If you're in Richmond this Thursday, check out Michael's speech on the Byrd Machine--6 PM at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

IN THE NEWS:

The Manchurian Candidate: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin used his State of the Commonwealth speech as an opportunity to take aim at China, saying he wants to see lawmakers to prohibit foreign entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party from purchasing Virginia farmland. But Thomas and Michael discuss how this is a smokescreen and a bad move for Virginia's social and economic future.

Virginia's Budget: With the state government divided between Republicans and Democrats, the 2023 budget is going to require compromise. There's some room for bipartisanship, especially with the push to double the standard deduction, but Democrats are ready to put up a fight against corporate tax cuts and other proposed measures.

At the Watercooler:

• Senator Joe Morrissey is back in the limelight after his wife alleged infidelity and manipulation--read more with Brandon Jarvis' Tweet

• A portrait of Harry Byrd in the state Capitol has been quietly replaced by one of Pocahontas; it seems the former Governor has been effectively banished from the halls of Richmond.

Trivia: When was the Senate of Virginia created?

Episode Transcript

Michael Pope

I'm Michael Pope.

Thomas Bowman

I'm Thomas Bowman.

Michael Pope

And this is Pod Virginia, a podcast that's getting ready for a big event this week.

Thomas Bowman

Yeah, the biggest game in town, Michael, you're giving a speech at the Virginia Historical Society this week. So Michael, give us a preview of what you plan to say.

Michael Pope

I'm really excited about this. I'm going to be speaking about the Bryd Machine, and the speech is to the Virginia Historical Society. We're going to be at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. That's the building there on Arthur Ashe Boulevard in the museum district. And, of course, I'm going to talk about the Bryd Machine. How it gained power, how the previous political machines led to the creation of the Bryd Machine, what it did with that power, and of course, how it all fell apart. So don't want to get into it all right now, but you definitely want to come to hear this lecture at the historical society, which starts at 6 PM Thursday, January 19th. So come on out to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and you can get a signed copy of the Bryd Machine of Virginia.

Thomas Bowman

Well, Michael, depending on what entrance you walk into, you're either going to be walking in through the Tom Farrell foyer or you're going to pass by the Pettis family staircase. From Patsy and Hunter Pettis, who are my cousins.

Michael Pope

I was about to say I bet there's a relationship there.

Thomas Bowman

Yeah, a very close one. So my mom's a Pettis, of course. They've got all the money, not my side of the family.

Michael Pope

All right, let's get to the news. The Manchurian Candidate. Now when Governors present their annual State of the Commonwealth address, they don't usually focus on foreign policy. But Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin used his speech this year as an opportunity to take aim at China, saying he wants to see lawmakers prohibit foreign entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party from purchasing Virginia farmland. Senator Jeremy McPike says that is ridiculous.

Jeremey McPike

It's a horrendous attempt to act like Trump and Virginia's capital is the bottom line. It is a bizarre throwback to China's policy. In fact, he needs to divest all his stock in Carlyle. Carlyle invested 10.5 billion in China this year, so if he believes that he needs to sell all his Carlyle stock today.

Thomas Bowman

Youngkin's comments about banning China from buying Virginia farmland came on the heels of Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida asking his legislature to ban the sale of Florida farmland to China. And many Republicans in Virginia have praised the Governor's newfound outrage over China. So here's Republican Senator Bill Stanley in the rotunda after the speech.

Bill Stanley

We have to be honest with ourselves Communist China is infiltrating everywhere throughout the United States. It's on your children's phone and maybe on your phone on Tik Tok or another app. They're buying up Smithfield Hams. They own property in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And I think it's very important to be mindful that we want growth in Virginia. But we don't want a country that sees us as its enemy to have a foothold in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Michael Pope

Speaking to reporters after the speech, Youngkin said his experience doing business with China at Carlyle makes him uniquely positioned to understand how the country works. Check out this exchange between Richmond Times Dispatch columnist Jeff Schapiro and the Governor during a gaggle with the press after the speech.

Jeff Schapiro

At Carlyle were you less aggressive about Chinese investment for your clients, as you are now about Chinese investment?

