He’s been in the Virginia House of Delegates, farmed asparagus, emceed a blog conference, served on the Southside Virginia Development Authority, written articles, columns and blogs, co-authored a book, served on the Patrick County Board of Supervisors, received his B.A. from UNC and a M.B.A. from Duke, was project director for the Tri-Area Health Clinic, owned a store, served on bank, hospital, library and nursing home boards and killed himself a bear (talked it to death).

Currently, Barnie Day is Vice President of River Community Bank and seeking to fill the empty judgeship seat on the State Corporation Commission. He would be the first non-lawyer to serve on the SCC. He has the backing of the Virginia Senate as well as the endorsement of Rep. Virgil Goode, who believes that Barnie would bring enthusiasm, independence and good experience to the SCC from his banking and public-service background.

The Virginia House of Delegates is favoring Bernard L. McNamee II, a Republican lawyer-lobbyist who withdrew his nomination in December. Apparently, he was reluctant to face varying degrees of legislative opposition as well as questions about his professional, political and personal ties to industries regulated by the SCC. He lobbies for State Farm Insurance Co. (hmmmm…..)

Seems like a no-brainer to me but you know our General Assembly. If they fail to fill the empty seat by March 5th, Gov. Kaine will make the appointment. Contact Speaker Howell and/or your delegate and let them know, we want Barnie!

UPDATE: Jerry directs me to today’s editorial in The Roanoke Times. He’s right. The Times, whether they realize it or not, has endorsed Barnie:

Virginia does not need to balance its courts and commissions with right- and left-wing jurists. Splitting a commission between polarized parties would create only another venue for partisan bickering.

There’s a better way. Senate Democrats and House Republicans should realize their dream appointees will never fly in the other chamber. Instead, they should seek moderate individuals to serve on these commissions.

Neither side must cave to the other, but surely they can find qualified Virginians willing to serve the commonwealth without first running everything through a partisan filter. Such people could bring a spirit of working together and striving for practical solutions that has been sorely missing in Richmond lately.

or, “Everything I think I know about the transportation bill, I learned from Barnie Day.”

Barnie’s back and once again applying his eloquent prose regarding the transportation bill. While Brian Kirwin uses pie charts and Del. Albo uses toy blocks to demonstrate the (in)significance of 1% in a general fund budget of $17.3 billion, Barnie simplifies it like this: “This bill will have as much impact on transportation in Virginia as a wad of spit would in the Atlantic.”

More pearls from Barnie: “Probably 75 percent of Virginians don’t even know the legislature has been in session — and of those who do, the majority don’t care.”

Personal favorite pearl:

“These Northern Virginia poobahs get elected by running against the state, giving away the store recruiting all the growth and congestion they can lay hands on, and by approving subdivisions helter-skelter and around the clock. Then they say to Richmond, “We’ve got a problem. You’ve got to fix it. Pave us out of congestion.”

The reality is they’ve got all the tools they need to straighten out their own messes — all they need except the courage to use them.”

The bottom line on the transportation bill (as well as a lot of cockfighting type chaff) may best be summarized by:

“. . . we’ve got to get transportation off the table for now. It’s blocking a lot of other important stuff, like 40,000 additional kids coming into our higher education system — 40,000 kids with no place to sit.”

That bear never stood a chance.