IN THE NEWS:

1. Today is election day in Virginia--and so are the next 45 days. And despite Republican efforts to shorten or eliminate early voting and ballot dropboxes, these new programs were voted on before the pandemic ever began.

2. Skill games continue to be hotly-debated in Virginia, and now everal of these machines are back up and running in Henrico County. These machines operate in a gray area of state law, since a cashier or bartender acts as a middleman for the money, and a company is making full use of the legal muddiness.

3. Governor Glenn Youngkin recently got into the politics over banning books in school districts--a practice which he seemed to distance from himself, despite his parents'r-rights rhetoric and public questions about books like Beloved.

Episode Transcript

Michael Pope  

I'm Michael Pope.

Lauren Burke

I'm Lauren Burke.

Michael Pope

This is Pod Virginia. The only podcast that celebrates the birthdays of General Assembly members.

Lauren Burke  

We have seven birthdays on the calendar this week. 

Michael Pope  

Seven for this week. That's a lot of birthdays. Stick around to the end of the show for that. But first, let's get to the news. Early voting: today is election day, and so is tomorrow and the day after that. Virginia has 45 days of early voting, which is one of the longest in the country. Senator Aaron Rouse is chairman of the committee that oversees voting laws in Virginia. He says Democrats will continue to reject Republican efforts to roll back early voting. 

Aaron Rouse  

It's very hypocritical for Republicans to bring bills to the General Assembly and actually sign bills that would restrict the number of early voting days. But yet turn around and try to get their constituency to vote early. 

Lauren Burke  

Many bills that would roll back early voting would end pandemic-era changes to voting rules. Delegate Cia Price, Chairwoman of the House Privileges and Elections Committee, says the General Assembly approved new voting rules, such as 45 days of early voting before the pandemic.

Cia Price  

Some of the barriers that we got rid of and the changes that we made came out of the Jim Crow era. This was not a pandemic-focused response. This was a democracy-focused and voter-focused response. Many of these proposals that we got passed. 

Michael Pope  

I've heard Delegate Price make this point a couple of times. I don't think it's sunk into a lot of people. Because of these new rules for voting in Virginia: 45 days, drop boxes, and a lot of the mail-in balloting rules. Mainly the 45 days, which is the biggest change. That was done before the pandemic. The first election with all the new rules was indeed the 2020 election, which was the pandemic era. It's important to remember the timing here because all of those changes were done in January, February and March, before the pandemic. While it's true that 2020 was the first election with the new rules, they're not pandemic-related rules. They're not pandemic-inspired rules. The pandemic had nothing to do with the new rules. But people associate the two and say, Hey, look, the pandemic is over, we should change these rules. 

Lauren Burke  

Well, whether they were related to the COVID pandemic or not, I think it's convenient for everybody to have 45 days of voting. It hasn't posed a big problem. To Senator Rouse's point, last cycle, Governor Youngkin was encouraging his voters to go out and vote early and mail their ballots in. The Republicans look like they were embracing a lot of this policy. I don't know why they wouldn't. It's an effort to make voting easier.

Michael Pope  

There is this cycle for Republicans. They embrace it in October, but then they reject it in January. 

Lauren Burke  

The problem they have is that National Republicans, some of the national Republicans are grumpy about it. They have to sort of ignore all of that and do what they're doing in Virginia. Once again, I'm not sure why anybody is against it. What's wrong with voting early?

Michael Pope  

This happens every year. There are a bunch of Republican bills to roll back early voting and make it two weeks instead of 45 days to have a shorter time period. The argument you always hear from Republicans is it's an unfunded mandate on election officials. It's really a hassle for election officials. They don't have the staffing. They don't have the volunteers. You never hear election officials testify to the General Assembly. It's always the Republicans who are saying that about the third party here. The third party never shows up to give testimony to that effect. But that's their argument. As long as Senator Rouse is Chair of the Senate Elections Committee and Delegate Price is Chair of the House Elections Committee. I don't think those bills are going to go anywhere.

