Leading Democratic Blog Downgrades Angry Edd Houck’s Election Chances to “Toss-Up”
You know things are going bad for the Houck re-election campaign team when you have a liberal blog, The Daily KOS, marking up the Houck-Reeves race as a “toss-up” four-and-a-half months out from election day. Link here. This isn’t the first survey, poll, or pundit to indicate they think Houck’s dynasty is closing fast. The Washington Post called the race “hotly contested” recently, and at least three Democratic Virginia blogs, have hosted polls and surveys that indicated their readers want a change in leadership this election in Virginia’s 17th Senate District.
It’s bad when your own side is writing you off. But a 28-year run is nothing to be ashamed of. Edd has had it real good since the 1980′s, and maintains a stockpile of lobbyists’ election cash to ward off contenders.
The eternal victim, "Angry Edd Houck" may be coming after you next for the blame! Keep an eye out for the baby-blue signs of frustration and anger as his campaign flounders.
Army veteran and small business owner Bryce Reeves, Houck’s only known challenger to date, is certainly the underdog financially but that has not stopped Edd Houck from begging his supporters via email blasts for any amount they can spare.
Houck currently boasts a commanding 4.5:1 lead in on-hand cash as we head into the heavy part of the campaign season. What does he need so much cash for? He has left over marketing materials on hand and free campaign space (next door to struggling rent paying, tax paying, job-creating small businesses we should note.)
Houck has made it a fundraising mission to cry foul at every opportunity including citing this blog as unfairly characterizing his unwavering funding support of Planned Parenthood (the nation’s largest abortion chain), and linking it to the child sex-slave industry (to which it is unmistakably tied to in undercover videos of late.) Houck goes on at meetings and his transparent “meet-n-greets” (codeword for fundraiser) regularly about how he is “attacked” by the right-wing conspirators, his opponent (not true), the conservative media boogeyman, and of course Republicans— at every moment.
So Edd does what most liberals do to retaliate, he gets ANGRY! But are these crocodile tears aimed at getting support, sympathy and what every liberal loves best: more of other people’s MONEY? You betcha.
Houck has teamed up with a local land developer to get free rent and set up a campaign headquarters on Courthouse Road in Spotsylvania County about a mile from the Reeves HQ. In 28 years of holding the office, Edd has never needed a base of operations. He won year after year without much organization or any ground game. He used lobbyists money to purchase a slew of direct mail and radio ads, and he basically phoned it in. He must be really nervous this year though.
His record of raising taxes at every opportunity and redistributing the wealth of working Virginians to special interest groups and causes may have finally caught up with him. The money is running out as the working families simply don’t produce enough tax income for the appetite of a ever-expanding government payroll. This has left a void in promises versus delivery for Edd Houck and his traditionally supportive groups that he’s taken for granted like teachers and firemen for example.
He hasn’t been able to deliver lately, and teachers are not happy with him. Indeed, firefighters, police/sheriff, farmers and even college students are proactively coming to check out the Reeves campaign offices on a regular basis and voicing their concerns about their current senator. What they appreciate is that they receive straight-talk and not a hollow politician’s-promise. Most leave with a bumper sticker and yard sign. Some are still on the fence, but all have had one positive constituent experience under their belt.
Edd Houck has hired a professional campaign manager all the way from Arkansas to do his heavy lifting. Oddly enough, this campaign manager paid to attend a Reeves fundraiser and stayed all day… either spying to size up the competition, or looking for a future job perhaps. Maybe this is why Angry Edd needs more of your money?
In every election of his in 28 years, Angry Edd has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars *attacking* his opponents by bombarding voters with slick glossy mail ads, normally containing cartoon lampoons of his opponents in the final 3-4 weeks. You heard it here first folks.
Edd cannot survive this election without attacking his opponent mercilessly …an Army veteran, church deacon, former police detective and small business owner.
Edd Houck wants you to know that he is a victim of free speech and the First Amendment, and he needs your money because bloggers are beating him up in cyberspace. And this requires cash to combat apparently, though this entry cost me nothing to share with you.
Going “Paperless”; Will American States Follow Iceland in Declaring Independence from International Bank debt?
As rumors of considering secession become more of a plausible alternative to a state government instead of the fringe idealist battle cry that it is often considered; we must first take a look at the effects of breaking off from the Union.
Money and national security are the two biggest reasons to not leave the union. We need both as a state to survive… or do we?
