Cancelled Debates, Luxury Towers, and Amendment Fundraising
The Virginia Press Room
The episode features a panel of Virginia podcasters discussing critical developments in the state's political and media landscapes. The disc
Key takeaways
- The proposed Dominion Power and NextEra Energy merger includes promises of a new luxury tower in Richmond, though historical precedents suggest such promises may not be kept.
- Senator Mark Warner's campaign declined a debate with Burt Mizusawa, citing an 'unsettled and expectedly busy official Senate calendar.'
Main topics
- Dominion Power and NextEra Energy merger
- Political debate avoidance by incumbents
Notable quotes
The devil's in the details.
Conclusion
This episode offers a comprehensive look at how media production and p
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) From Red Oak to Greenville, Bluefield to Orange, and Goldvane to Silver Beach, the Virginia Press Room features the voices of Virginia's press corps from every corner of Virginia. The podcast is a joint production of the Virginia Public Access Project and VPM News. Now, here's the host of the Press Room, Michael Pope. Speaker 5 (0:21) In the press room this week, we are joined by an all-star panel of Virginia podcasters. First up is the host of RVA's Got Issues, Rich Maher. Thanks for Speaker 3 (0:32) joining us. So good to be back with you again, Michael. We Speaker 5 (0:36) are also joined by the former host of the Cardinal News of Virginia podcast, Dutchie Jessie. Thanks for joining us. Thank Speaker 1 (0:44) you for having me, Michael. Happy to be here. Speaker 5 (0:46) Rounding out our all-star panel is the producer of this. podcast. He is the former producer of Pod Virginia and the former host of the Bold Dominion podcast, my friend, Aryan Ballou. Thanks for joining us. Thank Speaker 4 (1:01) you for having me. Speaker 5 (1:02) All right, let's get right into it with our headlines of the week. Speaker 5 (1:11) From your inbox to your earbuds, these are the voices behind the podcasts you hear about Virginia politics. Rich Marr of the VPM podcast, RVA's got issues. You're first with this. What's your Speaker 3 (1:24) headline of the week? Well, Michael, the big news in Virginia these days, right, is about this proposed merger between Dominion Power and Florida's NextEra Power Company. It's a big deal. And not everybody knows how they feel about it. So the companies have decided to add a few sweeteners to the deal, maybe some more billing credits for customers and promises about job preservation for the Dominion workers in Virginia. But a big one is they're proposed to build a second tower for Dominion Power in downtown Richmond. And this is actually a building that's had a little bit of a history. Back in 2019, when the Dominion leadership was involved with a bid to build a new stadium in downtown Richmond, the idea was that they were going to build this new tower and the tax revenue was going to be used in part to fund that project. And when the project went away, so did the tower. And maybe Dominion changed their mind about how they were... They needed office space. But this isn't the first time that a big kind of development deal in downtown Richmond is supposedly going to involve a new office tower from Dominion Power. And so I don't know if this is quite the sweetener that Dominion thinks it is, because there's lots of folks who could remember that promise to build that went away. And I just wonder what kinds of accountability things are going to be built into this merger deal that these sweeteners are. actually going to happen. I just wonder if people think Dominion might pull the rug out again and say, whoops, no tower. Speaker 5 (3:10) Rich, I was so fascinated by the fact that they came up with the sweeteners in the first place, which is kind of an indication that the deal might not have been as attractive as it needed to be. In other words, they felt the need to have the sweetener, right? So the other thing that really jumped out at me is this history that you just went through about when they built the tower, it was supposed to be a matching tower, but that didn't happen. One other thing that did not happen is that... the shareholders were supposed to pay for that first tower. And then after they got the regulatory agreement, they lobbied the legislature to shift the financial burden off the shareholders and onto the rate payers to pay for that tower. So it kind of makes you think of, okay, so they're telling us that they're doing these sweeteners. What kind of accountability are we going to have about all those promises that are being made right now? Speaker 3 (4:04) Yeah, I mean, mergers are like development deals. The devil's in the details. But it's also that, you know, these are on such a long term that by the time you get into the deal, other people are in power. You know, you're going to have a new governor if this merger goes through, wondering why there's no tower in downtown after Abigail Spanberger was the governor who approved the deal. Right. So it's just. You know, the companies can kind of wait things out a little bit. And if they end up breaking a deal or things change, maybe they can, you know, get something different happening in the future. It's why I think the governor. took the unprecedented step of being a party to the negotiations. And a whole bunch of other local governments, for example, are now involved in finding out what the State Corporation Commission, which is really the ones who approved this deal. There's lots of folks who want to be in the room now. And I think it's these questions about, okay, fine, lots of promises, but what's actually going to happen and how do we hold you to it in the future? Speaker 4 (5:13) I'm kind of curious, who are these sweeteners kind of ultimately for? Can you kind of walk me