Good Riddance and Good Luck in Court!

Phil Hamilton resigns.

GOP legislator Phil Hamilton has resigned -- sent letter to House clerk informing him of decision

Now, presumably, Phil Hamilton appears in court while his successor, Robin Abbott, is sworn in as Delegate. Occasionally, there is justice in the world! :)

"Progressive Kick" Kicks In

It's great to see "Progressive Kick" - a self-described "organization of pragmatic progressives, dedicated to construction of a society that values the needs/rights/responsibilities of all of its members" - kicking in to support five excellent Democratic House of Delegates candidates here in Virginia: Robin Abbott (93rd), Margi Vanderhye (34th), Stevens Miller (86th), John Bell (13th), and Peggy Frank (7th). All of these Democrats are superb, but in addition they're also running against far-right-wing (Barbara Comstock, "Sideshow Bob" Marshall), lame (Dave Nutter, Tom Rust), and/or corrupt (Phil Hamilton) Republicans. A double whammy, in other words.

To help elect the good guys over the...well, the other guys, Progressive Kick has raised $25,000 in matching funds, which means that your donation of $25, $50 or $100, "thanks to Progressive Kick's national network of matching donors, will turn into $50, $100, or even $200 to bring progressive change to Virginia." Sounds like something we can all get a "kick" out of!

P.S. Obviously, there are other excellent progressive candidates running this year in Virginia - for instance, my friend Scott Surovell (44th), the most excellent Joe Bouchard (83rd) and Tom Shields (73rd), and many others. I urge you to support all of them.

Daily Press All Over Hamilton Story

Over at the Daily Press, it's Del. Phil Hamilton up and down the newspaper. If you're a Democrat, you've just gotta love headlines like these:

*"Hamilton considered resigning his seat, but won't"
*"POLL: Hamilton's actions inappropriate?"
*"House Speaker "deeply disappointed" in Hamilton"
*"Former president Runte denies talking with Hamilton about a job"
*"ODU President John Broderick's official statement and e-mails"

Personally, I hope that Del. Hamilton does not resign, but instead lets the voters boot his butt out of there in November, replaced by Robin Abbott. I'd also like a couple more months of asking Bob McDonnell et al. if they support Hamilton or not. Heh.

Phil Hamilton: FIRED!

Nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, gooood bye!!!

His claims to the contrary notwithstanding, e-mail traffic between Del. Phillip Hamilton and Old Dominion University makes clear that he expected to be hired by a new teacher training center at ODU when he sponsored the center’s startup funding.

In releasing the e-mails, which had been requested by The Virginian-Pilot under the state Freedom of Information Act, ODU President John Broderick said Thursday that the university has severed its relationship with Hamilton and shaken up the leadership of the center.

[...]

In an interview with The Pilot in July, Hamilton said he had no discussions with ODU officials about possible employment with the center before he introduced the budget amendment.

However, in a Dec. 21, 2006, e-mail to then-ODU President Roseann Runte, Hamilton wrote that he had initiated preparation of the budget amendment and reminded Runte that “when we talked about the Center last August, I expressed an interest in being associated with the initiative from a professional perspective.”

Phil Hamilton is a liar. And for that, he's fired. Go Robin Abbott!!!

Robin Abbott Unveils Ethics Reform Plan

I missed the conference call because I was out running errands, but earlier this morning, consumer rights advocate and 93rd district Democratic House of Delegates candidate Robin Abbott held a telephone conference call to announce her plan to bring much-needed ethics reform to Richmond (I would add that her opponent, Del. Phil Hamilton, is the one who really needs ethics reform!).

You can read Abbott's plan, "Initiative for Accountability, Transparency, and Reform," as well as more about the conference call, here. In short, there are two key planks in Abbott's plan: 1) "Empower the House and Senate Ethics Advisory Panels;" and 2) "Curtail Lobbyist Influence." Hopefully, the third plank will be "Defeat Phil Hamilton for Delegate!" :)