Message from Don Hall

Delivering legislative wins requires more than hard work

The upcoming election season also requires an investment in our future

February 2022

As you know, a record month takes work. Sales records are predicated on a lot of small wins and many people working behind the scenes to achieve a goal.

As we’ve repeatedly told you, our premier legislation that will require manufacturers to adequately reimburse you for warranty and recall work is successfully moving forward in the General Assembly. But this success did not occur over the last few weeks of lobbying.

No, it came from months of hard work, meetings, calls, planning, and relationships by our legislative team and input from our Board members.

Like a record sales month, a lot of sweat and tears goes into getting these votes. And for us to succeed requires access to the lawmakers who cast votes for or against us.

In my nearly 35 years of working within Virginia’s political landscape, I’ve never seen an election cycle as critical as the upcoming contests for the state Senate and House of Delegates.

All 40 state senators will be up for election in 2023. All 100 House seats are also expected to be up for election next year. You may have seen news reports noting delegates might have to run later in 2022 in newly-drawn legislative districts. Regardless, the time to raise money for pro-dealer candidates begins now.

One of the best examples of how VADA works in the legislative world is with this year’s warranty and recall bill, which has overwhelmingly passed thanks to our efforts and access. This bill will ensure your stores are fairly compensated for warranty and recall work. These are real dollars that will impact your bottom line and protect technician jobs.

If you are not a part of the process, then you can’t fight back against policies you don’t like such as last year’s passage of the state’s overtime law that failed to protect our long-standing dealership overtime exemptions. VADA was able to work with legislators to secure a temporary fix, and we continue to fight at the State Capitol to permanently preserve those exemptions.

Still, the overtime law episode demonstrates just how crucial it is to keep telling our story. An essential way to do that is to keep contributing to the Virginia Auto and Truck Dealers PAC.

Last year, when voters weighed the fate of the House of Delegates, the governor’s race, and other statewide offices, dealers throughout the Commonwealth stepped up to the plate and contributed to our cause with generous donations to our PAC.

These PAC donors are colleagues you know in the business, people who understand the importance of promoting VADA’s pro-business message to our state leaders.

We owe each donor a thank you for contributing to our business’ collective future. Please take a moment to go through the list of PAC donors at the end this column to recognize the contributions of our colleagues.

The stakes were high last year, and they still are. Redistricting will usher in new primary challenges with lawmakers forced into primary and general election fights they didn’t have before their legislative district lines were redrawn.

And we need to be there for the elected leaders who have been there for us.

Donating to a charity whose mission you believe in goes beyond a one-time contribution. The same holds true for making a continuing investment in our industry’s future.

Please thank our 2021 PAC donors and support our PAC today so we can keep moving forward.

2021 Virginia Auto & Truck Dealers PAC Governor’s Club (Donors who gave at least $2,000 in an initial year and $1,500 each following year):