It can’t happen here: a cautionary tale from North Carolina

You know, despite our constant kvetching, we still think of Virginia as a fundamentally good and decent place, politically speaking. Sure, we’ve got more than a few knuckleheads sitting in the General Assembly, and our current governor long ago traded in his moral compass for a shiny new Rolex, but we have to believe that […]

Royal privilege: The McDonnells’ surprising life of leisure

When Bob McDonnell was elected governor in 2009, he took office with a reputation for moral rectitude. He was, after all, an openly devout ex-military man who had earned his law degree at Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network University (now known as Regent University) and had proven himself a bit of a scold during his […]

For the moment, the GOP’s standard-bearers are barely standing

Well, that sure didn’t take long! If you had asked us even a month ago which party was the odds-on favorite to sweep this year’s statewide elections, we would have (reluctantly) given the nod to the Republicans. Even though Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is a hugely polarizing figure with politics far to the right of […]

So many primaries, so little time

Okay, we’ll admit it: we’re jealous of you. Why, you ask? Because you are in the future, reading this, while we are stuck in the past, writing it. You are in the process of enduring, or have already endured, Virginia’s primary day, while we can only gaze longingly upon that red-circled Tuesday on our calendar. […]

Intrigue and absolutism at Virginia’s Republican convention

When Virginia’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli first decided to run for governor, he realized that there was only one thing that could derail his ambition: a primary. Although he could have won a head-to-head contest with his main rival, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, putting his fate in the hands of Virginia’s voters was a risky […]

Governor Cuccinelli: Seriously, Virginia—you’re actually considering this?

Unlike some pundits we could name, we here at Odd Dominion HQ have never discounted the chances that Virginia’s rabidly right-wing Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli could somehow weasel his way into the governor’s mansion. After all, despite the man’s long history of extremist positions and borderline abusive political behavior (like issuing a “Civil Investigative Demand” […]

Shad Planking marks the end of a bipartisan era

When it comes to political partisanship, Virginia is a case study in voter schizophrenia. While trending increasingly Democratic during presidential years (and having failed to elect a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 2002), it nevertheless has a solidly conservative governor, a stridently right-wing attorney general, and a Republican-dominated House of Delegates that is among […]

Cuccinelli, McDonnell, and the Star Scientific scandal

Finally! Ever since they caught pompadoured con man “Bobby Thompson” (real name John Donald Cody), who greased many political palms while raking in over $100 million in donations to his fake Navy vets charity, we’ve been living with a terrible emptiness in our scandal-loving soul. Now, we realize that a brazen, wild-eyed sociopath like Cody […]

Exit stage right: The inscrutable end of the McDonnell era

Boy, how time flies, eh? It seems like only yesterday that we were appraising the electoral chances of a well-coiffed up-and-comer named Bob McDonnell, who had recently resigned as Virginia’s attorney general to take a shot at the top slot. Our take then was that McDonnell was doing a great job of flying under the […]

Virginia’s statewide elections heat up

As a rule, Virginia’s statewide elections follow a fairly predictable pattern. The first thing you need to realize is this: Almost everybody wants to be governor. Maybe not this year, but eventually. Which means that whoever is running for lieutenant governor or attorney general invariably has one eye on the big chair (while the governor, […]