Lauren Burke  

No, absolutely not. Every stat that shows if you were at a Black precinct in the South, you probably waited longer to vote in line than your white counterparts. That was one of the reasons why this came up. That problem is gone. We just saw a record amount of people vote on September 20, on day one of early voting. Who is opposed to this? What group of people is out demonstrating against early voting? Because people seem to really be into it. They're showing up on day one and voting. We don't have the problem of people being busy at work. All of that has been eliminated by early voting. 

Michael Pope  

It's also worth remembering that one of the two presidential candidates is leading in Virginia in terms of the vote. We don't know who that is, but we do know who voted if you're taking the voting rolls, which is public knowledge. If you look at who has voted, not how they voted, but if they voted. A lot of times, you can cross-check voter behavior in terms of which primaries that particular voter tends to vote in. This takes some Excel wizardry to make this happen, but I think you probably could figure out who is leading in the actual votes.

Lauren Burke  

You might be able to, given the precincts and the areas. To me, the enthusiasm level clearly shifted in the polls after President Biden left the race and Vice President Harris entered the race. That would tell you something. It would seem to me when we have a record number of people show up on September 20 to vote, that would tell you something. When we put these pieces of logic together, it indicates that somebody definitely ginned up the enthusiasm. Obviously, we'll see on November 5.

Michael Pope  

Stay tuned because we will continue to talk about this on Pod Virginia. All right, let's move on to our next story. Gray machines. One of the most hotly debated topics in the General Assembly this year was an effort to legalize devices, sometimes known as skill games. Supporters call them that because they say winning at them requires some level of skill, as opposed to dumb luck. Opponents call these things gray machines because they existed in a gray area of the law until a court eventually found them to be illegal. Now, several machines are back up and running in Henrico. Delegate Rodney Willett of Henrico says Virginia is returning to a gray area. 

Rodney Willett  

I think we need to regulate them and have a clear set of rules. A clear set of taxes, because if we're going to have these machines, we should be making revenue from them. If we're not going to have them, then let's make that clear. But, I do think that the gray areas with the gray machine are, unfortunately, still there.

Lauren Burke  

The new machines operate without the player inserting money because a cashier or bartender acts as a middleman. Delegate Paul Krizek of Fairfax County says the company that operates these things, known as Pace-O-Matic, is trying to exploit a loophole.

Paul Krizek  

It makes you question whether you would ever consider legalizing skill games because it rewards this kind of bad actor: companies like Pace-O-Matic that are deliberately looking for a legal loophole.

Michael Pope  

Krizek told me he wants the Attorney General to take action and shut these things down. I contacted the AG office, and a spokesman for the AG said that he was looking into it. So far, there has been no action taken by the Attorney General, but he could take some sort of action and shut these things down if they are illegal. Another thing, this company clearly has an army of lawyers, and Pace-O-Matic has an army of lawyers. They've looked into this, and their reading of the code says that if, unless you're inserting money, these things are legal. I'll point out that it is a part of the code that they had a hand in writing, making sure it was crafted that way. The Pace-O-Matic lawyers were on the front end of this thing to make sure there was language in the code that they could pull this off. I guess they are good at them. One thing I thought was interesting, you heard in the sound bite there from Paul Krizek, that this company is not acting in good faith. This is a pretty scumbag thing to do, from his perspective. It's basically daring the Attorney General to take action or daring the local Commonwealth's attorney in Henrico to take action if it's illegal, which it might not be. We're returning to a gray area of the law here. Lots of people might not want them, but that doesn't mean they're illegal. Certainly, when the General Assembly comes to session next year, I guarantee this is going to be at the top of their agenda. 

Lauren Burke  

We can guarantee that. We talk a lot about skill games. I don't know if there's some big group of people out there who are complaining about skill games. However, to the Delegate's point, if it's going to happen, one would think that tax revenue would be attached to it in a way that would help these local communities and the businesses that are operating them. Of course, all of that has to be figured out.

