Weekly Recap: DPVA held 2nd Labor Council of 2019, Pints on the Patio event announced, House Democrats target top GOP leaders…

11 min readJul 24, 2019

Labor Council

The DPVA held our 2nd Labor Council of 2019 at the CWA Local 2201 union hall in Richmond with special guest Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger! We were joined by 40 Union members from 15 Unions from around the Commonwealth! The DPVA is proud to partner with our Elected Officials and Organized Labor to ensure a better and brighter future for Virginia!

Upcoming DPVA Event: Pints on the Patio

Join us for an evening under the lights with cold brews, specialty cocktails, local fare, and shining entertainment! Featuring Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger and Larry Barnett’s Blue Wave Trio Band.

TICKETS: bit.ly/dpvapints

DATE/TIME/LOCATION
• Date: Thursday, August 15, 2019
• Time:
5:30–6:30 PM Private Cocktail Hour
6:30–8:30 Reception
• Location: Richmond, VA (address provided upon ticket purchase)

DETAILS::
• Ticket includes admission, light snacks, beer, and specialty cocktails
• Your donation will support efforts to flip the General Assembly in November!

QUESTIONS?
Please contact Justin Jones at justin@vademocrats.org / (925) 895–4449.

Want to get involved in the largest coordinated campaign in VA history? Look no further!

Here’s how you can weigh in on Virginia’s proposed new gun laws (Pilot Online)

Here's how you can weigh in on Virginia's proposed new gun laws

A few dozen bills originally scheduled to be heard during a special session on guns have been punted to a group that…

pilotonline.com

A few dozen bills originally scheduled to be heard during a special session on guns have been punted to a group that will study the legislation instead, and the public is invited to share its thoughts on them.

When he convened legislators back to Richmond on July 9, Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam intended the legislation to be heard, at the very least, by lawmakers who sit on relevant committees and can vote on the bills. But the GOP-led General Assembly adjourned 90 minutes into the special session, saying all of the bills would be evaluated by the Virginia State Crime Commission instead.

The commission, consisting of a bipartisan group of legislators and three citizen members who make recommendations to the General Assembly, began accepting written comments from the public about the proposed legislation on Friday.

A deadline for submitting comments will be given after the Aug. 20 meeting, where commissioners will hear public comment starting at noon.

The day before, at 10 a.m. on Aug. 19, commissioners will hear from other agencies and organizations giving presentations related to the bills.

Both meetings are public, but only the second one will include public comment on the bills. Both meetings are held in the shared committee room of the Pocahontas Building, located at 900 E. Main St., Richmond.

Friday was also the deadline for lawmakers to file bills or pull existing ones from the docket, but no gun or safety-related bills have been filed since July 9.

Democrats’ bills include universal background checks, extreme risk protection orders and bans on bump stocks, high-capacity magazines and silencer bans — all requested by Northam when he called the special session four days after 12 people were killed in the Virginia Beach mass shooting.

Republicans filed bills related to public safety, mental or behavioral health, budget adjustments and tax exemptions for donations to Virginia Beach victim relief funds. They also had a handful of bills that would increase the minimum required sentences for gun-related crimes.

A full list of the bills can be found at lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?192+lst+ALL.

Written comments can be sent to comments@vscc.virginia.gov or to the Virginia State Crime Commission office at 1111 E. Broad St., Ste. B036, Richmond, VA 23219.

Lawmakers will reconvene Nov. 18.

Va. House Democrats target top GOP leaders Cox, Jones with digital ads in their new districts (RTD)

Va. House Democrats target top GOP leaders Cox, Jones with digital ads in their new districts

Virginia House Democrats said they will spend $90,000 starting Tuesday for digital ads targeting two top GOP leaders…

www.richmond.com

Virginia House Democrats said they will spend $90,000 starting Tuesday for digital ads targeting two top GOP leaders, including Speaker of the House Kirk Cox.

Cox, R-Colonial Heights, and Del. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, are in re-election fights this year following a court-ordered redistricting that dramatically changed their districts. All 140 seats in the General Assembly, where Republicans narrowly control each chamber, are up for election in November.

House Democrats said in a news release that they will spent an initial $90,000 targeting voters in the redrawn districts of Cox and Jones. The ads focus on health care and their “consistent opposition to the Affordable Care Act.”

After previously opposing expansion of Medicaid in Virginia under the federal law, both Cox and Jones voted to pass Medicaid expansion in 2018 following Democratic gains of 15 seats in the state House in November 2017.

Both Republican leaders are taking their election challenges seriously. Cox faces Sheila Bynum-Coleman, a real estate agent who has made several unsuccessful runs for delegate in the Richmond area, while Jones faces Clint Jenkins, a real estate agent and the chairman of the 3rd U.S. House District Democratic Committee.

“It’s no secret that Democrats are going to be well funded by millionaires and outside groups,” Parker Slaybaugh, a spokesman for House Republicans, said by email Tuesday. “We’re going to run an underdog grassroots campaign focused on building relationships rather than political rhetoric. Just this weekend we hosted nearly 500 people at a free community cookout and Speaker Cox has knocked on more than 2,100 doors since March.”

The digital ads are also intended to introduce voters to Coleman and Jenkins, the Democratic news release said.

