Virginia Senate loosens student group exclusivity

Student Rights Bill Goes To Governor!

Planned Parenthood targets Ken Cuccinelli

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s book tour begins this weekend

Bill to raise road money clears Va. Senate committee

“Tebow Bill” In Senate Committee Tomorrow

Surprise! Washington Post Endorses “Tebow Bill,” But Says Dems Control Va. Senate

What Lobbyists REALLY Do

Quote Of The Day: Aunt Esther Speaks Again

Editorial: Keep school sports for school students

Sports commentators say the 400 meter race is the most demanding event in sports — it’s an all out, one lap sprint, with no pacing. The 800 meter race is double that. The General Assembly’s odd-year short session is the 400 meters. The even-year long session is the 800 meters. It can really wear you down. It takes all the physical and mental stamina a lobbyist can muster, and one must summon all the research, writing, small and large group speaking, grassroots, coalition-building, intelligence-gathering, organizational, public relations, and new and old and social media skills within his or her capability. Lobbyists must be resourceful on many levels — if you can’t get something done, you better find an asset or ally that can.

But in that exhaustion is an adrenalin kick that makes you want to come back for more no matter how tired or battered you get when your bills get shredded in committee, no matter how much work and negative (or positive) response you receive in meetings with delegates and senators. As someone said, session is the one thing you dread while you’re doing it and can’t wait to start again when it ends. But it is still exhilarating to get up each morning after getting home at 10:00 the night before and back up on four hours sleep to prepare for a 7:30 a.m. sub-committee meeting. Knowing you have the opportunity to affect life for the better can drive you pretty hard and doing that by working with amazingly accomplished people is a perk not many jobs offer. The occasional reception, meeting astronauts on aerospace day and getting free Brunswick Stew on Brunswick Stew day are fun pick-me-ups everyone who works during session can relate to. The camaraderie and relationship-building with members and other lobbyists, no matter what side of the aisle or particular perspective, leaves one a bit melancholy as session dwindles to an end and your bills have all been resolved. There is a coming down period one must reconcile with.

Even with the sometimes somber session now running its course, without the drama of a last day do-or-die vote as we normally have, even with the rumors that there will be no Sine Die party this year, we always try to provide the public with a taste of what it is like to lobby at the General Assembly, in the trenches, on a day-to-day basis. There is a fair share of humor (albeit some of it of the gallows variety), but it’s necessary to keep our sanity. Perhaps the best illustration of what we do — and the funniest explanation of lobbying I’ve ever seen — is the six-panel image below that illuminates the perceptions various people have of what a lobbyist actually does . . . until it brings down the lofty visions to self-deprecating reality. The best humor is grounded in at least a semblance of truth. This certainly does have its fair share of that! It’s hilarious and was brought to my attention via a Facebook tag by Katherine Schoonover, legislative aide to Delegate Sal Iaquinto (R-84, Virginia Beach) and founder of the Aisle News.

It’s hard work and not at all wining and dining. But getting compensated for advocating for a philosophy you live and breath hardly seems like work. The mission is its own reward and that’s why lobbying is immensely fun — even after hours of committee hearings. 

Lobbyists comb Capitol Square looking for legislators to get in some early words. Making pre-session courtesy calls is important. The General Assembly, after all, is about relationships and it’s never going to be this serene. Nor as congenial. As the pace picks up (almost immediately) nerves gradually fray and stress mounts non-stop until the Sine Die gavel is brought down.

Meanwhile, as you peak into conference rooms that will morph into slammed packed sub-committee rooms in a couple of days, you see other lobbyists huddled, strategizing. Many give you a knowing look, a smile, familiar nods, unexpected hellos and happy New Year wishes. There are lobbyists giving literal meaning to their profession, hanging out in a lobby outside a lawmaker’s office, waiting patiently. As if expecting them, Delegate Jim LeMunyon (R-67, Chantilly) had a tray of muffins, scones and pastries outside his office. We now have an official GA bakery. 

