The following is a note from Rita Dunaway, one of the staff counsels for the Convention of States Project:

The cause advances in the Commonwealth of Virginia!

The Convention of States Resolution, sponsored in Virginia by Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, passed the Rules Committee in the Virginia House of Delegates last week by a bipartisan vote of 8-7.  In a packed hearing conducted in the Speaker of the House’s Conference Room, Dr. Michael Farris presented compelling testimony which included a brief history lesson to dispel the myth that our Constitution was the illegitimate result of a “runaway convention,” and informed the Committee members of the historical precedents that provide protocol for interstate conventions.  Dr. Farris reminded the Committee that Virginia’s General Assembly issued the very first call for an Article V Convention in 1788, which it referred to as a “convention of the States,” for the purpose of adopting a Bill of Rights.

Delegate Lingamfelter’s Resolution is expected to be considered by the full House early next week (probably Tuesday), and we need your help!  Follow this link to find the contact information for your Virginia House delegate and give him or her a call.  Every call counts, so pick up your phone and make a difference!

Our success last week was in large part due to a groundswell of grassroots action.  Our alerts went out Wednesday night, as soon as we learned that our Resolution was on the docket, and by Friday morning one legislative aide informed us that she had received around 150 e-mails on this one issue, overwhelmingly in support!

Working together, we can do what is required to put our nation back on track.  It will happen when we inform our neighbors, call our legislators, and e-mail committee members.  Tonight, we extend a hearty thanks to all of the patriots in Virginia whose time and energy made this victory possible.

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.