More on Bloggers Day

I know I am a little late in filing this, but I have had a busy week at work. On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to be invited to Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling’s Bloggers Day at the Capitol in Richmond. Since this was held during the veto session, there was quite a bit of excitement over what legislative proposals the General Assembly would be overriding, etc. While I know most of the bloggers in attendance, there were others that I did not meet until bloggers day.

First, Lt. Governor Bolling spoke to the bloggers about his re-election campaign and discussed the veto session. It was a open discussion that focused on the economic and energy issues facing Virginia. Bolling recently was featured in a Richmond Times-Dispatch article that discussed offshore drilling as a means of not only increasing energy, but bringing more jobs to Virginia.

After Bolling spoke, former Attorney General Bob McDonnell stopped by to discuss his campaign for Governor and his campaign. McDonnell discussed his jobs initiative and touched upon principles of limited government. During McDonnell’s discussion, he also touched on the topic of eliminating the state income tax and mentioned the success of this initiative in states like Tennessee. This would raise the sales tax, but it would definitely be interesting to see how this works in Virginia. There will be more on this later, but it was a good talk.

Once McDonnell left, it was time to head over the Capitol gallery. Randy Marcus, Bolling’s Chief of Staff was very gracious, as he accompanied us throughout the day. After being seated in the gallery, we found out that Senator Ken Cuccinelli would be introducing us on the floor of the Senate. It was so cool getting the glance at the Senate gallery and be recognized. Cuccinelli announced our group of “rabble rousers.”

Photo Courtesy of Rick Sincere

After visiting the gallery, we were treated to a nice lunch at Richbrau in Shockoe Bottom by Ford O’Connell and Steve Pearson of Project Virginia. It was great talking with other bloggers from across Virginia during lunch. Once lunch was over, we went back to the General Assembly building, where we heard from Chris LaCivita, Project Virginia, Bob Holsworth of Virginia Tomorrow, Del. Chris Saxman, and Paul Haughton. We heard about the 2009 races, new technology, and an update of the veto session. It was very informative, and I learned a lot. Unfortunately, my BlackBerry video recorder did not function quite as well as I had wanted. Rick Sincere had some great video from Holsworth’s discussion, as well as Del. Saxman’s discussion of the veto session.

We ended the day at Peking Restaurant with Randy Marcus of Lt. Governor Bolling’s office. It was a very enjoyable time, and a great way to end the day. A very special thank you to Lt. Governor Bolling and his staff for their gracious hospitality. I look forward to future blogger days in the future.