“It’s astonishing how much the narrative surrounding the intervention in Venezuela has changed in just a few days,” notes Stephen Farnsworth of the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. “Initially, the focus was on combating drug trafficking, but attention quickly shifted to access to oil.”
The focus, according to University of Mary Washington political science professor Stephen Farnsworth, could be on making it easier to buy a house and increasing the minimum wage. “There are key issues with respect to what the legislature can do, though, because of the financial challenges Virginia faces,” Farnsworth told WTOP.
“Overhanging everything that the Democratic trifecta wants to do is a significant fiscal challenge,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington. He warned that cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies could hit rural hospitals especially hard.
Spanberger’s early cabinet appointments suggest a pragmatic approach, Farnsworth said, pulling from both the legislature and prior Democratic administrations.
“The choices suggest a ratification of her campaign’s strategy of being a more moderate Democrat,” he said, adding that could frustrate some progressive activists.
In Virginia, Speakers of the House have a lot of power in the way they steer bills to particular committees, and the way bills they don’t like can land before one of the gatekeeping subcommittees that meet at 7:30 a.m., according to Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington.“You ignore your 10 extremists and just govern,” just as former Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, did when he had super- and near-super majorities, Farnsworth said.
“This is not a normal opening act for a legislative session,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington. “Governor-elect Spanberger is setting the stage for an aggressive year one.”
“The government has opened, but the Democratic narrative is still driving Washington politics,” said Steve Farnsworth, director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington.
