IN THE NEWS:

Out of the 40 seats in the Virginia Senate, only seven districts will conduct Republican primaries. Meanwhile, Democrats will hold primary elections in more than twice that number of districts. Republican voters who go to the polls on June 20 will see some familiar names from the House of Delegates: Dave LaRock, Emily Brewer, Tim Anderson and Tara Durant will all be on the ballot seeking a promotion from the House to the Senate.

Your license plate might be coming to a database soon. That's because local law enforcement agencies are about to get new high tech license plate reader technology from pandemic stimulus recovery money.

Virginia's new law gives individuals a right to bring a lawsuit if they feel a website that shows adult material has failed to verify the age of a minor.


At the Watercooler:
- Saddam Salim, the Democrat primarying Senator Chap Petersen, gets a key labor endorsement
- Roben Farzad's Full Disclosure podcast interviewed Face the Nation's Margaret Brennan live in Charlottesville

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 gonna sound a little bit different this week because we're celebrating the Clintwood Hills of Home festival in Southwest Virginia out in Dickinson County. 

Thomas Bowman  

This year is the 50th anniversary of that festival which was originally started in 1973 by the legendary Ralph Stanley. 

Michael Pope  

Yeah, you know, as that old country song goes, if you're gonna play in Texas, you got to have a fiddle in the band. 

Thomas Bowman  

But if you're gonna play in Virginia, your band better be mostly fiddle.

Michael Pope  

Okay, let's get to the news. Conventional politics. Out of the 40 seats in the Virginia Senate, only seven districts will conduct Republican primaries. Now By way of contrast, Democrats will hold primary elections and more than twice that number of districts. Most Republican candidates have already been chosen and party meetings and conventions. Republican strategist Dan Scandling says it's just part of the culture. 

Dan Scandling  

That's the way it's been in Virginia for Republicans; they traditionally like conventions over an open primary. That's just the way it is. And I don't think you're gonna see that change. 

Michael Pope  

Well, you know, Republicans not liking primaries, I guess that makes sense. If you think about them as not being pro-choice, right? 

Thomas Bowman  

Ha! Zin! All right, look at some ways that conventions have been a very successful way for Republicans to select the best candidates, as J. Miles Coleman at UVA Center for Politics. 

J. Miles Coleman  

The whole convention system really worked out well for them in the governor's race that year. That's how Governor Youngkin got the Republican nomination. So they've had some success with the convention there. Perhaps they're trying to replicate that a bit. And these conventions have sort of been a quirk of Virginia politics for a while. 

Michael Pope  

A quirk of Virginia politics for quite some time. But not all the candidates will be chosen in those conventions. So, Republican voters who go to the polls on June 20th, they'll see some familiar names from the House of Delegates. Dave LaRock, Emily Brewer, Tim Anderson, and Tara Durant will all be on the ballot seeking a promotion from the House to the Senate. 

Thomas Bowman  

Can I make a lame joke? 

Michael Pope  

Better than anyone I know.

Thomas Bowman  

All right, like I guess you could say that more and more Republicans find holding primaries to be unconventional. 

Michael Pope  

I like it!! Convention humor just never gets old. Every election cycle. I think we've probably made the same jokes on this podcast many times. And you know what, next year, we'll make them again. So there are lots of primaries on the ballot; I actually dug up the numbers here. So Democrats have 31 primaries, 16 in the House and 15 and the Senate, Republicans will have 16 primaries, 9 in the House and 7 in the Senate. So, Thomas Bowman, I asked you to play a little thought game here because I'm curious about which particular races you're gonna keep an eye on. So in terms of the most interesting House, Senate, Republican, and Democratic primaries, which ones are you looking at out of those 31 Democratic primaries and 16 Republican primaries? 

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, well, it was hard to choose and just pick one for each category. But we will start with Senate Democrats. And I was torn because I really wanted to say Aird versus Morrissey because that is close to home. But I don't think it's actually the most interesting Senate primary for a reason we can maybe get into later, but I think McPike vs. Guzman is a more interesting primary to me. 

