House Speaker William J. Howell, a Republican, ruled that the Senate redistricting plan was “not germane” because it made sweeping amendments to a House bill that made minor technical amendments to state House districts.

“This vast rewrite” by the Senate went “well beyond the original purpose” of the underlying House bill, Howell said during a state legislative session.

Senate Republicans sought to substitute their map for the one that Democrats enacted in 2011, when they held the majority. The Senate now is tied at 20-20. It passed the redistricting plan on a 20-19 vote on Jan. 21, when one Democratic senator was out of town to attend President Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony.

The unexpected move made some Republicans uneasy, including Gov. Bob McDonnell, who’s trying to get a rewrite of transportation laws through the legislature.

The attempt to redraw district boundaries underscored how political line-drawing can be. Aided by sophisticated computer mapping software and precinct-level election results, partisan legislators reshape districts to give their side a political advantage.

Original post is Virginia Senate Redistricting Plan Axed by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg

Haley Barbour

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour is not a supporter of Republican proposals to allocate electoral votes in some states by congressional district rather than winner-take-all.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” he says in an interview on “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend on Bloomberg Television.
“I don’t think anybody can predict with any form of precision who it’ll help from this election to the next.”

Republican lawmakers in several states won by Democratic President Barack Obama, including Virginia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, are discussing awarding electoral votes by congressional district rather than giving them all to the candidate who wins the most votes statewide.

Since those congressional districts were drawn by Republican-controlled state legislatures to favor Republicans, such a proposal would give the Republican presidential candidate some electoral votes in states that otherwise have voted for the Democratic candidate. In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell and key Republican legislators have come out against the proposal.

Original post is Barbour: Dividing Electoral Votes Wrong by Political Capital.

Photograph by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Former President Bill Clinton, left, chats with donors as he pays a visit to a fundraiser for state Democrats, while host Terry McAuliffe, right, strains to hear a request from another donor in McLean, Virginia.

The two major contenders for the Virginia governorship this November each raised more than $1 million in the second half of 2012,  their campaigns said in reports filed yesterday with state election officials.

Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, took in $1.16 million during the six-month period, compared with $1.07 million for Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican state Attorney General.

McAuliffe’s donor list reflects his long career as a Democratic Party fundraiser and strategist with close ties to former President Bill Clinton. McAuliffe’s contributors included former Clinton White House aides Bruce Lindsey ($500) and Thomas “Mack” McLarty ($5,000), political strategist Paul Begala ($5,000) and former Reps. Tony Coelho of California ($500), Martin Frost of Texas ($100) and Dave McCurdy of Oklahoma ($250).

McAuliffe received $100,000 each from the International Association of Fire Fighters union and Sungate Real Estate. Ted Weschler, an investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway Inc., donated $25,000 to McAuliffe’s campaign. Boyd Tinsley, a member of the Dave Matthews Band, gave $10,000.

Cuccinelli’s donations included $165,000 from Liberty Now, a political committee he formed in 2010, and $50,000 each from Intrust Wealth Management of Wichita, Kansas, and Presidential Coalition LLC, an affiliate of the Washington-based advocacy group Citizens United.

Cuccinelli received $25,000 from a Virginia-based political committee of Verizon Communications Inc.

Cuccinelli began this year with $1.18 million in cash-on-hand, compared with $1.04 million for McAuliffe, the reports showed.

McAuliffe and Cuccinelli are vying to succeed Republican Hov. Bob McDonnell, who isn’t seeking re-election because of a Virginia law that bars governors from serving consecutive terms. The election is Nov. 5.

Original post is McAuliffe, Cuccinelli Top $1 Million in Late 2012 Donations for Va. Gov. by Political Capital.

Photograph by Robert A. Reeder/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Fred Malek

Putting out think tank studies to make a partisan point is a decades-long tradition in Washington.

One that came out last week offered a dose of irony to go with its claim that the Environmental Protection Agency is imposing an increasing burden of rule-compliance paperwork on the economy.

The two-page analysis, by the conservative American Action Forum, declared that “using Bureau of Labor Statistics calculations, AAF finds that EPA’s red tape burden consumes roughly $10.5 billion in annual economic activity” and “has increased by 30 million hours – 20 percent – since FY 2007.”

No word on the ethnicity of the BLS employees doing the calculating — something that at one time would have been of great interest to AAF’s founder and board chairman, Fred Malek.

Malek was a White House aide when he compiled a list of BLS employees with Jewish-sounding last names at the request of President Richard Nixon, who was worried that a “Jewish cabal” had too much influence in the agency.

Malek, who went on to become a venture capitalist and a Republican fundraising stalwart, apologized for his actions. But the BLS incident remains a lightning rod, especially for Democrats, who sharply criticized Virginia Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell when he appointed Malek to head a government reform task force in 2010.

Malek’s AAF board colleagues include former Netscape CEO James Barksdale, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

The board also includes at least one political figure who could make eventual use of Malek’s fundraising prowess – former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a potential GOP presidential candidates in 2016.

USA Today clip on Malek’s stature as a Republican fundraiser:

Malek bio from AAF website:

Original post is Malek’s Study Cites Labor Bureau Once Suspected of `Cabal’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts, speaks at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte.

Presidential surrogates Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia both predicted their party’s nominee will win the White House on this week’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt.”

“He’s going to earn this win,” Patrick, a Democrat, said on the show. ”And I think he’s going to come right back to work on Wednesday, working not just for Democrats and those who voted for him, but for everybody.”

McDonnell said Mitt Romney will win, but only by a “razor-thin” margin.

