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Turning Right?

Photo: Waldo Jaquith

Expanding gun rights.

Further restricting abortion.

Taking money out of education and health care in order to fund transportation.

Eliminating all state funding of public broadcasting.

Those are some of the Republican proposals that got stopped last year by Democrats in Virginia's state Senate.  But now that Republicans have won control of that Senate -- can we look forward to a hard turn to the right in Virginia's legislative priorities? 

Guests:
Bob Gibson - Executive Director of The Thomas C. Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership and former political writer at The Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Anita Kumar - Richmond-based political reporter for The Washington Post.

Robert North Roberts, J.D., Ph.D. - Government Policy Specialist.  Author of numerous books on American politics, among them --  Ethics in U.S. Government (Greenwood), The Public Integrity Wars (Praeger), Public Journalism and Political Knowledge (Rowman & Littlefield), and Encyclopedia of Presidential Campaigns (Greenwood).  Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, James Madison University.

Additional Contributors:
R. Creigh Deeds, J.D. - Democrat representing the 25th Virginia State Senate District, which currently includes the cities of Buena Vista, Charlottesville, and Covington plus the counties of Alleghany, Bath and Nelson; along with portions of Albemarle, Buckingham, and Rockbridge counties.

R. Edward, "Edd," Houck, M.Ed. - Democrat, 28 year veteran of the Virginia State Senate representing the 17th district which currently includes the city of Fredericksburg, plus Culpepper, Louisa, Madison, and Orange counties as well as a portion of Spotsylvania County.  On November 8, Mr. Houck was defeated for re-election by Republican challenger Bryce Reeves, in the closest state Senate race in Virginia -- Mr. Reeves winning by 222 votes.  [Mr. Reeves was invited to participate in this broadcast,  but was unable to fit it into his schedule.]

Jill Vogel, J.D. - Republican representing the 27th Virginia State Senate District, which currently includes the city of Winchester, the counties of Clarke and Frederick, and portions of Fauquier and Loudoun counties.

Tom Graham was Senior Producer and host of WMRA's Virginia Insight from 2006 to 2015.