independentsforkerry.org

The Democratic Republican – views and news

Join the Aurora Republican Women’s Organization as they host their annual holiday dinner. This year’s event will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wesnesday, Dec. 9, at Ballydoyle’s Irish Pub, 28 West New York Street in Aurora.

Tickets are and include a traditional Irish dinner and the trimmings. Cash bar. Sponsorships are available. To reserve a spot, email carl_and_debbie@sbcglobal.net. For sponsorships, call Gabriela Wyatt at 630-772-6436.

Kane County Republican News

The Democratic Republican – views and news

Amherst County Democratic Committee

To All Amherst County Democrats:

Dear Friends,

You’ve may have been wondering what’s going on with Amherst Dems.    Here’s an update:

The Committee will meet at Amherst CVCC, Tuesday 9/14, 7PM. Everyone is welcome.     It is especially important for Precinct Reps to attend (see list below).     Skipper Fitts, Vice Chair, will preside.


While we have no Democratic candidates on the ballot for November, we should lend our support to our neighbor, Tom Perriello, in the 5th CD.     The nature and extent of that support will be decided upon at the meeting next Tuesday.


Skipper has already been in touch with the Perriello campaign and they would welcome our support.     A possible collaboration with Nelson County Democrats will be discussed.


Reminder that the Garlic Festival will take place Saturday October 9th and Sunday October 10th, 10 AM to 5 PM rain, or shine. Volunteers are needed.

Some members have suggested that we have a social event this fall. There may be an opportunity to cosponsor this event with the Sweet Briar Young Democrats.    If so it could be held at the Elston Inn where we held events in 2008.    Guest speakers and other details will be discussed.


On a personal note, I have been dealing with some health issues these last few months, and apologize to all for the lack of activity on my part.


The core of the Committee has always been a group of dedicated, generous, active individuals.     They are the backbone of the Democratic Party in Amherst County.     Please show your support by attending the next meeting.

Best Regards,




David Burford


434-841-7420
434-384-1731
dave_burford@verizon.net
www.amherstdems.org

101 – Wright Shop – Magnolia Braxton

102 – New Glas – Ned Kable, OPEN


103 – Coolwell – OPEN


201 – Court House – Mary Anne Hostetler, Alix Ingber, OPEN


202 – Temperance – Marvin Gilbert


301 – Monroe – OPEN


302 – Elon – Marita Taylor, Mary Truitt, OPEN


303 – Pleasant View – Curtis Johnson

401 – Amelon – Robert Perry, Jason Fleshman, OPEN


402 – Lonco - Francis Wayne


501 – Madison Hts – Jeff Price, Dan Hughes, Allen Freeman

You are welcome to attend the meeting if you are a Democrat who lives in Amherst County or Nelson County.      It will be held at  the Amherst Central Virginia Community College site ( Just East of the traffic circle in the same shopping center as Food Lion grocery store ), Tuesday Sept. 14th at 7PM.    We look foreward to seeing you and will be pleased if you are interested.
 

Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

The Republican Tea Party has told more lies about Tom Perriello than any other Congressman in the United States of America.

Who is this hardworking Congressman the dirty tricksters will tell any lie to defeat?
 
Tom Perriello is a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia’s 5th district.     He assumed office January 3, 2009.      Perriello was born October 9, 1974 and lived in Ivy, Virginia.      He is the Democratic congressman from the fifth district of Virginia.      The district includes much of Southside Virginia, and stretches north to Charlottesville.
 
Perriello is a lifelong resident of Ivy, a small unincorporated community west of Charlottesville.     However, he is listed in the House roll as “D-Charlottesville.”      He attended Murray Elementary School, Meriwether Lewis Elementary School, Henley Middle School and Western Albemarle High School in the county school system, and then graduated from St. Anne’s-Belfield School, a private school.      He earned B.A. (1996) and J.D. (2001) degrees at Yale University, where he also became a member of Scroll and Key.      He attained the rank of Eagle Scout in Boy Scout Troop 114 in Ivy, and was a legislative page in the Virginia House of Delegates.
 
