Sen. Boysko's 80 Words and 52 Seconds: A Moment in Big Money Politics in Virginia
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Casino Fallout: Listening to Constituents vs. Big Money Politics
Sen. Boysko’s 80 Words and 52 Seconds: A Senator is Punished for Being Against a Casino Her Constituents Don’t Want
It was 4:32 pm on Wednesday, Feb 12, 2025 when State Senator Jennifer Boysko made an 52 second statement amplifying the views of her constituents regarding a casino project in Tysons. Speaking in favor was the bill’s chief backer, the Majority Leader of the Virginia Senate
Above: Social media commentary over the last 48 hours. If you are pro-casino we want to hear from you. Please e-mail: BlackVirginianews@gmail.com
Sen. Boysko was the last of nine speakers for and against the casino bill (Senate Bill 982), which died in committee. SB982 would have allowed a pathway for a referendum vote on a casino project in Fairfax, a matter that the Fairfax Board of Supervisors would have to work on.
“Chairman Bulova, I know it's unusual to have a member of the Senate come up and testify against somebody else's bill,” Senator Boysko started as she spoke in front of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce.
“I am representing my 200 plus thousand constituents who have been very clear that this is not an appropriate location for a casino,” she added.
“Oh what a happy day leading up to Valentine’s, SB982 the ‘Casino Bill’ has died in a House Appropriations Subcommittee,” she wrote shortly after on social media.
Less than 24 hours later, Senator Boysko was removed from her position as Chair of the Transportation Committee and because she was no longer a committee chair, she was removed from the Senate Rules Committee.
WHAT EXACTLY SEN. BOYSKO SAID. “Chairman Bulova I know it's unusual to have a member of the Senate come up and testify against somebody else's bill. I am representing my 200 plus thousand constituents who have been very clear that this is not an appropriate location for a casino. As someone who worked for the county government for years I participated in the planning system process and I felt it was just necessary to just make my community's opposition heard on their behalf. Appreciate it.”
Senator Lamont Bagby was named to take her place and presided over the Transportation Committee’s final hearing of the 2025 General Assembly session on Feb. 13. The Virginia General Assembly session ends on Feb. 22. This week, affable Senator Bagby, who is the Chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, announced a run to be the Chair of the Virginia Democratic Party. Senator Bagby has emerged as an uber-Chair though his presiding over Transportation would only be for the last week of session.
Senator Boysko, along with many other Fairfax lawmakers, was strongly against a casino in Fairfax. Perhaps more strongly against were her constituents. Residents of Fairfax have been showing up at town halls and committee hearings this session with matching red No Tysons Casino t-shirts for months. Though not scientific, comments online indicate there is organized pushback to the plan.
The Fairfax casino’s chief sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, has offered many economic reasons for why a casino in Fairfax would be a good idea for the region. Fairfax is having a major commercial real estate problem which started after COVID and continues as many work from home. The Trump Administration is currently killing federal jobs which will impact NoVa. Maryland’s MGM National Harbor Hotel & Casino location is attracting the money of Virginia residents. Other casinos in Virginia are in fact thriving and bringing millions into other locations such as Portsmouth and Bristol. Though Tysons is packed with activity, restaurants and people, it’s likely that a resort casino location with a luxury hotel and event space would thrive.
Leader Surovell’s casino bill was perhaps the most watched of the 2025 legislative session. Last year, the Fairfax casino bill failed to pass with Sen. Dave Marsden as the chief sponsor. Though this year's bill easily passed the Virginia Senate, the community buy-in has been hard to find and many local elected officials have been listening.
Sen. Boysko, along with several other Fairfax lawmakers including Sen. Saddam Salim and Del. Holly Seibold opposed the casino project. The primary reason stated was obvious: Their constituents are strongly against it. The views of those constituents were heard in public meetings, seen in e-mail communications and evidenced in polls.
Del. Paul Krizek, who is represented by Leader Surovell in the Senate, was also against.
“It hurts me to have to find something that we disagree on but I have been pretty consistently against this casino expansion because I think we need to get a strong regulatory framework set up to oversee Virginia’s gaming industry,” Del. Krizek, a member of the Commerce subcommittee that killed the bill, said during the same hearing Sen. Boysko spoke at on Feb. 12. The Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce then killed the bill moments later by voice vote with no recorded tally.
After Executive Director at Freedom Virginia Rhena Hicks; Todd Gathje of the Family Foundation and Noelle Dominguez, Coordination and Funding Division Chief, Fairfax County Department of Transportation spoke, Sen. Boysko made her comments at the end.
Below: The Washington Post on Feb. 12, 2025.
The leadership switch from Sen. Boysko to Senator Bagby as he also runs for party chair presents a set of interesting questions for Democrats. Chief of which may be: Who and what does the party stand for? The real estate developer Comstock Holding Companies is the backer of the project. Though the Fairfax County Board has not taken a formal position on the casino, but their support appears to be less than enthusiastic.
Incredibly, the same was true for Virginia’s senior U.S. Senator Mark Warner, a very pro-biz Democrat.
What Sen. Mark Warner said on the casino on Jan. 31.
THE QUESTION of WHAT DO DEMOCRATS STAND FOR? More broadly the Democratic Party is in the midst of a branding question with billionaires entering democracy, owning communications platforms and engaging in open and obvious self dealing.
Only a few years ago the terms “the party of women” were heard as a record number of women entered the U.S. House of Representatives. The demographic shifts can also be seen in local and state politics in Virginia. But the question of whether the party centers “the working class” voter remains ironically open. The focus on the nexus between corporate interests, money politics and political donations is a strain on a party trying to win the middle class voter.
“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” Independent Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said a day after Democrats lost the White House, U.S. Senate and U.S. House on Nov. 5, 2024 to Donald Trump, a perpetually lying, grifting example of how American politics has dropped all pretense in terms of monied interests.
Though labor has shown up as a vocal proponent for the Fairfax casino, in the person of NoVa Labor Federation President Virginia Diamond, the question of who and what Democrats choose to center in an age of state sponsored grift so commonplace it’s viewed as business-as-usual is on the table.
How will Democrats explain punishing a Senator for amplifying the views of her constituents? So far, all involved are declining comment. But whether anyone talks or not, even political novices can see what owns the time of lawmakers. The moment involving Senator Boysko is defined by traditionalists as a unprecedented “mistake.” But in the end, many people may view it for what it so clearly is: Another moment in big money politics. One that drives a certain kind of cynicism about the system as a whole. One that lowers turnout in favor of apathy.
Virginia Beach Voting System in Limbo After Senate Rejection
By Nathaniel Cline for The Virginia Mercury. For the second straight year, Virginia Beach’s attempt to formalize its voting system in its city charter has hit a dead end in the state Senate.
House Bill 1687, which sought to officially establish the city’s 10-1 voting system, failed to secure the required 27 affirmative votes in the Senate on Thursday — just as it did last year. The bill had previously made it to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk, but without final approval from the legislature, the effort remains stalled.
Two votes this week saw the same outcome: 21-18 against the proposal. The city council had opted not to amend Virginia Beach’s charter to reflect the 10-1 system last year, prompting some lawmakers to take matters into their own hands. But Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, distanced himself from the push.
“Until our city council becomes unanimous on this, I would suggest that we vote no on this matter,” DeSteph said Thursday.
He pointed to a Jan. 30 memo from the Office of the Attorney General to Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer, which he said confirms the city is under no legal obligation to alter its voting system. READ ENTIRE
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