Republican Party of Virginia - Policy Positions

Policy Positions

While Virginia Republicans take positions on a wide variety of issues, some of the noteworthy ones include:

• Religion - the Party creed states, "That faith in God, as recognized by our Founding Fathers, is essential to the moral fiber of the Nation."
• Immigration - offered legislation to limit government services, such as in-state tuition at state colleges, to undocumented residents. State and local law enforcement should cooperate in enforcing immigration laws.
• Transportation - opposed funding transportation needs through increases in taxes and/or fees, offered abusive driver fees as an alternative revenue source; seeks to fund projects through bonds which will be funded from future general funds. The Republican leadership has announced that it will resist any new taxes during the special session called for June 23, 2008 to fund transportation needs. In May 2010, Virginia applied to the Federal Highway Administration to erect tollbooths on I-95 near the North Carolina border to help finance road maintenance.
• Pre-Kindergarten education - opposed Governor Kaine's initiative to fund Pre-K education.

• Handgun control - expanded the rights to carry concealed handguns and eased the process for issuing concealed weapon permits; oppose background checks for weapons purchased at gun shows.
• Judiciary - blocked judicial appointments in the 2007 legislative session.
• Voting rights - defeated "early voting proposals" to allow voters to vote in-person at the County Registrars 45-days before election day
• Tobacco - defeated measures to restrict smoking rights or raise the tax on cigarettes.
• Health care - challenging the federal requirement that all adults have health insurance. The Republican-controlled House of Delegates approved a bill to drop the requirement that sixth grade girls be vaccinated against HPV.
• Arts and culture - the Republican 2010 budget proposal sought to end long-standing state funding of the arts and defunded the Virginia Commission for the Arts. After a conference with the Virginia Senate, the final budget cut the Commission to 16% below its 2009 levels.
• Offshore drilling - supports drilling for oil and gas in federal waters 50 miles off the Virginia coast.
• Public employee pensions - The approved 2010 budget delays payments to the pension fund, effectively borrowing $620 million from the fund while promising to start repaying in 2013 with 7.5% interest. The budget also increases the retirement age for new hires, and recalculates benefits for new hires. New hires will also have to pay a 5% contribution to the pension. However, the state will continue to pay for employee contributions for current employees. A separate bill, HB 610 sponsored by Harry R. Purkey (R), would have placed all new hires on a defined contribution pension plan.

In a special session of the legislature held on April 8, 2009 to consider extending unemployment insurance benefits in order to implement the federal stimulus package, the Republicans voted along party lines, 53 to 46 in the House of Delegates to defeat the proposal. Two Republican delegates from high unemployment districts voted in favor of Kaine's proposal.

Since 1978, each Governor issues an executive order barring discrimination in the state workforce shortly after their inaugurations. The executive orders issued by Governors Warner and Kaine barred discrimination based on 'sexual orientation." However, McDonnell has refused to issue such an order for his administration. On March 10, 2010, in response to public criticism after Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli wrote an opinion letter invalidating state college policies against employment discrimination, Governor McDonnell issued a directive prohibiting discrimination in the state workforce, including on the basis of sexual orientation. Unlike the prior executive orders, McDonnell's directive does not have the force of law.

On February 16, 2010, Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II filed at the United States Environmental Protection Agency a request to reopen its proceeding regarding EPA's finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health. He also sought judicial review of EPA's finding in federal court. As a result, Virginia joins Texas as the only states seeking to attack the EPA's actions. His press statement explained, "We cannot allow unelected bureaucrats with political agendas to use falsified data to regulate American industry and drive our economy into the ground.”

Governor Robert McDonnell issued a proclamation designating April 2010 as "Confederate History Month" following similar designations by two of his Republican predecessors, George Allen and James S. Gilmore. However, the last two governors, who were Democrats, did not designate such a month. Unlike Gilmore's proclamation, which included anti-slavery language, McDonnell left out any mention of slavery, drawing condemnation by the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and the NAACP.

On September 16, 2010, Bill Howell (R-Stafford), Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, published an on-line Wall Street Journal editorial advocating an amendment to the United States Constitution to give state legislatures the power to repeal federal legislation. Under the proposal, if two-thirds of the state legislatures agree, any federal law enacted by Congress and the President would be nullified or amended. Howell announced that he will introduce legislation in the 2011 General Assembly to advocate such an amendment. The Republicans are pushing the amendment in the 2011 session.