Michael Pope  

Lots of labor issues going on with that one. I can see why you pick that one. Yeah, that is certainly an interesting one. The Foy vs. Ayala. That's a really interesting one. There's the Marsden vs. Drauschak primary, there's the Barker vs. Piekarski primary, but I had to go old school here and go with the standby here, Aird vs. Morrissey, because anytime you have an incumbent who is in danger of losing, it's a really big deal. 

Thomas Bowman  

It is really a big deal. And it's weird because Aird is obviously a challenger. Never been in the Senate before. But she is a former elected official, specifically a member of the House Dems, of which Joe Morrissey was also a member of the House Dems. It's kind of like incumbent versus incumbent in many ways, although not truly. 

Michael Pope  

Actually, we've got a lot of that on the ballot this year. So in terms of Senate Democrats, that's the Senate Democratic primary you've got your eye on. What about Senate Republican primaries? Is anything interesting there? 

Thomas Bowman  

I did elect to go close to home for me on this one. Sturtevant vs. Chase vs. Ramirez. This three-way Republican primary, just because, you know, Chase is crazy, like in so many ways. 

Michael Pope  

Breaking news on Pod Virginia. 

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, so that race is just interesting to watch. It's going to be fascinating to see what happens. By the way, I randomly ran into Sturtevant recently, he didn't realize who I was, and it was such a random place for me to see him. I was already past the interaction before I realized, oh my God, that's Glenn Sturtevant. So I was very uncouth. 

Michael Pope  

During the General Assembly session, I was trapped in an elevator with a man to chase more than once and so I wasn't really sure what to do about that. But yes, I actually chose this as my Senate Republican primary race that I'm also kind of most looking at because same logic, basically. Anytime you got an incumbent who is in danger of losing, it's a big deal. So Chase has not raised enough as much money as her two competitors, and so that's a problem for her; however, she probably benefits by the fact that there are three candidates, and so I mean, I would imagine, and this is a district that's mainly Chesterfield County. I think it's 91% Chesterfield County. So in terms of the district, I would imagine there are Amanda Chase voters and then non-Amanda Chase voters. So if you are splitting, you're not Amanda Chase's vote. That's good for men to chase. 

Thomas Bowman  

And that's part of what makes it so fascinating is that split doesn't necessarily make it likely for Chase to lose like you just mentioned. But also, she is distinctly not popular, necessarily with most of the establishment voters. They're just going to vote for Republicans in that district. So if she's the nominee, obviously, she's gonna win. But she may not be the nominee, and that's what's fascinating because Glenn Sturtevant is his own, you know, force to be reckoned with as far as incumbents go. 

Michael Pope  

Yeah, but he's got that record on gun rights that is probably not going to play well in Chesterfield. So he's gonna live with that. 

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. But I would say, in general, that he is going to be looked kindly upon if he can survive the primary, which is full of a very base electorate in Chesterfield. That's for sure. 

Michael Pope  

What about over on the House side? 

Thomas Bowman  

Okay, so for the House Dems, the one I'm watching, I'm not sure that this is the most interesting race, but it is more interesting to me than others is the Kelly Fowler four-way race with Susan Hippen, down in Virginia Beach because Kelly Fowler was out then she was in... 

Michael Pope  

Endorsed one of the candidates. 

Thomas Bowman  

Endorsed of the candidate Susan Hippen. And so clearly, that relationship has been destroyed internally amongst themselves. But it is definitely interesting to watch to see what happens. You know, Kelly couldn't raise money during the session. So she starts off behind the eight ball on that first report. We'll see where the next report has everybody as far as the incumbents going in these incumbents vs. nonincumbent primaries. And we'll see if the season happened is still by the money count the odds on the candidate. 

