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Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie said he thinks there is enough evidence to support climate change after being pressed on the issue during a debate with incumbent Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). "I believe there is ample scientific evidence that contributes to climate change but I'm not entirely dismissive of those who have a different point of view," Gillespie said. Gillespie added, "Norfolk is dealing with rising sea levels but people can debate what contributes to that or not." Still, Gillespie said he thinks the administration's new carbon pollution rules "go to far."

Dave Brat is challenging Rep. Eric Cantor in a Republican primary — and giving the House majority leader a verbal thrashing on immigration. “Cantor is following the agenda of the Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce — pursuing policies that are good for big business, but come at the exclusion of the American people,” said Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College. Brat’s upstart bid against the second highest-ranking House Republican may seem quixotic. But it’s part of a growing national movement to oust GOP leaders who fail conservative litmus tests.

In the U.S.A., Republican voters and grassroots are sharply divided in political culture from the Republican establishment and politicos. But one culture clash in particular is urgent and important: Does it really matter if Republicans win elections? Republican politicos furiously insist yes. Republican voters answer a lukewarm maybe. The Republican Party is driving the United States over the cliff at 70 miles per hour, while the Democrat Party is driving the U.S.A. over the cliff at 120 miles per hour. Yet Republican leaders passionately try to convince us that it matters that Republicans must be driving as the car careens...

Democrats will take control of the Virginia Senate now that a recount in Hampton Roads has found Lynwood Lewis the winner of a special election. Lewis, who until now has served in the House of Delegates, beat Republican Wayne Coleman by 11 votes out of 23,000 votes cast. The State Board of Elections says the final totals are 10,203 votes for Lewis to 10,192 votes for Coleman in the district that covers Accomack, Mathews and Northampton counties and the cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Coleman has called Lewis to concede the race. Lewis had been initially declared the winner...

Democrat Jennifer Wexton bested two veteran Loudoun County politicians Tuesday night to earn a seat in the Senate of Virginia and almost assuredly give Virginia Democrats majority power in Richmond for the first time since 2009. Ms. Wexton's victory over Republican John Whitbeck and former Republican state Del. Joe May, running his Senate race as an independent, caps a momentous two months for Democrats in Virginia, whom last November swept the top three offices in the commonwealth – the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general posts – for the first time in two decades.

.... as Mr. Whitbeck was quick to point out, he is the only aspirant who resided in the district as recently as four months ago. (First reported by the Times-Mirror, both Mr. May and Ms. Wexton took up residences in the 33rd District boundaries in the second half of 2013.)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Almost overnight, Virginia has emerged as a critical state in the nationwide fight to grant gay men and women the right to wed. Related Stories Okla. gay marriage ban struck down; ruling on hold Associated Press Judge rules Oklahoma gay marriage ban unconstitutional AFP US judge strikes down Oklahoma gay marriage ban as ‘arbitrary, irrational' Christian Science Monitor Utah appeals gay marriage ruling to top US court AFP The Supreme Court Puts Utah's Gay Marriages on Pause The Atlantic Wire This purple state was once perceived as unfriendly and even bordering on hostile to gay rights....

If you ever doubted that money outweighs principles in contemporary politics, then the case of Richmond campaign consultant Boyd Marcus should permanently erase such ambiguity in your mind. Marcus, a prominent figure in Virginia politics for two decades, made headlines in August when he abandoned a lifetime of supporting Republicans to endorse Democrat Terry McAuliffe for governor. McAuliffe’s team and Marcus trumpeted the conversion as an important political sign that mainstream Republicans were rejecting the tea party conservatism espoused by GOP candidate Ken Cuccinelli II. Instead, we learned Thursday, the primary motive was entirely mercenary. An e-mail was made public...

Until Virginia Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe (D) was elected on November 5, Beretta USA had the Old Dominion on a short list of states in which it could build a new factory.

Beretta has eliminated Virginia from its short list of states to move its company because anti-gun Democrat Terry McAuliffe was elected governor. The firearms manufacturer made the decision to scratch Virginia off the list after the McAuliffe campaign fixated on restricting gun owners’ rights after receiving over $1 million in campaign donations from billionaire New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. “The anti-gun ads that McAuliffe ran in northern Virginia were particularly offensive,” Jeff Reh, general counsel of Beretta USA, told me in an interview. “And the fact that he could gain a voting advantage by doing so caused us additional...

