City State: Morning Roundup

Mayor Vincent C. Gray did not sign the District’s fiscal 2012 Budget Support Act, which contained a provision delaying collection of a contested out-of-state bonds tax until January, Michael Neibauer reports in the Washington Business Journal. Emergency legislation approved last month by the D.C. Council delayed implementation of the tax until January by diverting $13 million in what would have been reserve funds to replace it. Neibauer got this comment from Gray spokeswoman Doxie McCoy: “The Mayor did not sign the BSA emergency bill due to his concerns about the bond tax amendment and its potential negative impact on the reserve funds and the District’s rating on Wall Street. Note, the Council has time to act on this legislation before the fiscal year begins in October and the temporary BSA has had only a first reading.”

Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II has made a name for himself filing high-profile lawsuits against the federal government over health care and carbon emissions. Now he leads Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling 45 percent to 21 percent among Republican primary voters Public Policy Poling says in a report by David Sherfinski in The Washington Times. The poll shows that Mr. Cuccinelli is simply more well-known than Mr. Bolling, with a 56 percent favorable and 15 percent unfavorable rating. The poll also shows that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is leading the Republican field in the commonwealth, which will be among the most heavily-contested states in the country.

Members of the District’s transgender community fear they are being targeted after two attacks on the same block in two weeks during which transgender women were shot at with no provocation, Andrea Noble reports in The Washington Times. The shootings, one of them fatal, occurred in a Northeast neighborhood known as a hangout for transgender people. Police say they are investigating whether the shootings are a “potential emerging pattern.”

D.C. Council member Muriel Bowser has raised $85,000 as part of early efforts to retain her seat in Ward 4. Yvette Alexander, Ward 7 Democrat, has raised $6,900 so far and at-large member Michael Brown has garnered about $60,000, even though as an independent he skips straight to the November general election ballot and only needs to finish in the top two among at-large candidates. Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat, has served on the council for 20 years and shown he is serious about re-election although he lacks a clear opponent. His campaign reported $143,000 in fundraising, based on campaign finance filings for the period ending July 31 and reported in The Washington Times by Tom Howell Jr.

Kevin B. Chavous, the son of the former D.C. Council member from Ward 7, Kevin P. Chavous, is considering his own run against current council member Yvette Alexander in Ward 7, The Washington Post reports.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has done some traveling, The Washington Post says. The Republican “has traveled mostly across the state or to the District to speak at conferences or on his monthly call-in radio shows, announce new jobs, attend groundbreakings or hold town hall meetings.” We covered this last month. The Post gives us some cost figures.