ARLINGTON, Va. (7News) — Responsibility can weigh heavily on a House lawmaker. As one of only 435 members, being a true representative also means being a workhorse.

Enter—or should I say, re-enter—James Walkinshaw. You see, it’s a job he was already very familiar with.

“What’s it like for you to go from being the former chief of staff in this very office to now sitting behind the desk?” Scott asked.

“95% of the time I don’t think about it because I’m going about my day and accomplishing the things I need to—or trying to. But five percent of the time I sit down and say, ‘Wow…this is quite an experience, quite an opportunity to serve my community. ‘” Walkinshaw replied.

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Walkinshaw was once chief of staff to longtime Congressman Gerry Connolly, who died from cancer last May. Now representing Northern Virginia’s 11th District, Walkinshaw says his mentor’s example drives him.

“I remind myself he’s somebody who served our community with every fiber of his being—his mind, body and soul—literally until his last day. And I remind myself that’s the standard I have to meet.”

He’s already had his first sponsored bill pass the House—the Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking Act—which pushes the Department of Homeland Security to better coordinate efforts to combat fentanyl, especially across the D.C., Maryland and Virginia region.

“Our region last year—the D.C. metropolitan region, D.C., Maryland and Virginia—we had a thousand fentanyl overdose deaths. It’s still the leading cause of drug overdose deaths, and we need the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security, operating at the highest possible level to keep fentanyl out of our communities.”

There have also been tributes to his former boss, including helping pass the Gerry Connolly Esophageal Cancer Awareness Act to promote testing and early treatment, and legislation naming a Fairfax post office after Connolly, who helped put the Postal Service on stronger financial footing.

Rep. James Walkinshaw and mentor Gerry Connolly at an event. (Walkinshaw Campaign)

Measures like those passed easily.

Not much else does these days.

“I know you said you’re an optimist, but do you see an actual reason to tell folks back home, ‘Don’t worry, there are enough people behind the scenes still getting things done for the American people?’ Because it doesn’t always feel that way,” Scott asked.

“The bipartisanship that happens now in Congress is really only on those issues that are behind the radar. The big headline-grabbing issues that get a lot of attention on cable news or social media—it’s very hard to do bipartisan work there,” he answered.

“Really divided?”

“Very divided.”

Rep. James Walkinshaw is bringing lessons from longtime mentor Gerry Connolly into his first term, with a focus on fentanyl, federal workers and bipartisan work. (7News)

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Walkinshaw knows finding unity in these halls may be his greatest challenge in today’s political climate.

His motivation, he says, is simple. He’s an optimist who believes voters—not the vitriol—will ultimately win out if more members keep their focus on the people they represent.

“We can find common ground. At the end of the day, we all still have to live here in this country. We all have to find a way to make it work despite our differences.”

Despite being in his first term, Walkinshaw is determined to make a significant impact. Serving on the influential House Oversight Committee, he says he’s also focused on issues that matter back home—from cybersecurity to ensuring federal workers can do their jobs free from political interference.

This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury. 

Gov. Abigail Spanberger is stepping directly into the regulatory fight over the proposed $67 billion sale of Dominion Energy to Florida-based NextEra Energy, becoming the first Virginia governor to formally intervene in a case before the State Corporation Commission.

Spanberger announced Thursday that she will seek intervenor status in the case, giving her administration the ability to question both companies, review documents and argue for conditions related to customer electric bills, Virginia jobs and the state’s energy future.

“The action of actually formally intervening, it is an unprecedented one as a governor, I do acknowledge that,” Spanberger told reporters during a Zoom call Thursday afternoon. “But frankly, the size and scope of this merger application is also unprecedented.”

Spanberger said she decided to intervene after reviewing the companies’ application and hearing from Virginians concerned about what the transaction could mean for the commonwealth. If approved, the deal would place Virginia’s largest regulated electric utility under the ownership of an out-of-state company.

The move does not give the governor the authority to approve, reject or rewrite the merger. Those decisions remain with the SCC, the independent regulatory body responsible for determining whether the transaction serves public interest.

“The decision to approve or deny, or potentially put a whole new set of parameters in place or offer a whole new set of parameters of a potential deal to Dominion and NextEra, that authority still lies with the SCC,” Spanberger said.

But intervening will allow her administration to submit questions and raise concerns that Dominion and NextEra must answer as the commission reviews the proposal, she said, a process that’s now underway with regulators expected to approve or reject the deal in about six months.

Other individuals and organizations may also seek intervenor status.

What Spanberger wants from the deal 

Spanberger first disclosed her plans Thursday morning in an op-ed published in The Washington Post, writing that she is “deeply skeptical” that selling Virginia’s primary regulated electric utility to an out-of-state company would benefit the commonwealth.

“I have serious questions about what this deal would mean for us,” Spanberger wrote. “And as governor, I intend to get answers and be a voice for Virginians in the process.”

On the afternoon Zoom call, she said she’ll judge the process by three key questions: Whether it lowers customers’ electric bills, protects Virginia jobs and keeps the state moving toward reliable, locally produced clean energy.

Any approval, she said, should include a “substantial financial benefit” for customers. Rising electricity costs remain one of the most common concerns she hears from Virginians, she said.

She also said that protecting Dominion’s Virginia-based workforce — from lineworkers across the state to employees at the company’s headquarters in Richmond — will be central to her review.

Spanberger is also seeking assurances that a combined company would continue investing in projects already underway, including Dominion’s offshore wind development off the coast of Virginia Beach.

