In mid-October, Webb asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to post the legislation and complete budget scores of the health care bill on a public Web site at least 72 hours prior to both the first vote and final passage, according to his office. 

“Reforming health care in our country is one of the most monumental undertakings by Congress in decades, and the American public’s participation in this process is critical,” Webb said in a release. “I, along with my staff, will be closely reading and analyzing the bill in the days ahead.”

You can read the Senate version of the health care legislation—The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—at http://www.webb.senate.gov.

Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General on Nov. 3 and will vacate his seat before he’s sworn in on Jan. 16. 

Marsden has lived in Fairfax County since 1952 and has represented his House of Delegates district for four years. He has moved into the 37th Senate district to run and noted in a statement today announcing his intentions that 10 of his 14 precincts lie within the boundaries of the 37th.

He said in the release that state legislators will have to cut another $3 billion from the state budget, “and I am going to do my best to make sure that Fairfax County gets its fair share of revenue from Richmond. Fairfax sends so much money to Richmond and the rest of the state, its time we started to look out for ourselves more.“

No date has been set for a special election for the 37th district. It’s up to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to select a date. If Marsden, who consults on how to work with juvenile offenders and gangs, wins the Senate seat, it means another special election would need to be held for his House seat. 

The Republican caucus, strengthened after picking up at least five seats in the House this month, re-elected Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford.

They also voted to keep Del. H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, as majority leader, Del. Samuel A. Nixon Jr., R-Chesterfield, as caucus chair and Del. M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, as majority whip. They were chosen by acclamation, but the full House membership will vote on Howell’s post when the General Assembly meets in January in Richmond.

Democrats re-elected Del. Ward L. Armstrong, D-Henry, as the House minority leader.

Other delegates selected were Kenneth R. Plum, D-Fairfax, caucus chairman; Jennifer L. McClellan, D-Richmond, first vice chairwoman; David L. Englin, D-Alexandria, second vice chairman; Mark D. Sickles, D-Fairfax, secretary; Jeion A. Ward, D-Hampton, treasurer; and Rosalyn R. Dance, D-Petersburg, sergeant at arms/parliamentarian.

Americans United for Change, a group founded in 2005 to help defeat then-President George W. Bush’s effort to privatize Social Security, today released a 30-second TV ad that will air on a mix of broadcast and cable channels in the Roanoke media market to thank Perriello for backing the House of Representatives health-care legislation.

Meanwhile, the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity plans to continue to show their opposition at a rally today at Perriello’s Charlottesville office. On Monday, they rallied outside of his Martinsville, Danville and Farmville offices.

In an e-mail advertising the events, the group’s state director Ben Marchi noted that Perriello is already condisered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress. “This is the final straw,“ he wrote.

You can check out the Americans United for Change TV ad there:

“I think there [are] legitimate issues of cost and access that have got to be addressed at the state and federal level,” McDonnell told John King in a brief appearance on CNN’s State of the Union this morning. 

McDonnell said he’s heard concerns from Virginians about cost increases, less choices and more government control.

A Senate version of health care legislation could allow states to opt in or opt out and McDonnell said “Either way my preference would be not to have Virginia participate from what I know this plan contains.”

He added that more flexibility at the state level would be a good thing and said he’s outlined a number of things that could be done at the state level to help people have more access at a lower cost.

“I’m very concerned about turning this significant section of the American economy over the federal government,” he said.

McDonnell, a former attorney general, reiterated that he will not raise taxes and that people want “a better bang for their buck out of their government and don’t want to have a tax increase every time we have an economic downturn.”

“If the tax increase is the only resolution, we’re never going to control government spending,” he said.

McDonnell, who won Tuesday with more then 58 percent of the vote and led a Republican statewide ticket sweep, was asked what message he has for the Republican Party heading into the midterm Congressional elections.

“I think one of the reasons we were very fortunate to win is we stuck to our conservative principles, we translated those into common sense practical solutions,“ McDonnell said, also advising that people be “positive” and “stick to your word.”

“I think if we do that, Republicans have bright days ahead.”