Glenn Youngkin

I think I'm uniquely positioned to understand how the Chinese Communist Party works. They dealt with it. And in fact, business, I've dealt with it, and I understand what they're doing. They have one objective, global dominance at the expense of the United States. And we just have to be aware of this. This is a moment to challenge ourselves just like we did in 5G to develop platforms that can accomplish everything we all want to accomplish. But to do it with American ingenuity, we can do it. I know, we can.

Michael Pope

this back-and-forth about China has obviously captured a lot of attention. You know, Thomas, I was reminded of this week when all this was coming out about China was something that was said on our podcast by Chris Saxman. Remember that episode that we did with Chris Saxman? And he was talking about this class that he teaches, where he tries to explain to students the difference between how Democrats view the world and so, therefore, language that will appeal to Democrats versus how Republicans view the world and language that will appeal to Republicans. And he made this point that Republicans respond to barbarians at the gate. And anytime you can talk about those awful people that are about to invade, that's the language that appeals to Republicans. So I think now we've got I mean, some people are calling this the flavor of the week, right? The new Red Scare here with China and the perilous influence that China might have on our economy. So Yongkin had Virginia pull out of this potential deal with Ford, which was looking to do a plant in Virginia. He doesn't want to do business with Ford because of this nefarious Chinese influence.

Thomas Bowman

Michael, we've got more context now from when we recorded with Senator Surovell. We now know that Youngkin was trying to get out in front of a story. That was getting ready to break when he unilaterally made the decision to completely tank talks with Ford over an electric vehicle battery plant that was one of two sites getting considered in Danville's Berry Hill, and that killed 2,000 jobs for people who have been really hurt. Obviously, we don't farm nearly as much tobacco and there's not as much coal and other agriculture out there. So these guys have been really hurting. They could have really used that we've been trying, Virginia has been trying to get something cited major on the Berry Hill site. Youngkin's call to prohibit China from purchasing farmland in Virginia is not based on an actual threat. It's a politically motivated move. And we know that because the biggest foreign holders of agricultural land in Virginia, according to Schapiro's article, are actually democratic countries and mostly close allies of the United States, not China. And Youngkin knows that he was the Co-CEO of Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that invested $10 billion in China. So is he calling on his hedge fund buddies to sell their stocks and divest from China? No.

Michael Pope

Well, that's what Senator McPike was asking. It's interesting. There are some things being conflated here. So, the concern that Youngkin and the Youngkin administration have here is they believe the battery plant served as a national security risk. That's why they wanted to pull out of offering any economic incentives to Ford because they were concerned about the Chinese influence being a national security risk. So that's one thing. Talking about farmland is totally different. Like there's this evolving concern about farmland. That's a totally separate topic about battery plants being a national security risk. It's like they're trying to talk about all these things in the same breath as if they were the same thing. I would imagine that was probably influenced by the comments of Ron DeSantis in Florida.

Thomas Bowman

Yeah, large mega businesses buying up American farmland is the real threat here. It's not even individual countries, we're talking about maybe a quarter million acres or so. Virginia farmland being owned by foreign countries are businesses tied to foreign countries. The reality is rather than some jingoistic, bigoted attack with misinformation on China. By the way, they're just trying to survive, they've got a demographic cliff that they're getting ready to go over the next 10 years, if they don't make their big moves now, they'll never have the chance to do it. Just to give you an idea as to like China's economy requires importing about 80% of its food and energy. That's to do anything, right? They need the United States to do to keep their economy afloat. By contrast, the United States has 90% of its supply of food produced domestically, and most of the rest of that other stuff comes from either Canada or Mexico. So we're in a very different situation when it comes to food security than most of the rest of the world. China is just trying to survive. This is not about protecting Virginia's economy Michael. This is about giving into fear and misinformation and scoring cheap points, and this decision, by the way, I shudder to think about what this is going to do to Virginia in the long term. Because if I were a business thinking about Virginia as a site to invest a lot of money in, well, I'm going to look elsewhere because this is really going to have a chilling effect on that kind of investment.

Michael Pope

Yeah, and you wonder about these companies that are involved in talks with Virginia about what kind of economic development incentives Virginia might be willing to hand over. Are those companies now going to be worried that they're going to be reading about the Governor trash-talking them in The Daily Caller? I mean, is that something that is going to have a chilling effect on businesses potentially coming to Virginia in the future?