From 2002-03, Perriello was Special Advisor to the international prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he worked with child soldiers, amputees, and local pro-democracy groups, and helped to prosecute warlords.     He later became the Court’s Spokesman and helped to indict Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, peacefully forcing him from power.     He has worked as a consultant to the International Center for Transitional Justice in Kosovo (2003), Darfur (2005), and Afghanistan (2007) where he worked on justice-based security strategies.     Perriello has also been a fellow at The Century Foundation and consultant to the National Council of Churches of Christ.     He helped to launch FaithfulAmerica.org, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and is a co-founder of DarfurGenocide.org and Avaaz.org, an international on-line community of 3.3 million members, operating in 12 languages, dedicated to building a global response to “problems without borders” such as climate change.     He has also worked with the Rev. James Forbes on prophetic justice principles.

Perriello, a resident of Albemarle County, has spent much of his career working in West Africa and the Middle East to create strategies for sustainable peace, and he was involved in the peace processes that helped end the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

U.S. Congress

During the 2009 legislative session, Perriello’s first term in Congress, Periello voted for the stimulus bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, and the health care reform bill in March 2010.      In addition, he voted against the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009, because the bill extended unemployment benefits for only some states and excluded Virginia.

Foreign Policy

Perriello is a supporter of the War on Terror.     Although he has cast votes for the continuation of US military action in Afghanistan, he has also cosponsored legislation requiring U.S. President Barack Obama to submit an exit strategy for the end of combat operations in Afghanistan.      Perriello has also opposed removing the United States Armed Forces from Pakistan.

In 2010, Congressman Perriello voted in support of the defense bill, 2010 military appropriations and spending for combat operations.

Committee assignments

Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure


Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management


Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment


Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials


Committee on Veterans’ Affairs


Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity


Subcommittee on Health

Electoral historyThe traditionally Democratic urban areas of the district gave Perriello significant margins over Goode.     While Goode won 13 of the 20 county-level jurisdictions in the district, Perriello won all but one independent city, Bedford which went for Goode by only 16 votes.      Ultimately, Perriello prevailed largely on the strength of a more than 25,000 vote margin in Charlottesville and surrounding Albemarle County. Perriello’s performance showed the most dramatic improvements over past Democratic voting in the more conservative areas of the district hardest hit by decades of job loss and economic slowdown.      As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama also improved on past Democratic performance, but he ultimately lost this district by around 7,500 votes (2.5 percentage points).     For example, Perriello significantly outperformed Obama in the strongly conservative southwestern portion of the district (ironically, where Goode is from).     Perriello may also have been helped by coattails from atop the ticket, as Mark Warner won the district in a landslide with 65 percent of the vote.

United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, District 5, 2008


In the 2008 election, Perriello launched a campaign based on conviction politics, achieving a surprise win over Republican incumbent Virgil Goode, a longtime figure in Virginia politics, after having trailed Goode in the polls by 32% only three months earlier. Goode had represented a large portion of the district for 38 years, including representing much of the southwest portion of the district in the Senate of Virginia prior to serving in Congress.

 
Virginia’s 5th congressional district election, 2010

Perriello will face Republican State Senator Robert Hurt in the 2010 congressional elections.     On December 3, 2009, political commentator Stuart Rothenberg listed Perriello as one of the twelve most vulnerable incumbents in the House of Representatives up for reelection in 2010.      On September 10, 2010, statistician and analyst Nate Silver ranked Perriello as one of the most vulnerable incumbent running for re-election.

2010 Tea Party incident

The FBI is currently investigating an incident in which Perriello’s brother’s address was listed on a Tea Party movement website, mistakenly believed to be the congressman’s address.    Mike Troxel, an organizer for the Lynchburg Tea Party (supported and sponsored by Congressman Bob Goodlatte, R- 6th CD, who published the Tea Party materials on a page of his website), posted the address on his blog, encouraging tea party activists to “drop by.” A gas line to an outdoor barbecue grill was cut at the brother’s house and is being treated as a threat to Perriello over his vote on healthcare reform during the 111th Congress.     Mike Troxel is a member of the Liberty University group of political dirty tricksters.



