Democratic leaders on Tuesday rolled out an agenda for the 2018 legislative session in Virginia that will test the resolve of the weakened GOP and aims to push Virginia in a more liberal direction.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Gov.-elect Ralph Northam, who is to be sworn in Saturday, vowed to push to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, mandate universal background checks on every gun purchase and remove needless regulations that burden abortion access when the legislature gets back to work on Wednesday
The legislative package seeks to loosen voting laws and advocates for a cap-and-trade program targeting carbon dioxide emissions from the state’s power plants.
“This session is our opportunity to do the job voters sent us to do by making their lives better for everyone, no matter who they are or where they are from,” Mr. Northam said. “I look forward to advocating for this agenda and working with both parties in the General Assembly to pass legislation that makes Virginia safer, healthier and more prosperous for every family.”
Mr. McAuliffe, meanwhile, is set to deliver his final State of the Commonwealth speech in Richmond, as lawmakers kickoff the 2018 legislative session.
“Together with my budget proposal, these policy ideas build on the vision we share for a prosperous Commonwealth,” Mr. McAuliffe said Tuesday.
Republicans said Mr. McAuliffe has already turned his attention to a presidential run in 2020 and the rollout of the party’s legislative priorities showed it.
“The only way Terry McAuliffe could make it more plain that he’s running would be to have a flashing neon sign above his head,” said RNC spokesman Garren Shipley.
“It’s a safe bet that tomorrow’s State of the Commonwealth speech will be little more than a Christmas list for liberal Democrat primary voters,” he said.
Mr. Northam easily defeated Republican Ed Gillespie in the November election, delivering the fourth gubernatorial win for Democrats in five races — further cementing a leftward drift at the ballot box.
Democrats also came within a single seat of ending the GOP’s 18-year hold on the majority in the Virginia House of Delegates.
When the legislature convenes Wednesday Republicans will hold a 21-19 seat edge in the state Senate and a 51-49 seat majority in the House of Delegates after coming out on the winning side of a random tie-breaker drawing that decided control of a seat in tidewater.
The GOP held a 66-34 advantage in the House of Delegates prior to the November election, where Mr. Northam emerged arguably as the biggest winner.
Mr. Northam ran as a pro-choice warrior, and pledged to grant health insurance to 400,000 low-income Virginians who are eligible under Medicaid expansion and to tighten the state’s gun laws by requiring background checks for private gun sales.
Democrats attributed the GOP’s struggles to its refusal to get behind those plans, as well as the blowback against President Trump.
The legislative package rolled out Tuesday also called for loosening absentee voting laws and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
It calls for new protections for recipients of student loans, enacting the Whole Women’s Health Act, and loosening theft laws by raising the threshold for felony larceny from $200 to $1,000 in an attempt to “ensure that fewer people will be ensnared in this lifelong punishment for making a small mistake.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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