Thomas Bowman

Well, it should, at least for the next two years, until there's a new Governor in town, but this is also not a good way to distinguish yourself in a field for a Republican primary. Their funders are overwhelmingly big businesses. That's at least where their money comes from. Their energy, obviously, is the MAGA Trump wing and the voters.

Michael Pope

I guess he didn't want to get he didn't want DeSantis to be out on his right flank on this issue.

Thomas Bowman

Well, that's fine. But you still got to finance a presidential campaign, and as rich as Youngkin is, it is not enough to finance a presidential campaign.

Michael Pope

All right, let's get to the next story. To hell with the budget. That was the sentiment expressed by Senator Louise Lucas, a Democrat from Portsmouth, during a press conference outlining the agenda for Democrats in the upcoming session. And her comments caused quite a stir, which was probably the intention, including this reaction from Republican Speaker Todd Gilbert.

Todd Gilbert

I really hope that something I heard this morning is not true, that the Governor's tax cut proposals are dead on arrival. I heard some version of dead on arrival, well, a little more colorful version of that, that I won't repeat. But you know, if there was ever a time for us to join together and try to put more money back in people's pockets at a time when they're suffering, I think now's the time. And that should be a bipartisan thing.

Thomas Bowman

Don Scott, who's starting his first session as leader of the House, Democrats says he agrees with part of the Governor's budget proposal, doubling the standard deduction.

Don Scott

I think we have an opportunity to do some things that are very smart, that are intentional, and that gets to the hardworking Virginians. We can make the Earned Income Tax Credit fully refundable. That's what he can do. If he wants to help Virginians who are working hard every day, this is an opportunity not to give away money to out-of-state corporations that don't care about everyday Virginians.

Michael Pope

So there's a Venn diagram here where interests overlap, and that is the standard deduction. Beyond that, I think there's going to be a lot of fighting on the outer rings of the Venn diagram. On our podcast last week, Senator Surovell said there is no appetite in his caucus, meaning among Senate Democrats, for tax cuts at all. So I think we're going to see a lot of fighting about the potential for tax cuts, with the exception of doubling the standard deduction. I think everybody's on board with that. That's the center of the Venn diagram. Beyond that, I think there's going to be a lot of fighting, perhaps best expressed by Senator Louise Lucas, who said to hell with the budget.

Thomas Bowman

Well, not just the budget, which is certainly going to be dead on arrival. But pretty much every substantive bill or major policy change gets proposed and passed out of one chamber or the other. Look, I've been checking out the r/Virginia subreddit, and there's a lot of public concern and wailing and gnashing of teeth already about some of the bills getting proposed. And I want to really highlight for people that the House is going to be a stacked brick wall against any Democratic messaging bills that get Republicans worked up, or even our own people worked up in a good way. And the Republican bills that come out of the House are not going to survive in the Senate. Both chambers are going to take what I call the Mitch McConnell strategy, and nothing is really going to be on the table really. There's nothing immediate offhand that they actually need. They know it's an election year. They know they don't really have time to buckle down and figure out the details and get things right. So they've got one job, and that just says no, no, no.

Michael Pope

And they've got this bottomless pit of money to play with, like a $6 billion budget surplus. I mean, that's mad money. And so they can say, oh, yeah, we're gonna fix mental health, and we're gonna get tax cuts. So we're going to do this, and we're going to do that. Under normal circumstances, people are fighting about every penny and where it comes from, and there are declining revenues this year. There's this huge gigantic pot of money that everybody gets to play with and, you know, hit the campaign trail to talk about their achievements.

Thomas Bowman

And when the legislature does communicate its budget over to Glenn Youngkin, he does have some inherent advantages in his office. He's going to be able to line-item veto or amend some of the things that are in that budget. Hopefully, he doesn't need to do too much of it because it would have to be a compromise budget anyway between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate. Nobody's gonna get to steamroll the other. But whether it's, an amendment or a veto is going to change the threshold of the vote required to uphold or overturn it. So there is a lot in consideration as far as politics goes. So is the Senate gonna allow the Republicans to get a win in order to get some of their budget priorities through to survive the Governor? Well, we'll see the Governor doesn't really have a strong track record of delivering on any promises. Certainly not if you're a resident of Danville, Virginia, right now, who just voted overwhelmingly for him.

