Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas represents the state’s 18th District, where billionaire sports franchise owner Ted Leonsis and his associates want to move the NHL’s Washington Capitals and the NBA’s Washington Wizards. The two teams currently play in Washington, DC, from which an exodus to a proposed new arena complex in the Northern Virginia suburbs has been called a death knell for a city already experiencing challenges.
Lucas may well agree with those who think the city and the teams are a healthy match, and that ditching DC is an act of disloyalty that illustrates the deepening divide between the haves and have nots.
But that’s not her particular beef with the proposed move. She works for Virginians, after all, not for DC residents. Instead Lucas’s take on the move, which she is predisposed to reject, is Virginia-centric and being widely shared for its spicy colorful language and clearly expressed priorities. Those priorities? Education and toll relief beat out power plays and slam dunks any day of the week in Lucas’s cosmology.
The Senator is not alone in hesitating to bless a venture that seemingly does more to raise the portfolio value of ownership than the test scores of Virginia students. Virginia State Senator Adam Ebbin told WUSA9 that the “general assembly has not acted and I don’t think there is universal support.”
But Ebbin’s language sounds staid next to Lucas’s formulation, which has that meme-like quality that induces sharing.
Thank you @SenLouiseLucas for championing public education! 🍎🙏🏽❤️ https://t.co/s6Pa5pcYzM
— Anne Holton (@AnneHolton) December 20, 2023
Lucas writes: “Anyone who thinks I am going to approve an arena in Northern Virginia using state tax dollars before we deliver on toll relief and for public schools in Hampton Roads must think I have dumba** written on my forehead.” (The Senator doesn’t employ the asterisks.)
Lucas’s viewpoint takes on added significance as she takes over as Chairman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee in January.