There is no stunt too low for the Republican Tea Party as they lie about the Congressmans record in an attempt to defeat him.     The only defense against this type of conduct is for the people to rise and reject this type of low life campaigining.      It is the accepted job of republicans and tea party members to lie to you but you get to decide on truth.     Don’t allow these right wing nutjobs to pull the wool over your eyes.     You are the driving force behind our system of government and you get to make the decision.      America is a Great country and its problems are small and can be dealt with.     Adjustments can be made and fine tuning can take place to set the ship back on course.      When someone tells you you have to scrap the constitution and appoint instead of elect Senators and give money to the rich so the poor can get along a little better YOU ARE BEING LIED TO.      When republicans tell you social security must be ended and medicare must be phased out You are being lied to.     Tom Perriello is a hard working Congressman and a decent human being and more than deserving of your vote and another term in office.     Make it your mission to see that he is re-elected.

The Amherst County Democratic News is proud to endorse Tom Perriello.

Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

Mother Jones: Charles Hurth has a history of biting women’s behinds. Now it’s Texas Democrats who have to watch their asses. (Republican Scheme To Divert Votes From Democrats In November?)

By Suzy Khimm – Mother Jones

Meet Charles Hurth III. The Missouri lawyer has a long history of setting up under-the-radar groups to help Republican operatives game elections.

But the most sordid thing about Hurth’s past is not his political scheming. He’s also what you might call a serial butt-biter, with a well-publicized track record of sinking his teeth into the rumps of college coeds.

He recently struck again in Texas—not by biting derrieres, but by spearheading an apparent GOP dirty trick to derail a Democrat’s gubernatorial bid.

Last month, Hurth and two other GOP operatives—one a former top aide to Texas Gov. Rick Perry—were implicated in a scheme to bankroll a petition drive to put the Green Party on the ballot. It is an apparent ploy to siphon votes away from Perry’s Democratic challenger, former Houston Mayor Bill White. He’s an appealing target: Tied with Perry in the latest poll, White’s the strongest gubernatorial contender that Texas Democrats have seen in years.

But Hurth’s first claim to fame was being sued in 1987 for approaching a fellow law student in a bar and biting her on the buttocks so hard that she required medical attention. During the trial, Hurth admitted that he’d used the same toothy overture to approach two other women at fraternity parties—and he said that his latest victim should have taken the gesture as a compliment. The jurors didn’t buy it, and Hurth was successfully sued for ,500. Since then, he has dedicated himself to being a persistent pain in the butt for Democrats, setting up shop in a tiny Missouri town to create a clearinghouse for Republican electoral schemes. The latest came this spring, when Hurth and his allies succeeded in getting the Greens on the 2010 ballot.

In response, the Texas Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in early June against a Hurth-run nonprofit called Take Initiative America, as well as Arizona-based GOP consultant Tim Mooney and “unknown conspirators” for their role in the effort. Mooney has admitted that he funneled money through Hurth’s organization to pay Free and Equal Inc., a Chicago-based petition-gathering company that ended up amassing 92,000 signatures for the Texas Green Party’s ballot drive. According to a court document, Hurth’s group spent 2,500 on the effort.

Mooney has repeatedly refused to say where the money came from—and denies that it was a GOP plot to bring down White. “Take Initiative America is a nonpartisan organization,” he told the Dallas Morning News, which first broke the news of his involvement. “They’d like to see everybody have a chance to get on the ballot—the more choices the better.”

Especially if those choices draw votes away from Democratic candidates. This isn’t the first time that Mooney and Hurth have resorted to such schemes to help Republicans at the polls. In 2004, Hurth set up an organization called Choices for America that furtively solicited help from Republicans to get then-presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot in New Hampshire, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, among other states. Mooney assisted with Hurth’s 2004 effort, along with Dave Carney, George H.W. Bush’s former political director who’s now one of Rick Perry’s top consultants. At the time, Carney acknowledged to the Dallas Morning News that he was trying to gather signatures for Nader in order to help George W. Bush get reelected. According to the script for the petition drive, canvassers were instructed to tell Bush supporters, “Without Nader, Bush would not be president.”

