Affiliates... The General Assembly session is underway in Richmond.   Catch our Daily General Assembly reports featuring Capitol Reporter Matt Demlein.   The first report of the cycle runs at  5:15 in the afternoon.   The same report also runs the next morning--or on Monday morning in the case of a Friday afternoon report--at 4:15 and 7:15 a.m.  


  If you missed the January edition of Ask the Governor on VNN...here's some of what you missed.

1.     Governor McDonnell was asked about his recent endorsement of Mitt Romney for President.  McDonnell says he thought about who he would endorse for a long time, and came up with Romney because of his experience as a governor.  He says that kind of experience helps with budgets and working with two chambers of legislative government.   McDonnell says it's also very disappointing that there's not going to be a wide variety of names on the Virginia primary ballot on March 6th.   McDonnell was asked if the bar was too high to qualify.  He says it may be, but that's for the General Assembly to decide.

2.   A caller challenged Governor McDonnell on his endorsement of Mitt Romney and angled for her favorite candidate in Ron Paul.  She says that Paul has experience in Congress...and that should translate well to the Presidency.  McDonnell answered by saying that he thinks Paul is a feisty candidate, but he does have concerns about Paul's approach to national defense.  

3.  A caller who lives in Wakefield told the Governor he's concerned about what could happen if Route 460 becomes a freeway type road.  He's concerned about what would happen to some iconic small businesses in those areas--including the Virginia Diner.   McDonnell says it's the same kind of concern that small businesses had when the interstates were built.  Route 1 had to go through the same thing when I-95 was built.

4.   Governor McDonnell discussed one of the items from Tuesday night's State of the Union address that he had a problem with.   President Obama refused to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling for Virginia, yet seemed to advocate it during his speech.  McDonnell said that he's still waiting for a call from the President that Virginia can go ahead with drilling for natural gas off the coast