Editorial: Virginia Democrats should agree to a special session. Here’s why. | Editorial

Republicans are probably right now auditioning contenders for a parole board ad with a modern-day (and not nearly so sympathetic) Lady Luck waving her “wand of power” over state government.

Democrats can laugh that off now but this is potentially the type of issue that could cost them the governorship — and their majority in the House. That’s how potentially serious this is.

Democrats are acting as if they’re bulletproof. Maybe they are. Maybe the state’s demographics have changed so much — and the state’s suburban voters have realigned so much — that it doesn’t matter.

Maybe the weakest Democratic nominee for governor can defeat the strongest Republican nominee for governor. We’ll see.

But maybe there are lots of voters, particularly in those suburbs, who might agree with abolishing the death penalty, legalizing marijuana, removing Confederate monuments, expanding ballot access and the other things Democrats have done over the past two years — but still aren’t so keen on the parole board releasing convicted killers, and breaking the law in the process.

In the back of their minds, House Democrats seem to realize they might be vulnerable; they didn’t want a reenactment clause in the marijuana legalization bill, apparently because they feared if they lost their majority, a new Republican majority wouldn’t reenact the bill. The parole board scandal is the type of issue that could make that Republican majority happen.