Michael Pope  

The supporters of skill games are very organized. We know who the supporters are, because they show up and testify and fill the committee rooms. In the brand new General Assembly building earlier this year, they maxed out these giant new committee rooms; it was standing room only because of all the supporters of skill games. There is a lot of support for skill games. There is opposition, though, Lauren; they're not quite as organized or quite as numerous. It is law enforcement groups that oppose these things because of fears about crime around the buildings where they're located. There are religious groups that oppose these things on moral grounds that gambling is a moral hazard. And people who think that they prey on poor people who don't understand math and don't understand that they're throwing their money away.

Lauren Burke  

This isn't the first time in Virginia that we've had gambling. We've got scratch-offs, we've got Mega Millions and Powerball. We've got all sorts of gambling. We've got FanDuel. We've got all sorts of things that people do that are fun. They put their money into that and it gives them the feeling of hope that maybe they'll hit the jackpot one day and win. I get some of those things involve skill and thought. You do have to be analytical and pay attention to win at FanDuel. You have to understand who the players are every week in the NFL if you're playing with the NFL games. I get that it involves some real thought. Some of these things are just dumb luck. If we're going to argue that, oh my goodness, people are going to throw away their money, I mean that argument and that ship seems to have sailed.

Michael Pope  

That's true. Obviously Virginia has casinos, and you just pointed out there's lots of gambling that's currently happening. The issue for the General Assembly is, where do you draw the line? You have to draw the line somewhere because you don't want a casino on every street corner. That would be something that most people don't want. The General Assembly has to figure out where they want to draw the line. So far, they're trying to draw the line at skill games, but Pace-O-Matic seems to have snuck some in anyway.

Lauren Burke  

The lines that politicians draw always focus on two things, appropriately, right? Tax revenue, fees, and licensure are attached to what these businesses want to do. In other words, what brings money in. One would think that would be the main point of focus when they get back into session. Remembering that in August, we found out that there was an extra $1.2 billion lying around. At any rate, I think that's where the focus will go when they discuss it when they get back to the session.

Michael Pope  

Let's move on to our next story, banning books. During a recent appearance at the Texas Tribune festival, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin talked about the politics of school boards banning books, such as Toni Morrison's Beloved. Here's part of his interaction with Texas Tribune founder, Evan Smith. 

Evan Smith  

I remember reading Beloved in school, in English class. Is that the kind of book that we want to pull off of a library shelf? 

Glenn Youngkin  

What grade did you read it in? 

Evan Smith  

I mean, high school.

Glenn Youngkin  

Is it appropriate for a first-grader or a second-grader?

Evan Smith  

I'm not sure that any school that I could imagine is teaching Beloved to a first grader. 

Glenn Youngkin  

I'm just asking. 

Evan Smith  

Yeah, yeah. 

Glenn Youngkin  

I'm just asking. 

Lauren Burke  

Just asking about schools teaching Toni Morrison in the first grade is a disingenuous argument, says author Ken C Davis.

Ken C Davis  

Well, of course, that's an absurdity. No one is suggesting that first-graders read Beloved. On the other hand, we might suggest that a first-grader read Heather Has Two Mommies or the book about the penguins in Central Park because they are age-appropriate. So this, to me, is a very disingenuous argument.

Michael Pope  

Kenneth Davis has a new book out next month called The World in Books. He says many of the world's greatest books have been banned, not just Toni Morrison, but also the Koran and the Bible. A popularly banned book is the Bible. A frequently banned book is the Bible. Sometimes it's even burned. Kenneth C Davis, by the way, is a great author. I am a big fan. When I found out that he had a new book, I was eager to talk to him. I'm hoping to get him on the Pod Virginia soon to talk about this book, The World in Books. Stay tuned for that. Lauren, I thought it was interesting that he was responding to this back-and-forth between Youngkin and Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune. You sent me this clip of this back-and-forth between the Governor and the Texas Tribune founder, which was fascinating. I thought it was fascinating because Youngkin was trying to defend himself by saying, I didn't do anything to ban books. Like, don't look at me, don't blame me for banning books, it's the school board. Look at the Hanover County School Board. Those are the people that are banning books. 