When the biggest modern enemy we face is not a hoard of soldiers marching over a hill with muskets, but rather a single suicide bomber with a nuke in his backpack, one wonders what a standing army can really do for domestic wars of this millennium that a strong state militia with good coordinated intelligence gathering can’t handle (foreign armies are excluded from this supposition since Canada and Mexico aren’t massing troops at the moment.) It would seem that we’d be more likely to get invaded by the remaining 49, 48, or 47 states to “re-unify” its resources and taxpaupers (formerly taxpayer, now broke). After all, it worked for Lincoln once already, so there is precedent.
Additionally, when we have currency that is utterly worthless (aka a Federal Reserve “Note”) as it’s issued by a private bank and is no more than a promise to pay a dollar of air for every dollar you have, one wonders what exactly anyone would do to your state if you didn’t pay back the trillions in debt owed to the private bank—”The Fed”.
After all, our states have the militia and the Fed has marble buildings with vaults that close at 2pm… hardly a threat. It becomes more of a moot issue when you learn that only about three percent of ALL transactions in America are done with paper and coin money! So all those pallets of cash you see in the movies account for less than a “tip” if you spent all that cash at Starbucks. So, what if you just “unplugged” yourself from that monetary system and send them a paper letter saying you promise to pay back your share of the debt as soon as you can? Sure, they would send you a paper letter back taking your state to international court where you may lose the case and be sent a piece of paper to order you to pay the banks back, “or else.” But again, courts have gavels and robes, not much of a threat there either.
Discussions in Texas, New Hampshire, and Washington state of secession have reached as far as the statehouse floors within the past decade, with various Internet sources citing between 15 and 25 more states having fairly serious conversations about it today. We have dozens of states calling for a Constitutional convention to attempt a fix to the current crisis of overreaching federal hands in private lives. Virginia is paving the way for suing to get out of Obamacare mandates and many are following suit. All that is fine and dandy, but still doesn’t get to the root of most of the corruption and problems… money supply. Banks have it, and people generally think we all “need” it.
But recall and research if you will, bartering and trading throughout human history, and you’ll learn that we actually got along pretty well as a species long before a banker created “easy money.” People used to work for money. They had a trade and craft. They performed a service of value to others worth paying for… it wasn’t until “paper” with pictures on it became so “valuable” that we all wanted it instead of food, clothes, and durable goods. Sure, it works as a system when everyone is honest about how much paper something is worth, and we generally can agree on a system of price setting that’s fair and attainable for the average day of work… but what happens when that number becomes blurry? Like say, $7.00 for a gallon of gas, or $190/barrel of oil, and the trickle down effects set in of a Big Mac now costing $11.00 all of a sudden. It all comes crashing down that’s what. Bankers get overly greedy and monetary systems collapse. The digital age has brought consumer access to knowledge to an instant, so nothing happens gradually or over time any more. This works for catastrophes as well as solutions though.
The politicians can’t be bought off fast enough to pass laws to control people and keep them enslaved to the cash, and even the banks now realize that dumb politicians have raised their price above the rate of corruption’s inflation! So we little people are left with some decisions to make in the next couple decades and election cycles…. are we going to remain slaves to the international bankers and their puppets in the U.S. Federal Government who help to enslave us, or are we going to walk away and tell them that the paper check is in the mail to pay back the paper notes they gave us to run the state all these years? We can always sell state paper bonds to fund the paper checks if we need to, right?
I certainly have no idea what will end up happening in Virginia, but I suspect that the country will get a lot worse for a while financially before the helping hands are offered to us at the last-minute. Whether we reach out for the banks to solve the crisis by loaning even more paper money, or communism ideals, or incorporate into a North American Union to spread the debt out to new suckers, or foreign ownership of our debt, or simply just “quit” is anyone’s guess. I think it’s fair to say that “change” IS coming, and it’s going to happen fast for some states.
Here’s what Iceland did recently, and it’s something we should look at and discuss.
Iceland is free. And it will remain so, so long as her people wish to remain autonomous of the foreign domination of her would-be masters — in this case, international bankers.
On April 9, the fiercely independent people of island-nation defeated a referendum that would have bailed out the UK and the Netherlands who had covered the deposits of British and Dutch investors who had lost funds in Icesave bank in 2008.
At the time of the bank’s failure, Iceland refused to cover the losses. But the UK and Netherlands nonetheless have demanded that Iceland repay them for the “loan” as a condition for admission into the European Union.