Michael Pope  

Well, I've got kind of an out-of-the-box selection here for the Democratic primary that I'm watching, which is a Petersburg seat, where we've got the Democratic primary between Victor McKenzie dedicated listener to the show. So hi, Victor! And he has a primary opponent, Kimberly Pope, no relation. The reason that I'm interested in watching this race is that the winner of this Democratic primary, either Kimberly Pope Adams or Victor Mackenzie, will be the Democrats that go up against Kim Taylor in the general election, and this is a toss-up race. So Chaz Nuttycombe and CNalysis have designated this seat to House District 82 here as a toss-up race. So this is one of those seats that everyone is going to be focused on and talking about in November. So you know, whichever one of these candidates emerges out of this June 20th primary will be really significant in terms of what the general election looks like in November. And then what about on the House Republican side?

Thomas Bowman  

 Okay, this one, first off, not a lot of choices. So I had to go with the obvious one. March. vs. Williams, Marie March vs. Wren Williams is such a fascinating battle because they're both...

Michael Pope  

So Trumpy. 

Thomas Bowman  

Well, yes. And what's interesting is the difference between the outside observer's opinion and that district's opinion. So Wren Williams, I guess, is considered more of the establishment favorite, but he is still playing to the very far right, and if March was not in this race, you would not know that he was not the further right candidate necessarily. And March, of course, similarly wants to beat Trump in heels for Amanda Chase and cause drama; we've talked about her on the show and ran on this show, and they got into a court battle. So you know, we're just going to kind of wait it out and see who wins this one.

Michael Pope  

I also chose this as the Republican primary that I'm going to be most interested in getting to the outcome of, and it was kind of a no-brainer here. I mean, like this. This is clearly the most interesting of the House Republican primaries, but not the only one important to point out here that, despite the fact that there's all this discussion about how much Republicans love conventions, there are actually 9 House of Delegates Republican primaries on the ballot. So this Williams v March is one of 9. The other 8 are probably not nearly as interesting, frankly. But definitely, we will be taking a look at these, you know, as we move toward June. 

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. Well, and we'll be watching a lot more than those, that's for sure. 

Michael Pope  

Yeah. Those are just the top ones that we're watching. Alright, so even if we are concerned with the primaries, they're not this episode's primary concern. So let's move on to our next story. Stimmy surveillance, your license plate might be coming to a database soon. That's because local law enforcement agencies are about to get new high-tech license plate reader technology from pandemic stimulus recovery money, exactly where it was supposed to go, right? No, this is all pretty suspect, says Senator Chap Peterson. 

Chap Peterson  

It is a fact that the states sought to basically expand the use of license plate readers. I believe it is for state police and other state agencies. And we rejected that. And now it feels like an end-run that they want to take this ARPA money and just start doling it out to local police departments. 

Michael Pope  

Man, at this point, if the cops gobble up any more power, we're gonna have to stabilize the electric grid or something. Shawn Weneta at the ACLU of Virginia tells us the next General Assembly session is likely going to spotlight this issue. 

Shawn Weneta  

I would expect legislation to come forward that is going to put some serious restrictions on it. And it'll be interesting to see what the response is from the law enforcement community and from the General Assembly and, ultimately, perhaps from the governor's office if it makes it to his desk. 

Thomas Bowman  

All right, so we can expect this issue to be on the agenda next year. But for now, Virginia has got the dubious distinction of having the second-highest number of speeding tickets in America. 

Michael Pope  

The second highest number of speeding tickets in America, who's number one?

Thomas Bowman  

Well, also kind of Virginia. Currently Ohio. 

Michael Pope  

Kind of Virginia.

Thomas Bowman  

One time Virginia.

Michael Pope  

 Formerly Virginia. 

Thomas Bowman  

The state formerly known as Virginia, today, Ohio, but you know, look, I think we can beat them move over the home of presidents because we're coming for you.