Lauren Burke  

Well, he did sign the Parental Notification law. It was one of the first things he signed when he came into office. Wanting this culture war discussion, and what he did there was the classic straw man argument. Arguing something that isn't happening, that first graders are forced to read Beloved. It's the same thing they do on abortion. People are having abortions in the ninth month. No, they're not. That's a complete straw man that they want to argue. To misrepresent democratic policy by making that argument. But it's interesting to look at the banned book list in Virginia. It's interesting to see the books that keep coming up over and over again. Beloved keeps coming up over and over again. The Bluest Eye keeps coming up over and over again. I don't remember reading anything. It wasn't until high school. I don't know about you, but I remember in high school that the books got controversial. It was Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird. I remember Slaughterhouse-Five; those types of books didn't happen until High School. I'm not sure where the argument that young children are forced to read controversial literature comes from that.

Michael Pope  

Interesting you bring up Slaughterhouse-Five. That is one of the books recently banned by the Hanover County School Board, right?

Lauren Burke  

We got into this discussion again, I'd be interested to know why all of a sudden, in the last four or five years, are we having this discussion? These books have been read for many years. They've been around for many years. Those generations didn't seem to be scarred by those books. Now all of a sudden, there's this obsession about banning books and taking books off the shelf.

Michael Pope  

I think the answer to your question, why is this happening now? I think the answer to that is we are in the midst of a moral panic.This is not the first moral panic in history. There have been many of them, but right now it's, clutching the pearls and worrying about the children and their innocence being deflowered.

Lauren Burke  

All I know is this Slaughterhouse Five came out in the 1960s, and it's been around for 55 years. Why suddenly? I would love to know from these school boards and these people panicking. I do think it is pearl-clutching. But I don't get it. Why do some of these books, particularly these classic pieces of literature. Generations have been reading. Interestingly enough, some of them, like 1984, for example, I can remember reading George Orwell's book in high school. Boy, did that predict the future? There are a few books like that. The other one that keeps coming up is The Handmaid's Tale.

Michael Pope  

Also banned in Hanover County.

Lauren Burke  

I bet it is. I think that anytime you're taking ideas off the table, anytime people don't want to talk about something, that's exactly what we should be talking about. Very interesting situation, and sort of odd that all of a sudden, it's a world where it gives us so much in terms of content, through our technology and everything else that we are now scared of ideas. It's a really interesting thing. 

Michael Pope  

You know, going back to this back and forth between the Governor and the Texas Tribune founder. The point the Governor was trying to make in this back and forth, if you haven't watched it, you should track it down and watch it. Because the point that the Governor is trying to make is, Hey, I didn't do anything to ban books. Don't look at me. It's your local school board that banned books, and they had the power to do that long before Youngkin was Governor. From his perspective, the bill that he signed, which you mentioned, gave parents the right to opt out. If you're a parent, and you find out your school is reading The Handmaid's Tale, you as a parent have the ability for your child to opt out of The Handmaid's Tale. From his perspective, that's not banning books. But if you talk to people like Ken C Davis, he will say it's not a direct banning of books; it's an indirect banning of books because you create an environment where teachers aren't going to put The Handmaid's Tale on the syllabus. 

Lauren Burke  

Exactly. It puts a stigma on that book. This is Glenn Youngkin. This is Governor Youngkin, who, in 2021, spent the entire year talking about divisive concepts. His definition, to me, was never specified. What exactly are you talking about in our history that's divisive, that can't be taught? That was never actually clearly stated. His version of parents mattering is this right that someone can raise their hand and specifically target a book that, for whatever reason, they don't like. The idea that he is not the cause of this conversation is a little bit inaccurate. 

