Marshall’s opponent requests another General Assemby vote on stimulus

F. Seward Anderson, who’s challenging Del. Danny Marshall of Danville for his seat, signed a petition during a news conference at the Virginia Employment Commission on Thursday demanding that the General Assembly reconvene and reverse its rejection of $125 million in federal stimulus money.

The money would have gone toward state unemployment benefits.

The event took place in the VEC parking lot in Danville on Thursday afternoon. Anderson called on Marshall to sign the petition and said Marshall, who voted in favor of accepting the money, should have persuaded his fellow Republicans to support the extra funding.

“You cannot be content to just push the button and walk out,” Anderson, a Democrat and former mayor of Danville, said during an interview after the event.

Three weeks after the state turned down $125 million, “Southside families are still hurting,” he said.

In response, Marshall called Anderson’s public signature of the petition a stunt and said he would be happy to sign it.

“If he would bring it to me, I’d be glad to,” Marshall, R-Danville, said during a telephone interview Thursday evening.

Marshall said he wondered how Anderson knew whether he tried to convince his Republican colleagues to support the expansion of unemployment benefits.

“Was he there with me?” Marshall said. 

Marshall said he would be “ready to go” and vote yes again if the General Assembly reconvened for a special session on the $125 million. Marshall and Del. Don Merricks, R-Pittsylvania County, were the only two House Republicans to vote for receiving the money.

Anderson said the General Assembly needs to take action to get the money to the state.

“You send this money back to Washington, it’s not going to find its way back here,” Anderson said.

More than 10,000 people in Virginia have signed the petition, said Jared Leopold, spokesman for Virginia’s Democratic Party.

Virginia Victory 09, a project of the state’s Democratic Party, is backing the petition. Leopold said the Democratic Party is traveling the state to gather signatures. The party kicked off its weeklong drive outside the former Tultex plant in Martinsville on Thursday morning.

The House of Delegates, by a 53-46 margin, defeated a move earlier this month to accept $125 million in added unemployment benefits that were part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package.

Republicans and business interests believed the extra money would have burdened small businesses with mandates after the funding ran out and could have brought about higher taxes to replenish the fund for jobless benefits.

The added money would have made unemployed part-time workers in Virginia and those training for other jobs eligible for unemployment benefits.

The petition’s supporters point to nearly 300,000 unemployed in Virginia and say it would cost just $4.58 per worker per year to expand the state’s unemployment program.

Marshall said earlier this month that if there were a sunset provision lifting the requirements on businesses after the money was gone, the proposal would have passed.

Marshall said state Republicans have not received credit from Democrats for backing a temporary 13-week extension in unemployment benefits and a bill lowering health insurance costs for small businesses and laid-off workers.