by Lorraine Bratton

Re: Roanoke County supervisors candidate Al Bedrosian’s comment in Dan Casey’s metro column (“Candidate explains his stance on religion”) on June 9:

Bedrosian, the Republican candidate for the Hollins District seat on the board of supervisors, stated, “A new library in Vinton is not necessary.” Bedrosian is misinformed. Pay a visit to the current Vinton Library. There is no space for the teens; the children’s area is too small; it is ill-lit; it is overcrowded and outdated.

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Bratton is retired and lives in Vinton.

Virginians who want a voice can help choose the Democratic candidates, anyway.

A reminder: Tuesday is a statewide primary election day in Virginia — not the big show, and no top stars on the bill. But the results will determine the Democratic candidates lower on the ballot for statewide offices, with gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe at the top.

While McAuliffe got the party nod by default — no one else filed — both the lieutenant governor and attorney general nominations are contested. And, since Virginia does not register voters by party, any can cast a ballot and have a voice in which Democrats get to run.

Some might argue that honor ought to keep away voters who aren’t firmly committed to the party in such internal decisions. But that is nonsense.

Republicans foreclosed the option with a convention. But Virginians who want the best possible Democratic candidates in November can weigh in.

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Retired Sens. John Warner and Bob Dole are advising their party to do some soul-searching.

Last year, the Republican Party suffered a rebuke by America’s increasingly diverse electorate. Female, black, Hispanic and young voters rejected the GOP, in large part because they felt the party has rejected them.

In the past week, the party attracted new criticism from a core demographic: octogenarian white guys. Specifically, two retired Republican congressmen with three decades of service apiece at the U.S. Capitol.

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GOP candidate E.W. Jackson doesn’t speak for all Virginians of faith.

E.W. Jackson says he will make no apologies for past statements that might offend. Like calling gay people perverted and “very sick.” Pronouncing the Democratic Party agenda as “worthy of the Anti-Christ.” Denouncing Planned Parenthood as “far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was.”

Now that Jackson is the Republican Party candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, he sees no reason to temper his views. They reflect religious beliefs that are dear to him. Fair enough. People can judge his candidacy accordingly.

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The attorney general and gubernatorial candidate is covered by the state sunshine law whether he thinks so or not.

Virginia’s top lawyer is not above the law. Nor is Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli just doing his constituents a favor when he responds to requests for public records.

Cuccinelli’s startling epiphany that he is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act came at a convenient moment. He is running for governor while being pelted with questions about his relationship with a businessman who has a pending dispute over state taxes.

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The next governor is likely to be under pressure to end a moratorium on mining the radioactive ore.

Foes of uranium mining in Virginia say they’ve met with Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the party’s presumed gubernatorial candidate, who has assured them he opposes it — though his campaign says his position hasn’t changed.

In the past, he has said he would “need to be certain” it could “be done safely and cleaned up completely” before a state moratorium could be lifted, and “So far I have not seen that.”

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Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli

The convention produced a GOP ticket that lacks mainstream leadership.

When he dropped his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination late last year, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling said the GOP “has to decide what it wants to be.”

“Are we going to be a party that engages in a great ideological debate, or are we going to be a party that’s more focused on winning elections, earning the right to lead and leading responsibly?” Bolling asked.

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By Roy Kirby

“Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!” Reality mirrored fiction on May 14 at the Roanoke County Administration Center. The Roanoke County Republicans looked just as cartoonish as Bullwinkle when choosing their candidate to run in the general election for the Hollins District seat on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.

The May 11 firehouse primary ended in a rare 389-389 tie between Al Bedrosian and Mike Bailey.

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Kirby is a visiting instructor of public affairs at Roanoke College.

Some Montgomery County voters will go back to the future when they cast ballots in the June 11 Democratic Party primary.

Voters in Montgomery Precinct F-1 will use paper ballots when they step into the booths at Luther Memorial Lutheran Church in Blacksburg, but not in an old-school way. They will feed their marked ballots into a Unisyn OVO optical scan voting machine, a new piece of equipment scheduled to be phased in at other Montgomery precincts in time for the 2016 presidential election.

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Drawing lots is no way to settle on the better candidate when there’s a tie.

Undoubtedly, selecting a candidate for political office by lot would be no one’s first choice. In the case of a draw, though? It’s fast, easy and inexpensive . . . and a lousy way to decide a party nomination.

It should not be a choice at all.

Continue reading this editorial.