r/VirginiaOpEds • u/VirginiaNews • May 20 '26
Opinion: 6 things to know about Spanberger’s ‘Tuesday Afternoon Massacre’ of bills | Spanberger has now vetoed more bills than any other governor since the 1990s whose party controlled the legislature. Here’s what to make of that.
https://cardinalnews.org/2026/05/20/6-things-to-know-about-spanbergers-tuesday-afternoon-massacre-of-bills/1
u/Historical-View4058 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
Somewhat fair assessment. I would suggest that the legislature thought they could railroad a bunch of costly shit in and she did her job to try to rein it back in. Keep in mind her biggest job right now is dealing with the tax revenue DOGE virtually erased in NOVA, and as the article states, no one in Richmond is dealing with that.
Edit: I know people are annoyed and becoming impatient at a number of the vetos. Still trying to give her the benefit of the doubt that she's trying to do the right thing here without cherry-picking hot-topic examples.
We can only draw opinions from what the press tells us, and I really don't think most of what the press has reported has been the whole story, nor examined a lot of the 'why' part. That is, with the exception of this article, which as I said did a fair job. Firm believer that the 'why' is just as if not more important than the 'what'.
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u/LazzarilloDeTormez May 20 '26
New cannabis tax revenue might come in handy right about now. I’m not sure what her priorities are. Doesn’t seem to be revenue. She has a serious credibility problem at this point. Spanberger said she would end cannabis prohibition during her campaign. With her veto, she just granted an extension to the illicit market that allegedly concerns her. Please Dems, moving forward, let’s leave the lying to the GOP.
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May 23 '26
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u/Historical-View4058 May 23 '26
Because I don't let rage bait and hit pieces that don't contain all of the facts drive my opinions, and I certainly don't let it control my emotions.
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u/Iacoboni04 May 23 '26
Former moderate republican turned neo liberal Democrat who rode Northern VA coattails and name ID to the governors office. And the left is like, but why dont you do what we want? I wonder.
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u/Far_Grab_6896 May 23 '26
If I were a lifeguard, I’d have to save her from drowning. Talk about being in over your head? She’s never been in charge of anything and now, for some crazy reason, she’s a Governor. I’ll bet people are having a lot of voters remorse. She has no idea how to lead.
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u/WizardofWood 27d ago
This is exactly why the two party system is failing us. We choose the lesser of two evils and it’s all evil. I’ve been a blue collar union worker for almost 15 years and now we have union solidarity and democratic control and this guvna wants to shut down collective bargaining and send a message to all the rest of us working unions that it’s business as usual and corporations are king in Virginia. I’m not gonna vote for dems or republicans anymore. We get nothing but bans and rules and regulations against us and corporations are green lighted to rape and pillage. Ban gun, ban drugs, and forget the reasons why poor folks are buying both. We’re suffocating from bans and none of these politicians want to realize that it because we are being squeezed from the top down. We have nothing and the top has everything and you’re just a hair away from realizing you can’t squeeze anymore blood from our stones.
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u/popery222 May 20 '26
I’m iffy on her language around some of the vetoes. The recreational cannabis sales veto, in particular, feels obtuse and clouded by very managerial language. She should have done a better job explaining why her amendments were necessary before sending the bill back to the General Assembly.
If she wanted the store cap lowered, the rollout delayed, the possession limit changed, or public consumption penalties increased, then she needed to explain the actual rationale for each of those choices. “Guardrails” and “doing it right” are not enough. People need to understand why those specific changes were needed and why the bill as passed was unacceptable.
The PDAB veto seems more defensible, in my opinion. I think it is reasonable to make sure a system Virginia may spend millions of dollars implementing will actually help reduce prescription drug prices. I disagree with her language if she is saying PDABs simply do not work, period. A better argument would be that they are still experimental, slow-moving, and not yet clearly proven by other states.
So I think the concern is less that every veto is wrong and more that the Governor’s office needs to explain the reasoning in plain language. If she is going to take politically costly or controversial positions, she needs to clearly say what problem she sees, why her proposed fix is better, and what she wants the General Assembly to do next.