Michael Pope  

I wish the Governor would ban my book, the Bryd Machine. Because sales would skyrocket. If you're listening, Governor, please ban the Bryd Machine. Let's take a break. When we come back, we'll play a round of trivia about the Capitol building, and we'll head over to the water cooler, where we'll talk about the latest polls.

Michael Pope

Let's play a round of trivia. Last week, we asked you which bust of the Capitol Rotunda was not a Virginia president.

Lauren Burke  

The answer is Marquis de Lafayette. And we have some winners.

Michael Pope  

Jeremy Bennett and Matthew Montgomery.

Lauren Burke  

Your prize is a bust in the Pod Virginia Hall of Fame. What is our trivia question for next week?

Michael Pope  

This is a newsy trivia question, ripped from the headlines. What famous designer recently purchased a home on monument Avenue in Richmond?

Lauren Burke  

If you think you know the answer, hit us up on social media. You might even win a prize. 

Michael Pope  

Like a bust of yourself in the Pod Virginia Hall of Fame, let's head over to the water cooler. Lauren, what's the latest you're hearing about the water cooler?

Lauren Burke  

The University of Mary Washington did a poll of 756 likely voters. I should say this poll happened before the debate. Before the September 10 debate between Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump. The bottom line from the poll is that this race is close in Virginia between the two of them. According to this one poll, Vice President Harris is at 47%, and former President Trump is at 46%. This harkens back to some of the other polls before that group of polls that we discussed last show. Is it accurate? Who knows? But you know what people tend to say, and I know certainly Professor Larry Sabato tends to say is that you should look for several polls that are consistent. But I don't know if this one is going to be a part of a bunch of consistent polls that say that this race is close in Virginia. I tend to doubt it because it was done before the debate, and the debate was a disaster for former President Trump. We'll see. I just wanted to throw that out there as a water cooler discussion because it's interesting that it comes up at a time when so many of the polls around the country are showing the Vice President is leading in so many of these really close swing states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. 

Michael Pope  

It is one poll. Is it an outlier or not? I think we probably need more polling to know if it's an outlier or not. It's interesting, most of the polls have Harris ahead. But, even if you look at those polls that have Harris ahead, she's really not ahead by all that much. It's true; in the Schar School poll from George Mason University, I think the Harris lead was double the margin of error. But still, that's actually pretty close.

Lauren Burke  

Yeah, I think that most of the polls are pretty close. They're within four or five points, which is probably in the margin of error for most of those polls. But the bigger issue,  is that her polling performance is better than President Biden's. He was tied, or he'd be one or two behind, and she sort of flipped all of that. We'll see if that continues. 

Michael Pope  

I personally want Virginia to be tied because it'd be better for all of us if Virginia was a battleground state. We would get visits from the candidates. There would be ad spending on TV. Virginia would be part of the national discussion. I think it would be better for Virginia if it was a battleground state. All states should be battleground states, frankly. But in the interest of Virginia, I think it would be good if we were a battleground state. 

Lauren Burke  

Yeah, it's like baseball playoff time in October. You want your team to be involved because it brings so much excitement to the area that you're in. I get that. It would bring some visits from Vice President Harris and former President Trump. Then, you get to talk to voters who go to their rallies. Obviously, if it's closer, that would make it much more interesting for Virginia. I'm not sure Tonja, Tai, and Jake want that to be the case because it just gives them more work. On the red team over there, you see that the Republicans in Virginia are doing these briefings. What is it, Trump Force One? I think they're calling it. 

Michael Pope  

Trump force 47.

Lauren Burke  

Yes, thanks for the correction. Trump Force 47: That's right, and they're doing that on a fairly regular basis. They would have to step that up. You're right, it would mean both sides would show up in Virginia. It would definitely be more exciting from the standpoint of watching the race. The specific players involved are probably sitting there going, let's not have more excitement. But, it's because both of the candidates are in North Carolina, so much I'm expecting them to stop by the Commonwealth of Virginia as well. What about you, Michael? What's the latest you've heard about the water cooler?

