A key state Senate panel has refused to confirm all eight of Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s latest appointments to college and university boards, including former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the University of Virginia board of visitors.
The Senate Privileges and Elections committee voted down Youngkin appointees to the boards of UVA, Virginia Military Institute and George Mason University by an 8-4 party-line vote.
“What we see in our political climate today, especially coming out of Washington, trying to make its way to our commonwealth — it’s our job to stand up,” said state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, the committee chair.
People are also reading…
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, as seen in 2013, lost that year’s election for governor to Democrat Terry McAuliffe. Cuccinelli later served as acting deputy secretary of homeland security in the first Trump administration.
State Sen. Glen Sturtevant, R-Chesterfield, said: “There is nothing about any of these individuals that makes them unqualified.”
Democrats and Republicans took different views on what the vote means.
“Just days before a contentious Democrat primary, Virginians see today’s antics for what they are — an obvious political sideshow,” said Youngkin spokesman Rob Damschen. Rouse is one of six Democrats seeking the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor in a June 17 primary.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin chats with local emergency response officials May 30 at an event to mark the start of hurricane season. A Youngkin spokesman called the panel’s rejection of the governor’s appointees “a political sideshow.”
“This sloppy attempt ... is not only completely out of order with General Assembly procedures, it also costs Virginians thousands of dollars,” he said. “Make no mistake, these highly qualified appointees will continue to serve in their posts as the Constitution of Virginia affords.”
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, said the governor had no grounds to object.
“When we’ve done this before, governors have said this is valid,” he said, referring to votes when the committee’s then-Republican majority did not confirm some of Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s appointees.
Letter to rectors
In a separate letter to university rectors, Surovell wrote that the Code of Virginia says public university boards shall at all times be under the control of the General Assembly, which he said makes clear the ultimate authority over the institutions.
Cuccinelli represented Fairfax County in the state Senate from 2002 to 2010. He was elected attorney general in 2009 and lost the 2013 election for governor to Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
Youngkin appointed Cuccinelli, a prominent social conservative, to succeed Bert Ellis, a combative conservative critic of UVA administration policies.
Cuccinelli served as acting deputy secretary of homeland security during President Donald Trump’s first administration and has backed Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship. A UVA alumnus, he has said he is “committed to aggressively advancing plans to restore a culture of merit and end all forms of discrimination.”
Youngkin said he fired Ellis because of the combative conservative’s conduct.
The committee also rejected Youngkin’s three appointees to the VMI board.
They are Jonathan Hartsock, deputy chief of staff for Rep. Ben Cline, R-6th; Stephen Reardon, a Richmond attorney; and José J. Suárez, chief executive officer of a Florida consulting firm.
The VMI board’s decision this year to not renew the contract of Major General Cedric Wins, the military college’s first Black superintendent, has drawn fire from Doug Wilder, the nation’s first elected Black governor — who has said it shows racism is still a challenge in Virginia — as well as criticism from Democratic leaders in the General Assembly.
The committee also rejected Youngkin’s four appointees to the George Mason University board.
They are former state Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick; Charles J. Cooper of Bonita Springs, Florida, who served as assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel under President Ronald Reagan; William D. Hansen, president and CEO of Building Hope, a nonprofit serving charter schools and vice president of the Virginia State Board of Education; and Maureen Ohlhausen, who served as acting Federal Trade Commission chairman under President Donald Trump.