Michael Pope  

I know, really, this nickname home of presidents? I mean, come on, let's get real. But does Virginia really want to unseat Ohio that badly? I mean, like, can we just like let them have this one thing. These license plate readers have been a topic of discussion and debate for a long time. And there are lots of people who feel like this is just a flat-out invasion of your privacy. And the real concern here that the ACLU and other groups had is how much of this might be available. So like, let's say that you were stalking, like, an ex-girlfriend or something and or an axe of some sort. And that you might happen to have access to this license plate reader and could track down the movements of that person and when they went to the grocery store and when they went to this place and that place in the other place. These license plate readers, you know, especially depending on how long you track this information, how long you keep it, how long you store, it could really like place specific people in specific places in a way that's a little bit creepy. 

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, and they're incredibly problematic to write. So first off, it's a passive action. So you just drive to the wrong place, or somebody drives past you at the wrong time. And maybe you get a ticket, maybe you get arrested because they think that there's a warrant out for your arrest or something like that. By the way, you don't have to be the owner of the car to get smacked with the ticket. So if you're driving somebody else's car, that's really what I was going at with the, if there's a warrant out for somebody's harassing you're driving their car, maybe you're probably not going to know about it. Now the cops are looking for you. There are all sorts of problematic situations. We don't like not being able to face our accusers. That's not the way that America is supposed to work. These license plate readers definitely deprive people of their civil liberties because it creates a state of fear.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, totally. And another thing that's worth thinking about here is in this last General Assembly session, there was legislation on this that was rejected. So lawmakers here are on record, saying, for now, we're not really interested in collecting this information on license plate readers, thank you very much, we're gonna reject that. It is really interesting that the state board was interested and willing to allocate money to something that the General Assembly has already explicitly rejected. So I think you got a long line of lawmakers looking at themselves and saying, Hey, didn't we already, like, aren't we on the record here saying that we don't want to do this, and yet the state is doing it anyway. I mean, that's why I think Sean Weneta was pointing out, like, Yeah, we're gonna talk about this next year because the state seems to be doing something that lawmakers explicitly rejected. 

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. Do we know offhand? Michael, if this is even an authorized use of these COVID funds? 

Michael Pope  

I really doubt the federal government would let you use something in a way that wasn't authorized. 

Thomas Bowman  

Somebody who knows, you say, get in touch with us on one of our social media accounts and just tell us whether or not it is even an authorized user. Because normally, the Virginia General Assembly is the one responsible for allocating budgets to be able to spend money in a way that was explicitly not authorized by the General Assembly. If you and I did that, Michael, that would be embezzlement. 

Michael Pope  

Well, then, let's not do that. 

Thomas Bowman  

But Michael, specifically, my concern with these license plate readers is, man, this is a bad time to get that vanity plate reading ACAB 420. 

Michael Pope  

All right, let's get to our final story for the day. Pearl clutching, so when dirty books were available at the corner store, Virginia took action to make sure those products were not sold to children. Now Senator Bill Stanley, Republican from Franklin County, says he's glad the governor signed his bill requiring websites to verify the age of users before providing access to adult materials. 

Bill Stanley  

We protect our children from that kind of exposure. When it comes to brick-and-mortar buildings. We need to do it for the Internet; we have to try otherwise, this is creating a serious mental health issue for our children and worldwide, and we need to stop it, and Virginia has taken the lead. 

Thomas Bowman  

Well, you know, Michael, the pattern, of course, is that every accusation is an admission. So I wonder if it's really him that's got the problem with porn. But of course, the problem with this, Michael, is that the Internet is not a brick-and-mortar store, regardless of location. Anyone who wants to access restricted content can just use a VPN.

Michael Pope  

A VPN? Gosh, I think you would imagine that that could probably stand for Virginia Politicians Not knowing what a VPN is.

Thomas Bowman  

Clearly, Virginia is also known to alert parents when books with explicit themes are on the syllabus. Now this new legislation that the governor signed has languished, updating an antiquated part of the code that essentially outlawed depictions of homosexuality. So Senator Scott Surovell is a Democrat from Fairfax County with an opinion on that. 

