Sen Wagner Retaliates Against Citizen Advocate

(The following is from http://bryanscrafford.wordpress.com/ 01/23/2008)

Sen. Wagner's Office Seeks Vengeance
Posted on January 23, 2008 by Bryan Scrafford

As many of you may remember, Monday was Citizen's Lobby Day and many citizens went down to Richmond in order to "lobby" for certain bills that they favored. In other words, they were going down to Richmond to talk with members of the General Assembly hoping that it would have a greater impact than simply making a phone call, sending an email, or writing a letter.

From the responses I've heard from people, their participation in the event was extremely worthwhile - even if they didn't persuade their representatives to vote the way they wanted.

In the case of those visiting Sen. Frank Wagner's office, however, it appears as though they received a significant amount of resistance. According to a diary over at Raising Kaine, someone from Wagner's office even called one of the citizen's boss to complain that members of his group were "knifing Sen. Wagner in the back on the Uranium Bill after the senator had gone to bat for the solar industry."

This is simply unacceptable behavior. As a member of the General Assembly, Wagner and his staff should know that there are almost always going to be people who disagree with the positions he takes.

Furthermore, it is the right of these citizens (and some might say, their responsibility) to come forth and express these opinions in a professional manner without being afraid of punishment. Apparently someone from Sen. Wagner's office doesn't agree and decided to lash out against this citizen by calling his employer.
As Lowell and Ben have suggested, people should stand up against punishing people for actually trying to take part in our democracy. You can do so by calling Senator Wagner's office at 804-698-7507 and tell them that they were wrong and demand a statement from the Senator.

We agree wholeheartedly with this writer! Sen Wagner should be charged with "legislative harassment" of a citizen or "abuse of his office" as a representative of the People!