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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, Nov. 114, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 125 ~ 45 of 66
“I certainly intend to directly challenge their power over the General Assembly,” said Lee Carter, an IT specialist, Marine veteran and member of the Democratic Socialists of America who won a surprise vic- tory Tuesday. He said Dominion is one of several corporate interests that will “have to get used to a new way of doing things.”
Dominion spokesman David Botkins said the company is “looking forward to getting to know the new members and working together” on energy issues.
Virginia’s largely unregulated campaign nance system has fostered strong ties between lawmakers in both parties and the businesses they regulate. An examination by The Associated Press in 2016 found a handful of lawmakers, including senior members in both parties, rely almost entirely on business interests and their representatives for campaign contributions.
Virginia also doesn’t prohibit lawmakers from spending from their campaign accounts for personal use, and many lawmakers rely on corporate donations to subsidize their of cial of ce budgets.
Northam has said he wants to limit corporate money in elections and ban personal use of campaign funds.
Carter defeated Jackson Miller, a GOP House leader whose list of top donors reads like a who’s who of corporate in uence, including Dominion, Realtor groups, bankers, hospitals and car dealers. Many of the other defeated Republicans got their campaign cash from similar sources.
Democratic state Sen. Chap Petersen, a erce Dominion critic, sees a new era at the General Assembly.
“We have a new legislature that is reform minded, which is not beholden to the large corporate inter- ests,” he said.
Whether that vision gets dashed after the opening of January’s session remains to be seen. Republicans still control the state Senate, and Democratic legislators have yet to resolve many of the tensions over corporate in uence on their party that played out between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in last year’s presidential race.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Dick Saslaw said the General Assembly will remain a place that sup- ports industries of all kinds, regardless of the election outcome.
“That’s not going to change, because we’re a pro-business state,” he said.
Community to honor church attack victims on Veterans Day By CLAUDIA LAUER and EMILY SCHMALL, Associated Press
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Veterans Day has special meaning this year in the small South Texas community where a church massacre occurred last weekend. Nearly half of the victims had ties to the U.S. Air Force.
The church attack victims with military backgrounds will receive a full military salute Saturday on the grounds of the community hall in Sutherland Springs as Veterans Day is observed, said Alice Garcia, presi- dent of the Sutherland Springs Community Association.
Her husband and the association’s vice president, Oscar Garcia, said they want to “honor those that have fallen, people killed in a moment after putting in years of military service.” Speakers will include U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar.
Devin Patrick Kelley killed more than two dozen people in a shooting Nov. 5 at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. Kelley died of what appeared to be a self-in icted gunshot wound after the massacre. Kelley had ties to the Air Force as well. The former airman was given a bad conduct discharge after
pleading guilty to assaulting his then-wife and her son.
The Air Force chief of staff, Gen. David Goldfein, has said that 12 of those killed at the church had direct
connections to the Air Force, “either members or with family ties.”
That includes a couple who had decided to retire in nearby La Vernia after meeting when they were in
the service together more than 30 years ago. On Thursday a military funeral was held for Scott and Karen Marshall, both 56, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.
Kelley shot and killed 25 people at the church. Authorities have put the of cial toll at 26, because one of the victims was pregnant.