Larry Nordvig has never been shy with his opinions to the media. He has been on Greta Van Susteren’s show multiple times and once led a high-profile Eric Cantor protest rally as a Richmond Tea Party leader, railing against Cantor for his record and for being out-of-touch with voters. So his recent actions seem straight out of an episode of the Twilight Zone.
BACKGROUND:
In February a special election was held in Powhatan County for the supervisor position in Nordvig’s district. Larry Nordvig was serving as Vice Chairman of the Powhatan GOP and was poised to run for this quick special election. He won with the help of the Powhatan GOP, tea party activists, and the two GOP supervisors currently sitting on the Board, who were all too eager to get another conservative vote on the Board so they could start reducing spending and cutting taxes.
Everyone was committed to helping Larry Nordvig win because Powhatan government needs a serious overhaul. Rural Powhatan has a little over 28,000 residents, but they have the third highest real estate tax rate in the Greater Richmond area at 90 cents. Additionally, they increased spending 5% last year (far above inflation plus population growth) and just increased it another 5% this year – which Larry voted in favor of this month. They are now spending over $203,524 per day for the next year to support this spending habit. They are also sitting on over $120 million in debt.
NORDVIG VOTES AGAINST TAX RATE REDUCTIONS and FOR SPENDING INCREASES
Larry’s background with the tea party movement and the Powhatan GOP left little doubt with anyone that he would carry through with his campaign promise to reduce spending and taxes. I’ve known Larry for years and I’ve always supported him, so I was shocked when I started receiving phone calls and emails from his supporters who were apoplectic that he had done the exact opposite. I immediately picked up the phone and called Larry’s cell phone myself. I left him a message that I had heard some news that was disturbing, knew it could not be true, understand there are always two sides to every story, and to give me a call so I could straighten out the confusion. And then I waited. And waited.
I saw him posting on Facebook throughout the day, but he never called back. I asked him on Facebook to give me a call. Still nothing. He started posting that his “opponents” were coming after him because he had voted for the spending increases and voted against the tax rate reduction. Keep in mind that his “opponents” were his own Republican colleagues and activists that had just spent months helping him comb through the budget for savings at his request. In a strange turn of events, he claimed the reason he voted against the tax rate reduction was because of a lack of transparency. He claims that his fellow Republican supervisors were sneaky and blindsided him with this tax rate reduction budget amendment, so he couldn’t support it. There are a couple of issues with this claim:
- He worked for months with key constituents and the supervisors independently with this proposed budget, at his request.
- He campaigned on lower taxes. Not only should he not have been surprised by the proposal, he should have been the one championing the proposal.
- I have seen emails and text messages that demonstrate his awareness and involvement in putting together the proposal. He can’t claim he didn’t know it was coming. In fact, he sent one constituent an email explaining why it didn’t come up at the previous meeting, but assured him there was plenty of time to introduce it at the next Board meeting.
THE BIZARRE TWIST
In what can only be described as bizarre, Larry Nordvig attended the Powhatan School Board meeting a few days after his spending increase vote and gave a speech to the teachers saying that in the same way JFK stood at the Brandenburg Gate and stated,  “Ich bin ein Berliner” that Nordvig was standing before them now to be the champion for teachers and bigger school budgets saying, “I am a Powhatan Teacher!”
Nordvig later spoke during a County Board of Supervisor meeting and made a political speech from behind the dais renouncing his membership in the Republican Party and withdrawing his name for consideration to be on the 2015 general election ballot for supervisor as a Republican. He then proceeded to vote against, for the second time, a one cent real estate tax rate reduction for Powhatan County residents.
Nordvig has undergone a radical political transformation since his February election. He abandoned his pledge to lower taxes, repeatedly attacked his Republican colleagues on the Board who worked to get him elected, abandoned the Republican Party and the Tea Party, and heaped effusive praise on the County Administrator and the School Board Chairman after they presented the Board with a proposal to raise the tax rate by 11 cents. Who could ever trust him again?
17 comments
He lied …Never ever lie to me
Jamie – you say “who could ever trust him again?”. This will have wide-spread ramifications. Who will ever trust the neighbor, door knocker, and phone banker who urged their friends to stand with them to support Nordvig. They have lost their credibility. So sad.
That credibility will have to be earned back. A lot of political capital was spent to help him win a very close election. 468-403.
I for one will spend between now and November personally apologizing to my neighbors, and doing everything I can to make it right.
vote for Bob Marcellus in November imho
I can’t help but laugh at Larry Nordvig’s mailer that came in today. He’s tripling down on his lies, and declared himself to be anything but a conservative.
A couple of “pull quotes” verbatim:
A) “Created Laws for new fire and rescue dept. and increased deputy sheriff coverage”….
LOL. OK, so you made government bigger and take credit for funding a couple of existing positions ?
B) “Helped fix broken pay scale, ensuring fair pay for our teachers and county employees.”
Conservatives don’t believe in “pay scales” and we darned sure don’t believe in tax hikes or increased spending to pay for it. Or lying to ones constituents using the premise.
C) “Explored a variety of businesses to generate new ideas for commercial growth.”
What does that even mean ?!?! Seriously.
Did we hire more consultants ? It wouldn’t surprise.
