Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent
Politics
Faith
Liberty
VPAP
Posted

The Virginia General Assembly has proposed an amendment to the Constitution of Virginia that would, according to the proposed ballot question, “allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census.” It is scheduled to be put to a statewide referendum in a special election on April 21.

Between the unusual scheduling in a special election (instead of a general election) and the false claim embedded in the question itself (that Virginia’s existing congressional districts, which were drawn under a nonpartisan process the voters overwhelmingly approved six years ago, are “unfair”), it’s pretty clear that this is a transparently political attempt by Democrats in the General Assembly to redraw districts for the party’s benefit  . . . but that’s a topic for another day. The amendment is being challenged on several legal fronts and there are serious constitutional issues involved. The Supreme Court of Virginia has allowed it to go forward for now, but has not yet ruled on its constitutionality.

This article is only about the process by which this amendment got passed and scheduled. I will publish a detailed analysis and endorsement article about the referendum itself closer to the election.

Read more . . .

AdamG2016, CC BY-SA 4.0
Posted

The 2020 presidential election was a strange and controversial moment in American history. Then-incumbent President Donald Trump (R) was challenged by former Vice President Joe Biden (D), and the campaign took place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the absurd overreaction to it, widespread race riots, on-the-fly changes to election rules and norms, and generally enflamed political tensions.

Biden won a 306-232 electoral majority; Trump and many of his supporters claim the election was stolen.

In my 2024 review of Trump’s election-related federal indictments, I included a background analysis of the 2020 election. Because of the pandemic, early and absentee voting was greatly expanded—about 70% of the electorate voted before the nominal election day. As I said in my analysis, “it is obviously easier to cheat when identities are not verified and there is not even a need to be physically present in a public space to fill out a ballot,” but “there is no evidence that there was enough of this fraud to change the outcome of the race.”

Read more . . .

Virginia General Assembly, Special, 2026

Posted
Updated

A special election will be held on January 6, 2026, to fill vacancies in the 15th District in the Virginia Senate and the 77th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. I make the following recommendations in those races:

  • Senate, 15th District: Former Virginia Senator Ghazala Hashmi (D-15th) resigned following her election as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. Former Virginia Delegate Mike Jones (D-77th) and John Thomas (R) stand as candidates to replace her. I recommend voting for John Thomas.
  • House, 77th District: Former Virginia Delegate Mike Jones (D-77th) resigned to seek election to the Virginia Senate. Charlie Schmidt (D) and Richard Stonage (R) stand as candidates to replace him. I recommend voting for Richard Stonage.

Another special election will be held on January 13, 2026, to fill vacancies in the 11th District and 23rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates. I make the following recommendations in those races:

  • House, 11th District: Former Virginia Delegate David Bulova (D-11th) resigned following his nomination to serve as Virginia Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources. Gretchen Bulova (D) and Adam Wise (R) stand as candidates to replace him. I recommend voting for Adam Wise.
  • House, 23rd District: Former Virginia Delegate Candi King (D-23rd) resigned following her nomination to serve as Virginia Secretary of the Commonwealth. Margaret Franklin (D) and Verndell Robinson (R) stand as candidates to replace her. I recommend voting for Verndell Robinson.

A third special election will be held on January 20, 2026, to fill a vacancy in the 17th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. I make the following recommendations in that race:

  • House, 17th District: Former Virginia Delegate Mark Sickles (D-17th) resigned following his nomination to serve as Virginia Secretary of Finance. Chris Cardiff (R) and Garrett McGuire (D) stand as candidates to replace him. I recommend voting for Chris Cardiff.

A fourth special election will be held on February 10, 2026, to fill vacancies in the 39th District in the Virginia Senate and the 5th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. I make the following recommendations in those races:

  • Senate, 39th District: Former Virginia Senator Adam Ebbin (D-39th) resigned following his appointment to serve as an advisor to the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority. Former Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5th) and Julie Robben Lineberry (R) stand as candidates to replace him. I recommend voting for Julie Robben Lineberry.
  • House, 5th District: Former Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5th) resigned to seek election to the Virginia Senate. Mason Butler (R) and Alexandria City Council Member Kirk McPike (D) stand as candidates to replace her. I recommend voting for Mason Butler.

Updated January 7, 2026: Added a recommendation for the January 20 special election for the 17th District in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Updated February 9, 2026: Added a recommendation for the February 10th special elections for the 39th District of the Virginia Senate and the 5th District in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Akela999 (Pixabay)
Posted

I live in Loudoun County, Virginia—the data center capital of the world. Many of the online services and websites you use every day come to you from blocky, windowless buildings somewhere within a fifteen-mile radius of my house. The majority of them are here in Loudoun, but they are starting to pop-up in neighboring Fairfax, Prince William, and Fauquier counties too.

For security reasons, the service providers don’t offer concrete details about what systems live in which buildings. But we know the default region for new “cloud” services on Amazon AWS is US East (N. Virginia) (us-east-1), which is probably in Ashburn. Customers on Google Cloud who choose that service’s us-east4 region and Microsoft Azure customers who choose East US (eastus) or East US 2 (eastus2) are utilizing centers near here. Countless smaller “cloud” providers, hosting services, telecom companies, and more, have their own data centers in the area too.

The closest data center to my home is Google ARA1A, about 1.5 miles away in Arcola. It’s a huge facility with tight security and, apparently, its own on-site power plant. On cold days you can see big columns of steam coming up from its cooling towers. It’s not pretty, but it’s not really an eyesore either. It’s just a big building, which isn’t that different from all the other blocky buildings—offices, townhomes, and strip-malls—that spring-up as the suburbs continue to expand outward from our nation’s capital. And I really don’t see how ARA1A is any worse to look at than the abandoned fields, derelict farmhouses, rotting barns, and mounds of dirt that were there before.

Read more . . .

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.