Citizens of Loudoun County, Virginia, will be voting on three bond referendums this year.
Under Article VII, Section 10, of the Constitution of Virginia, local governments must obtain voter approval through referendums to issue general obligation bonds. Bonds are debt; the issuing government sells them to investors and receives an immediate influx of cash, but, like a bank loan, those funds must be repaid over time with interest.
Generally, I believe governments should only incur public debt when:
a project is necessary for the public good,
its benefits will far outlast the repayment period, and
it cannot be reasonably funded through other means.
Citizens of Virginia will be voting on three proposed constitutional amendments this year. This endorsement article considers only the first, which is especially important and deserves extra attention and analysis. An endorsement article addressing the second and third will be published separately.
There are two methods for amending the Constitution of Virginia described in Article XII. This one comes to us through the Section 1 method, which is most commonly used: The proposal is passed by both houses of the General Assembly, and then, after an intervening House of Delegates election, passed again, then presented to the voters in a referendum.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) died yesterday of an aortic dissection at the age of 71.
Graham was a longstanding and influential figure in the Republican Party and in broader American politics. He first rose to national prominence as a House “impeachment manager,” or prosecutor, during President Bill Clinton’s (D) 1999 impeachment trial, and ultimately served more than thirty years in Congress.
After graduating from high school in Central, South Carolina, Graham became the first member of his family to attend college. His original plans were disrupted after his parents died over a period of fifteen months, leaving his thirteen-year-old sister orphaned. Graham transferred to the University of South Carolina in Columbia and became his sister’s legal guardian. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology, then a law degree, and was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force in 1982. He first served as a defense attorney in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) corps, and later became a prosecutor.
Graham left active-duty service in 1989, but continued to serve in the South Carolina Air National Guard and then the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He was an assistant county attorney for Oconee County, South Carolina, and city attorney for Central, South Carolina. During the First Gulf War he was briefly recalled to active duty and served with the JAG corps at McEntire Air National Guard Station in South Carolina. He was deployed as a reservist to Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2009 to deal with legal issues concerning enemy detainees; for his service he received the Bronze Star medal. Graham retired from the Air Force Reserve in 2015 at the rank of colonel.
Virginia’s major party primary elections will be held on Tuesday, August 4, 2026. Off on a Tangent makes recommendations to primary voters in state- and federal-level races in Virginia and local elections in Loudoun County whenever nominees will be chosen through a contested public primary.
Political parties are private organizations that should have no formal standing in our political system. As private organizations, they are free to choose their nominees through whichever process they wish—common methods include conventions, caucuses, private “firehouse primaries,” and direct nomination by party leaders. But in Virginia and many other states, the Democratic and Republican party duopoly has given itself permission to hold public primaries at the taxpayers’ expense.
Public primaries in Virginia are “open.” Any registered voter may vote in any single party primary held on a given day, regardless of whether they are an actual member of that party.
My parents are ‘downsizing’ for an upcoming move to a smaller place. They will be selling a lot of things, but they graciously allowed me and my sister to go through the house and take some things that might be useful or have sentimental value. The ones I’m most excited about are family heirlooms, historic items, and old gizmos including binoculars, guns, slide rules, and pocket watches. Here are some of my favorites.
Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.
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