Delegates pass you by on the way to the elevator (or to a restroom) and say hello. The mini-reunions are refreshing — it’s nice to be recognized — and networking is always a benefit. 

There is some practical business to be done. Lobbyist IDs need to be updated and the General Assembly operations guys are the best. Easy going, affable, eager and always prepared to help. Need that 2011 sticker on your ID? Got it for you, and how are you doing? Great to see you again.

Impromptu meetings with certain staff to get the lay of the land for some bills leads to running into staff from the Attorney General’s office. More strategy time. That’s just the way it happens. Scurrying through the GAB inevitably leads to making connections because everyone has the same thing on their minds. It’s organized chaos. One legislative staffer is starting a news service to cover the General Assembly. Not an easy task while making the trains run on time for her boss.

It’s pre-dawn in Capitol Square. Not in a chronilogical or meteorlogical sense. But the dawn of a 45-day-legislative whirlwind.

It’s especially true for us as the General Assembly starts its “short session” in just a few days. We are busy preparing for the thousands of bills that will be filed and the more-demanding-than-normal-pace of the short session (almost as many bills, two less weeks). Because of that pace, and the importance of this session, we need your help now. But we’re not asking a lot, only that you take a few seconds and:

Help us reach our goal of 1,000 Facebook friends by January 12, the start of the 2011 General Assembly!

All you need to do is click on the link above, sign in or register, and click “Like” on our Facebook page.

Success at the General Assembly depends on active and engaged constituents contacting their legislators on crucial votes in committee and on the floor. As much as we lobby them, constituents have the most influence. Currently, we have more than 800 Facebook fans. Not bad. But we are only as effective as the number of informed values voters who contact their lawmakers — and in order for us to maximize our collective clout, the timely communication of information is vital. Facebook is an essential tool to accomplish this.

Additionally, follow us on Twitter. With Twitter and Facebook, not only can you receive our instant notifications on important actions, it is easy to forward that information to others.

We also will continue to make great use of our YouTube channel. There, we will post videos of key committee hearings so that all is exposed and you can see for yourself how your representatives voted on major legislation — and where they can’t hide behind procedural votes.

Of course, this blog will keep the public informed on all the goings-on during session. With our team of lobbyists, as well as key contacts and sources, no one covers the General Assembly online better than we do. After another record shattering year of readers, we hope you will continue to share our posts on your social media sites and via e-mail. 

But in the meantime, please go to our Facebook page, click “Like,” spread the word on your social media sites, then sit back and get ready for all the breaking news from the 2011 General Assembly.

In addition, this year’s report has an exciting new feature: When you click on certain pictures, you will be redirected to our YouTube channel where you can view video of the corresponding committee hearings, Family Foundation television interviews, candidate campaign promises, and more. This report, in combination with related videos, will give you a insider’s look at what happened this past session so that you can better understand what effect it will have on you and pro-family citizens of Virginia. Combined, the print and video provides an interactive and in-depth coverage and review of session unlike any public policy organization in Virginia.

If you like what you see, then don’t forget that we compile and convey information about the General Assembly as events happen at the capitol each session, so please follow us on the social networking sites YouTube, Twitter and Facebook; and subscribe to our blog’s RSS Feed as well as our e-mail alerts. Additionally, today we added to this site links to several studies and position papers we’ve written or commissioned in recent years, giving you full access to research and information you can use to make the case for traditional values and constitutional government in the public square. Look in the right margin for the heading Family Foundation Publications & Position Papers.

In days past, session intrigue was oblique, at best. No longer. Wait until 6:00 to see the video on the local news — or the next morning’s paper? If they cover session at all, will they report on the committees and votes you care about? Even then, will it be accurate? Or fair? Will they have the level of detail and behind the scenes information we get working in the trenches, previously obscured from the public? The Internet allows us to be the media ourselves and report on the actions of our lawmakers. We now can multiply our reach and arm more people with more information, which helps advance our shared the principles that much quicker.

