November 08, 2017
We do not often comment on the results of elections or on any partisan political story, but clearly the likely results of the election will change the landscape at this year’s General Assembly Session. We have two things to watch for:
- With the Democratic sweep of the statewide offices and the pick up of 16 seats in the House of Delegates (there were no Senate races this year), Governor McAuliffe is likely to put forth a stronger budget which may, again, include a Medicaid expansion plan. We don’t doubt he would have included his signature items anyway, but with the real possibility of action it is likely to be done with extra attention to detail!
- It appears that the Democrats may have picked up 16 seats in the House to add to the 34 they held. (There were no Democratically held seats that were lost!) Doing simple math shows that we may have a House that is evenly divided. The majority party holds a number of privileges and among those are making the decisions on committee appointments and chairmanships. An evenly divided House (in this day of strong partisan feelings) maybe a real challenge!