After Emma and I made calls to VA Senator Jeannemarie Devolites, asking her to vote against Virginia HB751, Emma and I got a letter from her afterwards that stated “I voted for HB751, as I do not support marriage or civil unions between those of the same gender”. Link to her scanned letter
So I thought I’d google her to see what kind of strong moral fiber was behind such a bold position.
Devolites’ bio in a local paper states that she is divorced – hmmm . thats not very good in the eyes of her church … well – maybe the Pope gave her special dispensation.
But all the local papers are abuzz about her upcoming marriage ….
the WashPost says …
Davis is a popular congressman seeking a sixth term in November whose influence in the national GOP grew with his recent chairmanship of the party’s powerful fundraising arm. Devolites, a rising star in the state party, won a Senate seat last fall after three terms in the House of Delegates and had ambitions to run for lieutenant governor next year. She was the first Republican woman to hold a leadership post in the House and is the only female GOP senator.
Davis was elected to Congress in 1994 after serving on the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, of which he was chairman. Last fall he worked unsuccessfully to swing the balance of power on the county board, supporting the GOP candidates for chairman and several other seats. Now chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, he also headed the National Republican Congressional Committee, a group devoted to winning U.S. House seats, from 1998 through 2002. During that time, the committee spent more on nonfederal races in Virginia than in any other state, helping to consolidate Republican control in the General Assembly.
Devolites, who works as a technology consultant, benefited most from Davis’s campaign donations, receiving more than $140,000 over the last four campaigns. He was her largest single donor.
Fox News has an interesting story about Devolites’ daughter Ashley serving time for armed robbery (!)
Virginia State Lawmaker’s Daughter Goes on Crime SpreeThursday, March 21, 2002
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The daughter of a leading northern Virginia state legislator pleaded guilty in federal court to armed robbery and faces up to 27 years in prison for a five-week crime spree that stretched from New York to Virginia.
Ashley E. Devolites, 20, admitted in court documents that she and two men from New York state robbed a string of gas stations last summer, using a 1990 Honda registered to her parents.
Devolites’s mother Jeannemarie is a Republican whip in the House of Delegates and has represented part of Fairfax County since 1998.
Jeannemarie Devolites declined to comment after the hearing Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton. The defendant’s father, John Devolites, who is divorced from her mother, said: “We love Ashley and it’s a really tough time. … She got herself in with some really tough people.”
Ashley Devolites served as the trio’s driver or lookout, but she was responsible for selecting targets in Virginia, according to court documents. Four of the nine robberies occurred in Virginia, including two in Fairfax, one in McLean and a holdup of a pedestrian in the parking lot of Tysons Corner Center, officials said.
The robberies began in July and ended Aug. 17, when the two men were arrested in Suffolk County, N.Y., after robbing a gas station while Devolites waited in a nearby motel, court records showed.
Her attorney, David Deane, said that his client cooperated with the investigation. But court records said Devolites “knowingly and intentionally provided misleading information which hindered and delayed the investigation of this case.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Mellin declined to comment.
She will be sentenced June 14 (2002).
Here’s what I say " I don’t support politicians who come from such high moral ground and presume to act as judge and gatekeeper to my family. I do not support their right to decide how my family will live, or why our family gets to be treated as second-class citizens. "