King asked McDonnell if he wanted to advance any new initiatives on abortion or governing same-sex marriage. McDonnell pointed to areas such as improving adoption laws, where “people on both sides of that issue think we need to find ways to reduce the number of abortions.”

He has tapped former Attorneys General Andrew Miller, a Democrat, and Republican Richard Cullen, as well as former state GOP chairman Pat McSweeney, to help with the effort.
Miller, an unsuccessful candidate for governor and U.S. Senate in the 1970s, practices law in Washington. He’s from a storied Democratic family; his father ran for governor in the 1950s, opposing the conservative machine of the late Harry Byrd Sr.
Cullen completed the term of Jim Gilmore, when Gilmore quit in 1997 to run for governor. Cullen now heads a large Richmond law firm that is closely aligned with Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell.
McSweeney is a Richmond lawyer who was on the staff of the commission that rewrote the Virginia Constitution in the early 1970s.
More recently, he was the lead lawyer in the case in which the Virginia Supreme Court overturned as taxation without representation a transportation-financing plan defended by McDonnell when he was attorney general.
Rounding out the Cuccinelli transition team: Republican Bernie McNamee, a a Cullen law partner and lobbyist who served in the AG’s office under Jerry Kilgore and was an aide to Gov. George Allen. McNamee unsuccessfully sought an appointment to the agency that polices Virginia business, the State Corporation Commission.

After naming his team, Cuccinelli said he’s focused on planning the transition, making hiring decisions and creating his legislative agenda for the upcoming General Assembly session. He plans to announce additional decisions next week, including any structural changes to the office and new hires.

Cuccinelli was asked whether he felt excluded from the rest of the Republican ticket of McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, particularly after the two men appeared together yesterday for McDonnell’s transition team announcement. 

“No, I don’t,“ Cuccinelli said. “Bob and I talked yesterday about Bill’s role in his transition. Bill Bolling, let’s face it, is a sitting lieutenant governor, he really doesn’t have anything to transition.“

“I fully expect to be working closely with my ticket mates in pursuing each of our agendas, many which were rolled out together,“ he said. “I really don’t anticipate much in the way of challenges within our own team—by which I mean Bill, Bob and I, I expect that to be a good partnership and I have every reason to expect that.“

—Jeff E. Schapiro and Olympia Meola

Also on the team are Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling; Attorney General Bill Mims; Bobbie Kilberg, president of the Northern Virginia Technology Council; and Kay Coles James, a Cabinet official under Gov. George Allen who later was director for the Office of Personnel Management under President George W. Bush.

McDonnell named two staff members to the transition effort: Phil Cox, campaign manager; and Tucker Martin, his campaign spokesman. The camp will soon launch a Web site with updates on the transition.

Meanwhile, McDonnell plans to take off for a few days, starting Friday when he heads to Notre Dame, his undergraduate alma mater, with his wife, Maureen, and several of their children.

Maureen McDonnell received a call today from Virginia first lady Anne Holton, and the two arranged to tour the Executive Mansion this afternoon.

“It was a nice,“ said McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin. “The president told him, ‘The first thing you do, make sure you thank your wife’.“ 

They also discussed some areas of agreement, including support for educational initiatives like charter schools, something McDonnell frequently mentioned on the campaign trail.

While McDonnell spent the morning with his family at the Marriott after last night’s Election Party there, his transition staff has begun moving into their new space in a 9th Street office building.

Martin, whose BlackBerry was fried after the volume of e-mails he received last night, said about 10 people have set up camp so far in the new quarters. McDonnell has a post-election news conference scheduled for 2 p.m., when we could find out more about his transition team.

The calls are among roughly 600,000 coordinated through The Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition, an affiliate of Ralph Reed’s national group, according to Sen. Stephen H. Martin, R-Chesterfield, chairman of the Virginia coalition. Reed is the former executive director of the Christian Coalition.

Martin said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee also taped an automated call for the group, and that the coalition does not endorse candidates or parties. He said Palin talks about “shared principles” in her call. 

A spokesman for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell said today, “it’s not our call.“

Between Oct. 21 and Sunday, McDonnell had reported $1.36 million and Deeds took in $548,987, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan tracker of money in Virginia politics.