Warner First in America in Restoring Voting for Felons

I am curious if this is the type of legacy an executive should be seeking to make for himself:

The Washington Times: "Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who has returned voting rights to more felons than any other governor in state history, also leads the nation in restoring felons' rights. "

I guess if your goal is a crass effort to build a new voting constiuency, this is the legacy of legacies.

This is part of a larger Democrat strategy to draw from an untapped source of new voters while they are losing ground within the Hispanic and African-American communities. And the Times reports

Several grass-roots organizations yesterday announced a campaign to aid 10,000 convicted Virginia felons who want to vote again. The coalition of groups, based in Virginia and in the District, will urge Mr. Warner to restore the right to vote to thousands of eligible petitioners before he leaves office in January.

10,000 new voters can swing a statewide election and would easily change the makeup of numerous legislative districts.

Virginia has approximately 2200 precincts. This would be 4.5 extra votes per precinct. In a house district with 22 precincts, that would be 100 votes. That can swing an election easily. And if this effect can be duplicated in 2 to 3 districts in combination with proper targeting in other districts, it can change the makeup of a legislative body. The point: registering 10,000 likely new Democrat voters would give Warner and his party a huge advantage in a strongly Republican state.

William Simon said, "Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote." I seems that Governor Warner wants to send bad politicians to Richmond by means of bad people. As Lord Acton would say, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."