Michael Pope

Well, I think you just previewed the end of the session, which is that that deal will be cut between Senate Democrats and House Republicans in a smoke-filled back room that will not be open to the public and will not be open to the press. So I guess we'll just have to learn about it when they feel like they want to announce it.

Thomas Bowman

Stay tuned. More to come. More to come.

Michael Pope

Alright, let's get to trivia. So last week, we asked about how the Governor is elected. So for many years, the General Assembly chose the Governor. So the legislative branch chose the guy to head the executive branch, which was kind of a strange thing. But that's how they set the system up back in the 1770s when there was a lot of distrust about executive power. So when did that change? This was our trivia question. When was that change that allowed voters to select the Governor, and what was the year that the first election for Governor happened? Thomas your thoughts on that?

Thomas Bowman

Well, I actually didn't know the answer to this, Michael. And I did look it up. But nobody was able to guess this one, Michael, or get this answer. Right. So why don't you tell us?

Michael Pope

Or nobody cared? And it was just a nerdy thing that I was particularly interested in. The Constitution of 1851 changed this process for selecting Governor, taking it out of the hands of the General Assembly and giving it to voters. So the first election for Governor of Virginia happened in 1851. The election featured Democrat Joeseph Johnson versus Whig George Summers. Johnson, one with 53% of the vote, became Virginia's 32nd Governor but the first elected by the people. So yeah, 1851 is your answer, which is, by the way, a lot later than you might imagine having voters selecting the Governor. But that's the year the change was made. All right. So our trivia question for next week, please hit us up on Twitter or any of our social media sites if you know the answer to this. When was the Senate of Virginia created? Everybody knows the Virginia House of Delegates has a long history that stretches back to Jamestown and the House of Burgesses. So, you know, hundreds of years, the House of Delegates has this very long history that goes back for hundreds of years. But the Senate does not. It's a newer animal. When was the Senate of Virginia created? So that's our trivia question for next week. If you know the answer, hit us up on Twitter. And we'd love to hear your comments. And speaking of your comments, we will be reading some of your tweets later in the show. But before we do, let's head over to the water cooler. Thomas, what's the latest you're hearing about the watercooler

Thomas Bowman

Well, breaking late Friday night is not exactly the best time for breaking news. However, Joe Morrissey is once again proving to be the drama of Virginia politics. His wife, this time, has had enough. Shout out to Brandon Jarvis, who pulled the screenshots of his apparent ex-wife post or estranged wife's post, who has completely had enough of Joe Morrissey's shenanigans. She outed him for multiple affairs, apparently infected her while she was pregnant with an STI wasn't going to say anything until the doctors freaked out about the condition and safety of having the baby. It was a mystery as to what was going on, and then Joe finally came clean. She hints that she has tidbits that the feds might be interested in. And it's not really clear what she wants other than, at this point, just to let people know who he is.

Michael Pope

Like sands through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives in the Virginia Senate. I mean, man, this Instagram screen? I don't even know what to call this thing. She wrote all this stuff on Instagram, and it was spicy. I mean, like soap operas spicy.

Thomas Bowman

We should push it out on our Twitter account just so you know where to find it, but definitely find it on Brandon Jarvis and Michael. I don't have a full picture of what's going on. This is clearly her side of the story, and Joe will have his own, and we don't really know or want to know all of these details, but I'll just say this. Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned. What about you, Michael? What's the latest you're hearing?

Michael Pope

Well, when I was back at the Capitol Building last week, there was a portrait that I found missing. Like a lot of people, when I'm in the Capitol building, I always check out the portraits, and I love figuring out who they are and their relationship to each other in terms of where they are in the building. So there was a portrait of a young Harry Bryd that used to hang right outside of the entrance to the chamber of the Virginia State Senate. So guess what? That portrait is gone, replaced by Pocahontas. So it's really interesting because I actually have a photograph of this portrait on page 153 of the Bryd Machine in Virginia. And now Governor bird has been exiled from the capital of Virginia. For the most part, there actually used to be two portraits of Harry Bryd. There was the young Harry Bryd as Governor. That's the one that's now gone. There is also one up on the third floor. There is the older Harry Bryd, the version of him that probably most people are more familiar with. Harry Bryd is an old man who was wearing a white suit and is chairman of the significant Senate, US Senate committee, so that portrait is still in the building. So it's not like he's been totally excised from the capital of Virginia. But it is significant that the actual official, Governor's portrait of Governor Bryd, no longer hangs in the area right outside the entrance to the State Senate.

