified waste, fraud and abuse.
Now comes Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s current Republican gubernatorial nominee — a slicker, wealthier version of past GOP hopefuls who poses as a new kind of candidate while peddling much the same nonsense.
Mr. Youngkin, who made a fortune in private equity, says Virginia’s economy is “in the ditch” — an assertion flatly contradicted by a tsunami of evidence to the contrary. And, like his predecessors, he claims lower tax bills are the elixir that would cure what ails the commonwealth.
Specifically, Mr. Youngkin, when asked this spring if he hopes to reduce or eliminate Virginia’s income tax, replied as follows: “We are absolutely focused on not just getting our state income tax down, but how can we in fact eliminate it?”
That very baloney was also peddled by Republicans Ed Gillespie, who lost the governor’s race in 2017; Corey Stewart, who narrowly lost the GOP primary that year to Mr. Gillespie; and former state attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, who lost in 2013. In each case, the conceit was that cutting taxes would attract new businesses to Virginia and help them grow faster. But what businesses, and which employees, would flock to a state that would decimate its tax base, thereby starving schools, roads, health care, parks, prisons and police of resources?
Here are the facts. Virginia’s individual income tax — the target of Mr. Youngkin’s fever dream — accounts for 72 percent of the state’s $43.5 billion of revenue in the current two-year general fund budget. (Most of the rest comes from sales, corporate and other taxes.) Take an ax to the income tax, and funding for vital services is decimated.
That’s not theory; it’s been tried, recently — in Kansas and Louisiana, in both cases by Republican governors who promised that cutting taxes would generate higher growth. In fact, the predictable result was that revenue shriveled, and so did state support for services Democrats and Republicans alike care about. In fact, eliminating Virginia’s income tax is a perfect recipe for defunding the police, the very policy Mr. Youngkin (falsely) accuses Virginia Democrats of favoring.
The GOP tax-cutting experiments in Kansas and Louisiana were disasters. In both cases, the damage was severe, and the tax cuts were rolled back.
What makes Mr. Youngkin’s proposal even more preposterous is that Virginia’s economy is robust. Unemployment is significantly below the national average. Residents’ tax burden is squarely in the middle of the nationwide pack. The state government is running a $2 billion budget surplus, boasts a AAA bond rating (putting it in the top dozen states nationally) and is regularly ranked among the best states for business.
If Virginians want to see an economy run “into the ditch,” Mr. Youngkin’s plan would do the trick.
The Democratic race for governor: Meet the candidates, hear their views
Click the link below to read an article about the Democratic Party Candidates for Governor written by Rachel Needham, published in the Rappahannock News.
Get to Know the Candidates Before June 8
The Virginia Democratic Party Primary is June 8, 2021. Below are the candidates and links to their campaign websites.
CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR
Lee Carter Lee Carter for Governor (carterforvirginia.com)
Justin Fairfax Justin Fairfax | Justice • Fairness • Opportunity
Jennifer Carroll Foy Jennifer Carroll Foy for Governor – Jennifer Carroll Foy
Terry McAuliffe Terry McAuliffe
Jennifer McClellan Jennifer McClellan for Governor
CANDIDATES FOR LT GOVERNOR
Hala Ayala Home | Hala for Virginia
Elizabeth Guzman Elizabeth Guzman for Delegate | Virginia House of Delegates | HD-31 (elizabethguzmanforvirginia.com)
Mark Levine Home | Mark Levine for Delegate (markfordelegate.com)
Andria McClellan Andria McClellan for Lt. Governor (andriaforvirginia.com)
Sean Perryman Path Forward – Landing Page – Sean Perryman for Virginia Lt. Governor
Sam Rasoul Home | Sam Rasoul for Virginia Lieutenant Governor | Truth. Love. Grit. (sam4va.com)
Xavier Warren Vote Xavier Warren for Lt. Governor (xavierforvirginia.com)
CANDIDATES FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL
Mark Herring Mark Herring Attorney General for Virginia (herringforag.com)
Jay Jones Jay Jones for Attorney General