Three years later, Hurth undertook yet another effort to manipulate electoral politics to the Republicans’ advantage. In 2007, Take Initiative America funded a California ballot initiative that would have distributed the state’s 55 electoral votes by congressional district instead of winner-takes-all. Had it succeeded, the effort would have greatly benefited Republican presidential contenders in the state. Hurth similarly refused to reveal the donor behind the effort, who finally came forward after Democrats accused the group of money-laundering and California officials vowed to investigate. Paul Singer, a hedge-fund manager and major Giuliani fundraiser, admitted that he gave 5,000 to the effort. (Hurth himself contributed ,000 to Giuliani’s presidential bid.) Then-Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean decried the initiative and pointed the finger at the Giuliani campaign, which denied any involvement. The Perry campaign has similarly denied any role in this year’s Green Party ploy. But the tentacles of the scandal reach dangerously close to his camp.

It was allegedly Perry’s former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, who approached a 22-year-old college student, Garrett Mize, to talk to the Green Party about accepting the outside help, according to Mize’s court testimony. (Toomey, who’s now a lobbyist, also helped mastermind former Rep. Tom DeLay’s scheme to funnel secret corporate money to help the GOP’s redistricting effort in 2003.) The Texas Green Party eagerly accepted the offer—even though a court-released email between Green Party officials reveals that party officials were acutely aware the money could be coming from Republican sources. The email also mentions Perry’s top political consultant Anthony Holm as being interested in paying for 40 percent of the party’s petitioning costs, though he’s since denied any role in the schme.

The Texas Green Party has refused to withdraw from the ballot, saying it was “misled” about the kind of money that was used to fund GOP’s scheme. “It’s not like we intentionally did this,” said Kat Swift, statewide coordinator for the Texas Green Party, at a press conference in early July. According to her account, the Texas Greens never knew what Take Initiative America really stood for or who might be involved. But Swift has since embraced the GOP help as a form of realpolitik, arguing that Texas has some of the most stringent requirements for getting on the ballot in the country. “Wherever the money came from doesn’t bother me,” she told the Dallas Morning News. “People are trying to open the ballot to increase democracy and so, who cares how they vote?”

It’s unclear, though whether the Green Party’s presence on the ticket will actually hurt White’s chances, as the recent controversy has divided Green Party supporters. Some of its closest allies have turned against the party for knowingly accepting the GOP assistance—and refusing to back out even after discovering it was paid for by Hurth’s nonprofit corporation (which qualifies, for the purposes of campaign-finance law, as corporate money). The Texas League of Conservation Voters, which has often backed Green Party candidates, said the party’s “use of corporate, out-of-state money directed from partisan operatives for a petition drive corrupts and manipulates the electoral process.” One local Green Party candidate for Travis County Clerk has already withdrawn his candidacy, citing his opposition to the Green Party’s acceptance of corporate-funded help—even though the party itself has called for the end of corporate funding in all elections.

Texas Democrats, for their part, have given up their push to keep the Green Party off the ballot: they dropped part of their lawsuit last week after the (all-Republican) Texas Supreme Court decided to let the Green Party remain on the ballot while it reviewed the case. But the state’s Democratic party says it will continue with a legal challenge in a lower court to discover who was funding the GOP-backed petition drive, contending that the source and use of Hurth’s funds might have been illegal. If even more incriminating evidence surfaces, the Green Party scheme could really end up biting the Texas GOP in the butt.

Democratic Blog of Collin County – News

Isaac Mizrahi and Iman want viewers to know that “The Fashion Show” is a different series in its second season.
…

Home – BostonHerald.com

From the Dallas Morning News
by Ed Housewright:

July 31, 2010 – Patricia Crigger, the incoming Collin County district clerk, and five other office supervisors have been indicted on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity.

The indictments stem from a Texas Rangers investigation that alleges Crigger and the others pressured district clerk employees to work on Crigger’s spring campaign.

