Claire Guthrie Gastanaga will join VB Dems in a live-blog on Monday, Dec. 17 at around 11:30am-12pm. In anticipation of the upcoming 2008 General Assembly, I originally asked Claire to join us by fielding questions about Virginia's immigration debate and about the impact of findings from Sen. Stolle's Crime Commission investigations. But now re-reading her bio (see below) and knowing Claire the way I do, I suspect she can fill us in on a number of the hottest issues that will be swirling around Richmond soon and perhaps give us a preview of what can be expected from our now Democratic Senate. Should be fun! Leave your questions in the comment section there and come back live on Monday if you can.
I serve as a strategic advisor, legislative strategist and professional lobbyist for Equality Virginia, the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, and the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance. I managed The Commonwealth Coalition's campaign against Ballot Question #1. I have done work for the Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. I have been a paid political consultant for: Viola Baskerville, Lt. Governor and House campaigns; Jackie Jackson, City Council (2) and House campaigns; Creigh Deeds, campaign for AG; Tim Kaine, Lt. Gov. primary campaign; and Mark Warner, gubernatorial campaign. I am a recovering attorney. I was the first woman to serve as Virginia's Chief Deputy Attorney General; and I argued a case in the US Supreme Court with Chief Justice John Roberts. I am the former Counsel and Chief of Staff to the Democratic Speaker of the House; and I was redistricting Counsel for the Virginia Democratic House and Senate Caucuses. I serve on the board of the National Association of Women Business Owners.
McDonnell Takes Aim at Illegal Immigration- Hopes to Work With General Assembly in '08
10/1/2007 10:18:00 AM
THE (HARRISONBURG) DAILY NEWS RECORD
September 29, 2007
By Jeff Mellott
HARRISONBURG - Attorney General Bob McDonnell says he expects legislators to make progress on immigration issues if Republicans maintain control of the General Assembly. ["If" being the operative word here.]
This despite the fact that nearly all of the bills on the issue were defeated in the last General Assembly session. [Cough * Re-elected Republican Sen. Stolle * Cough. Cough.]
"I am not pleased that more was not done in the General Assembly," [more was not done?... is this the grammer that teach these days at Regent aka Pat Robertson University?]
McDonnell said during a wide-ranging interview at the Daily News-Record on Thursday. He was in Harrisonburg to endorse local Republican candidates in the Nov. 6 election, and to take his daughter Rachel out to dinner for her 19th birthday. She is a student at James Madison University.
Election Key
Several Republicans joined Democrats to defeat immigration legislation in the more-moderate state Senate earlier this year, but McDonnell is hopeful that that will change when the next session begins in January 2008. [hmm... again with the moderate bashing, and heaven forbid Democrats and Republicans should join together.]
Some Senate Republican leaders who opposed the immigration bills are retiring, he pointed out. He added that GOP leaders have renewed their commitment to make headway on immigration reform. [Born again Repugs?!?]
But he acknowledged that the ability of Republicans to push their proposals to rein in illegal immigration depends largely on the results of the Nov. 6 election. [We'll ask Claire about this. Realistically, how much can this legitimately be a state issue? ICE has the lock on authority here. Anything really at the state level is fluff.]
All 140 seats of the General Assembly are up for election.
Political analysts and legislative insiders generally agree that Democrats could take back the Senate. Analysts, though, say it is unlikely that the GOP will lose control of the House of Delegates. [yeah, yeah, yeah.]
Supports Local Enforcement
McDonnell has been critical of federal immigration policy [Who isn't?] and how current law hamstrings local and state police when it comes to their ability to enforce immigration laws. [Fix the fed problem and de-hamstring the locals. Dah!]
McDonnell makes a distinction between illegal immigrants who are otherwise obeying the law and those who are here illegally and violating state laws. He said his focus is on the latter, whom he dubbed "criminal illegal aliens." [What brilliance, AG Bob! OMFG, you mean there's a difference between an illegal who breaks the laws vs. the one that doesn't!?]
In particular, he supports a GOP proposal that would require local sheriff's offices to determine a person's legal status when brought to the jail on state criminal charges. [As Claire will point out, we already do that, Bob. Fluff, fluff, fluff... it's election season!]
If the person is not legally in the country, then the sheriff's office would seek authority to hold them and notify the Immigration Customs Enforcement agency.
The Virginia Crime Commission this week announced a proposal that would create a facility that would be used exclusively to hold illegal immigrants charged with a crime. [Ouch! Little brother Chris Stolle got burned by this idea. Within hours of its suggestion, the crime commission with overwhelming input from local jailers and police, withdrew this bad idea.]
McDonnell, who is preparing to run for governor in 2009, said he does not oppose legal immigration. [Bravo! How American! What a guy!]
"We need a lot of people from other countries to be able to come here and sustain the incredible economic growth, particularly here in Virginia," he said. [Just make sure that they don't reproduce at faster rates than the average white Virginian. Dick Black has sleepless nights worried about that one. Yet another reason why the AG Bob types oppose birth control. They think we need more white women getting pregnant.]
But, he said, ways exist for the immigrants to be here legally.
To ignore the rules on immigration "goes against everything that we believe in America." [Oh yeah, and AG Bob is working so hard to help those immigrants to live happily ever after in Virginia.]