It's worth noting that Lynchburg is represented in the Virginia General Assembly by Del. Shannon Valentine, who is very much a Democrat. She won a special election in January 2006, absolutely crushing her Republican opponent something like 65/35.

Posted at May 17, 2007 1:27 PM in response to Falwell: The View From Lynchburg

Abortion was absolutely not a relevant issue in this race.  Mark Warner won four years ago by making abortion a non-issue -- he said "let's keep the laws as they are."  Kaine said the same thing this time, and it was a smart move, because it prevented abortion from mattering in the race.

People can kvetch about Kaine's stance on abortion all they want, but there's a reason why he won by over 6% -- his positions are those supported by a majority of Virginians.  He could have taken a more progressive stance on abortion, but then we would have lost.

-Waldo Jaquith

Posted at November 8, 2005 11:14 PM in response to Big Win In Virginia

Here's a transcript of the salient bit of the discussion in question, between Jerry Kilgore and "Charlottesville Live" host Coy Barefoot last Thursday:

JK: Now there's a move across this nation to recognize the effects illegal immigration is having budgetarily, from a security standpoint- We need to know who's here. When MS-13 is being contacted by al-Qaeda -- MS-13 being a huge, very violent gang that's organized in Virginia and all across the nation-

CB: Ten thousand members in 31 states.

JK: Absolutely. When they're contacted by al-Qaeda to...to work in partnership with al-Qaeda, then we have a problem, and we need to fix that problem.

CB: Now, I'll agree -- that's actually very scary.

JK: That's very scary.

Audio (212k MP3)

-Waldo Jaquith

Posted at August 23, 2005 7:44 AM in response to Immigrant-Bashing in the Old Dominion