Shenandoah County GOP

Just in case you didn’t notice, the Shenandoah County GOP blog is currently on a hiatus. The County Committee is reconsidering its communications plan. Comments are welcome and should be directed to Craig Orndorff at craig.orndorff@gmail.com.

We’re considering taking on alternate contributors, but if there’s no takers, the blog will be shut down for good effective 12/1/2008. However, the archives will remain up as long as the good people at WordPress will allow.

Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-Woodstock) today announced that he will patron legislation to reverse a new and potentially destructive ruling by the Virginia Department of Taxation to collect sales tax on the processing of consumer-owned food items by butchers and meat processors. As a result of the recent ruling, hunters who drop off deer carcasses to be processed and farmers who bring in cattle and hogs to be butchered for their own consumption will be required to pay the 5% Virginia sales tax on the processing of those meats. Although the Department of Taxation based their new ruling on existing statutory law and their own administrative code, it is a first in Virginia for the Department of Taxation to apply this longstanding rule on the fabrication of goods to consumer-owned food. 

          On October 22nd, Blue Ridge Meats, a small slaughterhouse located in Front Royal, was notified by the tax department that it would have to begin collecting sales tax on meat that it processed for consumers, even if the meat was brought to them by the consumers themselves. The company is appealing the ruling and is represented by Front Royal attorney and 18th District Delegate, Clifford L. (Clay) Athey, Jr.

          Delegate Gilbert stated in a prepared statement: “I represent countless hunters, family farmers, and other consumers who routinely take meat to the butcher so that they can put in their freezers and help feed their families during the year. They pay for this service. To then charge them a sales tax on food they already own is preposterous. Not only is it inherently unfair for the tax man to line up for his cut, this tax will have real consequences for those who are forced to pay it. Farmers are already struggling to pay their livestock feed costs, and the Virginia Department of Taxation now demands that they pay a 5% sales tax for the necessity of converting their own livestock into food for their families. In an area where our hunting heritage is so important to so many people, hunters will likewise be taxed for bringing in their game to be processed in a safe and hygienic manner. My bill will exempt such food items from the hungry eyes of the tax man.”

          Delegate Athey (R-Warren) added: “I represent the folks who are fighting this unfair ruling as both their lawyer and their delegate. I was shocked to learn of this inherently unfair ruling and we are working to reverse it both legally and legislatively.”

          Delegate Beverly Sherwood (R-Frederick) added: “As Chairman of the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee and a member of the Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, I work very hard to protect the rights of our local hunters and the livelihoods of our farmers. I will do everything in my power to ensure this bill becomes law.”

I’ll post some backstory later, but THIS is a sign:

Anyone who has been following the polls in Virginia for the last week probably has a headache…..Obama +2…….McCain +9……..Tie……..McCain +2…….Obama +5. How can one little state be getting all these different results. I have my thoughts, including that Virginia is becoming increasingly difficult to poll accurately due to a number of demographic changes. I’m hoping to do a feature post soon

Some food for thought from RTD:

The Gallup organization, one of the oldest and most respected polls, says it does account for cell-phone users. About 15 percent of households now use cell phones only.

Residents of those households tend to be younger, more minorities and more transient, the Gallup organization’s Web site says.

Those would be more likely to be Obama supporters.

Since Jan. 2, Gallup has been including cell phone-only households in all of its telephone surveys, the Web site says. The most recent national Gallup poll, taken Friday, shows Obama leading by 5 percentage points.

Coker said the Obama campaign should be more worried about the so-called “Wilder effect” or “Bradley effect.”

The phenomenon was named for Virginia’s L. Douglas Wilder and California’s Tom Bradley, black office holders who saw substantial poll leads disappear on Election Day. This resulted in a theory that some voters are embarrassed to tell pollsters that they will not support a black candidate.

In 1982, Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles, led in the polls but lost California’s election for governor.

Two days before Virginia’s 1989 election for governor, Wilder led his Republican opponent, J. Marshall Coleman, by 15 percentage points, according to one poll. Wilder won the election, but it was so close there was a recount.

Ok, to all my fans who can access only this blog and thus use this as their exclusive source for Shenandoah County news ( who I must only assume exist, or else I would have given up on this project long ago)….