In response, the Icelandic people have told Europe to go pound sand. The final vote was 103,207 to 69,462, or 58.9 percent to 39.7 percent. “Taxpayers should not be responsible for paying the debts of a private institution,” said Sigriur Andersen, a spokeswoman for the Advice group that opposed the bailout.
A similar referendum in 2009 on the issue, although with harsher terms, found 93.2 percent of the Icelandic electorate rejecting a proposal to guarantee the deposits of foreign investors who had funds in the Icelandic bank. The referendum was invoked when President Olafur Ragnur Grimmson vetoed legislation the Althingi, Iceland’s parliament, had passed to pay back the British and Dutch.
Under the terms of the agreement, Iceland would have had to pay £2.35 billion to the UK, and €1.32 billion to the Netherlands by 2046 at a 3 percent interest rate. Its rejection for the second time by Iceland is a testament to its people, who feel they should bear no responsibility for the losses of foreigners endured in the financial crisis.
That opposition to bailouts led to Iceland’s decision to allow the bank to fail in 2008. Not that the taxpayers there could have afforded to. As noted by Bloomberg News, at the time the crisis hit in 2008, “the banks had debts equal to 10 times Iceland’s $12 billion GDP.”
“These were private banks and we didn’t pump money into them in order to keep them going; the state did not shoulder the responsibility of the failed private banks,” Iceland President Olafur Grimsson told Bloomberg Television.
The voters’ rejection came despite threats to isolate Iceland from funding in international financial institutions. Iceland’s national debt has already been downgraded by credit rating agencies, and now those same agencies have promised to do so once again as punishment for defying the will of international bankers.
This is just the latest in the long drama since 2008 of global institutions refusing to take losses in the financial crisis. Threats of a global economic depression and claims of being “too big to fail” have equated to a loaded gun to the heads of representative governments in the U.S. and Europe. Iceland is of particular interest because it did not bail out its banks like Ireland did, or foreign ones like the U.S. did.
If that fervor catches on amongst taxpayers worldwide, as it has in Iceland and with the tea party movement in America, the banks would have something to fear; that is, the inability to draw from limitless amounts of funding from gullible government officials and central banks. It appears that the root cause is government guarantees, whether explicit or implicit, on risk-taking by the banks.
Ultimately, such guarantees are not necessary to maintain full employment or even prop up an economy with growth, they are simply designed to allow these international institutions to overleverage and increase their profit margins in good times — and to avoid catastrophic losses in bad times.
The lesson here is instructive across the pond, but it is a chilling one. If the U.S. — or any sovereign for that matter — attempts to restructure their debts, or to force private investors to take a haircut on their own foolish gambles, these international institutions have promised the equivalent of economic war in response. However, the alternative is for representative governments to sacrifice their independence to a cadre of faceless bankers who share no allegiance to any nation.
It is the conflict that has already defined the beginning of the 21st Century. The question is whether free peoples will choose to remain free, as Iceland has, or to submit.
Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government. You can follow Bill on Twitter at @BillWilsonALG.
Edd Houck Cries Foul for Your Cash- Will Your Hungry Family Fall For It? Reward Offered for Return of Dignity to this Office
Cover of Hypocrisy Today magazine- Virginia Senator Edd Houck decries he's been victimized
In a transparently false email laced with half-truths of accomplishment and misleading denial, Edd Houck has cried victim of scurrilous blogging, against free speech, and denies his record of voting and loose ties to the abortion and sex slave industries.
Why he kicked a sleeping tiger for a few dollars is anyone’s guess. I had already grown bored of him and was contemplating retiring from blogging and bothering with such seemingly unchanging systems such as our political structure. Thanks to Edd, it hit me that that’s what he wants— to bully and push dissenters out of the arena of debate and discussion, and to silence free speech… and by association, his opposition!
If anyone should be asking for money, it should be my eye doctor because after looking at this header graphic (below) that he sent around with the crying wolf email, I may need a new pair of glasses! In no possible way can Edd claim he “needs” money, his PAC has more than $430,000 sitting in it right now.
Notice how he says, “our positive vision” below… who is he referring to? You? or the dozens of Richmond lobbyists and PACs who fund his campaigns in exchange for favors?
I’m honored he sent a few new readers to our blog though, but it’s GAME ON now Edd.
Senator Houck Needs Your Help Now!