Crigger received about 54 percent of the April 13 Republican primary runoff election vote, defeating law office manager Alma Hays.

She faces no Democratic opposition on the November 2, 2010 election ballot and is therefore due to take office Jan. 1, replacing longtime District Clerk Hannah Kunkle, who is retiring.

The general election is Nov. 2. The deadline to remove a candidate’s name is Aug. 20, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office.

If Crigger withdraws her name before then, the local Republican Party executive committee can name a replacement to be on the ballot, said Ann McGeehan, elections director for the secretary of state.

The Democratic Party of Collin County Executive Committee also would be allowed to place a name on the ballot, even though the party had no candidate in the primary.

Anyone can file as a write-in candidate through Aug. 24, McGeehan said.

If Crigger doesn’t withdraw her name by Aug. 20, she will stay on the ballot. She would win the election if she receives the most votes.

If she is still under indictment, has not been convicted and decides not to take office Jan. 1, the county’s state district judges would name her replacement, McGeehan said. The replacement would serve until the November 2012 general election and could seek election for the remaining two years of the term.

A candidate becomes ineligible to serve upon final conviction, McGeehan said. So if Crigger were convicted but appealed her case, she could take office while the appeal is resolved.

The Collin County Commissioners Court sets the budget for the district clerk and other elected officials. But commissioners can’t fire an elected official or any of his or her staff.

County Judge Keith Self, who heads Commissioners Court, declined to comment on the indictments.

“Because it’s a legal issue, I need to be very careful to make no comment,” Self said.

Crigger and the other supervisors could not be reached for comment.

“It’s really sad it’s come to this,” said Fred Moses, chairman of the county Republican Party. “She’s worked hard for the party.”

A judge issued arrest warrants on Friday and set a ,000 personal recognizance bond for each. All six defendants appeared voluntarily at the Collin County Jail about 12:30 p.m. to be processed, said sheriff’s spokesman John Norton. They left about an hour later, he said.

Under state law, a person can hold office while under indictment but can be removed if convicted.

Engaging in organized criminal activity is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and up to a ,000 fine.

The one-page indictments were returned Thursday against Crigger, Sherry Bell, Rebecca Littrell, Amy Mathis, Lorrie Robertson and Marcia Simpson.

The identical indictments say the women tampered with government records and committed theft by falsifying time and attendance records to show employees were working when they were not.

“This is a dark day for Collin County and its taxpayers,” Hays said in a statement Friday. “I hope the legal process reveals the truth and that the integrity of the district clerk’s office is restored. I am proud to say that I ran an honest campaign and that I had nothing to do with this investigation.”

The six women indicted are among nine supervisors in the district clerk’s office, which has 63 employees.

A search warrant affidavit from the Texas Rangers investigation says district clerk employees were asked to assist Crigger’s campaign in “various ways, such as walking neighborhoods and holding campaign signs at polling places.”

They were rewarded with paid time off, the document says.

It mentions five unnamed district clerk employees who talked with the Rangers during their investigation.

Armed with a search warrant, authorities seized computer hard drives, memory cards, Crigger campaign literature, calendars and other items on June 3.

At the time, Kunkle released a written statement on behalf of her and her office, which is responsible for keeping state district court records. She criticized the execution of the search warrant.

“If they would have come to me directly, I would have turned over anything they wanted and would not have had to close down the district clerk’s office, disrupt county business and cause inconvenience to the employees and citizens of Collin County,” the statement read.

Kunkle couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.

Moses said he hadn’t talked to Crigger since she was indicted. “We want to let the legal system take its course,” he said.

Moses said he would talk to state Republican Party officials and the Texas secretary of state’s office to determine how to pick Crigger’s replacement if she doesn’t take office.

“We need to see what our options are,” Moses said. “We want to do what’s in the best interests of the party.”

Six supervisors in the Collin County district clerk’s office each face two counts of engaging in organized criminal activity in identical indictments handed down Thursday.

