In a sketchy conversation, this person claims to be collecting information and signatures from GOP voters on behalf of the Republican Party of Virginia. When the homeowner pushed for more info, the person eventually admitted to working for Vanguard Field Services. Just watch it: I’ll have more on this in my newsletter: vagovernor.substack.com

The Virginia Senate just voted 21-17 to abolish the death penalty.

Senator @Dunnavant4VA is presenting an emergency bill now that would require school divisions to provide an in-person school option. She said she sincerely believes there is no reason for keeping students out of schools. “We should be innovating,” said Dunnavant. “Necessity is the mother of invention, and it is time for us to provide the necessity.” .... The senator then continued: “You are harming Virginia’s children,” she said by keeping schools closed.

Interesting moments in the House of Delegates, @IbraheemSamirah was condemning GOP colleagues over their views during the session. @ChrisHurstVA pushed back saying their is a new president and urged colleagues to not things so personal. Hurst also pointed out that Samirah used another members name on the floor negatively, (I missed it) and then @cToddGilbert asked @EFillerCorn to rule that Samirah broke the House rules by using a colleague name on the floor. Speaker Filler-Corn reminded Samirah of the rules

SB 1148 from @JenKiggans is up now on the full senate floor. This would change the primary date from the 2nd Tuesday to the 3rd Tuesday in June. This would make it easier to hold primary elections with students not likely being in school buildings in the 3rd week of June. Speaking against the bill, @ssurovell said a large portion of younger people would be going on vacation during the week after school and that it would make the primary electorate would become much older. He says this is not a problem.

In a Trump campaign phone call ahead of his visit tomorrow, RPV Chairman Rich Anderson says Republican enthusiasm in Virginia is at 'stratospheric' levels. Anderson says it is the highest he has seen in a long time. Anderson says from his perspective Trump has done a stellar job of handling COVID-19. Anderson says he has been very pleased with the way Trump is pushing back against the Virginia legislature that promotes an anti-criminal justice agenda.

You can watch the Mark Warner and Daniel Gade U.S. Senate debate on NBC12 now Gade says the Senate should have voted on Garland in 2016 - showing that he has a benefit of not having a career in politics at the time which would allow for his words to be used against him now as he is doing against Warner.

The Committee began Tuesday by killing two Republican bills. One bill that was sponsored by Senator David Suetterlein (R) would have made individual parole board votes FOIA-able, the bill was struck down by the Democratic majority.

https://twitter.com/jaaavis/status/1308506236502126594

Another bill sponsored by Senator Mark Obenshain that would have forced parole boards to release reports each month that detail their actions with incarcerated individuals was killed and referred to the crime commission for more study.

The House Courts has killed the bill from @DRSuetterlein that would make individual parole board votes FOIA-able and they also just voted to lay SB 5050 on the table. lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp60… The Courts committee just passed SB 5024 from @SenLouiseLucas that would give the Attorney General more power to investigate and file civil suits against law enforcement agencies.

Virginia's Senate is meeting now. Watch here: virginia-senate.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.ph… Senator Bill Stanley (R) is using a weird voice to mock democratic senators when discussing SB 5018 on the Senate floor.

The VA Senate is taking up Sen. Locke's SB 5030 which is a large sweeping police reform bill. @ssurovell said that this bill could have been several different bills but the Dems in the Senate were trying to save time. Surovell then said the House broke it up into 12 bills. Senator DeSteph (R) expressed outrage over the comments from @ssurovell and said it is being rushed through and deserves more consideration. DeSteph also said cops would have to be pretty loud serving warrants because Democrats in northern Virginia have large houses

The Full VA Senate is meeting now - they just passed SB 5039 from Sen. Dave Marsden - this bill would allow the Governor to purchase PPE for private companies. The Senate just unanimously passed 5116 from Sen. Mcdougle which would require the Department of Medical Assistance Services to implement an electronic visit verification system to confirm delivery of in-home services by providers of consumer-directed personal care

The Senate Finance committee is taking up legislation right now in Richmond. Watch here: virginia-senate.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.ph… The Senate Appropriations just advanced a “Marcus Alert” bill from out of Committee on a 10-4 vote.

The House of Delegates is now in session. Del. @IbraheemSamirah, the progressive Democrat that killed the qualified immunity bill last week announced this morning that he will re-introduce the bill today. Watch here: virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/chamber/… The House just voted to reconsider HB 5013, the Qualified Immunity bill. THE ZOMBIE BILL LIVES

The House of Delegates has convened for a full session today. Del. William Wampler (R) is speaking to the floor. He is standing in front of the Captial Building entrance that is boarded up. He said that it is a good thing that the body was stirred up by his speech yesterday. Wampler said he wants to talk about the structure and mechanics of this special session. Wampler is complaining again about the Democrats wanting to meet virtually. Wampler said Virginians don't care about the specific House rules. However, he is currently complaining about them

The Full House of Delegates just gaveled into a full (virtual) session. I will thread highlights under this tweet and you can watch the livestream here: virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/chamber/… Del. Wampler (R) criticizes the way Democrats have handled the special session. Dem. Leader
@C_Herring responds by saying the House is operating appropriately and that they are adapting just like every Virginia family. Herring says Dems do not oppose police.

The House Appropriations Committee is meeting now to discuss multiple important pieces of legislation including the expungement bill that was passed out of Courts yesterday. Here is a refresher on yesterday: henricocitizen.com/articles/house… You can watch the Appropriations meeting happening now, here: virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/chamber/…

Governor Northam is giving a press conference right now to give a COVID-19 update: he says overall the virus is moderately contained in Virginia and that he will be making no changes this week. He wants to avoid surges after Labor Day to have a running start going into fall. Northam says Eastern VA will be able to be back in line with the rest of the day soon after Labor Day as long as cases numbers continue to drop.

Happening right now: Del. David Reid, One of the Democratic Delegates who voted against the bill yesterday that would end qualified immunity for law enforcement officers says his concern with the bill was officers working off duty were included.

https://twitter.com/Jaaavis/status/1300539376108220419

Del. @JeffMBourne says this was aimed at officers working off duty but in uniform at events. Bourne has changed the bill to take that out against his desire, but he wants to pass this bill. The Committee is motioning to reconsider the bill now

Several Democrats from the General Assembly are in attendance of this now. Sen. Lucas and Del. Torian are standing behind the Governor.

https://twitter.com/GovernorVA/status/1300472321875079168

Northam says that the VLPC estimates 230,000 evictions could take place in Virginia before the end of the year.

The House of Delegates is now convening virtually to consider several pieces of legislation that will increase voter access, provide protections to renters from eviction, codify Juneteenth as a holiday, and more. You can watch here: virginiageneralassembly.gov/house/chamber/… The House is now discussing HB 5103 which allocates $2 million for pre-paid postage along with creating drop off boxes for absentee ballots. @DelKCox is asking the House to not pass this bill due to the cost. The House passed the bill with a 54-42 vote.