Michael Pope  

Local politics. Where I live in Alexandria, we've got all six city council seats on the ballot. The mayor is also on the ballot, but there's only one candidate. I think she's got it locked up unless, I guess theoretically, a write-in candidate could beat Alyia Gaskins for mayor. But that seems unlikely. The mayor's race is kind of off the table. But all six seats on the city council are up for grabs. There are nine candidates, six Democrats and three independents. There is a great voter guide that I helped work on for the Alexandria Gazette. I'm not drawing attention to it because of anything I did, but the journalist I worked with, James Libresco, who is the editor of Theogony, which is the student newspaper at the high school in Alexandria. He did all the real work for the story by interviewing all nine candidates. But even more importantly, he created a great infographic. One of those things has a green checkmark if it supports something and a red X if it opposes something. He put together this grid where you can get a sense of where the candidates stand in a way that's easy to understand and helpful to the voters. For example, zoning-for-housing. This is the change where Alexandria got rid of single-family-only zoning. Very controversial. Lots of people like Jim Crow zoning, so they oppose that. All six candidates are Democrats. You should definitely check out the Voter Guide in the Alexandria Gazette. You'll see all six Democrats have green checkmarks by zoning for housing. All three non-Democrats, that's two independents and one Republican, they all oppose it. You see, it's really stark, the Democrats versus the non-Democrats. The Democrats support this change in getting rid of single-family zoning. The three non-Democrats all oppose it. More bike lanes. You may know, Lauren, that bike lanes are very controversial in Alexandria. All six Democrats support more bike lanes. All three non-Democrats oppose more bike lanes and free Dash buses. Alexandria has this really interesting; I guess it's still a pilot project, although lots of people want to make it permanent. The city buses are free. You don't need to pay them. You just get on, and you can ride anywhere in Alexandria. It's free for the user; the city pays for it. All six Democrats support free city buses. All three non-Democrats oppose the free busses. They think it should be free for students, but not free for everybody else, or free for low-income people, but not free for everybody else, or free but just in the short term, not permanently, that sort of thing, on another issue of the bus lane. This is also very controversial: taking a street and removing your ability to drive on it because you put a lane that's dedicated just for buses. All six Democrats support that. All three non-Democrats oppose that. It's this infographic is so helpful, because it really lets you see that there's a clear divide on Jim Crow zoning. A very clear divide on bike lanes. A very clear divide on free city buses. A very clear divide on dedicated bus lanes. Yeah, these are local issues that are important. Wherever you live in Virginia check out to see what's on your ballot. Lauren, do you have any local elections where you live?

Lauren Burke  

Oh, man, the chart idea is great. The answer is yes. I live in a few different places. There needs to be a chart like this that you guys have created in Richmond, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Newport News. Because there are all of these school board and city council elections, there are these issues that come up, like the ones that you name. It would be hard for a voter to know what people were thinking about some of these things. For different cities, they're different. They're different points of emphasis. I was contemplating a chart in Black Virginia News and am still contemplating it. But it's a hell of a thing to put together. As you know, it is a hell of a thing to put together.

Michael Pope  

This very talented young journalist, a high school student, interviewed all nine candidates and would not let them back out. Oftentimes, you ask a question, and people will try to talk around it or not answer it. He made them answer. The chart also notes when they fail to answer a question. For example, John Chapman, who's probably about to become the next vice mayor, one of the questions on this chart was, would you cooperate with federal immigration authorities? ICE. Should the city of Alexandria cooperate with ICE? All the other Democrats said, No, the city of Alexandria should not cooperate with federal immigration officials. John Chapman did not answer the question directly. That's interesting. The chart also points out when the candidates did not give an answer that, they could have a green check mark or red X.

