Abigail Spanberger had a solid two-day run. Between her swearing in on Saturday and Monday morning, the self-styled Democratic moderate was widely hailed as Virginia’s first female governor.
A member of the “Mod Squad,” supposedly an antidote to the left-wing lunatics who helped doom Democrats to electoral defeat in 2024, Spanberger said she would focus on “lowering costs, keeping our communities safe, and strengthening our economy.” She pledged to deliver “pragmatism over partisanship.” In her inauguration speech on Saturday, she promised to “grow Virginia’s economy in every corner of the commonwealth” and “bring capital investment into every region.”
By the start of her first week, that seemed to be out the window. Spanberger announced she would put an end to Virginia’s cooperation with ICE. She indicated that Virginia will rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the cap and trade program that her predecessor estimated—in an executive order now scrubbed from the government’s website—increased energy costs for everybody. And, per reporting from our colleague Chuck Ross, she has begun a makeover of the governing boards of Virginia’s state universities, appointing a pair of Qatari lobbyists to George Mason University’s board of visitors.
Democrats now control not just the governorship but both houses of the legislature, and they mean to test Spanberger’s claim to moderation. In the opening days of the term, they have put forward an orgy of left-wing legislation that would make a gender studies professor at Vassar blush. They propose to:
—Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for offenses, including rape, manslaughter, and the assault of a law enforcement officer
—Introduce a quota for the use of “small, women-owned, or minority-owned businesses” in government contracting
—Impose a tax on every retail delivery service, including Uber Eats, Amazon, and DoorDash
—Double(!) taxes for high earners
—Impose a 3.8 percent net investment tax
—Authorize the statewide use of speed, red light, and “pedestrian crossing violation monitoring” cameras
—Require nurses receive training to counter “unconscious racial bias”
Finally, a Virginia government responsive to the demands of the people for more speeding tickets and higher taxes! And while this litany of insane proposals rocketed across the internet, the response from Virginia’s new governor was silence. She’s disappeared entirely, honeymoon over, fetal position assumed.
Her tenure will tell us a lot about whether moderate Democrats exist in practice rather than just in campaign stump speeches and mainstream media fantasies. It’s an inauspicious start.
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