… it is unfortunate that my opponent in this year’s election has chosen to start his campaign with an intensive campaign of negative attacks against me and my record of accomplishment in newspapers and internet blogs throughout the district.
In fact, I have been accused by one of my opponent’s paid political consultants of “helping to fund the sex slave industry.” If you don’t believe that I would be attacked in this manner, check out this link.
If you agree that there is no place in our region and state for these kinds of smears and unethical campaign tactics, please consider a donation. In view of my opponent’s early attacks and distortions, it is critical that I begin raising money now to articulate our positive vision for Virginia.
Your donation in the amount of $1,000, $500, $250, $100, or any amount will help me to print brochures and yard signs, purchase media advertising and communicate my record of accomplishment in what will certainly be a very expensive and competitive campaign.
You can make a secure online contribution at https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/19395.
Or you can mail your check, payable to “Friends of Senator Edd Houck,” to P.O. Box 7, Spotsylvania, VA 22553.
I am deeply grateful for your friendship and support. With best wishes and warm regards, I remain
Sincerely,
R. Edward Houck”
FACT: Edd Houck supports the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain.
FACT: Planned Parenthood is a bigoted organization that is exposed on camera repeatedly in harboring and profiting from illegal actions including rape and the sex slave industry.
FACT: Edd Houck gave a public presentation in February, 2011 and included a member of Planned Parenthood at his table as a helper he referred to as “my staff”.
FACT: Edd Houck is holding back more than $430,000 in existing campaign funds on-hand. He doesn’t need any money for anything. That’s more than what his past two opponents spent against him combined.
FACT: Edd Houck is asking people to give money via Act Blue, a George Soros funded shell company for the liberal left agenda that includes big government, more taxes, and less freedom for your family. George gets a cut of what you donate. Nice huh?
FACT: Edd Houck has spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in every election in the past two decades sending out false, accusatory, and slanderous campaign propaganda through a bulk mail house in Richmond attacking his opponents. If you’ve lived in his district, you’ve received these. Remember the cartoon 11X17 glossy mailers lampooning his opponent as a toll-booth raiser or The Grinch? He sent out nearly one each day during the last week of every campaign to tens of thousands of homes. This is what he wants your money for.
FACT: His self-described “accomplishments” include raising your taxes 13 times in one day’s worth of voting; getting decreasingly less money each year from Richmond back to our area than we send in for schools, roads, police and fire services; taking money from a consulting job while he chairs the committees that vote on issues that directly affect those employers; funding the abortion industry- specifically Planned Parenthood who is directly tied to supporting the sex slave business and racist eugenic policies today.
FACT: “R. Edward Houck” is not the moniker he usually uses in his notes to friends. Is he worried you’ll Google “Edd Houck” and learn something he’s ashamed of?
FACT: He accuses his latest opponent of “negative attacks against me and my record of accomplishment in newspapers and internet blogs throughout the district.” As far as I can find, his opponent has done NO SUCH THING. I am not his opponent. I am his constituent. I have shone light on his record of tax-hiking, liberal spending, abortion funding, PAC-money grabbing, back-room dealing, cronyism, and previous attacks of HIS against ALL of his opponents, past AND PRESENT … and will continue to do so. The voters have a right to know about Edd Houck’s REAL agenda and how he REALLY works behind the scenes. Just watch as he asks mindless minions to begin attacking this blog in the comments section, and notice the tones and style including “Edd is such a nice guy and a victim, how dare you, you bastard!” that will come out soon in letters to the editor and comments on blogs…
FACT: Edd Houck is worried that you’ll do research on his voting record before the upcoming Democratic Primary time frame (either June or August) and will give your vote and money to his opponent. This is why he falsely uses the term “conservative” in as many talking sound bites as he can and regularly attempts to align himself with Republican’s votes and initiatives. He’s not even staying loyal to his liberal roots in a transparent attempt to win independent votes in a race that his opponent is sure to be more left-wing oriented.
FACT: Edd Houck lied in the above email to his unsuspecting donor base. I am not a paid political consultant for anyone in this year’s race. Edd Houck is my VA Senator and nearby neighbor. He is doing a lousy job as my elected official by most reasonable standards of measure. I’m a conservative, he is nothing of the sort.
“Anyone but Edd Houck Reward Offered” = I will offer $10,000 of in-kind political consulting services during the primary season to help any Democrat who wishes to run against him in this year’s Democratic primary including the two Spotsylvania men and one woman from Orange who are gathering support right now and have already spoken to me about this (you know who you are, I’m not certain if you’ve announced yet). The first one to respond gets my help.