“Virginia is home to the largest offshore wind development that we are seeing on the East Coast,” she said. “That’s a point of pride for many Virginians, and any company that might be inclined towards buying Dominion Energy would have to ensure that they also prioritize extraordinary investments, but extraordinary projects like that one.”

Dominion and NextEra filed their merger application with the SCC on July 15, formally launching the commission’s review.

Under the all-stock agreement, NextEra shareholders would own 74.5% of the combined company, while Dominion shareholders would own the remaining 25.5%.

The merger would create the nation’s largest electric utility, serving roughly 10 million customers in Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. Together, the companies would control about 110 gigawatts of generating capacity and a large-load interconnection queue totalling another 130 gigawatts.

The companies have proposed $2.25 billion in shareholder-funded bill credits for customers across Dominion’s three-state service territory. Those credits are intended to offset merger-related costs for two years, although whether customers would see additional long-term savings remains unclear.

The transaction also requires approval from regulators in North Carolina and South Carolina, along with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Last month, Republican Sen. David Suetterlein of Salem and Del. Joe McNamara of Roanoke County called for a special legislative session to consider extending Virginia’s review period. They argued the state could lose negotiating leverage if its regulators act before officials in other states complete their reviews.

Both lawmakers renewed their call following Spanberger’s announcement Thursday, arguing that her intervention alone would not give regulators enough time to scrutinize the deal.

“Adding another party to a rushed decision doesn’t help Virginia’s working families,” they said in a joint statement, calling the governor’s plan “improvised and constitutionally uncertain” while noting that the SCC would still have fewer than 180 days to review what they described as the largest proposed utility merger in U.S. history.

Suetterlein and McNamara said Spanberger’s “best and plainest lawful option” is to call lawmakers back to Richmond to extend the review period, an approach they said has support from Republican and Democratic legislators, a former Republican governor and Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi.

Linking the merger to affordability

Spanberger said Thursday her merger review fits into her effort to hold down energy costs, pointing to more than a dozen energy-related laws she signed this year.

Among them is a new energy-consumption tax intended to ensure data centers shoulder more of the costs associated with their enormous demand for electricity.

Her announcement came a day after the SCC directed Dominion to develop a new rate structure that would shift more of the cost for future transmission infrastructure onto data centers and large-load customers requiring those upgrades.

Spanberger’s administration had urged the commission to avoid placing those costs on residential ratepayers.

Dominion has more than 200 transmission projects planned or under construction as it expands Virginia’s electric grid to meet demand from the state’s more than 600 data centers.

Spanberger said she expects to formally intervene in the coming days before submitting questions and other filings for the SCC to consider.

“For me, the priority is to be able to build upon the work that I have been doing as it relates to energy affordability,” she said.

A trio of Virginia teenagers recently showed up to golf team tryouts, jumped into a nearby lake to rescue three people – including a preschooler who couldn’t swim – after their kayaks capsized, and then earned spots on the squad, according to officials who are hailing their actions as “heroic”.

In events that authorities say demonstrate the kind of leadership that young people are capable of, Andrew Tuggle, 15, and 17-year-olds Gavin Cain and Jackson Castro showed up to the Culpeper Country Club links on the afternoon of 27 July to compete for places on Eastern View high school’s golf team, the local police department said in a statement.

Tuggle, Cain and Castro were near the course’s second hole when they heard screams of distress coming from adjacent Culpeper Lake, as they later said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday by news channel WUSA of nearby Washington DC.

They soon realized it was a three-year-old boy and two adults who were yelling as the family struggled in deep water after their kayaks had capsized. Tuggle told WUSA that he could see one of the adults holding the child above his head, but the effort was “causing him to go underwater”.

So, while teammates called emergency responders for help and alerted the coaching staff, Tuggle, Cain and Castro dropped their clubs; ran down the steep, boulder-strewn shoreline, which was covered in thorny bushes; and leapt into the lake, the Culpeper police department said in its statement.

The teens then swam out to the family and brought all of them back to the shore by the time first responders had arrived, police said. No one was injured, according to police, who added that Tuggle, Cain and Castro even retrieved the family’s kayaks.

Police said all three kayakers were wearing life vests – and video from an officer’s bodyworn camera that was aired by the Washington DC station WTTG showed a boy and a man at the scene each wearing one. The teens, meanwhile, reportedly told WUSA they only saw the child in a lifejacket.

“The guy actually came up to me and said, ‘You saved my life,’” Tuggle recalled to the outlet.

Whatever the case, as Eastern View golf coach Patrick Thornhill put it to WUSA, Tuggle, Cain and Castro wanted to immediately finish playing their round. Thornhill said he had to make them go home to change out of their wet clothes.

They did so, returned to the course in about 20 minutes, and shot their way on to the Eastern View golf team as it began preparing for the first tournament of the upcoming season, WUSA reported.

The Culpeper police’s statement asserted that Tuggle, Cain and Castro “prevented a tragedy”. A quote attributed to department chief, Chris Settle, said that the teens’ “courage and quick thinking … saved three lives”.

“These three young men saw someone in danger and acted immediately, without hesitation, at potentially great personal risk to themselves,” Settle said. “I hope their actions inspire all of us, and I’m incredibly proud to see this kind of leadership from young people in our community.”

Thornhill in his own prepared statement said: “The instinct and courage these young men showed to jump into action and save lives is heroic.”

Reflecting on his dramatic golf tryouts, Castro said to WUSA: “It just shows how much can change in a split second. If we weren’t there, then their lives would have changed instantly.”