Indicted: Patricia Crigger, Sherry Bell, Rebecca Littrell, Amy Mathis, Lorrie Robertson and Marcia Simpson

Count 1: Tampering with a governmental record by making false entries in time and attendance records

Count 2: Theft by obtaining money between ,500 and ,000 from Collin County by falsifying time and attendance records

Punishment if convicted: Two to 20 years in prison and up to a ,000 fine

Democratic Blog of Collin County – News

First the answers to frequently asked questions.

Why don’t you run polls that are more favorable to democrats?
 Thats easy there are none.

Can’t you do more to rally people behind the Obama agenda?
This is a little more difficult to answer.    You see, Vulnerable House Dems are declaring their independence from the party agenda.    Democrats are trying to distance themselves from the things they voted for and supported like health care legislation, extended unemployment benefits, new energy taxes and a repeal of the military’s ban on gays serving openly.     Re-election for these folks is job one and if successful they may at a later date pick up the mantel of representing you.    In Virginias 2nd district Glenn Nye has rebranded himself as an independent voice in an attempt to protect his job.     These tactics will hurt Democratic turnout at a time when the party needs to protect its majority in Congress.     Nye defyed party leaders on leading issues such as health care because he thought it was in his best interest.    On Nov 2nd he’ll get his answer.     I like you am one person with one vote and I spend mine with the democrats.     I volenteer and work for democrats but it is hard to stand up for people who are too cowardly to stand up for themselves.     In good times they ride the wave of democratic values and when times get rough they blow away like dry leaves in the October wind.    Yes I could do more, I’m not motivated.

Luckily for us we can concentrate on a brighter story and Tom Perriello is that different story.    Tom is the Congressman from Virginias 5th District and hard work should be his middle name.     Tom stands up for democratic values and fights every day for the people in the 5th district.     Below is a partial list of the things he supported and stood for.  

 Don’t be fooled by republican tea party lies, Tom Perriello is a GREAT CONGRESSMAN.

Economic R.E.V.I.V.A.L.

I have fought to ensure that all hard-working Americans are guaranteed a living wage and secure retirement.    I believe that parents should have time to spend with their families instead of having to work multiple jobs just to put food on the table.    And I have been a vocal opponent of more bailouts for Wall Street at Main Street’s expense.     Here are some of the ways I have fought in Congress for economic fairness:

Relief for Small Businesses

Voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included the largest middle-class tax cut in history, and has made significant investment in local schools, highways, and law enforcement – investments felt on Main Streets every day


Voted against releasing the second 0 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), or the Wall Street bailout


Introduced a bill to give a tele-work tax credit to businesses who hire employees in small towns and rural communities who can work remotely


Co- sponsored H.R. 3457, the Small Business Credit Card Act of 2009, which would give small businesses the same protections that individuals received under the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009


Co-sponsored H.R. 4067, the Business Checking Fairness Act of 2009, which would repeal a law that prevents small businesses from earning interest on their business accounts

Energy Solutions

Voted for the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which will reduce carbon emissions, create new jobs in the clean energy economy, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil


Voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which provided the largest federal investment in clean energy technology to date


Convened a New Energy Summit and created a New Energy Blueprint as a roadmap for putting the 5th District at the forefront of the clean energy economy


Co-sponsored H.R. 1775, the Grants for Renewable Energy Education for the Nation (GREEN) Act.     The bill would provide support to develop career and technical education programs of study and facilities in the areas of renewable energy through a new competitive grant program


Co-sponsored H.R. 3083, the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology (IMPACT) Act of 2009, which would establish a program for the award of grants to states to establish revolving loan funds for small and medium-sized manufacturers to improve energy efficiency and produce clean energy technology


Co-sponsored H.R. 3919, the Clean Energy Business Zone Act.     The bill provides at least .2 billion in tax incentives for small businesses involved in clean energy technologies in specific zones designated by the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of HUD, and the Secretary of Agriculture.     Target communities will be those most in need of revitalization and best positioned to establish vibrant, clean energy economies


Co-sponsored H.R. 4226, the Expanding Building Efficiency Incentives Act. Congressman Perriello was a Democratic lead on the introduction of this bipartisan energy efficiency bill.     The bill extends and expands five key energy efficiency incentives for the construction of a new home, retrofitting an existing one, upgrading commercial properties to conserve energy and cut energy costs, and assisting consumers seeking assessments of home energy usage.     The National Association of Home Builders is supportive of the bill.