through, like, I can't imagine being like a regular Richmonder and being like, I can't wait for this tower. Speaker 3 (5:23) Yeah, and I think it's not just the regular Richmonders. I mean, it's two things, right? It's one is they're just trying to get the public to not oppose the deal, right? No, Richmonders are going to be really like so excited about this office tower, but the Richmonders are going to worry. if NextEra takes over Dominion, removes the Dominion name from its current tower, fires everyone who works for Dominion, and then takes the NextEra name off its tower and moves all their operations to Florida. So this building a tower in Richmond is suggesting a commitment of the new joint conglomerate to the city of Richmond and all the workers and the people who live. in Richmond, Virginia. So I think it's more trying to convince people that they're not going to fire everyone and consolidate and move out of Virginia. Now, you know, sometimes you have to wonder, okay, great, that is the commitment, but it's a lot of a commitment, right? It's Speaker 5 (6:26) a Speaker 3 (6:26) lot of noise about that, which makes me think that the question's a little bit stronger, right? The doubts are definitely out there. Speaker 5 (6:35) You know, one thing that jumps out at me, Rich, that's worth thinking about is that the companies involved here are saying, don't worry about your power bills. We're going to give you these bill credits. And so we're going to put you at ease that your power bills are not going to go up dramatically, at least Speaker 2 (6:52) in the near term as a result of this acquisition. Speaker 5 (6:56) But at the same time, we're going to also build this fancy new office tower in downtown Richmond. I mean, isn't there some, those two things clash a bit, don't they? Speaker 3 (7:04) Yeah. How much money is this deal going to make and for who? If they're like, yeah, we're totally going to lower your bills. We're also going to spend half a billion dollars on an office tower that currently we don't seem to need. And then also we're going to commit to keeping everyone in Dominion who currently has a job will keep their job for the next five years. It's just the sort of talking out both sides of their mouth there. Is this going to be a great, efficient combination of resources? And if it is, why do you need to funnel the money of your shareholders into building this tower? And the other thing to wonder about here is the timeline. All these sweeteners are about, oh, sure, bill credits for two years. job protections for five years, an office tower that we'll build in the next six or seven years. What happens after that, right? Is that what NextEra is thinking about? And then after that, we'll do whatever we want. So really lots of questions about this that I don't think an office tower is just going to solve. Speaker 5 (8:12) Dutchie Jesse of Cardinal News. What's your headline of the week? Well, we'll call it the debate over debates. Speaker 1 (8:20) So we've had ongoing coverage of this from our founding editor and columnist, Dwayne Yancey, as well as our own Elizabeth Beyer. And Elizabeth most recently reported that the People's Debate, which was going to be an AARP event, it was going to host candidates in the U.S. Senate race, Mark Warner, the incumbent, and then his challenger, retired Army Major General Burt. Mizusawa, but that's been called off now because Warner would not commit to taking part. And Warner's campaign cited a, quote, unsettled and expectedly busy official Senate calendar, end quote, for not being able to participate. So at this point, there is no debate scheduled between these two as of this recording. And of course, Mizusawa's campaign is using this to accuse him of dodging and avoiding questions. He's got some fun, silly memes on his social pages. As our own Dwayne Yancey has written about these ongoing debates over debates, there's an iron rule of politics, and that is incumbents rarely want to debate because they feel like it often serves to elevate their opponents and also create opportunities for things to go wrong on their end. And I know you've talked about this on this podcast, too, which was Morgan Griffith in the 9th District recently just flat out turning down a request to debate his Democratic challenger. He just came out and said it. I don't want to do that. I do not need a jointly negotiated format to tell voters what I believe is what he said. So that's a pretty bold just coming right out and saying it, you know, and just kind of dismissing it in that way. And that, of course, gives opponents or challengers fodder for criticizing. I don't know, you're dodging, what are you hiding from? You're hiding from your record, things like that. And then if you support the candidate, of course, you're probably thinking, no, he's just putting his head down and doing the work of actual legislation. So it's interesting to see this. And of course, we've seen earlier ongoing debates about whether the Democrat, Beth Macy, who's challenging. Ben Klein in the 6th District, to three debates. And then Ben Klein turns around, according to Macy's campaign, and says, OK. And he sends out three places and dates that have not been even sent to the Macy campaign ahead of time. Of course, you can't make two of them. And so then there's back and forth. Each can claim what they did or didn't do and how the other person is setting them up. to look a certain way and all those good things. And actually, the one that Macy and Klein, this is interesting, had agreed that they could both do was at the Harrisonburg Rotary October 5th. But this week, the Rotary actually canceled the event, which is very interesting. And the club said that since it's a nonpartisan service organization. Rotary has a responsibility to ensure that the programs we host reflect our values.