… Now if I was a paid political consultant for his opponent, I couldn’t make that offer now could I?
Looks like someone else already beat me to exposing the Houck agenda. Kudos!
Is VA Senator Edd Houck Helping to Fund The Sex Slave Industry?
When I received this in an email, I was not surprised. How sad is it that my Virginia Senator (Edd Houck-D 17th) continues to fund organizations that do this to our brothers and sisters, and with OUR TAX MONEY!!
Author: J. Michael Sharman
Column No. 260
Publication Date: February 8, 2011
Title: Kermit Gosnell, Sen. Houck and Abortion Facility SafetyDr. Kermit Gosnell collected the feet of fetuses and kept them in jars. He let a 15 year-old girl intravenously sedate patients, do ultrasounds, and run the night shift at his Philadelphia abortion clinic. On January 19, 2011, he was charged with seven murder counts for cutting the spinal cord of babies who survived his abortions. Police believe he committed hundreds more similar murders, but can’t charge him on those because Gosnell destroyed the records.
The Grand Jury that issued Dr. Gosnell’s murder indictments reported, “Even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety.”
The same unfortunate statement is true for Virginia.
Virginia’s House of Delegates has consistently passed bills for abortion clinics to be licensed just like other surgical clinics: in 2004, the vote was 65-35, and by 2010, the margin had grown to 72-25.
But those bills with a super-majority margin have never even been given a vote on the Senate floor.
At least two women are known to have died as a result of Dr. Gosnell’s abortions. The Grand Jury reported he injured “scores” more, leaving fetal remains in some, and perforating the bowels and uteruses of others. In 2006, the Virginia House voted 64-34 to require physicians to report when patients sought medical treatment for complications from an abortion. The Senate committee voted to have it “passed by indefinitely”.
Dr. Gosnell frequently falsified ultrasound readings (like he did for a 14 year-old girl when she was 30 weeks pregnant) to make it appear that the babies were much earlier in gestation than they really were. In 2007, the House of Delegates passed HB2808, with a 60-38 vote, to allow every pregnant female the choice to view an ultrasound image of her unborn child. Again, the same Senate committee stopped the bill.
When Dr. Gosnell’s patients “got unruly”, he slapped them or “put them under”. His “Anesthesia for Surgery” form noted “It will probably be best to pay the extra money and be more comfortable if the following condition [is] true for you: Your decision has been forced by your parents or partner.” The Grand Jury said, “A legitimate practitioner would never perform forced abortions. Gosnell would and did.”
One woman who was 29 weeks pregnant changed her mind after Gosnell had inserted dilators on the first day of a two-day abortion process. He refused to remove the dilators and he refused to refund the $2,000 cash she had paid. Rather than be forced to have an abortion she no longer wanted, she went to a local hospital, they removed the dilators, and a few days later she delivered a little baby girl who is now a healthy kindergartner.
In 2007, the Virginia House voted 71-27 to make it a crime to force or coerce a female to have an abortion. It is incomprehensible how anyone could be against that bill and still call themselves “pro-choice”, but the Senate committee blocked it in 2007, in 2008, and again in 2010.
The Senate Health and Education Committee is the committee that killed all those pieces of protective legislation. Sen. “Edd” Houck voted with the committee’s actions every single time. He is the chairman of that committee.
When Houck first ran for the state Senate position, a November 1, 1983 news article quoted him as saying that “extreme fundamentalist churches in the area” were distorting his position on abortion.
In the 27 years since then, Sen. Houck has compiled a record that precisely defines his position on abortion and, to state it in one word, it is extreme.
It’s national news. It’s discussed at every level of government. Abortion may have been decriminalized in 1973, but the taxpayer funding of the abhorent behavior that surrounds the opportunistic sex industry never needs to be funded with the money WE EARN every paycheck by the likes of someone who WE ELECT to REPRESENT US.
Here’s a LIST of others in our district and the many PACs who give Edd money. Let’s hope they don’t find out about Edd’s continual, regular, reliable funding of Planned Parenthood and other related sex-slave or human-rights-violating centers, or many may choose to look at alternatives for representation.
People who say, value human life?
This list are some of the top donors who gave to Edd in the past six months or so. Do you see any connection to the 17th District residents whom Edd supposedly represents? Or do you see PACs and special interest groups from Richmond with whom Edd “does business” with?