I’ve been experiencing PC problems for a while, which is why the County website hasn’t been substantially updated in a bit. On Thursday evening, I discovered that the power cord on my Mac Book was frayed, meaning that once the battery was gone, the show was over. Hence the light posting over the last few days. However, plenty to discuss, and there’s bigger posts on the way. Here’s six stories you should know about:

-New Market is getting ready to move on plans for a regional waste-water treatment agreement with Broadway. I’ll just stay away from trying to make a joke here in fear on stooping to school-yard antics–but I will say that any regional cooperation that has the potential for cost-savings is worth investigating.

–Strasburg is considering moving from eight to six members for their town council and shifting appointments to odd-numbered years. Such a move could avoid politicizing such things and turning elections into a referendum on town officials. Also on the table: clarifying the number of votes required for levying taxes.

-After putting on his campaign ethicist hat last week, Bob Wooten decides this week to try out his best curmudgeon impersonation. His target: The Route 11 Yard Crawl. Given the size of Rt. 11, is the Yard Crawl a contender for the best idea ever? No, but hey, giving people a genuine reason to come is far superior to hoping a fancy plaza will bring them in. I use to tolerate Wooten a bit more than Chris Fordney’s smug commentary, but he’s become increasingly grating. While it’s great that the Northern Virginia Daily has expanded into local opinion rather than just regurgitating wire opinion pieces, they really could use a conservative counterpoint….particularly in light of the Shenandoah Valley Hearld’s leftward swing. But that’s another post for another day.

-The Daily News Record highlights Harrisonburg’s unique position as a safe-haven for refugees from the world over, fleeing some of the world’s biggest hot spots. This reminds me of a story I once heard at a RNC training session. The leader had been a field operative in Minnesota and recounted how fiercely the Hmong tribespeople, many of whom had fought in the “Secret War” in Vietnam and the Laotian Civil War. Many had been repatriated to Minnesota, and I’ll never forget this line: “Somehow, the CIA felt that northern Minnesota best resembled Cambodia.”

-The Tax Break on school supplies has been extended to Sunday. Maybe that’s why people didn’t take advantage of Belle Grove’s discount day…..

-This is in Augusta, but the school system there is looking to trim routes in hope of sticking within budgeted limits due to rising diesel costs.

Readers, family, friends, and anyone unfortunate enough to be within earshot when I’m talking politics can tell you that one of my great loves is political history, particularly as it relates to Virginia politics in the last half-century. It’s an odd phenomena…… political stories grip the nation when they occur. During some of the coverage of this past race there’s been a peppering of references to elections past. But they often seem like a bit of an afterthought and sometimes a bit tacked on. Besides, every election occurs with its own personalities, issues, and circumstances. To try to say “This is 1976 all over again” can often be not just lazy journalism but lazy history as well. Elections are re-runs; American politics is one continuous story arc. I try to live by the maxim that all past is prologue, be it in teaching people about Belle Grove or in politics.

I visited the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley not too long ago. They have a very nice display up there and a number of very engaging exhibits. Yet there was not one mention that I could find of Harry F. Byrd and his machine, both in politics and business, that dominated Virginia and the Valley for over half a century. And again, it can be boring for many. People visit Belle Grove to hear about the Battle of Cedar Creek. But Civil Wars just don’t happen, and boys from parts of the south that are separated not just physicially but economically and culturally didn’t fight for the same reasons. But that’s for someone’s thesis. 

Rather than continue to prattle on about what I don’t like in the presentation of political history, I present you with two interesting articles:

-The first is a Roanoke Times sit-down with former Governor Linwood Holton, who in 1969 broke roughly a century of Democratic rule (not counting a run of Readjuster Governors). A progressive Republican, Holton has often been at odds with the party since, most recently in 2004 when he joined with other former Republican officeholders to decry the Republican Party platform. I can’t wait to get a copy of his memoir. 

-The second gives me pause with the title I chose for this post, since John Warner isn’t really off the scene yet (I get probably 6-8 editorials or blog posts each day in my Google Alerts regarding his recent comments advocating a 55 MPH speed limit nationwide), but this is still the first election for Virginia’s Class II Senator in over a quarter century in which Warner’s name won’t be on the ballot. If you can stomach talk of emissions control legislation, read this Style Weekly profile for a neat glimpse into Warner’s past. 

Fun fact: Warner and Holton actually ran against each other in 1978 for the Republican Senate nomination. If I remember correctly, Warner came in second and Holton came in third in one of the largest conventions in Virginia political history: well over 10,000 people ATTENDED (not registered to attend).