D) “Davenport and Co. bond consultants reports reduction of debt since I’ve been elected.”
Speaking of consultants…here, he takes credit for a net result that occurred via reduced spending and borrowing policy set before he was elected, and has not cast any significant vote to effect any change.
Holy hop on the record of others Batman !!!!!!! Being that the only real accomplishment Nordvig has is increased spending and stopping a tax cut, I guess I understand.
E) “Held tax rate steady- LIKELY lower this cycle”.
So he was elected on the promise of reducing spending and taxes, then voted not to do so under false pretenses. Now he says they may “likely” go down “this” cycle. What about the next 3 cycles ?
Nordvig has no credibility on taxing and spending. None. Here, he’s clearly hedging his bets and has completely abandoned any premise of conservatism or tea Party principles.
F) “Stopped unfair 11th hour tax ambush”
This is what is pathetic on so many levels.
First, since when is a tax CUT to taxpayers an “ambush” ? Not a tax increase, not “revenue neutral”, a tax CUT is an “ambush” in Larry Nordvig’s Powhatan. Yes, he actually said this…….. multiple times.
If anyone out there feels “ambushed” by their taxes going down, please let me know !
Furthermore, it wasn’t an ambush. Something that is a matter of record. Nordvig has lied about this repeatedly, and shamelessly sticks to his story even after documentation proves otherwise with no ambiguity. Somewhere Hillary Clinton is blushing and asking why that didn’t work for her.
I don’t believe that the vast majority of people would place any blame or mistrust on the victims of the skilled grifter and their ponzi schemes anymore then then would lay any blame at the feet of a sincere political volunteer who has supported a fundamentally dishonest candidate. Of course its embarrassing for everyone but I don’t see any loss of credibility. The credibility fallout rests solely with Mr. Nordvig not the victims of his falsehoods and misrepresentations.
Well, there are some days I simply cannot stand the Republican Party for reasons that are too many to go into. And even I, an old Tea Party stalwart, in my frustration imagine what it would be like to support key Democratic positions. Then I think the whole process through, reverse course and head back to Realville. I guess Nordvig kept on going on to Fantasy Land.
horribly disappointing to hear this about Larry N.
I am a constituent of Mr. Nordvig’s. I used every available tool and platform I had to help him get elected. Not much really in the grand scheme of things, but everything I had.
Personally, I really struggle with this. Mr. Nordvig is an Annapolis graduate. The Navy and its culture were a part of the first half of my life. Assumptions are made about Annapolis grads. That they are persons of high moral character. That their integrity is beyond question. Thus, I went above and beyond to extend the benefit of the doubt last week. Words cannot express my anger and disappointment.
It is important to note that Mr. Nordvig repeatedly and vociferously stated that he had no knowledge of the now infamous “budget amendment”. That it was truly an “11th hour ambush” to which he had no part. Emeging information indicates that is not, and was not the case. Which means every stance and position taken subsequent to that meeting has been based on a lie.
He has publicly thrown conservatives under the bus, declared the Powhatan GOP to be “corrupt” on the Facebook feed of the local paper of record. Who carried the water for only one side of this story.
He has played the victim. The disillusioned patriot, and he has played it well. He has now launched an independent bid for the seat, after withdrawing from a primary challenge and embracing local Democratic grass roots.
vote for Bob Marcellus in Nov. imho
It wasn’t I saw proof
Well, there are some days I simply cannot stand the Republican Party for reasons that are too many to go into. And even I, an old Tea Party stalwart, in my frustration imagine what it would be like to support key Democratic positions. Then I think the whole process through, reverse course and head back to Realville. I guess Nordvig kept on going on to Fantasy Land.
Politics is politics. No surprise on this. Expect too much and you will surely be disappointed – and that goes for all parties and political persuasions.
As In many organizations, those who do all the work do not do it for the glory or the fame. Nordvig was a late comer to the Tea Party but was given credence by the media as it’s spokesman at the time when tea parties were being persecuted by the IRS. People were really afraid and went into the shadows. When he
Sounds like he wasn’t vetted well enough and that he is a progressive plant.
He was. He played the part for years, and changed within 8 weeks of being elected.
First in open disclosure, I am not and have never been a member of any Tea Party organization, though I do agree with many of their positions, especially regarding accountable taxing policies and the threat of our federal deficit.
Every political organization has it’s quota of opportunists that come and go based on the personal options these groups hold for them at any given point in time. It is a fact of political life and frankly modern human nature. The one thing I have noted regarding the Team Party Movement is they seem especially susceptible to these type of individuals given the openness of their nature and their willingness to accept fellow supporters at their word. They often catch flack from the paid professional political cynics because of this and are accused of being politically naive, as if acceptance and fellow support, was some type of horrible contagious disease. It frankly just demonstrates to me how debased our political discourse has become in the US. The lessons here are very simple really – 1) people can disappoint you but you just need to learn, to accept and to move on; 2) political labels (party or otherwise) in the 21st century are increasing meanless, so you need to invest the time to really listen to what people are saying who have political ambitions, the label on the package just doesn’t tell you much any more; 3) individuals who engage it this type of behavior become marked and the stain is indelible and follows them thoughout their public careers.