IN THE NEWS:

Marijuana Bill Gets Ratioed: Earlier this year, the General Assembly passed a bill cracking down on intoxicating products with THC. But Governor Glenn Youngkin added some amendments to make sure the bill didn't outlaw some CBD products that help with epilepsy. But the amendments sparked controversy over whether the ratio system is more useful than a standard milligram measurement.

The Ghost of Jim Crow: Virginia's 1902 constitutional convention added a provision calling for voting rights to be stripped from anyone convicted of a felony--and while recent governors created a system of automatically restoring voting rights, Governor Youngkin has discontinued the automatic practice. Democratic House Leader Don Scott says that's a return to the days of Jim Crow.

On the Wrong Side of Public Opinion: According to a new poll from the Schar School, most Virginia voters oppose efforts to prevent transgender girls from competing in sports and disagree with legislation that would prevent transgender students from using the bathroom of the gender they identify with. The dean of the Schar school says puts Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin in an awkward position, given his positions on transgender issues.


At the Watercooler:
- Governor Youngkin vetoed only 3 bills this year, compared to 33 last year.
- Governor Youngkin is raising record amounts of campaign cash. Last week, his fundraising groups announced $2.75 million in the first quarter of 2023
- DC claps back against Attorney General Jason Miyares’s letter criticizing its criminal justice system--by pointing out a large part of the problem is gun trafficking that originates in Virginia.

Episode Transcript

Michael Pope  

I'm Michael Pope.

Thomas Bowman  

I'm Tom Bowman.

Michael Pope  

And this is Pod Virginia, a podcast that is so ready for Earth days. Saturday, April 22n it Earth Day, and Thomas, do you have your crunchy granola?

Thomas Bowman  

crunchy granola guests, I might be celebrating Earth Day. I mean Earth Day. 

Michael Pope  

Hey, fun fact Earth Day has its origins right here in Virginia. Like so many other things do. A conference center resorts conference center called the Air Lee Center met way back in 1969; there was Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, who presented officially presented the idea for Earth Day to a group of medical students and law students at the early Center and Warrington County. So yeah, the early Center has been doing sustainability long before it was cool to be eco-friendly. And that includes recycling and composting since the 1960s. So, okay, Boomer, it's the Age of Aquarius.

Thomas Bowman  

What's fascinating about that time is that's right around when a lot of the major polluters that are still significant polluters today went on this fascinating campaign. Well, I shouldn't say fascinating. Went on this really like a bad campaign to convince people that it was their individual responsibility to take care of the planet. So that's where recycling comes from. Right? We don't want to change the supply side of the equation. This will be the only time we say no, no, no, like it's not about what consumers have available to them on the market. This is about convincing them that they need to change their consumer behavior, which is an inefficient way to care for the planet, Michael.

Michael Pope  

On that note, have a Happy Earth Day, and let's get to the news; marijuana bill gets ratioed. Earlier this year, members of the General Assembly sent the Governor a bill designed to crack down on intoxicating products with THC. But Governor Glenn Yougnkin added some amendments to ensure the bill did not outlaw some CBD products that help with epilepsy or other medical conditions. So Republican Senator Emmett Hanger of Augusta County says the Governor's amendments improve his bill.

Emmett Hanger  

All of these measures placed there were particularly for the children of concerned mothers who wanted us to ensure they could still have these products available for their children with epilepsy.

Thomas Bowman  

Delegate Candi Mundon King is a Democrat from Prince William County. She's a mother and worries about the availability of products with THC.

Candi Mundon King  

These amendments are not just wrong. Politics is bad for people and is bad for mothers. Even those mothers that shot, what did they call the moms for liberty, even for them? This isn't good for our children.

Michael Pope  

So Delegate Dawn Adams said in 2021, the General Assembly needed to understand the consequences of opening the door to the hemp industry.

Dawn Adams  

People thought it was a rope. It was clearly dope. It will continue to be dope unless we rein this in.

Thomas Bowman  

And now she says the new law is taking an existing problem and making it worse.

Dawn Adams  

We are creating a state-sanctioned illicit THC market. Yeah. 

Michael Pope  

So on the broader issue of legalizing marijuana, members of the General Assembly are still deadlocked. They have yet to create a system for issuing licenses to sell a product that's now legal, legal to possess, but nobody can buy it because nobody has a license to sell it. So we're in this weird gray area here with marijuana. And there's this industry of people Selling products in smoke shops and gas stations that nobody knows what's in them. And now, with these amendments, you ensure that certain kinds of products are still on the shelves for people with epilepsy. So that's a good thing. I mean, you know, this individual constituent, and then the family of this constituent with epilepsy, really made an impression on lawmakers, such to the extent that they're crafting the laws around making sure certain products are available to certain people, you know, that made an impression on lawmakers.

