I should probably preface this post by stating that I will point out inaccuracies by anyone, be them Republicans, Democrats, or Independents. I did support and vote for Albert Pollard in the special election that returned him to the House of Delegates in February 2008. One reason that I voted for him was the Republican candidate that ran against him, Lee Anne Washington, claimed that, amongst other things, that illegal aliens received in-state tuition: they don’t and they never have!
On the 99th Legislative District Republican Committee’s website there’s a web page that attempts to document Albert Pollard’s voting record. I say “attempts” because the majority of the links don’t even go to the correct bill on the General Assembly’s website. And if it isn’t the terrible web-masterly, it’s the factually incorrect statements and just asinine opinions and statements expressed on the web page. I don’t mind disagreeing with someone on policy grounds — I disagree with Pollard on certain subjects — but most of this stuff is just absurd.
To start us off, consider this claim [I’ve fixed any messed up links and formatting in the quoted material]:
Albert wanted to de-regulate farming in the Westmoreland debate but his own bill in 2005, HB 2903 regulates the sales of agricultural products by a farmer on his own farm, with a number of restrictions including prior notification to the Department of Agriculture.
The bill that Pollard submitted was done in an attempt to override over 106 pages of regulations that had been placed on farmers, as detailed in a news story from the Capital News Service at VCU (Google Cache link):
The Virginia House of Delegates had something to say about new state regulations on the production of raw milk and unpasteurized cheese from sheep, goats and other family-farm animals:
“Bah, humbug!” Or rather, “Baaaa, humbug!”
On a 57-39 vote, the House approved a bill to effectively override the regulations, which small farmers said would make it prohibitively expensive for them to make milk and cheese.
House Bill 2903, proposed by Delegate Albert C. Pollard, D-White Stone, is now before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources.
HB 2903 would allow farmers to avoid regulations implemented in January by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
[…]
Under the rules, farmers can make milk and cheese only if they get a permit. The 106 pages of regulations spell out what they must do to qualify for a permit – including installing pasteurizers and other equipment and keeping meticulous records on each batch of cheese.
Small farmers like Carol Baker of Louisa County say the regulations benefit big farms that can afford the required equipment and meet other stipulations. They estimate that it would cost $50,000 to comply with the rules.
If the authors of the committee’s website had bothered to check out the vote tallies they would have seen that Delegate and current Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Jeff Frederick, Delegate Bob Marshall, then-Delegate and now-Senator Ryan McDougle all voted in favor of the bill on the House side. And current Republican Attorney General candidate Ken Cuccinelli and then-Senator for the Northern Neck John Chichester also voted in favor of the bill in committee on the Senate side. The bill did, however, fail to pass the Senate committee 6–9.
Back to the committee’s terrible website:
2004 HB1015 YES vote to allow Family Life Education curriculums to teach certain information to avoid sexual assault and the need to seek medical attention in the event of an assault . This from the man who doesn’t want the ten commandments displayed because he doesn’t want his daughter to ask him what adultery is!!
I seriously can’t believe that a political organization is condemning someone for voting to educate students on how to avoid sexual assault, and if they have been sexually assaulted, to seek medical attention. This is a bill that unanimously passed in the Senate! Can someone explain to me what the heck is wrong with these people? Not to mention that parents can opt their children out of the Family Life Education program in schools, if they choose.
And here’s something stated under the header “Illegal Immigration”:
During the 28th Senate Race Albert proposed a database for employers to take the thumbprint of all prospective employees yet he voted NO to SB62, requiring thumbprints on licenses. (not arguing for thumbprints, just pointing out his flip flop)
Do I really have to explain the difference between requiring prospective employees to submit a thumbprint for employment, versus the government placing biometric information on all government identification cards? Heck, one of the leading opponents of illegal immigration in the House, Bob Marshall, is also one of the leading opponents of government biometric identification cards (see, for example, HB 1587 of this session). There’s also the fact that for this bill (SB 62), the programming costs for implementation alone were estimated to be $2,200,000 and the Department of Planning and Budget couldn’t estimate what the final costs for the whole bill would be (Fiscal Impact Statement [PDF]).
2000 HB 425 NO vote to showing voter identification at the polls (Before he voted yes)
The version of the bill that Pollard voted against did not consider a Virginia driver’s license to be a valid form of identification for a voter who was challenged at the polls under § 24.2-651.1, the version that Pollard did vote for had been amended by the Senate and included a provision allowing the use of a driver’s license.
And finally:
2005 HB 2056 NO vote to only allowing medical benefits to illegals and denying other benefits under Workman’s Compensation.
Can someone explain to me how not requiring a business to pay workers’ comp to illegal aliens is going to stop businesses from employing illegals? If anything, businesses would employ more illegals than ever since they wouldn’t have to shell out as much money if an employee gets injured on the job.