To order a hard copy of Expect the Unexpected, send $3.00 (cash or check) to cover printing and shipping expenses to The Family Foundation at 830 East Main Street, Suite 1201, Richmond, VA 23219 (write “2010 GA Report” in the memo line or include a note). Alternatively, you can pay online by credit card by clicking here. (Be sure to type “2010 GA Report” in the box entitled “How did you find out about The Family Foundation?”) We hope you forward this link and spread the word to people interested in staying informed on the important issues confronting Virginia and the culture at large.

Delegate Cox was refreshingly candid and said he was tired of the whine coming from certain local government officials, especially when it comes to education funding. Thus, the Stat of the Day:

In Virginia, since 2000, while student enrollment in Virginia K-12 public schools has grown by 7.2 percent, state spending on same has increased 60 percent!

Okay. You know me by now. I can’t stop there. Get this:

Two-thirds of the Virginia budget goes to K-12 public education and health and human services.

So much for the liberal charge about those mean conservatives in the House of Delegates who cut, cut, cut education whenever they can. The fact that Virginia has cut public education spending is a myth, plain and simple. There’s about as much truth to the fact that public education funding has been cut as there was that we were in a deficit when Mark Warner shoved through the largest tax increase in Virginia history.

But the education establishment (the educrats) use every opportunity to kick, scream and cry about a lack of funding to block any type of reform possible. Worse, they try to block discussion of reform with General Assembly lobbyists paid for by taxpayers and teachers’ dues. Thus, Virginia’s worst-in-the-country-charter-school-law, which has been on the books more than a decade and resulted in a meager three charter schools (with a fourth on the way).

Now, after eight years, there’s a new team in charge. Hopefully, that will be the catalyst for the truth finally to get equal billing with the myths — and for something positive to get done.

Click Here To Listen To The Entire Interview With Delegate Kirk Cox (5:45)

We’re not asking your for money. But we are asking you to make a difference by e-mailing your senators and delegates tomorrow (Thursday) with a simple message:

DE-FUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD in the Commonwealth’s new budget!

Tomorrow also happens to be Planned Parenthood’s lobby day. Imagine the difference we can make if thousands of values voters e-mailed their legislators tomorrow with the same message about de-funding Planned Parenthood before the pro-abortion lobbyists even stepped foot in the lawmakers’ offices!

If you attended Family Foundation Day At The Capitol in January, following up with an e-mail tomorrow with your delegates and senators is a great way to leverage the relationship you established with them. If you did not attend, now you have the opportunity, simultaneously, with likeminded, concerned citizens across Virginia, to have an impact with the ease of a few keystrokes.

Planned Parenthood is a billion dollar partisan behemoth that masquerades as a health organization. Inside its abortion center doors over a quarter of all abortions in the United States take place. Over the years it has received tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Virginia. Virginia’s taxpayers should never be forced to bail out this radical organization, especially while the Commonwealth faces a spending surplus of billions of dollars. It is time for this funding to stop!

In addition to the “De-funding Bomb,” tomorrow Lt. Governor Bill Bolling will conduct a live interview on our blog starting at 9:00 a.m. Click here to leave a question.

In addition, look for several other very special features we have lined up in the next several days, including interviews with noted political commentator Dr. Bob Holsworth and House Republican Caucus Chairman, Delegate Sam Nixon (R-27, Chesterfield).

Remember, tomorrow, Thursday, February 11, please e-mail your senators (click here for contact list) and delegates (click here for contact list) and urge them to end the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood! If you don’t know your delegate and senator, click here.

For example, who would have thought Delegate David Englin (D-45, Alexandria) and I could share a laugh in a sub-committee, sitting on patron’s row of all places (committee room front rows reserved for bill patrons), about how I helped defeat one of his bills? We may criticize him here, but at least now we spell his name right (it’s David, not Dave).