Thomas Bowman  

 Look, I'm a sell on these marijuana regs. Generally speaking, I think they're unnecessary because the legislature and the Governor are afraid to do the right thing. But at the same time, it shouldn't fall to the states to regulate interstate commerce. This is what we rely on the federal government to do, and the federal government, by maintaining the prohibition against THC and marijuana products, generally, they're creating this whole mess of state by state by state regulatory frameworks that look these: not good policies for people. They're overly complicated. It isn't good for business. It's terrible for people. And so we don't need to add to the layers of complexity behind the state trying to regulate something it clearly doesn't understand. And also, we do need regulators who understand it at a federal level so that it's safe to have things like interstate commerce and transporting these goods to market and growing it safely so that, you know, the money that you're paying for marijuana doesn't end up going to some like cartel in Mexico, South of the border that has killing people. Right now.

Michael Pope  

You mentioned the federal government had created a mess on this issue, which indeed it has. Virginia has created its mess with legalizing marijuana and failing to create a license-issue system. And now, in the meantime, as Delegate Adams said, this is created as a state-sanctioned illicit THC market. So, you know, this is a separate mess Virginia has now found itself in with legalization, Psych, but not really. And then also, there's this other market for stuff that you can buy smoke shops and gas stations, and maybe if you have epilepsy, you can get it. Like this, Virginia also has created its mess here. Yeah, well, let's move on to our next story. The Ghost of Jim Crow So, during the battle days of Jim Crow, Delegates to the 1902 constitutional convention added a provision calling for voting rights to be stripped of anyone convicted of a felony. Hence, the only way they could get their rights restored was an act of the Governor. So recent governors have created a system of automatically restoring voting rights. And that dates back to a Republican Governor, Bob McDonnell. But now Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has discontinued that practice of automatic restoration of voting rights. Democratic House Leader Don Scott says that's a return to the battle days of Jim Crow.

Don Adams  

It is incredibly disappointing that people must return home and beg the Governor when they have paid their debt to society. Please, sir, please, sir, can I have my rights back? That's ridiculous. And it sounds crazy in 2023. This is reminiscent of Jim Crow.

Thomas Bowman  

That's really powerful words from him. Former Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling now teaches at George Mason University's Schar School. He says making the process of restoring voting rights automatic was a mistake.

Bill Bolling  

Frankly, as lieutenant governor, I often asked myself, if I ever had the responsibility as Governor, what type of process would I implement? And I think I would have put in place a more deliberate process, probably similar to the one that Governor Youngkin is considering, not one that simply said, Just because a sentence has been completed, restoration should be automatic.

Michael Pope  

So yeah, Bolling agrees with the Youngkin approach, which is automatic restoration is a mistake from their perspective because you want to look at all the circumstances, you want to look to make sure that they have paid restitution, you want to make sure that they've completed all their sentencing guidelines. And you're not looking at individual cases anytime you make something automatic. And that's the argument that bowling is making in favor of Younkin. And I will say, you know, many people are on the other side of that issue. You just heard audio from Don Scott, those people, you know, who would like to see a different system need to pass a constitutional amendment to make that happen, and there doesn't seem to be any movement toward that right now.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, and I would respectfully point Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling to our recent episode with Sean on what Netta, where he reminds us that this is an administrative bureaucratic prescribed procedure, not a punitive punishment that when people are losing their civil rights, and this is an artifact of the Jim Crow era, it should have never been included in this constitution. But it was not where people's brains were in the 1970s. And so now that we're there, we need universal suffrage. You shouldn't lose your due process, and you shouldn't lose your equality under the law just because you committed a crime. We have a lot of unjust crimes on the books are unjust laws on the books rather. And so not everybody is in prison because they did something really bad. Some people are in prison because they just pled down, acknowledging that there was sufficient evidence and that it looked bad. The criminal justice space gets things wrong all the time.

