The Virginia Senate shot down another unnecessary piece of legislation introduced by Sen. Bill Stanley (R-Franklin County) that would have allowed voters to choose their political party affiliation when registering to vote.
The bill was killed in the Senate by a vote of 24-16.
According to Stanley, his legislation would have given political parties greater control over their primary elections. At present, primary elections are open to all voters.
But as Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) pointed out, the current primary voting system works fine. Petersen also noted that registering again to add political party affiliation would create additional burdens for registrars.
The purpose of Stanley’s legislation is another clear attempt to shore up Republican Party power in the commonwealth. In one vein, that’s the nature of beast. On the other hand, the VA GOP is creating more problems in Virginia than it seems to think it’s solving with the kind of legislation that Sen. Stanley introduced. While this might not matter to some members of the General Assembly, it matters to the average Virginian.
For all of their aggressive policy initiatives you would think that the VA GOP controls both houses of the General Assembly. Luckily, they don’t. But Sen. Stanley’s bill stands as one example of the kind of year it’s been in the General Assembly, one mired in partisan legislative warfare instead of one that has attempted to bring Virginians closer together with sensible, middle-of-the-road policies.
These are the kind of years that sour the political environment for years to come. Let’s hope Virginia’s public servants can find a way to rise above this political trench warfare sometime soon.
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