Your points here are interesting; however, as your own research has shown, Delgate Pollard will vote one way in Committee, another way for the “first vote” and then sometimes differently when the bill comes for the “real vote”. Some of this can be attributed to changes in the legislation, but basically, it allows a legislator to spin his or her vote any way they want when questioned and to confuse the issue. The 99th Website does reference the voting record and that’s just for informational purposes. Because the Legislature changes their structure each year, their site changes and therefore, the specific links get changed and don’t work. This will be corrected very soon. Everything we do here in the 99th is completely voluntary and unlike some others who have all day to fool with such things, most of the volunteers have full time jobs, families and community/civic activities to attend to. Nonetheless, I’ll look into having this all corrected.
The real point and bottom line is this—Delegate Pollard is one of the most ineffectual legislators that has ever been in the GA. He’s a nice guy and he’s intelligent and I personally like him, but with regard to representing the Northern Neck, he’s not been able to do anything for us over the past 8 years. He does cast his vote most of the time and that’s great, but we need jobs and we need the composite index to be changed to reflect the demographics of this area so that we can get a greater influx of state funds. We need someone who can actually sponsor, walk thru and get legislation passed that directly affects the hard working families of this small, rural area. We need to have incentives for businesses (particularly “green” businesses)to settle here and we need money for education. The cost for such endeavors doesn’t always have to come from the local Counties raising real estate taxes—-just get our fair share back from the State. We need someone with the knowledge, influence and ability to bring a coalition together within the State Legislature and unfortunatley, that person has not been Albert Pollard. Can you point to ANY significant legislation that he has personally patroned which has truly made an impact on the Northern Neck Counties? Any at all?
Albert gets accolades from various groups that are merely extensions of the Democratic Party, but the substance is just not there to back it up. Anyone who’s been around here for any time in politics knows that the local newspapers and editors are absolutely biased. From time to time, they’ll “throw out a bone” to appease the Republicans or conservatives, but basically, it’s all about the liberal side of the agenda. They attempt to spin Albert as a centrist or an Independent, but he still runs as a Democrat and caucuses with them at every turn. Basically, if you compared Albert’s overall vote, particularly on the social legislation, he’d compare well with Obama, Pelousi and Reed. I realize that the Pollard campaign and Press attempt to “lump” him in with other Republicans when he votes with them occasionally–it adds to the “independent” theme attempt, but the bottom line is that Albert runs as a Democrat, votes with the liberal Democrats and reasons like the liberal Democrats. I cannot count how many people in the Northern Neck spoke of their suprise when they found out the details of Albert’s votes when his record came up during the 28th Senatorial campaign.
Every member votes—–that comes with the territory, but just compare his record with that of one term Republican Rob Wittman and two term Richard Stuart. They’ve run circles around Albert and the time both served does not even top 2 full years. It’s not all about getting legislation passed, but it is about results and thus far he has been unable to deliver. So, how long do we wait for the change and the results we so desperately need in our little area? I know that most Democrats are just waiting for the census and re-dstiricting in hopes that it will give them a chance to get the House back. But, given Albert’s record thus far, that won’t do anythign for our area. Democrat or Republican, we need someone who is a champion for the Neck, not someone just looking for higher office.
Change is needed for the representation of our area or we will get lost in the shuffle of Virginia politics.
Mr. Webb,
Nowhere in my post did I say that Pollard voted one way in committee, and voted another way in the full body, but nice try. I did say that he voted against the House version of a bill but voted for the bill after it had been amended, and improved, by the Senate. And are you suggesting that an elected representative is supposed to be omnipotent and be aware of every amendment that will be done to a bill in both bodies when he is deciding whether to vote “yes” or “no” in a committee or in the full body? And the reason the specific links don’t work is because the majority of the links go to HB 2903 of the 2005 session or HB 1015 of the 2004 session. It has nothing to do with a change in the layout or design of the General Assembly’s website; just that someone decided to copy and paste the hyperlink code and didn’t bother changing where the link pointed to when writing the web page.
You claim that Pollard is “ineffectual” but you don’t cite specific examples. You mention something about jobs: Since when was it the government’s duty to bring jobs to a certain area? Isn’t that the point of the free market? You also mention something about the composite index, perhaps you should check out HB 2093 of this session, which would helped Lancaster County for one. Pollard doesn’t have much say what a committee does with one his bills, especially when that committee kills the bill with a voice vote so their names aren’t attached to it. As for incentives for green jobs, see my previous opinion about the free market, but if you want Pollard’s support of incentives see HB 2094 and HB 2056 of the 2009 session.
And you talk about Rob Wittman: Wittman voted for one of the biggest tax increases ever three times (HB 3202, 2007 session). What legislation did he ever get passed in the House of Delegates? Renaming game wardens to “conservation police officers”? And what legislation has he gotten pass while in the House of Representatives? And what has Stuart done? Besides get a bill passed that allows the state to regulate what fertilizer someone can use on their property (SB 135, 2008 session)?
And you complain constantly about Pollard, but nowhere do I see you offering a better solution. Last year we had Lee Anne Washington talking about how she was going to end in-state college tuition for illegal aliens, when illegals don’t receive in-state tuition to begin with. This year, we have Washington back and now we have Catherine Crabill talking about nonexistent hate crime legislation.
Timmy Boy….your lips are moving….but all I hear is noise!!
Ahh… Webb… Always talking ad nauseum, but never saying anything of substance.