“Cox and Jones need to be held accountable for their roles in blocking access to affordable health care and voting rights,” Trevor Southerland, executive director of the House Democratic Caucus, said in the news release. “This year Democrats are going to flip the House and it’s strong candidates like Sheila and Clinton who will help lead the charge.”

Cox’s House District 66 includes part of Chesterfield County and the city of Colonial Heights. The redistricting created a swing toward Democrats of 32 points, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit that provides nonpartisan information about Virginia politics and political spending.

Jones’ House District 76 is based in Suffolk and includes part of Chesapeake. He faced no Democratic challenger in the past 18 years. The redistricting created a swing toward Democrats of more than 27 points in the district, according to VPAP.

House passes long-sought $15 minimum wage legislation (Washington Post)

House passes long-sought $15 minimum wage legislation

July 18 House Democrats voted Thursday to lift the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, delivering on a long-standing…

www.washingtonpost.com

House Democrats voted Thursday to lift the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, delivering on a long-standing liberal priority that has become a rallying cry for 2020 Democratic presidential contenders.

The bill, which passed 231–199, would raise the minimum wage gradually from its current level of $7.25 an hour until reaching $15 an hour in 2025. The legislation was amended earlier this week at the urging of moderate Democrats to provide for a slower six-year phase-in, instead of five years as originally envisioned.

The “Fight for $15” has become a potent political push on the left, but bringing it to fruition on the floor of the House took months of maneuvering as some moderates voiced concerns about the impacts on small businesses or in rural areas where pay scales are lower than in larger metropolitan areas. Ultimately, the slower phase-in pushed by moderate members — along with a proposed study that would measure the impacts of the wage increase partway through its implementation — satisfied the concerns of the large majority of House Democrats.

Although the legislation is not expected to advance in the Republican-run Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he will not take it up, House Democrats celebrated what they described as a major achievement in their fight for U.S. workers.

“This is an historic day,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on the House floor ahead of the vote, which she said would narrow the gender gap in wages. “Today we wake up for a day of jubilation because of the sense of fairness this legislation engenders. We wake up with a smile on our face, showing the world with all the love in our hearts, and that love in our hearts is about fairness for the American people.”

Republicans were almost uniformly opposed, a stance that was fueled by a Congressional Budget Office report last week that said increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would lead to 1.3 million lost jobs. The report also said that the change would lift the earnings of 27.3 million workers. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009, but Republicans described the Democratic legislation as a politically motivated jobs-killer designed to undermine economic gains they said had been made under President Trump.

The minimum wage bill is “another baseless attack on President Trump’s successful record,” said Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.). “Just this week House Democrats voted to hold the president’s advisers in contempt, and many voted to impeach the president. Today they are working to undo the economic gains seen under the Trump administration’s leadership and undermine the best economy in my lifetime.”

Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a moderate Blue Dog Coalition leader who played a lead role in negotiating the bill, rejected the GOP criticism while contending that the deliberate approach advocated by moderate Democrats would guard against any negative effects. Murphy and others advocated for an amendment, approved by the House, that would require an independent study once the minimum wage reached $9.50 to allow Congress to monitor the impacts of the law.

“The positive impacts way outweigh any potential negative impacts, but the incremental way in which we’re doing this along with the data-focused approach allows us to address any real harm — if there is harm — as we move along,” Murphy said. “This will be one of the proudest votes I cast,” she said.

Raising the minimum wage was a centerpiece of the Democratic agenda when they took control of the House this year, but Pelosi and other leaders have struggled to focus attention on such bread-and-butter issues important to voters heading into the 2020 presidential and congressional elections. The Democrats’ preferred message has been repeatedly drowned out by other issues, most recently President Trump’s racist attacks on four minority freshmen Democratic women.

Rep. Terri A. Sewell (D-Ala.), who had been pushing to adopt a regionally adjusted minimum wage, said she was voting for the bill, even though it did not include any regional adjustment or a small-business tax credit she championed.

“We promised the American people a raise, and this is the only vehicle that’s moving. I still stand by my bill — I think my approach is better,” Sewell said. “But at the end of the day, this is a Democratic process and this is the bill that’s moving.”

A last-minute effort by Republicans to amend the legislation to exempt small businesses with fewer than 10 workers or less than $1 million in annual income from the minimum wage increase failed narrowly. Democrats warned that the GOP maneuver was aimed at dividing the Democratic caucus and causing the underlying bill to fail. The underlying bill passed along near party lines, with three Republicans joining Democrats in voting “yes” and six Democrats opposing the legislation.

Passage of the bill was a particularly sweet victory for members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, some of whom have been fighting for it for years.

“I’m a little frustrated we have to extend the date a little bit, but I really believe it needs to get done and I will vote for it and I will celebrate the passage of the first raise of the federal minimum wage in such a long time,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a Progressive Caucus leader who represents Seattle, which recently enacted a $16-an-hour minimum wage.

Polling has found a $15 minimum wage to be broadly popular with the public. A Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation survey last year found 60 percent of U.S. adults supported raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour, while 37 percent were opposed. The candidates running for the Democratic presidential nomination uniformly support the change, and some are making it an important focus of their campaigns. In Iowa this week, several candidates rallied with Fight for $15 workers.

As the federal minimum wage has stagnated, states and localities have increasingly acted on their own. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the effective minimum wage has increased in 27 states and the District of Columbia since 2014; 29 states and the District now have a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage.