House Republican Caucus
Virginia House of Delegates Republican Caucus
LeMunyon for the 67th
Mar 17th
On Saturday, March 14th Jim LeMunyon announced his intention to run for the Virginia House of Delegates 67th District. The67th district includes Western Fairfax and the area around Dulles Airport.
Jim LeMunyon is a 26-year resident of Northern Virginia. He and his wife, Robin, have three children who are recent graduates of Oakton High School, and who now attend college andfamilysm graduate school. The LeMunyons have been active in the community for many years, including church, scouts, PTAs, and sports and music boosters.
As a technology company entrepreneur for more than 20 years, Jim has started and helps build technology businesses. He understands how jobs are created and what it takes to make our economy grow. This includes his role as the co-founding President of Sterling Semiconductor, now a unit of Dow Corning, which produces an advanced electronic material needed for electric cars and energy efficient lighting. Jim presently leads HexaTech, a company that is developing novel sources of ultra-violet light for water purification, and new components for wireless communication systems.
In government, Jim served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce from 1989-1993. He managed the Export Administration, and within four years reduced the size of the agency’s budget while making the agency more effective, and returned millions of tax dollars to the U.S. Treasury. His responsibilities included representing the United States on international trade and security negotiating teams that created the first trade restrictions on chemical, biological, and missile technologies, to keep such items out of the hands of terrorists and other adversaries. Jim testified frequently before Congress on these issues.
Early in his career, Jim served as chief-of-staff to Republican Congressman Ed Zschau from California’s Silicon Valley. In that capacity, Jim coordinated the efforts of a Republican task force in the House of Representatives that was successful in passing several laws to foster innovation and the creation and growth of new companies.
In addition to business and government, Jim was an adjunct faculty member of the George Mason University international transactions graduate program during the 1990s. He has also served as past congregation president and Sunday School teacher at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Falls Church.
Jim graduated from Valparaiso University with a B.S. in physics and mathematics. He earned a M.S. in meteorology at the University of Wisconsin on a NASA scholarship.
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Delegate Todd Gilbert Announces Bid for Re-election
Mar 17th
Delegate C. Todd Gilbert has announced that he will seek another term in the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 15th House District which includes the counties of Shenandoah, Page, Rappahannock and a portion of Rockingham County. First elected in 2005, Delegate Gilbert’s re-election bid will be based on the principled and effective leadership that he has offered on behalf of the citizens he represents.
Gilbert campaigned in 2005 on a platform of limited government, keeping taxes low and trying to rein in wasteful and inefficient government spending. He promised to be a staunch defender of traditional family values and the right to keep and bear arms and to fight the wave of illegal immigration that has brought more crime to our region. He vowed to take on the scourge of the methamphetamines in the Shenandoah Valley and to be a champion for public safety. Gilbert also recognized the natural beauty and unique way of life in the 15th District and vowed to do all that he could to protect it. Gilbert’s legislative agenda and voting record reveal that he has stood firm for all of these promises and for the common sense, conservative principles that are shared by the vast majority of the citizens of his district.
In just his second term, Delegate Gilbert has demonstrated his effectiveness in Richmond by following through with real results on his campaign promises. Gilbert successfully took on the Virginia Department of Transportation’s plan to turn Interstate 81 into a toll-booth laden superhighway which stood to devastate family farms, battlefields, and small businesses in Shenandoah County and place undue financial burdens on the agriculture industry that is so important to the region. Gilbert brought together a broad coalition of interests including farmers, conservationists, historical preservationists and business owners and restored to the people of Virginia the previously unfettered tolling authority once enjoyed by VDOT. Because of Gilbert’s legislative efforts, VDOT will now have to get permission from the people’s representatives in the General Assembly before any tolling scheme is put into place.
As a career prosecutor, Gilbert has used his expertise to be effective in the area of public safety. In 2008, he successfully championed a law that puts mandatory, minimum sentences on drug dealers who sell methamphetamine in our communities. In 2008, a very tough budget year in Richmond, Gilbert’s meth bill was the only new criminal bill funded by the General Assembly. Gilbert also successfully removed the last parole loophole in Virginia which had allowed criminals sentenced to longer misdemeanor sentences to be eligible for early release. In the wake of the heinous 2003 gang murder of seventeen year-old Brenda Paz in Shenandoah County, Gilbert sponsored a bill that provides for the death penalty for the premeditated murder of a cooperating witness in a criminal investigation. Gilbert was able to muster the votes to override the veto of Governor Tim Kaine in both the House and the Senate to make his bill the law of Virginia. This year he fought Governor Kaine’s plan to help balance the budget by granting early release to felons convicted of serious crimes such as child pornography, child molestation, felony domestic abuse, and repeat drunk driving. By raising awareness about this issue during the 2009 session, Gilbert almost single-handedly beat back this misguided and dangerous effort by the administration. In 2007 Gilbert sponsored a measure which made illegal aliens ineligible for bail when they are accused of committing serious crimes in our communities. Though it failed in the Senate in its first year, this bill was later adopted by both the House and Senate leadership. When offered by Gilbert again in 2008, it passed both houses and was signed into law by the Governor.
Delegate Gilbert is proud of his ability to successfully take care of the specific needs of his district. In 2007, Delegate Gilbert expended substantial political capital in Richmond to get a bill passed which will eventually afford Rappahannock County the opportunity to get relief from the unnaturally high cost of operating its schools. This past year, Gilbert was requested by the Luray-Page County Chamber of Commerce to have Page County designated the “Cabin Capital of Virginia”. Gilbert led a successful effort to bring more tourism dollars to Page County by getting the bill passed into law. This year he also successfully sponsored a bill that would exempt many thousands of hunters and farmers in his district from a recent ruling by the Department of Taxation that would have required them to pay sales tax on the processing of meat and other food items that they already own.
Gilbert has risen quickly in the ranks of the General Assembly. For the past two years he has served as a committee whip in the majority Republican leadership. In just his second term Gilbert was appointed to be Chairman of the Teachers and Administrative Action Sub-Committee of the House Committee on Education and has served in that capacity for the past two years.
Delegate Gilbert praised his Legislative Director, Mr. Gary Frink, for helping to ensure that the needs and concerns of the citizens of this district have been addressed on a daily basis. Constituent service is the most important aspect of the day-to-day operations of any legislator, and Delegate Gilbert takes great pride in his ability and that of his staff to get results and answers for the people and localities he represents. Gilbert has also developed a website for the purpose of keeping his constituents informed: ww.delegatetoddgilbert.com.
Delegate Gilbert gave the following statement:
“I wake up each and every day honored to represent the people of the 15th District. I have made many friends and worked with many more to bring about changes in the law that will directly benefit the people I work for in Richmond. I will spend the coming weeks and months telling the people of all the hard work we are doing on their behalf and asking them to afford me the privilege of continuing to do so for another term.”
Todd Gilbert
for 15th House Of Delegates
House of Delegates Pass 2009 Budget Amendments
Feb 28th
The House of Delegates has passed the 2009 budget amendmentss on a resounding 90-8 vote. The budget amendments for this year are a significant move forward for the state in the areas of health care and public safety.
The Governor had proposed signifcant cuts to MR waivers, which enable families to seek care for their loved ones in or near their homes. The budget amendments restore the 200 waiver slots proposed to be cut by the Governor and add an additional 200 slots.
The Governor had proposed massive cuts to sheriffs and local police. He proposed cutting funding by 10% to these important public safety officials. The budget amendments passed by the House of Delegates restores the proposed cuts.
There are additional amendments that ensure education is protected in the Commonwealth as well. The amendments provide $126 million to help colleges and universities with moderating rising tuition rates. Amendments also protect public money going to public education to ensure money goes to the classroom.
Times-Dispatch Profiles Hamilton Intern
Feb 24th
Soon-to-be Dr. Lesli Brown has been interning in Delegate Phil Hamilton's legislative office in Richmond throughout the current session. The Richmon Times-Dispatch provides a profile on this outstanding intern and her path to medical school as well as the state capitol.
Because being a fourth-year medical student apparently isn't challenging enough, Lesli Brown interned at the General Assembly this session.
