In declaring Virginia a “blue state,” Gov. Ralph Northam vowed Wednesday to move ahead on liberal issues he said have long been stalled by Republican control of the statehouse.
Inside a room on the upper floors of the Capitol, Northam held an open Cabinet meeting that featured talk of “a new landscape” full of “great opportunity” for the administration’s ideals.
Surrounded by his top officials, Northam vowed to move forward on the gun control measures he pitched to lawmakers after the May 31 mass shooting in Virginia Beach. He talked about decriminalizing marijuana and sanctioning no-excuse absentee voting.
He backed an increase to the state’s minimum wage and an end to gerrymandering of political boundaries. He pitched plans for a new state-based health insurance marketplace to boost the number of insured Virginians. He proclaimed the expansion of early childhood education a top priority, along with battling climate change.
The list went on.
“This is a blue state. I declared that last night,” Northam said, adding that the “blue wave” that swept Virginia in 2017, when Democrats swept the top three statewide offices and gained 15 House seats, “was still out there” Tuesday night.
New Democratic majorities in the House and Senate will come at a critical time for Northam, who is retooling his signature budget and legislative package to take advantage of his party’s newfound power.
The two-year spending plan for July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2022, that Northam is expected to present to the General Assembly’s money committees on Dec. 17 is the only budget that he will build and roll out during his four-year term.
Worker protections
On Wednesday, Northam repeatedly promoted Virginia’s designation as the “No. 1 state to do business,” bestowed upon the state by CNBC.
“While we are the No. 1 state in the country in which to do business, I want to do everything that I can to support our workers as well,” Northam said.
Northam signaled boosting workforce training as a key way to help workers. Asked about more contentious proposals promoted by progressive Democrats, Northam appeared split.
Northam threw his weight behind an increase to the minimum wage, which right now sits at $7.25 an hour. Past efforts on the minimum wage, he said, have “fallen on deaf ears.”
“All of us could hopefully agree that there is no way you could support yourself or your family on $7.25,” Northam said. “To what level, or how fast we get there, I can’t tell you. But we’re certainly open, and I’ll support raising the minimum wage.”
Asked about a repeal of the state’s “right-to-work” law, which prohibits private sector unions from forcibly collecting dues, Northam refused to engage with “a hypothetical question.”
“I deal with what is put on my desk,” he said.
While appetite for repealing the law is not pervasive among Democrats, more progressive senior and incoming members support a repeal or have said they would consider one.
“If something like that gets to my desk, I’ll certainly look at it.”
Gun control
Eight bills backed by Northam and introduced by Democrats during a July 9 special session on gun control will be at the top of the administration’s legislative to-do list.
Northam proposed measures calling for universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons to include suppressors and bump stocks, a ban on high-capacity magazines, and to restore a state law, repealed in 2012, to restrict handgun purchases to one a month.
Northam also proposed legislation that would set tougher penalties for leaving a loaded gun near a child, that would allow for “extreme risk” protective orders to remove guns from people deemed a risk to themselves or others, and that would require people to report stolen or lost guns within 24 hours.
Northam is also pushing for legislation to allow localities to regulate firearms within their jurisdictions — including banning them in government buildings.
The state’s crime commission is expected to take up the issue this coming Tuesday, but it’s unclear whether the commission’s staff has finished studying the proposals, or whether the commission will make formal recommendations.
On Nov. 18, the current, GOP-controlled General Assembly is scheduled to reconvene to take up Northam’s proposals.
“We welcome their support, but regardless, it will be a new day,” said Brian Moran, Virginia’s secretary of public safety and homeland security.
Northam added: “I suspect most of the work will be done in January,” after the new General Assembly is sworn in.
Health care
Secretary of Health and Human Resources Daniel Carey said his office was working on a proposal that would bring a state-based health insurance marketplace to Virginia. The marketplace would allow Virginians to compare and enroll in a health care plan through a state-run website that pools in available plans. Right now, Virginians not covered by their workplace can enroll through the federal government’s marketplace.
Some states that rolled out their own marketplaces, many of which were controlled by Democrats, ran into technological roadblocks that forced them to return to the federal marketplace. But an April report by the National Academy for State Health Policy showed that state-based exchanges enrolled more people and offered lower health care costs than the federal marketplace.
Northam said the model would give the state “a lot more control and would save the commonwealth a lot of money.”
Carey also talked about maternal health and said that in the coming weeks, his office would release a five-year plan aimed at improving maternal mortality. Northam directed state officials earlier this year to study racial disparities in maternal mortality in Virginia that result in more black and Hispanic women dying during or after childbirth, compared with white women.
“We want to make sure that plan is rooted in the communities we want to serve,” Carey said.
Education
Northam reiterated Wednesday that expanding access to preschool in Virginia will be a budget priority moving forward. In referring to a “top to bottom review” of the state’s base budget, Northam cited the need for funding for early childhood education.
“I think we can all agree that if we can provide pre-K, early childhood education to all children across Virginia, it will really give them a good start,” Northam said.
Virginia Secretary of Education Atif Qarni also said his office was working on adjusting staffing ratios for support positions within schools.
-- HIDE VERTICAL GALLERY ASSET TITLES --
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB01