“Turnout and enthusiasm means that we win by a couple of points” in Virginia, McDonnell, a Republican, said in a separate interview. “We just need a change, and everybody knows that.”

Read the full story and watch the show below:

Original post is Political Capital: Partisan Predictions by Political Capital.

Photograph by Paul J. Richards/AFP/GettyImages

A construction worker hauls lumber during the framing of a new townhouse in Chantilly, Virginia.

Virginians could be forgiven for feeling a bit schizophrenic about their state’s economy: Two top Republicans have delivered seemingly opposite messages in recent television ads.

A few months ago, Governor Bob McDonnell appeared in an upbeat ad to deliver a reassuring message: “Jobs and opportunity are thriving again,” he says, smiling. “Virginia is growing strong, and so is our future.”

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney pours cold water over McDonnell’s optimism in ads his campaign just began airing.

“Here in Virginia,” a female narrator says, as a black-and-white photograph of Barack Obama is shown, “we’re not better off under President Obama.”

The mixed messaging shows the challenge Romney could face in key battleground states such as Virginia, Florida and Ohio, where Republican governors want to highlight economic progress even as the party’s presidential candidate tries to make the case that Obama’s policies have stood in the way of growth.

McDonnell’s “Opportunity Virginia” political action committee aired the 30-second “Growing Strong” ad 467 times on TV stations across the state from April 25 to May 8, spending an estimated $172,870, according to New York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG, a firm that tracks advertising.

It begins with a woman saying, “Virginia is growing strong again.” Other people identified as residents of the state reiterate the message as positive economic statistics are displayed on the screen.

Cue the ominous music in Romney’s new ads.

Three Virginia spots are part of a state-specific buy that began over the weekend. Each version opens with Romney addressing the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30 in Tampa, Florida. “This president cannot tell us that you are better off today than we he took office,” Romney says.

The Romney campaign says its ads don’t necessarily negate what McDonnell posited in his earlier spots.

“Despite the positive economic progress Governor McDonnell and Lieutenant Governor Bolling have made, there’s only so much that can be done to offset the cascade of job-killing regulations and hostility toward job creators emanating from President Obama’s White House,” Curt Cashour, Romney’s Virginia spokesman, said in a statement. “The fact is that President Obama’s policies are inhibiting — and in some cases blocking — job creation in the Commonwealth.”

Virginia’s employment increased 1.3 percent between the first quarter of 2009 — during which Obama took office –and the start of this year, according to the most recent data available in the Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States. Personal income has risen 11 percent in the same period, BEES shows.

The economic health of Virginia — like that of every state except North Dakota and Michigan — has worsened between the first quarter of 2009 and the same period in 2012, according to BEES.

Original post is Virginia is for Lovers — and Haters — of the Economy by Political Capital.

Photograph by Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch/AP Photo

Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell

Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell today condemned Rep. Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate” rape being less likely to result in pregnancy as “absolutely wrong”  because “they appear to be based on based on bad science, bad facts.”

McDonnell, who is chairing Republican National Committee platform committee deliberations, said in an interview in Tampa that any discussion of rape “absolutely should condemn violence in every form against womena.”

“So while many of us strongly support the right to life we also strongly disagree with these comments as representing policies that the pro-life community should embrace,” McDonnell said.

The abortion plank of the Republican platform will “affirm our view and support for the right to life” that has been part of the GOP platform for “several decades.”

The Republican platform statement on abortion doesn’t make an exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. “We don’t get into those details “ because as long as the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that legalizes abortion, “these are matters of faith a morals,” he said.

Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign also moved swiftly to distance itself from Akin’s comments in a weekend television interview.
“Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape,” Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said in a statement.

Original post is McDonnell on Akin: `Absolutely Wrong’ — Party Seeks Distance by Political Capital.

Photograph by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell at the 39th Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Washington.

The Republican Party’s primaries are starting to pay off for social conservatives:

The protracted contest in which the party spent months searching for an alternative to its now-presumed nominee, Mitt Romney, with social conservatives rallying around former Senator Rick Santorum for a while, will demand a certain level of respect paid to the party’s base at the Republican National Convention in Tampa at the end of August.

The selection of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell as chairman of the party’s platform committee, announced late today, is the start. In addition, McDonnell leads a state that has maintained low unemployment throughout the worst recession since the 1930s, something that the Democrats will attempt to take as much credit for as Republicans will as President Barack Obama fights for the support of a state that backed his election in 2008.

Also, scratch one from Romney’s short list of possible running mates.

McDonnell, who endorsed Romney in January, has been mentioned as a possible running mate. It appears the party has found another role instead.

“I am honored to serve as Chairman of the Committee on Resolutions,” McDonnell said in a statement issued by the party. ` I look forward to hearing from voters across the country as we seek to give voice to the concerns, priorities, and values of the American people. This process is about more than writing; it is about listening. Voters deserve a party who listens to them.”

For those voters who support the Virginia governor’s March signing of a bill requiring ultrasound tests for women before undergoing abortions, the party is showing it’s listening.The bill sparked protests from abortion rights activists who saw it as designed to make abortions more difficult to get. For Romney, appealing to a broader cross-section of voters now that he has secured the nomination, it’s also what may have kept McDonnell, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, from going further than the party’s platform writing this year.

One anti-abortion Website, LifeNews.com, hailed the selection of a “pro-life” platform chairman, noting that the party’s last platform took a stand.

“Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” the platform said. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”

McDonnell will have some help from co-chairmen Senator John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican, and Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, one of the party’s more outspoken proponents of social issues at the last national convention.

The committee will meet Aug. 19-21 in Tampa. The convention starts Aug. 27.

Original post is McDonnell for Party’s Platform by Political Capital.