The South Richmond native and Virginia Commonwealth University medical student interned two days a week for Del. Phillip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News. She helped to keep his schedule on track and greeted guests seeking face time with the delegate.
Brown, an aspiring primary-care doctor, was drawn to medicine through a curiosity born of fear.
"Growing up, I was deathly afraid of my pediatrician. His name was Doctor Bones, which I didn't realize was so funny until later," she said. "Even though I was afraid of him, I was somehow fascinated by what was going on in his office."
Fast-forward a couple of decades, and Brown, 25, graduated from Richmond Community High School and then Xavier University of Louisiana. She's waiting to find out where she'll do her residency. Meanwhile, she's taking advantage of the VCU medical campus's proximity to the Capitol to learn the legislative process.
This makes one wonder how long it will be until Richmond has Delegate Lesli Brown, M.D. walking the halls of the General Assembly Building.
Senate Thwarts Government Reforms by House Republicans
Feb 23rd
Highlighting the ongoing actions of House Republicans to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency in state government, Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and House Republican Majority Caucus Chairman Samuel A. “Sam” Nixon, Jr. (R-Chesterfield) today expressed disappointment at the defeat of many good open government bills that were squelched by the Democrat-led Senate. The measures had won overwhelming, bipartisan support in the House earlier in the 2009 session.
Speaker Howell and House Republicans in the run-up to the start of the 2009 Session announced a number of common-sense good government initiatives. Building upon this positive momentum, House Republicans sponsored and passed a package of practical government reform legislation to improve government efficiency, provide greater oversight and public transparency of lobbying interests, and wisely increase the separation between campaign fundraising and governing for the benefit of all Virginians.
The bills encompassed in the package that passed the House and were killed in the Senate include:
• House Bill 2463, patroned by Delegate John M. O’Bannon III (R-Henrico), would have created an Efficiency Review Commission to systematically review every agency of state government to ensure they are necessary and are performing their work efficiently and without redundancy.
• House Bill 1883, patroned by Delegate Nixon, would have strengthened the transparency and oversight of lobbyist registration by instituting fuller public disclosure by lobbyists of gifts and entertainment of elected officials.
• House Bill 1738, patroned by Delegate H. R. “Bob” Purkey (R-Virginia Beach), would have expanded from one year to two years the period that former legislators and executive branch officials must wait until becoming a registered lobbyist, ending a revolving door.
• House Bill 2657, patroned by House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), would have prohibited the use of Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion for partisan political fundraising events.
• House Bill 1634, patroned by Delegate Christopher B. Saxman (R-Staunton), would have closed a loophole on fundraising by elected officials while in legislative session in order to eliminate the influence of campaign contributions on the consideration and outcome of legislation.
“Virginians rightly expect their elected leaders to continually seek out ways to run government in as ethical, efficient and effective manner as possible,” said Speaker Howell. “House Republicans advanced a strong reform agenda this session that accomplished those goals. It is disappointing that partisan politics has led defenders of the status quo to reject the common sense reforms championed by House Republicans to ensure more fiscal discipline, responsibility and integrity in government.”
“I regret that the Senate has defeated legislation that would have increased government openness to the public we serve,” noted Delegate Nixon. “These bipartisan-endorsed, practical solutions offered by House Republicans would have improved Virginia’s position as the Best Managed State. Squandering this opportunity to implement sensible reforms displays an aversion to fiscal responsibility and a rejection of change. Like other issues this session – such as transportation funding and expanded services for those with autism – House Republicans have advanced a positive legislative agenda to which the Senate has reflexively said ‘no.’”
Delegate Lionell Spruill to Republicans – “You Got It Right”
Feb 20th
Delegate Lionell Spruill (D- Chesapeake) spoke today on the House of Delegates floor on why he supports Republican efforts on legislation related to redistricting.
"They got it right . . .I do applaud Republicans one time for looking out for black folks. You all do that right. I give you credit for that. I will support you everytime they try to do a redistricting bill. I will support you everytime. And I hope that members of the black caucus, this time Republicans are right. When they are right we've got to go with them."
Delegate Lionell Spruill, February 20, 2009