Scott Surovell  

The bill deleted depictions of homosexuality from that definition. So what that means is that the governor's guidance to schools about what types of books children ought to receive notice about has now been narrowed because any depiction of homosexuality would no longer be something that the government advises schools they should notify parents about. 

Thomas Bowman  

Well, I guess it's always nice to know that Virginia is not Florida, where we are allowed to say gay in schools, for now. 

Michael Pope  

For now, right. This bill is really interesting for a number of reasons because I mean, what it actually does is create a private right of action, so if you, an individual, believe that your rights or the rights of your minor child had been violated by having an internet company anywhere over the world, give you access without the click through right so like, there's a button, then you say yes, I'm 18, or whatever it is. And it's the same kind of click-through that you get if you go to an alcohol site on the Internet like ABC actually has the same click-through. That would be like the porn sites would have to put that on there, or else face liability in Virginia or just block access to Virginia. So I think it's I get the sense from speaking to Senator Stanley that the expectation is the internet companies are just going to put the clicker up there and, like, call it today because I think that's kind of what happened in Louisiana when tried to do something similar. The real kind of wildcard here that no one saw coming was this part that Surovell successfully added to the bill, which changed a definition, a really key definition here for sexual conduct because the way that the old antiquated law worked, any depiction of homosexuality was forbidden. So, for example, if there was a depiction of two men who were married, having dinner together, so not even a sexual context, just like any context, that was illegal. And so that is the same definition that was used to target books to pull them out of libraries. So Surovell, by changing the definition here of sexual conduct in this bill about pornography, has changed the number of books that can be pulled out of libraries; under the old definition, you could pull out any book, like, all these books that are being targeted. Half of them are about LGBTQ issues, right. So you could pull out any of them that had any depiction of any kind of homosexuality because of the way sexual conduct was defined. Surovell has now changed that. So if you have, you know, two men who are having dinner together, as an example, that book can no longer be pulled out of a school library because of how Surovell was able to change the definition of sexual conduct in this bill about pornography. 

Thomas Bowman  

Are you telling me that a book about the time you came over for dinner would not be allowed in school? 

Michael Pope  

I guess it would depend on the context there? Oh, that's fair. 

Thomas Bowman  

All right. Look, the real first, I guess; thank you, Scott, for at least doing that to make this bill slightly better. But, I mean, obviously, this is kind of silly, right? Kids are going to use VPNs. If, if these sites banned Virginia in the first place. But...

Michael Pope  

Well, there's a hang-up there, too, because Senator Stanley says one option is these internet companies could put the click through, and you have to press the button. And so they don't have the legal liability. There is another option where these companies say we don't want to deal with Virginia, we don't want to deal with a headache, and we're just not going to serve Virginia; we'll take them off the list, and you won't be you won't have access to it. 

Thomas Bowman  

And okay, so this is confusing to me just as a good government guy because, Michael, if you think that it's so little of a problem, or you think so little of this problem, that the websites are just gonna put up a little old age verification like what year were you born? Or are you click-through if you're 18 or 21? Or whatever it is. Then why are we doing this? 

Michael Pope  

Well, the point here, I mean, again, going back to Senator Stanley, who I spoke to for this story, the point his point is, his belief is Virginia needs to do something, there's this material is currently widely available, it's really easy to get your hands on this material. And from his perspective, Virginia is not doing enough to prevent that for children. This is all aimed at children keep. 

Thomas Bowman  

Of course, the states don't regulate interstate commerce. So it's debatable as to whether or not we even have the ability to do this in the first place. 

Michael Pope  

Oh, sure. I mean, yes. Okay. So that's actually a really important point here, which is this bill gives individuals the right to bring a lawsuit. Okay. That is a big open question. Is that constitutional? We don't know the answer to that. And that is an open question. And I believe there were some no votes in the General Assembly on this bill because people just didn't think that this was going to fly in court. 

