Tom McLaughlin

From the standpoint of statewide politics, it’s pretty obvious who came away on Election Day as Virginia’s big winners.

Weeks ago, back when the promise of stirring victory or crushing disappointment hung in the air in equal measure, the audience at the School Board’s October meeting at Sydnor Jennings Elementary heard two theories on how the vote on the 1 percent sales tax referendum might turn out.

Let’s imagine a world where the sales tax referendum fails.

We’re a year out from the 2020 election and voters deciding for themselves who should lead the United States over the next four years, but in the meantime it’s getting pretty hard to ignore that our current Commander-in-Chief is losing it on a daily basis.

Is it revealing too much information if I admit how much I’ve enjoyed the contributed opinion pieces, last week and today, on the school sales tax referendum by SVHEC president Betty Adams and our new IDA director, Brian Brown?

Twice each year in late summer and fall, The Sun sends out copies to everyone in Mecklenburg County (and quite a few people in Charlotte, Brunswick and Lunenburg) to introduce readers to our product during our annual subscription campaign. Ta da! — you’re holding the second of our two mass mailings in your hands. We hope you’ll like what you see.

This report from The Washington Post on Monday certainly caught my eye:

My my, we do love letters, and today’s Viewpoint is chockful of reader takes on the Nov. 5 sales tax referendum.

A hardship story from Southside Virginia surfaced in the news a week ago, and this time it’s the world-at-large, not our small corner of it, that came off looking worse for the telling.

Remember a few months back, when it was humbly suggested in this space that Del. James Edmunds ought to have a statue erected in his honor for pushing the Halifax County sales tax referendum through the General Assembly?