Thomas Bowman

Well, Michael, his portrait above the Senate may be gone. But I can assure you, the spirit of Bryd exists all throughout the Virginia constitution, its code, and some of the, let's say, predilections of its elected officials.

Michael Pope

Well, you say it still exists in the Constitution, but the latest Virginia Constitution, which was written in 1970;s, actually tried, and were trying their hardest to take all the Bryd influence out of the Constitution to the extent that they could.

Thomas Bowman

Definitely, the spirit at the time, although when you are working from a limited set of experiences, sometimes you need to wait a couple of generations to actually accomplish the goal that you wanted in Virginia's Constitution and Code of Virginia. Not having a substantive or major overhaul since then, it could probably use one again. It's, it's still not great.

Michael Pope

All right, well, let's head over to the mailbag. Thomas, last week, you asked listeners for hot takes about the State of the Commonwealth address. So we got several responses, right?

Thomas Bowman

Oh, yeah. And I'm so glad I did this. And Michael, we have a pretty diverse set of people on Twitter following us of ideologies across the spectrum, but the sentiment after the State of the Commonwealth address was pretty universal. In fact, it was universally negative. They did not like it. So Jamie Lockhart shouts out to her, she's a longtime friend of the show and also a dedicated listener who has been on the show before, said, "he's more concerned with his national ambitions than representing the values of Virginia." That was her takeaway. Brad Kutner noted journalists said real charter school investment would take a constitutional amendment, and no one is talking about that yet.

Anonymous account A @RVACoffeeStain said he's going to read a word-for-word transcript of Mark Warner's tuna melt video.

Michael Pope

Yolo Billy @Trump45MAGA said, "he seems to be taking away the wrong message after losing a State Senate seat they held for 20 years when we specifically ran on protecting abortion. I don't know why they keep insisting people want abortion restricted."

Thomas Bowman

And @BridgettSW on Twitter said, "he's just parroting national talking points mind-bogglingly ignoring the realities of Virginia. It's a campaign speech for a national right-wing base, not a genuine reflection on the Commonwealth."

Michael Pope

Social justice nerd @BRE_RVA said, "it's so far removed from the reality of what's happening in communities across the State, including those issues that are most disproportionately harming marginalized communities. He just doesn't get it."

Thomas Bowman

And finally, Jarrell Wilmore @JCWilmer said, "it's easy to forget there are elections in Virginia in November 2023. Youngkin just handed Democrats a major issue. We can now sit back and see what gifts Amanda Chase and Nick Freitas will still be. Virginia GOP lacks message discipline."

Michael Pope

Well, so yeah, there's definitely a theme there. The Pod Virginia listeners, at least the ones that are active on Twitter, didn't seem to like the speech very much. So make of that what you will

Thomas Bowman

Yeah, pretty clear direction and sentiment, and again, this is just our followers or the people who saw it at the time or who had something to say but overwhelmingly reaction incredibly negatively.

Michael Pope

All right. Before we go, it's time to celebrate some birthdays. Now we've got three on the calendar this week. Thursday, January 19th, is the birthday of Senator Mark Peak of Lynchburg. Then Friday, January 10th, is the birthday of Delegate Danny Marshall of Danville. And then Sunday, January 22nd, is the birthday of Senator Louise Lucas of Portsmouth. So Happy Birthday all around!

Thomas Bowman

Yeah, happy birthday to all of y'all. That's it for this week's episode of Pod Virginia. Don't forget to check out our website and follow us on social media for more updates and in-depth discussions on Virginia politics.

Michael Pope

And don't forget to put the Museum of History and Culture on your calendar for Thursday night. I'm going to be speaking about the Bryd Machine in Virginia at 6 PM at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, which is at 428 North Arthur Ashe Boulevard, and I look forward to seeing you there.