Who does Edd Houck represent? Who does Edd Houck do favors for? …You and me?
| $5,000 | Dominion | Richmond |
| $5,000 | Elmon Gray | Hopewell |
| $5,000 | G Gilmer Minor, III | Richmond |
| $3,995 | Va Hospital & Healthcare Assn | Richmond |
| $3,000 | Elliot S Schewel | Lynchburg |
| $2,500 | Allen Allen Allen & Allen | Richmond |
| $2,500 | Eva Teig Hardy | Richmond |
| $2,500 | Thomas G Slater, Jr | Henrico |
| $2,500 | Va Education Assn | Richmond |
| $2,500 | Va Health Care Assn | Richmond |
| $2,155 | Hunton & Williams | Richmond |
| $2,000 | Genworth Financial | Washington, DC |
| $2,000 | David J Trone | Potomac, MD |
| $2,000 | Williams Mullen | Richmond |
| $1,750 | Mednax Services Inc | Fort Lauderdale, FL |
| $1,500 | GlaxoSmithKline | Philadelphia, PA |
| $1,500 | Intuit | Seattle, WA |
| $1,000 | Altria | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Amerigroup Corp | Virginia Beach |
| $1,000 | Apollo Group Inc | Phoenix, AZ |
| $1,000 | Appalachian Power Co | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Robert M Blue, Sr | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Boehringer Ingelheim | Ridgefield, CT |
| $1,000 | William M Camp, Jr | Franklin |
| $1,000 | David A Christian | Toano |
| $1,000 | Community Health Systems | Franklin, TN |
| $1,000 | Josee G Covington | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Bertram F Dodson, Jr | Lynchburg |
| $1,000 | Mary C Doswell | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Pamela Frailey Faggert | Montpelier |
| $1,000 | John F Fick, III | Spotsylvania |
| $1,000 | Paul O Hirschbiel, Jr | Virginia Beach |
| $1,000 | Hospital Corp of America | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Ivan P Jecklin | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Paul D Koonce | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Lifepoint Hospitals Inc | Brentwood, TN |
| $1,000 | Medical Facilities of America | Roanoke |
| $1,000 | Pfizer Inc | New York, NY |
| $1,000 | Psychiatric Solutions | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Richard S Reynolds, III | Richmond |
| $1,000 | James E Rogers | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Ronald F Rosner | Fredericksburg |
| $1,000 | SDI Health LLC | Plymouth Meeting, PA |
| $1,000 | Joel J Silverman | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Titan America | Troutville |
| $1,000 | Toll Road Investors Partnership II | Sterling |
| $1,000 | Transurban USA Inc | New York, NY |
| $1,000 | Va Bankers Assn | Glen Allen |
| $1,000 | Va Career College Assn | Richmond |
| $1,000 | Va Chapter American Academy of Pediatrics | Richmond |
Spotsylvania School Superintendent to Exit Amidst Another Scandal, Will We Remember His Fleecing or His Broken Promises More?
You’ve been reading it in blogs for nearly five years. I recall the whole town buzzing with joy that we would be rid of Hill like Stafford was to be rid of their worthless Superintendent. Our jaws dropped when the School Board not only didn’t “retire” him as promised, but in fact, renewed his contract and GAVE HIM A FAT RAISE.
Now that Gary Skinner has moved on up to supervisor and no doubt hopes to be reunited with Don Holmes in November as he vies for the supervisor seat with the blessings of RINO Gary Jackson, it appears that everyone is suffering from a case of selective memory.
I recall Skinner on Channel 3 news in an interview repeatedly calling Hill “Our Leader” at the time which always struck me as peculiar that he either didn’t know that he was in fact, Hill’s boss, or that he meant it in the generic term as in “one of our leaders among us”.
Hill has certainly run the school system with an iron fist as he packed his golden parachute on the necks of hard working teachers’ salary freezes, and I’ll be one person in this county who will be waving his sorry ass goodbye when he gets on the I-95 ramp bound for a retirement village in Florida.
Then-prosecutor Matt Britton seemed to have a clear understanding of exactly what the board and he agreed to as he outlined in this closeout letter dated August, 2006.
From The Free Lance-Star:
While some people are questioning the fiscal wisdom of allowing Spotsylvania Superintendent Jerry Hill to participate in the school division’s early retirement program, others are wondering how he’s still here.