Michael Pope  

Yeah. You mentioned the 1970s constitution. The original sin here is this ridiculous Jim Crow racist provision in 1902. Constitution. So, you know, you can expect that of a 1902 mindset. The problem here is in the 1970s, they saw that provision and said, Yeah, that looks good. Let's keep that in there. You know, there's a related issue here that's worth considering: people who are incarcerated have the right to vote. So every time the census comes around, they spend a lot of time and attention making sure that every single inmate in every single prison is accounted for. Some members of Congress represent those people, but those people cannot vote. And so that's something on the horizon. When you look into the future, I would imagine that, you know, the disenfranchisement there of people who are incarcerated is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. And so I would imagine they would take up this Jim Crow provision in future Virginia constitutional conventions and reconsider it. And they might also take up the idea that people who are incarcerated and represented by members of the General Assembly represented by members of Congress that they also have the franchise and can go to their elected officials and perhaps even vote against them. Yeah. 

Thomas Bowman  

All right. Well, you want to move on to the next item.

Michael Pope  

Let's move on to our final story. On the wrong side of public opinion, so most Virginia voters oppose efforts to prevent transgender girls from competing in sports. And most Virginia voters disagree with legislation that would prevent transgender students from using the bathroom of the gender they identify with. That's according to a new poll from the Shore School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. Mark Rozell is the Dean of the Schar school. And he says that puts Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin in a very awkward position.

Mark Rozell  

on the cultural issues, particularly regarding trans students, the Governor is significantly on the wrong side of overall public opinion. But he may be thinking about the Republican base voters at this stage more than he's thinking about overall public opinion,

Thomas Bowman  

Sometimes good politics conflicts with good public policy.

Mark Rozell  

And if he is thinking about a campaign for national office, at some point, it is the Republican base that's going to matter to him initially. And whether the public, on the whole, is not in favor of his position doesn't matter quite as much.

Michael Pope  

That poll also showed that most Virginians do not want Youngkin to run for president. So that was kind of the headline that everyone talked about. But a part of this poll that grabbed my attention was the stuff on the perceptions of how the Governor deals with transgender issues, which is not good. Less than a third of people in Virginia approve of how the Governor handles transgender issues. 43% of people in Virginia say no, you're not doing a good job. So 43% disapproval is not a majority but a plurality. A plurality of people in Virginia does not like how the Governor handles transgender issues.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, you know, Michael, what's interesting about that is over one in four Virginia say they have no opinion on how the Governor's handling that specific item, transgender issues generally. And with only 30% approving and 43% disapproving, that leaves a lot of room for people who are still trying to make up their minds, and the undecideds on that particular issue are far higher than anywhere. Any other issue that charter schools pulled on? And what that means is that many of those people haven't thought about it yet as a real issue. And now that they're thinking about it, you'll start seeing the same thing that happened with every other one of these issues. The more time people spend thinking about it, the more they will come down on the side of, like, Hey, don't be a jerk. It's not cool to bully people.

Michael Pope  

Part of this that is really interesting that you just pointed out that's worth thinking about is there's a column for approval. So 53% of people approve Of the way that governors handle the economy, right, and then there's a column for disapproval. You got 45% of people to disapprove of how the Governor handles abortion. So then there's this no-opinion column. So the highest number of people in terms of groups, the highest group of people with no opinion on stuff, is transgender issues. So I would imagine five years from now, ten years from now, people might have more opinions about it. But as of now, a quarter of the people don't have any opinion about this. Yeah. 

Thomas Bowman  

Although it's also interesting that one in five people have no opinion on abortion or gun policy. And so, I don't know how to think about that when we've been dealing with this issue for over 20 years now. Well, since 1980, over 30 years now. And so it's been that long, people's one in five people haven't made up their mind. Another question is like, do they care? Is this a salient issue for them? And this is not to question whether it's a salient issue generally. But for that specific population, is there something else that they find more pressing if they're not even coming up with an opinion on, you know, abortion and guns, which people have had 30 years to talk about? Yeah. 

Michael Pope  

Another part of the transgender issue here that's worth looking at in this poll is that the Schar school people asked about preventing trans girls from competing in sports with other girls. That's how they worded this. So do you support or oppose it or have no opinion? So they asked about preventing trans girls from competing in sports with other girls. So 52% of registered voters disapproved of that and opposed that idea. And then also 50% of parents with children opposed that. So really interesting numbers here and transgender issues out of the Schar School poll.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, and there was some nuance on it. So over half of the population of registered voters oppose preventing trans girls from competing in sports with other girls, but a pretty large majority, almost 60%, support requiring schools to notify parents if their child identifies with a different name or different gender. And I would say that's pretty inconsistent with a no-bullying policy. And then again, over half of the population opposes preventing trans students from using bathrooms that correspond with a different gender other than their birth sex, and almost everybody there's it's almost unanimous support nine and 10. voters in Virginia support schools taking steps to prevent bullying and harassment of trans students. So you can't have schools taking steps to prevent bullying and harassment of trans students while outing those kids to their parents, which often leads to homelessness.

