RICHMOND, Virginia – The Democrat-controlled Senate voted against confirming five Youngkin nominees, including the whole parole board and one Safety and Health Codes Board member. In February, Senate Democrats blocked confirmation of former Trump EPA chief Andrew Wheeler to serve as Youngkin’s Secretary of Natural Resources. In response, on February 12 the Republican-controlled House of Delegates blocked confirmation of 11 Northam-era appointments, including the Board of Education.
Senate Privileges and Elections Committee Chair Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) said the move was necessary to send a message to the House.
“I really don’t understand why this is so shocking. […] Where was the outrage when the House crossed off the Teacher of the Year from a resolution, and the former Hanover superintendent of schools,” Ebbin said in the Senate. “We talk about deescalation. We started trying to deescalate this on Friday, February 11 with a visit to the Speaker. I spoke to him that weekend, he suggested getting together around a table, but I’ve not heard from him since on that topic or others.”
Ebbin said he’d also reached out to the Youngkin administration.
“This so-called war has nothing to do with this chamber. It has to do with the simple fact that we’re not going to be walked all over, over, and over again,” he said. “This is about protecting the integrity of this chamber and our bicameral appointments process.”
Ebbin told reporters that he doesn’t see it as the third stage in a back-and-forth.
“I thought the Andrew Wheeler appointment was a disapproval of a nominee to the Governor’s board, and it has nothing to do with the rest,” he said.
“Just in a political stunt the Chairman of the Privileges and Elections Committee patroned this resolution for five appointments for the sole purpose of meting out political revenge on the governor and the House of Delegates with the intention of voting for it in a committee, getting it on the floor, and dramatically chopping the heads off of these five gubernatorial nominees,” State Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham) told The Virginia Star. “It’s just unseemly, unsightly.”
In a statement, Youngkin said, “This is shocking. The Democrats are continuing to cover up a scandal of their own creation. The Democrat-controlled parole board broke the law, put criminals ahead of victims, and tried to cover it all up. We will reform the parole board, expose those conspiring to hide this from public view, and stand up for victim’s rights.”
In 2021, Youngkin campaigned on replacing all the parole board members after reports of mishandled parole board decisions, amid a general Republican sentiment that the parole board is too lenient.
In a Facebook post, freshman Delegate Tim Anderson (R-Virginia Beach) said, “The Senate just taught the House a lesson. They just rejected all the parole board appointees from the governor. Now there will be no violent offenders returning to our communities on parole. Not one single violent offender can come back to our neighborhoods because there is no parole board to process the parole requests. I am so torn up over this.”
Anderson told The Star, “I’m totally fine with people not getting parole. So if they’re wanting to teach me a lesson, please do that again. So it’s silly.”
– – –
Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo by Eric Burk.