Hill was indicted five years ago on charges of interference with a bond referendum and obstruction of justice stemming from a November 2005 school bond referendum campaign.
The first charge was dismissed because a judge ruled it was an administrative issue, not a criminal one.
King George County Commonwealth’s Attorney Matt Britton, who served as special prosecutor, ultimately dropped the obstruction charge but did it under the impression that Hill would be stepping down from his post when his contract expired.
That contract would have expired in June 2009.
Yesterday, Hill disputed Britton’s assertion.
“I don’t know who told him that, because it certainly wasn’t me,” Hill said.
An August 2006 letter from Britton to Spotsylvania prosecutor Bill Neely documents Britton’s belief.
His letter outlines the conclusion of a case that he took on after Neely recused himself because his wife was a school division employee.
The election-law charge stemmed from a flier that Britton said sought the defeat of the November 2005 referendum. The obstruction charge resulted from an allegation that Hill interfered with an investigation of the matter by the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office.
Britton agreed to drop the second charge just before it was to be tried in August 2006. Shortly afterward, on Aug. 28, 2006, Britton sent Neely a four-page letter summarizing the case.
“The Obstruction of Justice charge was voluntarily dismissed by me after learning, among other things, that Mr. Hill intends to step down at the end of his current contract,” Britton states on the first page of his letter.
In the conclusion of his letter he repeats that belief, adding that Hill’s attorneys had conveyed to him that Hill would be stepping down.
Hill also disputes that.
CONTRACT TIMELINE
In February 2006, at the time of his indictment, Hill had just completed the fifth year of his tenure as Spotsylvania’s superintendent.
In August, as the criminal case was drawing to a close and an agreement was being crafted to drop the misdemeanor charge, the School Board amended Hill’s contract.
At an Aug. 11, 2006, hearing, Hill’s attorneys and Britton told Spotsylvania Circuit Judge John W. Scott they would work together to file paperwork the following week to end the case.
Three days later, on Aug. 14, 2006, the board extended Hill’s contract by one year, putting its conclusion at June 30, 2010.
They also increased his financial package by $16,000, raising his salary $6,000, to $167,800.29; increasing his tax-sheltered annuity payment by $8,000, to $40,000 per year; and increasing his car allowance by $2,000, to $12,000 per year.
Gary Skinner, who is currently the Lee Hill District representative on the Board of Supervisors, was School Board chairman at the time and signed the contract.
The following year, the board extended Hill’s contract to June 30, 2011, and increased his compensation by $14,199.71. Don Holmes, the board’s current vice chairman, signed that contract addendum as chairman in July 2007.
In June 2008 the board made its third and final extension to Hill’s contract, setting it to expire on June 30, 2012. Current board Chairman Gil Seaux signed that contract.
Skinner said he never heard any mention in 2006 that Hill was planning to step down or that it was among the reasons Britton dropped the misdemeanor charge.
“There was nothing to my knowledge that said to me Dr. Hill was going to resign at the end of his contract,” Skinner said.
Further, he said he never saw any validity to bringing charges against the superintendent over the flier.
“Dr. Hill was only acting in what the board directed him to do with that brochure,” Skinner said. “I always wondered why they charged him, not me.”
I can’t quite understand how Supervisor Skinner is “concerned” all of a sudden about Hill’s LATEST (retirement plan) scandal, after all, he signed the contract in the first place and signed off on all the subsequent raises since. But let’s examine Hill’s current sweetheart of a deal from 2009.
Skinner said relations have been good between the Board of Supervisors and School Board the past two years, but recent issues have gotten his board’s attention and he has been eager for additional information.
“The constituents are concerned and we’re concerned about that,” he said.
He said his entire board is closely watching what’s unfolding within the school division.
While we’re walking down memory lane, let’s not forget the letter that was delivered by Attorney Mark Taylor to the Board of Supervisors in October, 2007 that cited how School Board member Ray Lora was going to expose the school board and Hill for their abuses of power and exploitation of using closed-session rules.
What ever happened to that? Lora certainly doesn’t need a lawyer to do all the finger pointing, he just needs to find his spine.
Virginia Senators (Democrats) Caught on Tape Refusing to Follow the Rules of the Senate
Being a Senator isn’t easy. Sometimes it means casting difficult votes, and then explaining those votes to your constituents. That’s why we send Senators to Richmond — to debate the issues of the day and take a stand, one way or the other.
