Michael Pope reports.
One of the benefits of being the party in power is that you get to set the calendar and write the rules, for the most part. Republicans – who are now in the minority – tried to force Democrats into a 30-day session. But Democrats found a way around that, ending the normal session at the midway point and carrying over all the bills over into a special session that starts this week.
Stephen Farnsworth at the University of Mary Washington says the Republican strategy seemed to be doomed to fail from the start. The first rule of politics is pick fights you can win, he explains. And this was a fight it seems to me that the Republicans were not going to win because they didn t have the means of compelling an outcome of a shorter session.
At the center of the debate is the massive Paycheck Protection Program, federal relief that infused more than half a trillion dollars into businesses through low-interest bank loans last year.
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Jessica Bowman
One of Carroll County’s own has earned a post in the administraton of Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam. Jessica Bowman was appointed on January 22 as Deputy Secretary of Administration.
”I’m thankful to Governor Northam and Secretary Johnson for the opportunity to expand my portfolio and continue my service to the citizens of the Commonwealth,” said Bowman.
Since 2018, Bowman served as the Chief Deputy Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, previously worked as a Government Relations Manager at Williams Mullen, and served as Chief of Staff to then-Delegate, now-Senator Lynwood Lewis.
Prior to that, she served as a campaign consultant in Hampton Roads. Bowman grew up in Carroll County and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Christopher Newport University.