Thomas Bowman  

Okay. So that point you just brought up about allowing people to bring more lawsuits is actually part of this bill that's most fascinating to me. Because usually, when anybody tries to get a private right of action past, you hear from the clerks of court, from the associations for various courts, judges, 

Michael Pope  

This is going to clog up our docket. 

Thomas Bowman  

Correct. It's what you hear from like four or five, six different groups, and those people's opinions way, way on the General Assembly, usually more than most other people's opinions because they're co-equal. Well, part of government or, in many ways, a part of government, or appointed. But yes. So that, to me, is fascinating. Because normally when they say no, don't do this, you got the trial lawyers who are like, yeah, absolutely sue everybody plays in and call us when you do it. And, you know, we'll take X percent. So trailers generally support private rights of action. But the court systems usually oppose it. Or they'll say something like, Okay, well, if you're going to do this, then you need to either fully fund the open judgeships that are vacant because of money, or you need to add more so that we can actually handle the docket every time there's a novel idea about like different dockets that we could do like veterans dockets, or drug targets or bla bla, bla, the courts are like, hey, great idea. But you got to make sure to fund it. And if you're not going to fund it, don't do this because you're gonna cause more issues. Same problem. Here is my point here.

Michael Pope  

I hear what you're saying. Like, because I've seen these debates happen as well. Anytime there's a discussion of private right to action. You've got the Clerks of Court who said wait a second, are dockets going to be over full? The thing that strikes me about that previous conversations that I personally can't remember, if they were all about labor issues, you know, like, Do you have a private right of action to bring a lawsuit about overtime protections that have not been adhered to? Or do you have a private right of action to go after wage theft when your employer has come after you? In which case, anytime you create a new private right of action, you would automatically have many, many, many people, dozens, if not hundreds, of people bringing a lawsuit the next day? I actually don't think that would be the case here with the pornography stuff.

Thomas Bowman  

Well, we'll find out, I guess, soon enough, and there's so much up in the air. Well, Mike, just like these explicit videos in question, if you're focused on the plot, you're missing the point. All right,

Michael Pope  

Well, let's take a break. Maybe we could order some pizza. When we come back, we'll play a round of trivia and read your tweets.

We're back on Pod Virginia, our very special episode bluegrass episode, and pod Virginia, and it is time to play a round of trivia now. Last week, we asked you about the state beverage. Well, Thomas, what is the state beverage for Virginia?

Thomas Bowman  

Okay, there's the actual state beverage, and then there's what the state beverage should be. Where should I start? Where do you want me to start?

Michael Pope  

Well, what do you think it should be?

Thomas Bowman  

I think it should be classic Northern Neck Ginger Ale before Coca-Cola.

Michael Pope  

Okay, that does sound good. I love ginger ale.

Thomas Bowman  

Northern Neck ginger ale was something special. But the actual answer is milk. Okay, milk. Yeah. So this week's trivia question apparently is brought to you by big milk, which has a very effective team of lobbyists who successfully added milk to our list of state superlatives. 

Michael Pope  

And we have a winner yet again. It's a listener of our podcast who also happens to be a candidate on the ballot this year. Congratulations, Randy Riffle.

Thomas Bowman  

He's a candidate for James City County School Board. And he's joining all the other candidates who are doing the smart game by playing trivia on Pod Virginia.

Michael Pope  

That is the smart game, you know because you can't win if you don't play. So we're still trying to figure out what people are actually winning. I mean, other than a shout, of course. I mean, like, we were trying to figure out prizes that people can get, but Thomas, I think all of our prices are still caught up in legal rights; our Lawyers are still looking at this stuff?

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah, they want us to up their rates. That's the real problem.

Michael Pope  

Man, the lawyers they're getting ready for all those porn cases they're about to start. 

Thomas Bowman  

But what do we want to give out as prizes? 

Michael Pope  

All right, so let's get some options here. Option one a Tina Turner for Congress button with the slogan primary. Keep on burning. 