 
Vocational Training and Strong Schools

Introduced a ,500 tax credit for college and commuity college education that could apply to expenses like textbooks for the first time.     I’m proud to say this was the first bill I wrote that was passed into law as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act


Introduced an amendment, which was passed into law, that would ensure disparities between urban and rural areas are addressed in early childhood education


Introduced a bill which would establish a national advisory committee on rural education within the Department of Education Infrastructure


Obtained .8 million of stimulus funds to pay for the Robertson Bridge project in Danville


Obtained .3 million for repairs to 17 bridges and culverts in Nelson county, as well as .8 million for repaving major roads in Charlottesville and Albemarle County


Directed .5 million in stimulus funds towards three bridge projects in Pittsylvania County and 0,000 for Danville’s transit system

Virginia Workers First

Supported the “Buy American” provisions in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act


Fought against an unfair extension of unemployment benefits that would not benefit Virginia, forcing a change in legislation to extend unemployment benefits for all states and providing support for those in job transition


Continue to support a new direction on trade to support good paying manufacturing jobs


Voted to protect credit card holders from unfair practices of credit card companies

Agriculture

Introduced H.R. 4208, which would raise the estate tax exemption for the special use valuation of farmland to .5 billion


Co-sponsored H.R. 3674, the Milk Import Tariff Equity Act, which would update existing tariff- rate quotas to include milk protein concentrate (MPC) and protect domestic dairy farmers


Co-sponsored H.R. 3227, which would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permanently extend and expand the charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory


Co-sponsored H.R. 1831, the Conservation Easement Incentive Act of 2009, which would make permanent the enhanced tax deduction for land conservation easement donations


Co-sponsored H.R. 3050, the American Family Farm and Ranchland Protection Act, which would protect farmland by increasing the tax incentives for land subject to conservation easement

Leadership

Posted all earmark requests online to promote transparency in the appropriations process


Original cosponsor of H.R. 2038, the Clean Law for Earmark Accountability Reform (CLEAR) Act, which would prohibit


House members from accepting campaign contributions from executives or lobbyists for businesses and then sponsoring earmarks for those entities in the same election cycle.


Supported posting legislation online at least 72 hours before a vote


Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

Late in the 2009 legislative session the Texas legislature passed HB719, which amends Section 43.007 of the Texas Election Code to require the Texas Secretary of State (SOS) to implement a program that allows Commissioner’s Courts in selected counties to eliminate election precinct polling places and establish county-wide Vote Centers for certain elections.

These Election Day Vote Centers work almost exactly like Early Voting Vote Centers. During the early voting period for each election cycle, a number of polling places appear through out the county where any registered voter in the county can vote in any of those places throughout the early voting period.

Collin County gain approval from the Texas Secretary of State to use Vote Centers for the first time on election day in the November, 2009 constitutional amendment election.

The Collin County Commissioner’s Court today voted to authorize Sharon Rowe, the Collin County Elections Administrator, to notify the Director of Elections in the Texas Secretary of State office, that Collin County seeks approval to implement the County Wide Vote Center Program again for the November 2, 2010 election. The Texas Secretary of State is expected to approve the request.

If approved by the Texas SOS, any Collin County registered voter will be able to vote at any of the 70 proposed countywide Vote Centers located around Collin County on Election Day, November 2, 2010.

In 2009, less than 5% of the voters turned out for the constitutional amendment election at one of the 57 countywide Vote Centers. The 2010 General Elections, which headlines the Gubernatorial contest between former Houston Mayor Bill White and incumbent Rick Perry, will likely have a turnout in excess of 38 percent of registered voters.

The 70 proposed countywide Vote Centers, which allows any registered voter to vote at any voting location on election day, is about half the number of polling locations that would be expected under the old local precinct voting location election model.

Democratic Blog of Collin County – News