Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

President of the United States, 2012

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Seal of the President of the United States of America

In the race for President of the United States, incumbent President Barack Obama (D) faces-off against former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA). Also on the Virginia ballot are three ‘third-party’ candidates, Virgil Goode (C), Gary Johnson (L), and Jill Stein (G).

The U.S. has a unique system for electing presidents, where the citizens of each of the fifty states (and the District of Columbia) actually vote for a slate of electors who are ‘pledged’ to a particular presidential candidate. Each state has a number of electors equal to the size of its total congressional delegation, counting both representatives and senators. The District of Columbia has three electors as well, which brings the total number of electors to 538.

Maine and Nebraska allot their electors based on the majority vote in each congressional district, with the remaining two electors chosen at-large based on the total state vote. All other states and the District of Columbia allot their electors under a ‘winner take all’ system, where the winner of the state-wide ballot receives all electors. The candidate who receives a majority vote of at least 270 electors wins the election. If no candidate receives a majority vote, the House of Representatives chooses a president.

Presidents are elected to four-year terms, and may serve up-to two terms.

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U.S. Senate, Virginia, 2012

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Seal of the U.S. Senate

In the race to represent one of Virginia’s seats in the United States Senate, former Senator George Allen (R-VA) faces off against former Governor Tim Kaine (D-VA). Incumbent one-term Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has decided to retire and is not seeking reelection.

Each of the fifty states have two seats in the Senate, for a total of one hundred seats. Senators serve six-year terms, and elections are held on a staggered two-year schedule. This year, thirty-three seats are up for election.

The Democratic Party currently holds a 51-47 majority over the Republican Party in the Senate. Two seats are held by independents who generally caucus and vote with the Democrats. Currently, both of Virginia’s seats in the Senate are held by Democrats.

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U.S. House of Representatives, Virginia’s 10th District, 2012

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Seal of the U.S. House of Representatives

In the race to represent Virginia’s 10th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, incumbent Frank Wolf (R) is challenged by Kristin Cabral (D) and Kevin Chisholm (I). The 10th District, which has been somewhat reconfigured for 2012, encompasses Clarke County, Frederick County, Loudoun County, Manassas, Winchester, and parts of Fairfax and Prince William counties. Wolf has represented the district since 1981 and is seeking his seventeenth term.

All seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election every two years. There are 435 seats in the House, representing each of the fifty states proportional to their population in the last national census. There are an additional six non-voting seats representing various territories and the District of Columbia.

The Republican Party currently holds a strong 240-190 majority over the Democratic Party in the House, and five seats are currently vacant. Virginia currently has eleven seats in the House, with eight held by Republicans and three held by Democrats.

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Virginia Statewide Ballot Issues, 2012

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Seal of Virginia

Citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia will be voting on two state constitutional amendments in this year’s general election. These amendments would each add, remove, or change text in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Question #1: Restoring Property Rights

Article 1, Section 11 of the Virginia Constitution, a part of the Virginia Bill of Rights that is similar to the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. It goes on to say that the General Assembly may not pass “any law whereby private property shall be taken or damaged for public uses, without just compensation, the term ‘public uses’ to be defined by the General Assembly. . . .”

Unfortunately, our Fifth Amendment property protections have been utterly eviscerated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the 2005 case Kelo v. New London. In that case, a narrow 5-4 majority of the justices found that governments may seize private property and turn it over to private businesses in the name of vaguely-defined ‘economic development.’ Since the wording in the Virginia Bill of Rights is very similar to that in the U.S. Bill of Rights, the Kelo ruling likely abrogates our state-level property rights as well. In fact, the Virginia version is probably in worse shape, since it explicitly leaves it to the General Assembly to define what constitutes ‘public use.’

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Loudoun County Bond Referendums, 2012

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Loudoun County Seal

Virginia county governments are required to put bond issuance to a voter referendum in order to borrow money on behalf of the county. Bond issuance is usually used by governments to raise money for large capital expenditures, and those bonds are repaid to their purchasers at a later date (plus interest). Bond referendums in Virginia almost always pass by a large margin, in large part because people think they are voting in favor of the agencies that will benefit (after all, who wants to vote ‘against’ schools, parks, or transportation?). Many voters do not realize that bond issuance contributes to government debt and should be used sparingly.

Acquisition of Fire and Rescue Apparatus

Citizens of Loudoun County, Virginia, will be asked through a bond referendum to authorize the Board of Supervisors to borrow up to $2.75 million to finance, in whole or in part, new fire and rescue apparatus. You might be forgiven for experiencing a bit of deja-vu here; an almost-identical bond referendum for 3 million dollars was on the Loudoun County ballot last year.

In 2011, Off on a Tangent endorsed voting yes on that referendum, and it passed with a seventy-two percent vote on the day of the election. Loudoun is a fast-growing county with unique public safety challenges, and it is essential that our emergency services are appropriately funded. On our northern border is a large river, on our eastern border is a major international airport, and on our western border is a mountain range. We have two-lane rural highways and eight-lane expressways. We have acres upon acres of suburban communities, and acres upon acres of rural forests. We have towering office buildings and sprawling farms and wineries. As I said in 2011, the men and women of Loudoun County Fire and Rescue “need to be ready to face anything—residential fires, plane crashes, urban evacuations, water rescues, national emergencies, and skateboarding accidents.”

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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.