Michael Pope  

Well, let's take a break. When we return, we'll play some trivia and read your tweets.

Danica Roem  

This is Delegate Danica Roem of the 13th district. And you're listening to Pod Virginia with Michael Pope and Thomas Bowman. It's a great little pod, be ashamed if something happened to it.

Michael Pope  

All right, we're back on Pod Virginia. And it's time for trivia. So last week, we asked you about the former guests to our podcast to essentially predicted the events of January 6th on our podcast. Well, Thomas Bowman revealed the answer to our trivia question, who was that guest?

Thomas Bowman  

That guest was Colonel Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell. And he's now a professor at William and Mary.

Michael Pope  

And a future guest on our podcast, right?Yes,

Thomas Bowman  

Tease. We're going to be doing a two-part episode. We got to interview Larry Wilkerson again. And we talked about why the Pentagon says climate change is their most important priority. It's a huge threat. And we get into some of why that is. We also heard what Colonel Wilkerson had to say about the Ford and every battery plant that could have gone in Danville, Virginia.

Michael Pope  

Interesting. Well, the answer to our trivia question was Larry Wilkerson, and we have a winner. So one of our longtime listeners got the answer right on Twitter, Gonzi, so congratulations! 

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, congrats Gonzi. You know, he wanted one of your books, Michael. But you know, that's just not in the budget for Pod Virginia right now. Maybe if we get a few more underwriters or advertisers? 

Michael Pope  

Yeah, if you're listening to this podcast and want to write a check for all of our trivia winners to get a signed copy of the Bryd machine in Virginia, hit us up because we'd love to make that happen. Yeah, we also got some reaction to a recent podcast from Wyatt Gordon Thomas. He liked your reaction to the Governor's veto of Senator Adam Evansville, creating a workgroup to look at vehicle noise. He quoted part of your comments on Twitter, saying, quote, we have so many problems that the state government needs to study, and the noise emanating from cars is something that local governments should have the authority to regulate internally. So yeah, that was interesting because I asked Senator Scott Surovell about that issue and our recent podcast from last week. And he said, your local governments don't have enough authority that that's, perhaps, a fix that should be investigated here for a look, handling the issue of vehicle noise is give more authority to local governments. But then you get into this trap of how do you measure it? You know, what's the decibel amounts? How far away do you have to be to hear a certain amount of decibels? And that's where stuff gets complicated.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. And pretty. Cops have no way to police this, and they don't want to police this. They've got in their minds more important things to do. And I would agree that they've got more important things to do than to chase down the source of noise that is moving and subjective. 

Michael Pope  

Well, it's a noisy debate because all these lawmakers are hearing from their constituents who are hopping mad about it. And so I mean, they, from the perspective of an elected official, somebody on the campaign trail, kind of need to say, Yeah, I'm doing something about this. And so the study would have been a way to do that, but the Governor vetoed it.

Thomas Bowman  

Another way to do it is just to make it a local issue and give local municipal governments the authority to regulate it as they deem appropriate.

Michael Pope  

Back to the Dillon rule yet again. All right. Wait, let's open up our Pod Virginia mailbag. Thomas, what are our listeners talking about?

Thomas Bowman  

Well, Michael, your interview with Dr. Farnsworth was really popular. 

Michael Pope  

Yeah, that was a really fun episode. I got to spend time with Farnsworth in his office on the University of Mary Washington campus. And we got to talk about the Bryd machine. So the whole episode was the tail end of the dying gasp of the Bryd machine. So yeah, that was tons of fun.

Thomas Bowman  

Look, that election for Governor in 1965 was so bonkers that people are still talking about it today, including on Twitter, which is as we know real life because this guy posted about the John Birch Society candidate for Governor in 1965. Pod Virginia superfan Sam Shirazi responded with a link to the show. So thanks, Sam.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, hopefully, Oregon map guy. Listen to our Pod Virginia episode about the bonkers 1965 election because it was fun to record. And hopefully, our listeners enjoyed it as much as we did. So let's head over to the water cooler. Thomas, what's the latest you hear around the water cooler?