Thomas Bowman  

Ooh, I want that one. All right. Option two is the golden fiddle from the Devil went down to Georgia, so you can play it in Dickinson County this weekend.

Michael Pope  

Great song, great song, and then option three, an album called Bluegrass for Cows, aka Moo Grass. Alright, so when we asked about the state beverage, we got a lot of interesting responses. So congratulations to Randy Riffle because he got it right saying this quote milk is the Commonwealth's official state beverage, adding that he learned it at a trivia night recently.

Thomas Bowman  

You know, trivia nights sound like fun, but not as much fun as Pod Virginia.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, Pod Virginia trivia is way more fun. So after we declared Randy Riffle as the winner of our silly little contest, he said this on Twitter, quote, bragging rights from the best political news podcast raise a glass of milk, adding the chocolate milk and oat milk are his favorite.

Thomas Bowman  

Nice to eat your heart out, NPR. All right, Brian Devine chimed in also to suggest that we change the official beverage to Fightin' Hokies lager.

Michael Pope  

Yes, that's that does sound good. Hope Nelson saw our trivia question about milk and responded with a simple one-word answer. Milk toast.

Thomas Bowman  

Hmm, that should have been banned in Leviticus.

Michael Pope  

And, of course, milk was just the selected state drink as the primary vote goes; guess how much of a percentage of the vote it would get.

Thomas Bowman  

Don't make me say 2% 

Michael Pope  

2% isn't that funny? Okay, so, trick question. There would be no primary because milk is really a Republican drink.

Thomas Bowman  

That's because it's white and rich. So I love it. Okay,

Michael Pope  

so that was our trivia question for this week. Our trivia question for next week. Are you ready for it? Are you sitting down on our trivia question for next week? What is the state Salamander? So honestly, for me, this is a trivia question. That could just as easily be named a salamander-like. I don't know any salamander varieties. 

Thomas Bowman  

Do you know I've heard of things like geckos and bloated skanks or whatever, but like, I don't know what's what.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, I mean, the gerrymander is probably the most famous Salamander that I've ever heard of and Salamander. 

Thomas Bowman  

Well, we know Virginia's got a lot of those. So maybe it should be the gerrymander.

Michael Pope  

All right, Thomas. Let's go ahead and open up that Pod Virginia mailbag. What are our listeners talking about?

Thomas Bowman  

Our listeners in government or running for government who do have the sign Taurus, they're angry.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, I guess our Taurus listeners are angry with us about that. Slam that we did about Tauruses last week. Well, that's bull.

Thomas Bowman  

I think the stars align because Mars is in retrograde, and Pod Virginia is in the doghouse in the doghouse.

Michael Pope  

With all of our Taurus listeners, but we didn't mean it Tauruses. We were just trying to make a joke. Jessica Schneider heard our discussion about how we had no birthdays to celebrate last week, and she suggested that Taurus might not fit in well with Virginia politics because they're known to be reliable and loyal, and down to earth. 

Thomas Bowman  

It's not our fault, Michael; our horoscope told us to do it.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, blame the horoscope. Well, Jessica Schneider is one of our many listeners who are also candidates on the ballot this year. So she's running as a Democrat for the Board of Supervisors in Chesterfield County.

Thomas Bowman  

And, of course, Chesterfield County is the home of Amanda Chase, who's a Sagittarius.

Michael Pope  

I also am a Sagittarius. So I guess Amanda Chase and I actually have this hidden connection that we didn't even know about.

Thomas Bowman  

This makes sense for Chase because she's very assertive and compassionate. Okay, well, maybe astrology really is bullshit, Michael.

Michael Pope  

Jessica Schneider weighed in on Twitter. Not all Tauruses avoid politics. This Taurus is running to bring some grounded, hardworking, tenacious energy to the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, Clover Hill District.

Thomas Bowman  

All right. Well, Happy belated birthday to her, and we're now actually entering Gemini season.