Unless you’re a Democrat member of the Senate’s Privileges and Elections Committee, that is.
On Tuesday, Democrat Chairman Janet Howell told the committee that she intended to violate the rules and let a sub-committee kill some vital legislation — the Repeal Amendment, which would let 2/3 of states overturn bad laws like ObamaCare and Cap and Trade. She also intended to kill a measure that would protect our Right to Work laws by including them in the Virginia Constitution.
But that’s against the Senate rules. When our Republican team, lead by Senators Mark Obenshain and Steve Martin, objected, the Democrats broke the rules again and shut down an effort to be sure that the bills got a fair hearing, as you can see in this video below.
The Democrats didn’t have so much as a fig leaf to hide behind, as you can see in this Washington Post report: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2011/01/republicans_in_the_state_senat.html#more
“Upon what basis does the chair rule the motion to add the bill to the agenda out of order?” Senator Mark Obenshain asked Howell not long before the committee’s vote.
“I believe it’s out of order,” Howell responded after a pause.
Folks, the Democrats are scared.
They’re scared because they’re stuck between their liberal base and the overwhelming majority of Virginians — Virginians who sent a message loud and clear in November.
If they vote to send a message to Washington, they’ll anger their liberal friends who want the spending party in Congress to continue. And if they vote to protect our Right to Work laws, they’ll anger the big labor unions like SEIU they’re counting on the help them knock on doors this November.
Our Republican team in Richmond heard the message of November 2009 and November 2010 loud and clear, and they’re not going to roll over and let Democrats ignore the voice of the voters.
“I don’t know what the problem is in voting on a simple motion to add a bill to an agenda,” said Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg. “The majority were unable to articulate any basis whatsoever for ruling that motion out of order. The chair, with great respect and deference, has abandoned the the traditions and the rules of this body.”
“Senators will be counted on votes,” added Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Mechanicsville, speaking at an impromptu press conference after the votes. “That’s what the people sent them here to do. Whether they agree with the issue or not, we have legitimate debate. Senators should vote on bills.”
This is what is at stake this November. Will we re-elect a Democratic majority to the State Senate that will do whatever it takes, regardless of the rules, to prevent the will of the people from being voted upon, or will we gain a Republican majority by electing at least three new members who will work to solve the problems we face?
Will you join the Victory 2011 effort today? Your 2011 Republican Party of Virginia membership will help us regain control of the State Senate.
-Pat Mullins, RPV Chairman
I’m Proud to Help Retire Liberal Sen. Edd Houck(D-VA-17) He’s No Friend to Conservatives!
How is it that a man can rise to the top of the Virginia Senate over a CAREER in one seat that spans back to the early 1980′s, vote for as many as THIRTEEN tax increases in ONE DAY, and goes unnoticed?
…WE THE PEOPLE let him get away with it…
- When he campaigned hard for Obama, we didn’t to speak up, fair enough, they’re both of the same agenda.
- When he stood tall with Tim Kaine as he became chair of the DNC, we watched idly.
- When he voted to fund abortions in Virginia under a healthcare bill, we ignored it.
- When he publicly stated he supports the unconstitutional Obamacare, we tolerated it.
- When he voted to impose more gas taxes to fund VDOT when he knew there was $1.4 BILLION dollars found lying around, we shrugged.
- Now he’s putting out 4 page newspaper tabloids and giving speeches repeatedly calling himself “A CONSERVATIVE”.
Edd Houck is anything BUT a conservative whether socially, personally, politically, or fiscally.
He’s a LIBERAL through and through.
The 17th Virginia Senate District comprises some or all of the following areas: City of Fredericksburg, Counties of Spotsylvania, Orange, Culpeper, Madison and Louisa. If you know anyone who votes in this area, you have to help educate them about the DANGEROUS LIBERAL in their state leadership. His 26-year-long voting record will be all it takes to convince someone of this truth, but it takes a little bit of research and a little bit of energy to make your point.
That’s what I’m asking you to do, please invest a little bit of your time and energy to help save Virginia and tip the often 20-20 partisan voting stagnation of the Virginia Senate.
Remember, every state senator votes on laws and policies that affect EVERY VIRGINIAN. This isn’t only a 17th District problem, if you’re a Virginian, Edd Houck is YOUR problem too.
I’m proud to be a part of retiring and defeating liberal VA Senator Edd Houck (Dem-17th) on November 8, 2011!