This truly has been the session of odd alliances and strange bedfellows. We even worked with or had constructive talks with Delegates Englin and Adam Ebbin (D-49, Alexandria) on matters where we have mutual concern, such as human trafficking.

Traditionally, this is the night of the Sine Die party (“sine die” being the Latin phrase used to conclude a parliamentary session). It’s held at a local microbrewery, where delegates, senators, their staffs, lobbyists, reporters and other assorted types (no doubt some bloggers may sneak in) congregate for a session-ending night of fellowship. Yes, they still have a day left, and some years they’ve been in session during the party only to get out in time to make the last part of it. Breaking news, though: The House just adjourned and I expect great attendance in just a few hours.

Sine Die is a great way to get to know all involved in the legislative process away from the battle ground of the GAB and capitol, a culmination of the weekly Thursday Night Caucus get-togethers. Making friends, even with those with whom you are philosophically opposed, pays dividends down the line.

Two sessions back I was having a great time at Sine Die when our president  surprised me and showed up. All was great and we even got a normally quiet senator to open up and share some humor. It was getting late and I was looking forward to a long-overdue sleep-in. Then a delegate engaged us and, after a great discussion, he asked for some last-second help on a bill. The boss volunteered me to come down to Saturday’s final session. Other than that it was already 11:00 at that point and knowing I had to be up at 6:00, it was a blast.

Session does allow you to develop relationships in a non-business circumstances and normally they’re worthwhile — except when one senator reamed me out with false accusations of running negative ads against him. (We don’t run ads. We’re not a PAC and we’re not allowed.) Still, I’ve met lobbyists, legislative assistants and others who have told me they admire what we do, and wish they could speak up but, as with the for-profit lobbyists, they have no dogs in our hunts. Knowing they are there, though, is reassuring and helpful in its own way.

Tonight is for fun, trading stories, learning some inside scoop. The next weeks will be for decompressing and reorganizing, and self examining. In time, we’ll prepare for next session. That’s then. This is now. For now . . .  

Sine Die.

Except for Thursday. There are six primary elevators in the GAB and most minutes of that day that’s not enough. You’re trying to get to the 8th floor to catch Delegate so-and-so again and they are all full. You finally get one and people are stopping on each floor. At the witching hour when the four caucuses begin, forget about it. Still, everyone keeps their anxieties in check and is friendly. But Thursday, a senator who is hostile to our agenda was rushing to make an elevator I was on. I quickly hit the open door button and saved this senator a wait this senator obviously didn’t want. The senator thanked me and I said, “You’re welcome.” Then, trying to really break the ice and establish something more than an across-the-committe-room-dais-rapport with his person, and with a smile as big as the Chesapeake, I made a joke as old as Jamestown.

“I hope you’ll remember this the next time one of our bills is in front of your committee.”

The senator’s reply was a crass, “My, you’re all gracious.” Wow! That’s what I get for trying to be nice, charming and witty. Oh, well. Turn the other cheek and remember, they’re not all that way. Next time, I’ll still hold the elevator for this senator. But I’ve learned to hold the jokes with this senator as well.

Family Foundation of Virginia E-Mail Alerts!

After all, no one should be unprepared as the General Assembly gets set to meet in mid January. Whenever it convenes, anything is possible, and we cover the G.A. like no one else, with a team of lobbyists and volunteers unlike any organization in Virginia. We’re just a block from the capitol and we’re at every committee meeting, combing the halls of the General Assembly Building, in talks with legislators and have the best sources in the state. We let you know what they said, how they voted and who to contact on the important issues in time for you to make an impact. Believe it, they do listen.

Our alerts are well written and give you the blow-by-blow account of how a bill survived or got killed and who was responsible; explain the ramifications; and make you feel as if you were there. We also give you an overview of the session so you have a real feel for what the atmosphere is like.

So, for your favorite political junkies, for yourself, for everyone you think should be more aware, click here or the bold link above. It takes a minute to sign up. So feel free to create some electronic stocking stuffers not even Santa can deliver.