Latest from Mark Obenshain

With 2017 upon us, the General Assembly beings its 2017 legislative session. This year’s 45-day session, while not a budget year, remains critical as we work to balance a revenue shortfall of nearly $1.5 billion here in Richmond. Both the General Assembly and the Governor have proposals to address the deficit, and those competing priorities will determine in which direction Virginia moves.

We’ve remained steadfast against Governor McAuliffe’s attempts to force Virginia to embrace Obamacare through the expansion of Medicaid. This year, for the first time in four years, Terry McAuliffe has not included express budget language expanding the program. While at first blush this may appear to be a concession or defeat to the new political reality that Obamacare is to be taken off life support – that is not in Terry McAuliffe’s DNA. He actually tried to sneak into his budget bill provisions repealing the language that prevents him from unilaterally expanding the program by executive order. It’s a reminder that we must keep be on constant watch against unnecessary and cost-prohibitive government overreach.

The Governor just announced his legislative priorities, and he’s made clear he’s targeting Virginia’s voter ID law, upheld last just last month by a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Despite support of more than two-third of Virginians – and polls revealed even 60% of Democrats support voter ID – Richmond Democrats and Terry McAuliffe continues to attack a common sense legislation that ensures fair, free and open elections. Notwithstanding the liberal rhetoric, photo ID remains critical to maintaining voter confidence in the integrity of our system of elections. I can assure you that we will fight and defeat the Governor’s efforts to eliminate the voter ID requirement.
Maintaining voter confidence in our elections is a key legislative focus this year, as I’ve proposed areas to increase electoral accountability. I’m requesting a Joint Legislative Administration Audit & Review Commission (JLARC) study on Virginia’s VERIS system, our online voter registration system that repeatedly locked out election officials across Virginia, including a critical failure at the registration deadline last October. I’ve also requested the formation of a task force to create a ‘one-stop shop’ for our government agencies to coordinate address changes. Currently, when you tell the DMV you’ve moved out of state, that information isn’t shared with the Department of Elections – or for that matter, with any other state agency. We have the capacity to fix this, and it’s an easy way to track changes of address and our voter rolls up-to-date.

One key piece of legislation you may have heard about is my proposal for party registration in the Commonwealth. This bill would have voters identify their political party when registering to vote – Republican, Democrat or even unaffiliated voter. The 1st Amendment grants the freedom of assembly and allows political parties to determine who can participate in their nomination process – whether it is convention or primary. I support conventions, but Virginia needs something better than a “pledge” that establishes party affiliation and eligibility to participate in a convention or primary.
My other legislative priorities include continuing to allow parents further say in their children’s education and dropping lifelines to kids in failing school divisions through the expansion of charter schools in Virginia. We owe it to our children and their future to not give up on school choice – this year we’ve added a new twist after coming up short last year, so stay tuned!

One of my favorite parts of Session is meeting with visiting groups and constituents. This session I will be meeting with representatives of banks, credit unions, veterans’ grounds, students, educators, and other constituents who stop in to discuss issues important to them. If you will be at Virginia’s historic Capitol between now and February 24, please remember to stop by our offices in Room 331 of the General Assembly Building and say hello. If you have any concerns about legislation, or would like to arrange a tour of the Capitol while you are here in Richmond, please do not hesitate to contact my Richmond office at mark@markobenshain.com or 804.698.7526. My legislative aide D.J. Spiker and I are happy to assist you in any way we can.