Lauren Burke  

Also, different towns obviously would have different issues. The bike lane thing is interesting, and the dedicated bus lane issue is very interesting. For anybody who's been to some of these bigger cities that tend to have wider streets, for instance, in New York, they have dedicated bus lanes that I think are difficult to put together in smaller cities. But these smaller cities are trying to do it, and Washington, DC, is one of them. The dedicated bike lane, what it does is it removes a lot of parking spaces. I'm absolutely convinced that some of these cities do these things to eliminate a lot of parking so that they can make more revenue on parking tickets. That, for me, is an interesting question. It depends on what type of city. I've got to say it, and I know a lot of bike folks aren't going to like this one, but a lot of bike riders don't follow the rules. The rules are not enforced. If you're a driver on the street, it's hard to negotiate some of these moments with these bikes. I know that's a very popular issue on the left; bikes. But it really does matter how the city is constructed and how wide the streets are. I don't know, in Alexandria and Arlington, that's that's a tough one for me to imagine, but we'll see what happens.

Michael Pope  

I'm a cyclist, Lauren, so I hear what you're saying about how many times cyclists don't follow the rules. That is true. That is observably true. You go around town, and you see cyclists not adhering to the rules. I will point out that lots of drivers don't adhere to the rules either. As a matter of fact, there are way more drivers that don't adhere to the rules than cyclists.

Lauren Burke  

I get that. I totally agree with you. You see that often. I can agree with that point. It's just the roads were made for cars. The roads were originally made for cars. A lot of the folks that drive vehicles, who drive cars see it from the perspective that this was originally built for cars, not bikes. The bikes show up and sort of go through the red lights and do the things that they do. We have a society now that is so reliant on delivery services. I totally understand that there's pressure on cyclists and folks who have motorized bikes to get a job done for DoorDash. I'm a big DoorDasher. I should definitely be, for bike lanes, because I use DoorDash a lot. But I'll say that it's getting to a point where you have to really be careful as a driver. You have to be looking at all your mirrors, which, of course, goes without saying. But it's easy to hit somebody out there. With everything that's going on, we now have these scooters. We have motorized scooters. Now, the motorized scooters are on the sidewalk. The bikes are on the sidewalk a lot. The bikes are not supposed to be on the sidewalk. They're supposed to be in the street. But, of course, with no dedicated lane, I understand that's difficult. I'm just saying there's a lot going on the road now compared to, let's say, 10 to 15 years ago.

Michael Pope  

No, that's totally true. We're in an era right now when people are thinking differently about what the roads should be about and who should have access to them. If you look at this chart in the Alexandria Gazette, there are two issues, and they're closely linked here: more bike lanes and the bus lanes. This is a program called Duke Street in motion, because that's the street in Alexandria where they're going to put the dedicated bus lanes in, Duke Street. It's interesting to me that if you look at these nine candidates, all the six Democrats support more bike lanes. All three non-Democrats oppose more bike lanes. All six Democrats support Duke Street in motion. All three non-Democrats oppose Duke Street in motion. It's true that we're in an era where your local government is doing different things with the roads and thinking differently about who should have access to those roads. There is a very stark partisan divide in local politics about who's in support of this and who's is opposed to it.

Lauren Burke  

Absolutely no, that's absolutely correct.

Michael Pope  

Let's celebrate some birthdays. 

Lauren Burke  

This week, Tuesday, September 24, is the birthday of Delegate Chris Runion of Rockingham and Delegate Michael J. Webert of Fauquier.

Michael Pope  

Wednesday September 25 is the birthday of House Democratic Leader Charniele Herring of Alexandria and Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy of Eastern Prince William.

Lauren Burke  

Thursday, September 26, is the birthday of Delegate Barry Knight of Virginia Beach and Senator Suhas Subramanian of Loudon.

Michael Pope  

Friday, September 27, is the birthday of Delegate Dan Helmer of Fairfax.

Lauren Burke  

That's it for this episode of Pod Virginia.