Is Youngkin leading by retaliation ?
By Mona Austin
(The Slice): Virignia Democrats are rattled by the Republican governor Glenn Youngkin vetoing 26 bills, all led by Democratics -- sparking cries that he is stirring discord in the state house.
Youngkin's actions are reminiscent of former Pres. Donald Trump who singed Exectuive Orders to enforce policies his party endorsed. But Youngkin has a Republican controlled House so Democrats see his actions as politically divisive and relatilatory.
State Sen. Creigh Deeds told The Virginian-Pilot the governor is trying to get back at Demogcrvats for not approving two Republicans to lead departments in the state.
“It’s tit for tat and he wants to continue that war with us,” Deeds said. “He doesn’t want to talk and have conversations and figure out how to govern or move forward.”
Nine of the 25 bills vetoed were introduced by Sen. Adam Ebbin, who chairs the Senate committee that shot down Youngkin’s nominations, leading Deeds to conclude the governor was targeting certain legislators. Ebbin, however, did have one bill that was signed into law.
The governor has swept through 800 measures according to the Richmond Times. The governor sees many of the amendments he endorsed as technical in nature, including eliminating a potential tax increase on gaming receipts paid by charitable organizations, clarifying hemp sale statutes and prohibiting sales of products containing Delta-8.
Perhaps the most controversial of the changes that caused his name to trend on Twitter Tuesday eenin is the requirement that the majority conservative Loudoun County School Board stand for election this fall instead of a year later which was the intial plan.
Another ammendment challenged a rule that was passed under former governor Ralph Northam. The Virginia legislation banned police from using facial recognition technology last Summer. Youngkin has signed off on allowing law enforcement the "limited" use of facial recognition technology.
In a release Tuesday, Youngkin justified each of his actions.
On partially reversing the rule of facial recognition . . .
“We engaged stakeholders on important issues in community safety and provided a commonsense path forward on facial recognition technology for law enforcement without compromising individual freedoms.
On requiring Loudon Country School Board to run . . .
"We provided accountability and transparency in education by ensuring school boards reflect the will of their constituents right now."
This change in particular is a contradiction to the idea that Republicans do not want the oppostion to impose their values, such as LGBTQ rights on The opposition could use the same logic in the u, setting up a cycle of spiteful partisan engagement going forward. The Loudon County School Borad led the charge in the nation to have CRT removed from school curriculum.
Youngkin told WJLA News that he wanted to move up the date to give parents an opportunity to elect thier leaders.
On taxing charitable organizations. . .
"We eliminated a possible tax increase on charitable organizations and lowered the tax rate on charitable gaming receipts."
On selling synthetic Hemp products. . .
"We protected Virginians from potentially harmful synthetically-modified substances while preserving the market for regulated CBD products currently available. "
All of the bills in question are at the proposal stage and must be passed by the Virginia General Assembly.
On Monday the governor's office announced that he signed 700 bipartisan bills into law Governor Glenn Youngkin signed 700 bills into law, taking action on a total of 841 bills sent to his desk during the 2022 General Assembly session.
“These bills are all bipartisan and we can all be proud that together we’ve taken steps to make life easier for Virginians, make our Commonwealth’s economy more competitive, support law enforcement, protect the most vulnerable among us, increase access to health care, and take necessary steps toward making Virginia’s schools the absolute best in the nation,” Governor Youngkin said.
Despite some bipartisan action it is the scratching of the 26 measures that has Democrats worried about encountering barriers in Youngkin's leadership style.