Michael Pope  

Defined by people who are funny and good communicators.

Thomas Bowman  

Neither one of us and also not many of those people in politics either.

Michael Pope  

I know I think we're failing at being funny and being good communicators. But that's, I guess that's our podcast. So Jessica Schneider does have an opponent on the November ballot. He's a Republican, and he's the incumbent. He's raised a ton of money. However, he doesn't get the shout-out on Pod Virginia because he hasn't participated in our trivia contest.

Thomas Bowman  

Man, you're talking about Chris Winslow, who, full disclosure, is one of my old bosses Michael. Before, he was an elected official back when he was just an attorney. I interned in his office through college. So candidates, look, if you're out there and you're listening, hit us up on On the socials, and we will give you a shout-out on the show.

Michael Pope  

Let's head over to the water cooler. Thomas, what's the latest you're hearing about the water cooler.

Thomas Bowman  

What's really interesting is that a bunch of people in labor just endorsed Chap Peterson. So did you see some of the press releases that came out?

Michael Pope  

Yeah, the lot. I mean, my inbox is slammed with endorsements. But there was that really interesting labor endorsement. I think it was a firefighter endorsement. Yeah. The Democrat who is running against Chap Peterson is right.

Thomas Bowman  

Yeah. So actually, that's why I wanted to bring it up. So it was the firefighters and the local IBEW there. What's really interesting about the firefighters is they hold a lot of sway. As far as the unions go in Fairfax County politics, the firefighters stuck with the Democrats back when they were only 32 Democrats in the House, and they were there. They were there through thick and thin, along with teachers. And so for the Fairfax County, local firefighters. I think, what is 2068? Something like that is the local union to endorse against chap Peterson is a serious swing.

Michael Pope  

Yeah, I guess we'll find out if it has much sway when we get to the primary on June 20th. All right, Michael,

Thomas Bowman,  

What are you hearing about the water cooler? Well, Thomas,

Michael Pope  

I was in Charlottesville last week for a podcast recording of the full disclosure podcast with Robin Farzad, and it was at the historic Paramount Theatre in Charlottesville, which, wow, that was something to be there at the Paramount Theater, starring Margaret Brennan, who is a big time Rockstar so many of our listeners probably are not necessarily viewers of Face the Nation but I am I love Face the Nation. I watch it every week, and Margaret Brennan is really a rock star. And not just because she is the host of the Sunday New Show. She does a killer job on the show of cross-examining the hell out of people when they come on her show. She is going to ask very, very sharp questions of whoever appears on the show. So it was great to see her at the Paramount Theatre in Charlottesville. She talked about her career. She's a UVA grad, so she had lots of deep ties there in Charlottesville. But she also talked about working at Bloomberg. Before she went over to CBS. She was also at CNBC for a while. So she's got like a kind of financial, journalism background, which of course, so does Robin Farzad, so like the two of them were commiserating about all of that. And so, like seeing her in person, talk about the craft that she does. And then also looking ahead, you know, CBS is the Tiffany network. They've got this huge news operation. That's amazing. But if only old people like me are watching it, what's the future of Face the Nation? What's the future of CBS News? 

Thomas Bowman  

Tiffany network, the old people watching it. So which Tiffany? Are you talking about Tiffany, like the luxury goods store, or Tiffany, the 80s pop star who played in malls?

Michael Pope  

It's known as the Tiffany network because of the famous store in Manhattan. It's not named after the 80s pop singer.

Thomas Bowman  

The more famous 80s pop singer, arguably. No, obviously not. All right, Michael, we got to move on. That's fascinating stuff, though. I'm looking forward to when does that come out? 

Michael Pope  

But keep an eye out for it because it will be hitting your podcast app soon.

Thomas Bowman  

It's a highlight for all of us because we get to watch and celebrate with you. All right, tune in again later this week for more shameless plugs from Michael Pope. And don't forget to see the website. We got transcripts up there. You can follow us on social media for more BS about Virginia politics.