“The Republicans seem to believe turnout will be in the low- to mid-30 percent. That gives them a better chance to pull an upset. My own guess is that it will be higher than four years ago, over 2 million voters and above 40 percent, once all the ballots are counted,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. … The voting demographic is likely to be older and whiter than voters in the 2012 presidential election, experts said. “That’s what usually happens in off-off year elections in Virginia,” said Geoffrey Sk...
"The plaintiffs don't want to give the prayers," responds Douglas Laycock, who represents those challenging the prayers. The town's claim of equal access, he says, is a myth – the board never announced that all comers were welcome to deliver the invocation, nor does it publicize its policy. "The prayers here advance Christianity and they proselytize Christianity," Laycock says. Laycock, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and one of the nation's leading scholars in this area, will tell the justices that town board meetings are very diff...
"The governor's race was closer than expected, and Democrats gained little in the House of Delegates – it's a formula for gridlock," said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. "Realistically, McAuliffe is not going to get any big tax or spending plans passed. He would be better off to focus on smaller, discreet objectives in areas where he could make common cause with at least some GOP legislators. And he has appointments, the veto power, executive orders, and the bully pulpit – all substantial tools."
But University of Virginia Law professor Douglas Laycock, who will argue before the court on behalf of Galloway, said that approach would mean government officials could “press prayers on a captive audience, even those that promise eternal hellfire to religious minorities.”
‘JFK had a rare ability to combine substance, style and wisdom about big things – war and peace, space, civil rights. And he was Hollywood-handsome, irresistible to women, but also fully presidential,’ said Professor Larry Sabato, director of the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia and author of The Kennedy Half Century. ‘JFK was also lucky to serve at a time of peak American power and very little cynicism. His murder helped bring an end to an age of innocence. That’s why so many Americans pine for the Kennedy days.’
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told Newsmax: "McAuliffe was expected to win. This was closer than expected. It was an off-year race," he added. "It drew a smaller turnout — and Republicans were drawn out by the closing emphasis on Obamacare that Cuccinelli engineered. That helped to balance the burden he had earlier in the campaign being caused by the government shutdown."
Republican Ken Cuccinelli's unexpectedly strong showing in the Virginia governor's race will make it more difficult for moderate members of the GOP to pull the party toward the center, says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
A pair of University of Virginia students is leading the effort to bring the school's yearbook back to life. Corks and Curls began publication in 1888 and ran for almost 120 years before production stopped in 2009 for budget reasons.
Mr. McAuliffe broke a 36-year pattern in which Virginia’s governor, picked the year after the presidential election, came from the party out of power in the White House. The political scientist who first remarked on the trend, Larry J. Sabato of the University of Virginia, ascribed it to a natural tendency toward buyer’s remorse. But this year, as unpopular as Mr. Obama and his health care law may be with many Virginians, “dislike of Cuccinelli is even stronger,” Mr. Sabato said.
Virginia senior Akil Mitchell laughed and rolled his eyes, then pointed toward the blue tape carefully laid across the practice floor at John Paul Jones Arena last month, a few feet inside the three-point arc. The Cavaliers may have their most talented roster in years this season, and come armed with a preseason Associated Press ranking (No. 24) for the first time in more than a decade. But Coach Tony Bennett started practice in September the same way he always does: with a meticulous tutorial on his trademark “pack line” defense, a variation on a sagging man-to-man.
(By Siva Vaidhyanathan, Robertson Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia) Why do many people think that Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple are rivals? They hardly compete directly.
But the decision to indict a company, and to spare, at least for now, its founder and billionaire manager, Steven A. Cohen, has already ignited criticism. “A company can’t commit a crime,” said Edwin T. Burton, a professor of economics at the University of Virginia, who wrote a widely circulated blog post this summer that criticized the government’s indictment. “They should only go after the people doing things wrong. There are innocent bystanders, a lot of them, who get hurt. Why is the villain the one who sweeps out the floor every night?”
Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and author of the forthcoming book, “Too Big to Jail: How Prosecutors Target Corporations,” said that while environmental and antitrust inquiries frequently resulted in corporate indictments, financial fraud investigators were just now “starting to see the light.” “Prosecutors have increasingly been saying that no company is too big to jail, and now they can point to the SAC case and say ‘We really mean it,’ ” Mr. Garrett said.
Virginia governors are limited to a single four-year term. The attorney general is often looked at as the next gubernatorial candidate, thus the race has attracted tremendous interest, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “Republicans really want to avoid a sweep because, if Mark Obenshain gets elected, they automatically have their 2017 gubernatorial candidate,” he said. “Given that you have this weird dynamic in Virginia where you only can serve for one term, a gubernatorial electio...
If you follow us on Instagram, you may have noticed I had a little Charlottesville getaway this weekend. The fall foliage peak was just tipping, but I was just in time to see brilliant oranges, reds and yellows all over this small city in central Virginia. I may be biased, but the beauty of my alma mater’s grounds (at UVA, we don’t say “campus,” I don’t know why) never ceases to amaze me. Here are a few reasons why the Academical Village is the only university campus in the United States that is designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
A new housing project for students at the University of Virginia now has the green light. Charlottesville City Council approved the application for the six-story building. Now West Main Street will be home to another student housing complex. The approved special use permit is for the complex 'The Standard.' The 189-unit student housing building will be built in place of what is now the Republic Plaza.
Professor Nicholas Sanders from William and Mary completed a study with University of Virginia professor Jennifer Doleac, and it found that from daylight to standard time, robberies jump seven percent to 27-percent in that sunset hour.
Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have found what they call an "unexpected genetic mosaic" in the brain. The scientists say this discovery may help explain disorders largely thought to be linked to a single gene.
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said being gay is far less of a problem for his campaign than is a third candidate on the ballot, a left-leaning independent Eliot Cutler, who could siphon away votes from Michaud. "His problem is not that he's gay; it's Eliot Cutler," Sabato said.