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam, center, is surrounded by media outside his office on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. Northam had just left a meeting with his Cabinet and was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB02

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam, center, is surrounded by media outside his office on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. Northam had just left a meeting with his Cabinet and was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB03

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam, left, is surrounded by media outside his office on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. Northam had just left a meeting with his Cabinet and was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB04

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam, top, center, is surrounded by media outside his office on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA as a group of tourists walk into the rotunda below Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. Northam had just left a meeting with his Cabinet and was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB05

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam, right, enters a meeting of his Cabinet on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. After the meeting, Northam was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB06

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam, center, during a meeting of his Cabinet on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. After the meeting, Northam was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB07

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam, top, center, during a meeting of his Cabinet on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. After the meeting, Northam was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB08

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam speaks during a meeting of his Cabinet on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. After the meeting, Northam was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB09

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam, right, listens to comments from Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne, left, during a meeting of his Cabinet on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. After the meeting, Northam was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
20191107_MET_NORTHAM_BB10

Virginia Giovernor Ralph Northam makes comments during a meeting of his Cabinet on the third floor of the State Capitol in Richmond, VA Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019. After the meeting, Northam was questioned about the previous night's election results which gave Democrats control of the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.
Post a comment as
Report
Watch this discussion.
(11) comments
The highest priority should be to end the gerrymandering that has enabled a minority of Republicans to thwart the majority on so many issues for so long. Once their influence is reduced to their real numbers this state can began to prosper again..
Don't take controlling power for granted. Please reach out in a bipartisan way to find common ground with the other side.
If your directing that towards me or not, irrelevant. What is relevant, with great power comes great responsibility and with the agenda the Governor has ginned up, there is no bipartisan fellowship in the general assembly. Both sides in spite of themselves, have trenched in for the tenure. The commonwealth at large, is held hostage to the aforementioned blue strongholds, simply the money is in those areas. The last time I was in Richmond, I saw one tower crane, likewise in Tysons Corner, more than I could count on fingers and toes. Point being, where the money is, is where the power to control lay, right, wrong or indifferent, it is just a fact. Absolute power, corrupts absolutly
how about the governor telling the truth, which one was he in the picture ! On another note you may think blue, but when you get out of your little holes of northern VA, Hampton roads, Charlottesville , Richmond, your in red country, never forget that.
its common knowledge that Northams family were SLAVE owners and klan members
dean as a liberal lapdog do you ever have a first thought or just repeat the masters voice
NORTHAM has decreed that the KKK will now be part of the state police
Your tin foil hat is too close to the power lines.
will NORTHAM mandate a new dress code for official gov't business? Northam in his RED klan robes while other democrats will wear white robes
TLJ you forgot the Dems will take your box of crayons.
dean trying to teach you anything would would require close contact a and a large box of treats
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.