Thomas Bowman  

Michael's special session is over, and we have a veto tally. So Glenn Youngkin only vetoed three bills this year. Compare that to his first year, where he had 33 vetoes. And that puts him for those first two years on par with Terry McAuliffe, who bragged about having done most vetoes of any governor over four years. So Ralph Northam had more vetoes at this point in his second year, and Jim Gilmore had the most vetoes at this point after his second year. And so you've got Gilmore Northam and then Governor Allen, first in those top three positions, and then Duncan and Terry McAuliffe tied after that, which comes from VPAP. They've got a great visualization on this.

Michael Pope  

You know, McAuliffe did like to brag about all his vetoes. And you know what else he had bragging rights about is fundraising. So he used to hold the title for raising the most money, $1.5 million in the last quarter of 2015. But guess who has broken that record? Thomas, Governor Glen Youngkin. He's raising record amounts of campaign cash, breaking the previous record from Terry McAuliffe. So last week, we discovered that his fundraising groups announced $2.75 million in the first quarter of 2023. So yeah, Youngkin has a lot of money. McAuliffe previously had the record, but now Younkin has doubled that. 

Thomas Bowman  

And if you are a Glenn Younkin watcher, you might be suspicious that he is not interested in running for president. He's pointing out Hey, guys, I'm not in Iowa right now. So he is raising money. He's probably not running for president because he knows that his poll numbers are underwater, at least as of this moment. But he likes the attention. Right. So This shows that regardless of their popularity, regardless of the proportional representation that Republicans have in the General Assembly, at the end of the election, they are going to continue remaining a fundraising Juggernaut and they will be well funded for the foreseeable future. So even if they don't have political momentum, they will have the money to buy it. And Michael, speaking of political momentum, DC got an AG Mirayres letter complaining about the rising crime. And you know, I don't know if you saw, but AG Mirayes said, you know, get your criminal population under control. It's spilling out into Virginia.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, I think a Virginian was in DC for a concert or something. And a crime happened in DC to a Virginia who was in DC. So I think that's what he was referring to.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, well, DC claps back, saying, Get your illegal gun trafficking problem under control because that's what contributes to rising crime where it's all over the place. And by the way, Michael, Virginia has had rising gun crime in the last couple of years.

Michael Pope  

Yeah. Also, around the water cooler. People are buzzing about Justice Clarence Thomas, who has found himself in hot water after taking all those luxury trips from his wealthy benefactor, Harlan Crow, so Congressman Don Beyer is calling for Justice Thomas to resign. In a written statement last week, Congressman Barr said this quote, Justice Thomas has shown an established pattern of disregarding ethics rules and hiding conflicts of interest which raises serious questions about his ability to impartially hear cases that have an enormous influence on American's lives. He has failed to meet the ethical standards to which our highest public officials should be held. Justice Thomas should resign for the good of the court and the good of the country. So, Congressman Don is calling on Justice Thomas to resign. Not every day do you get your local congressman calling for a Justice of the Supreme Court to pack his bags and get out of town.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, Michael, that sounds like such a mess. And I'm glad we're doing Pod Virginia, not Pod America, right now.

Michael Pope  

Well, I'll tell you, there is a Virginia, you know, part of this story because Harlan Crowe is also a benefactor of Glenn Youngkin and, you know, likes to spread his money around. And it's also. There are lots of overtones here to the Bob McDonald scandal. He had a wealthy benefactor, Johnny Williams, who was trying to sell snake oil from synthetic tobacco. And this wealthy benefactor here in Virginia showered the Governor of Virginia with luxury trips to Smith mountain lake and a Rolex watch, and a ride in a Ferrari and Oscar de la Renta dress. And so this current story here with Justice Thomas is reminiscing about stuff that's already happened here in Virginia.

Thomas Bowman  

What's interesting about your bringing up the Bob McDonald case is the supreme court ruling, which made it tough to prosecute corrupt government officials.

Michael Pope  

Yeah. And guess who took part in that vote of Justice Clarence Thomas?

Thomas Bowman

That'll be an interesting development to watch something to

Michael Pope

Watch for the future. All right, so let's celebrate some birthdays this week. We've got two birthdays, both from retired members. Tuesday, April 18th. It is the Birthday of Delegate Kaye Kory of Fairfax County. And Sunday, April 23rd. Is the Birthday of Delegate Rob Bell of Albemarle County? So happy Birthday, Delegate Kory. Happy Birthday Delegate Bell.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, happy Birthday. And if you're celebrating something, let us know because we want to celebrate with you. And that's it for this week's episode of Pod Virginia.