The Justice Department has reportedly delayed until next year a decision on whether to indict outgoing Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife in connection with a gifts scandal — a decision that came after a face-to-face appeal by the couple’s lawyers. A report by The Washington Post late Wednesday night said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente told lawyers for the governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell a week ago that he planned to ask a grand jury to return an indictment by this past Monday over allegedly inappropriate help they gave dietary supplement maker Star Scientific after receiving gifts from...

State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain(R) will concede the race for Virginia attorney general to Democrat Mark R. Herring on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the decision. Obenshain’s announcement will put an end to a drawn-out contest that, on election night, was the closest statewide election in history. Obenshain campaign spokesman Paul Logan did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Wednesday. Herring had significantly widened his slim lead over Obenshain in a statewide recount that began Monday and was scheduled to finish on Wednesday.

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Stealing elections is an old game politicians play. Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president, got to the U.S. Senate in 1948 by “winning” the closest race in Texas history by a margin of 87 votes out of more than a million cast. An election judge in tiny Alice, Texas, said he counted more than 200 names on the voting roll for Box 13 that were written in alphabetic succession in the same hand, same color of ink. When a federal court subpoenaed Box 13, it was discovered to be “lost.” LBJ took his seat in the Senate. Voting machines were...

Adam Schaefer and Nancy Smith have posted the results of some fascinating experimental research on Ken Cuccinelli’s loss in  Virginia. Their research suggests “an aggressive attack on McAuliffe for supporting Obamacare was ineffective at best and counter-productive at worst. An attack on McAuliffe’s business record possibly helped, but was anemic.”So what would have worked in Virginia? What moved the voters most was an attack on McAuliffe’s positions on abortion; a single phone message emphasizing McAuliffe’s support for unrestricted, late-term, and taxpayer-funded abortions shifted support a net 13 to 15 points away from McAuliffe and toward Cuccinelli. The cost per vote here...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pleaded for Republican unity here Saturday as he prodded his party to offer more solutions that make voters feel like they have their backs on “kitchen table” issues. The congressman, who represents a district around Richmond, told about 500 party activists during a lunch at The Homestead resort that the GOP does not need to compromise its core principles. “If we want to win, we must begin to offer solutions to the problems that people face every day,” he said. “We have not done this recently and it has allowed the Democrats to take power,...

Virginia gun sales reached a new record for number of firearms sold on Black Friday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Gun transactions in Virginia totaled 3,902 on Black Friday, a 1.2 percent increase over the previous record of 3,856 transactions on the same day in 2012, according to the latest Virginia State Police figures of mandatory criminal-background checks of gun buyers.The Black Friday numbers helped boost Virginia’s overall gun transactions to 429,154 through the end of November, or 17.5 percent more than during the same period last year, Virginia Firearms Transaction Center data show.With an additional 2,539 transactions processed during the first...

Of all the ways Republicans in the U.S.A. could still fumble their promising 2014 Congressional elections, one is the error of “the Ballistics Theory of Political Candidates” or the “Perfect Candidate Excuse.” Missing opportunities to master the techniques and science of winning elections, Republicans are instead searching for the perfect candidate. But that is only an excuse for avoiding the hard, real work of running effective election campaigns and studying how to become effective in running campaigns. In the United States, liberals are busy sharpening their skills at selling inferior candidates with unpopular platforms and failed policies to gullible voters....

The Democratic candidate for Virginia attorney general has maintained his thin lead over the Republican hopeful after the state certified the Nov. 5 ballot. The State Board of Elections in Richmond completed its certification Monday, showing Mark Herring with a 165-vote edge over the GOP's Mark Obenshain. Herring held a 165-vote edge over Obenshain before the certification. Obenshain has 10 days to decide whether he'll seek a recount. Both men have dug in, with each announcing transition teams. Virginia has no automatic recount, but the trailing candidate can seek a recount at taxpayer expense if the margin between winner and...

The state Board of Elections on Monday certified Democrat Mark Herring as the winner of the Nov. 5 election for Virginia attorney general. Herring, a state senator from Loudoun County, beat state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R), by 165 votes out of more than 2 million votes cast.