And our present state senator, Mark Obenshain, is right at the heart of that problem. And that's why I'm running to replace him in the Virginia state Senate.
On many issues that impact average Virginians, too many of our legislators are doing the bidding of Dominion Power, not serving us, the people.
Dominion Power is, by far, the largest corporate donor to our legislators. Do you think that has anything to do with what just happened in the General Assembly: In this just-concluded session Mark Obenshain and others passed a bill -- that had been drafted by Dominion itself -- to exempt Dominion Power from rate regulation for the next five years.
And guess at whose expense-millions of Virginians, including more than 37,000 households right here in our District, the citizens that Mr. Obenshain is supposed to be serving!
Now, let's remember, Dominion Power is no ordinary company. It's a monopoly that sells us a necessity. That's the kind of company that everybody has known for generations needs to be regulated to protect the public from the company's abusing their monopoly power out of unrestrained greed.
But this new legislation shows that justice has been turned on its head. Instead of having our representatives supervising this monopoly to protect the public interest, Dominion is able to tell our supposed representatives what it wants and it gets it.
Mr. Obenshain has shown us who it is that he's representing - and it's not the citizens whom this bill will hit in their pocketbooks. (Oh, and if the version of the bill that Mark Obenshain pushed had become law, things would be even worse.)
Government of the people but by and for the Big Money.
Is it any wonder, then, that Dominion also gets our legislators also to block responsible action to respond to the gathering problem of climate change?
Despite the fact that a majority of both Republicans and Democrats now believe that our government has a moral duty to confront the challenge of climate change, Mr. Obenshain voted against a measure that would have given the mighty fossil fuel companies, like Dominion, incentives to stop spewing out the gases that are destabilizing our climate.
Yes, Dominion Power seems to have achieved an extraordinary amount of dominion over the Old Dominion. Including over the Senate seat here in the 26th district.
But it doesn't have to stay that way!
This isn't a liberal issue or a conservative issue. It's an issue of basic American values: Should our representatives represent US, the people, or the powerful special interests?
47th out of 50 states in government integrity! That is not acceptable to me. And I doubt it's acceptable to the citizens of this District.
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