State and National Government
Photo: Huffstetler Facebook page
5th District Congressman Denver Riggleman has been in office for just three months, but he already has an announced opponent in the 2020 election. Charlottesville Democrat Roger Dean Huffstetler used the G.I. bill to graduate from Harvard Business School and later co-founded his own technology startup. The Republican Party of Virginia says Huffstetler is a “multi-millionaire, out-of-touch liberal from California” who has lived in Virginia for only a short time.
News release: Today, entrepreneur and Marine veteran, Roger Dean Huffstetler, officially launched his campaign for Congress in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, currently held by Denver Riggleman. Huffstetler issued the following statement: “I’m running for Congress because the problems facing our country require a new generation of leadership. Partisan-bickering and special-interest politics have no place in government. We all want the same thing: a chance to provide our children with a better life than our own. This campaign is about everyone, which is why I’ll fight for every family in the 5th District to have a place in a more prosperous, inclusive future.”
The son of parents who struggled with addiction, Roger Dean was the first in his family to graduate from college and used the HOPE Scholarship to graduate from the University of West Georgia. After college, Roger Dean enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving his country in both Iraq and Afghanistan. After using the GI Bill to graduate from the Harvard Business School, Roger Dean went on to work for a high-growth startup and later on co-founded his own technology startup.
Roger Dean lives in Charlottesville with his wife Emily, who works as an OB-GYN at Martha Jefferson Hospital, and his daughter, Alice Sue.
Republican Party of Virginia statement: Richmond, VA – Roger Dean, or RD, Huffstetler is back after a failed attempt to secure the Democrat nomination in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District in 2018 and throwing his full support behind the virulent anti-Semite nominated in his stead. The San Franciscan millionaire couldn’t win his crowded primary, even though most of his donations came from Massachusetts and California.
- Would he vote for fellow San Franciscan, Nancy Pelosi, for Speaker of the House?
- Does he support AOC’s job-killing Green New Deal?
- Will he back President Trump’s America First agenda that protects American jobs and gets tough on China?
- Will he campaign with or take money from Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax, or Mark Herring?
- Which accent will he use on the campaign trail?
Meredith Watson (CBS News photo)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The second of two women to accuse Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault says she has nothing to gain by going public with her allegation. Meredith Watson said in an interview aired Tuesday with CBS that she’s been subjected to intense scrutiny since accusing Fairfax of raping her when both were students at Duke University in 2000. She said she’s faced particular criticism as a black woman because her accusations have tarred the reputation of Fairfax, who also is black. Fairfax says his encounters with both Watson and his initial accuser, Vanessa Tyson, were consensual, and he says a polygraph test proved it. Watson said Tuesday that Fairfax held her down during the attack and that “if you have to hold someone down, it’s not consensual.”
Photo: Ken Cuccinelli Twitter
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he threatens to shut down the southern border, President Donald Trump is considering bringing on a “border” or “immigration czar” to coordinate immigration policy across various federal agencies, according to four people familiar with the discussions.Trump is weighing at least two potential candidates for the post: former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, according to the people, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the conversations publicly.Kobach and Cuccinelli are far-right conservatives with strong views on immigration. Cuccinelli was seen at the White House on Monday.
The planning comes as Trump is threatening anew to close the U.S.-Mexico border as soon as this week if Mexico does not completely halt illegal immigration into the U.S. And it serves as the latest sign that the president plans to continue to hammer his hardline immigration rhetoric and policies as he moves past the special counsel’s Russia investigation and works to rally his base heading into his 2020 re-election campaign.Aides hope the potential appointment, which they caution is still in the planning stages, would serve as the “face” of the administration on immigration issues and would placate both the president and his supporters, showing he is serious and taking action. White House press aides, Kobach and Cuccinelli did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment.
One of the more notable politicians not running in the crowd of Democrats trying to gain the 2020 presidential nomination is discussing why he’s not interested. WFIR’s Ian Price has more from Virginia U.S. Senator Tim Kaine:
A new nationwide poll of likely voters by the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University confirms the deep divide between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to trust in the news. More from WFIR’s Gene Marrano:
Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s self-imposed deadline to decide whether he would run for president in 2020 passed yesterday. But that deadline may have been an April Fool’s joke of sorts, as WFIR’s Ian Price reports:
State Sen. John Edwards
State lawmakers return to Richmond later this week for what is called the “veto session”. It’s when the General Assembly considers Governor Northam’s proposed amendments to bills that passed this winter — and whether to override his vetoes. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The first of two women to accuse Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault says she still wants him to resign.CBS News released excerpts Sunday of its interview with Vanessa Tyson, who says Fairfax forced her to perform oral sex in 2004. The full interview will air Monday.Fairfax says the encounter was consensual.In the excerpts, Tyson reiterates her call for Fairfax’s resignation and says she’s willing to testify about her experience at a public hearing. She had previously indicated a willingness to testify but said any hearing should be conducted in a bipartisan manner.Fairfax issued a lengthy statement Sunday in which he said he had passed polygraph tests in which he was asked whether his encounters with Tyson and another accuser, Meredith Watson, were consensual.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s effort to ban motorists from holding cellphones while driving appears doomed.House Speaker Kirk Cox spokesman Parker Slaybaugh said the speaker believes an amendment Northam is proposing is out of order.Such a ruling by the speaker would effectively kill Northam’s proposed amendment. Northam wants to change legislation that would bar drivers from holding a cellphone while driving in a highway work zone to apply to all roads throughout the state.Slaybaugh said Northam’s proposal is not germane to the original legislation related only to work zones and noted that lawmakers already failed to pass a broad so-called “hands-free driving” bill earlier this year. Northam’s office declines comment. The legislature will return April 3 to take up Northam’s vetoes and amendments.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – A Virginia student who worked with the nation’s first elected black governor is accusing him of sexually harassing her by kissing her without consent.The Washington Post reported Thursday that 22-year-old Sydney Black says 88-year-old L. Douglas Wilder offered to take her on trips and pay for law school and suggested she live at his house in 2017. Black reported the conduct to police and Virginia Commonwealth University, where she was working as an office assistant at the school’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs.VCU declined to answer questions, but the newspaper reports VCU notified Black in a letter that its Title IX office intended to investigate. Wilder didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment over several weeks.