Bill Cooper, Richmond Police Department, Dominion Virginia Power

Because Sen. Jim Webb said he'll campaign with fellow Democrat former Gov. Tim Kaine for his Senate bid but isn't sure if he'll campaign with President Obama, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

First up is Fairfax County Republican sheriff's candidate Bill Cooper, who is running against Democratic incumbent Sheriff Stan Berry.

Cooper ran Connection newspaper ads saying his candidacy is "Supported by Deputies, Police Officers and Firefighters," The Washington Post's "The State of Nova" blog reported Sunday. But there's one small problem: He has not been endorsed by any deputies, officers, or firefighters unions.

Although Cooper, a 23-year deputy and retired second lieutenant, said he isn't claiming any endorsements, public-safety groups are not happy. The International Association of Fire Fighters called the ad "extremely misleading and false," the the Fairfax local of the Coalition of Police called the ad "misleading and disingenuous," and the Fairfax deputies coalition said it was "very disturbed by Mr. Cooper's willful misrepresentation." Meanwhile, Barry has the support of six public-safety unions or associations.

But Cooper's defense may be groundbreaking in American politicking: "What we are saying is we have support from members of those agencies. That ad is true. I didn't even put Fairfax. It could be police officers from L.A. County for all he [Barry] knows." The Cooper Rule dictates that you can claim "support" of broadly defined groups if at least one member of that group supports you.

Following the Cooper Rule, candidates can claim they have the support of the healthcare industry if a doctor supports them, claim support of the business industry if a cashier supports them, or claim union support if a teacher supports them. Unfortunately for Cooper, however, Los Angeles County cops can't vote in Virginia.

Our runner-up is the Richmond Police Department for arresting a magazine photographer during an Occupy Richmond raid for the heinous crime of using a public crosswalk to photograph police.

Ian Graham, co-owner of RVA Magazine, was among nine people arrested at an Occupy site on Halloween for trespassing when police dispersed the protest and told everyone to leave. The ACLU of Virginia announced that it will represent Graham in court to defend his First Amendment rights, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Saturday. According to an ACLU statement, Graham was ordered to a designated area to photograph the activity, but he couldn't see the site very well so he questioned the police's authority to confine him there, and Graham was arrested on a crosswalk. He was detained for 30 minutes before being released with a summons to appear in court on Nov. 18.

"We as the press have the right and responsibility to cover the police doing whatever they are doing on public property," Graham said. The state ACLU's executive director said, "Not only was this a member of press operating under the protection of the First Amendment, but we still can't fathom how anyone could be arrested for trespassing in a public street."

Occupy Richmond Police Department has a nice ring to it.

But our winner is our good friends at Dominion Virginia Power, caught with their pants down over the North Anna Power Station nuclear reactor in Mineral that was damaged in August's earthquake.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday that Dominion and federal regulators in 1973 covered up knowledge of geologic faulting at North Anna. A 1977 Justice Department memo stated that Dominion's predecessor Virginia Electric and Power Company told the Atomic Energy Commission in June 1973 that "faulting of rock at the site is neither known nor suspected," even though Vepco knew there was faulting at the site.

Justice attorney Bradford Whitman wrote in the memo that regulators were complicit with hiding the truth and didn't stop the plant's construction or opening. Vepco could not be prosecuted for lying to regulators, Whitman said, because regulars also tried to keep the issue quiet. Vepco was fined $32,500 for making false statements, however.

Construction contractors told Vepco in 1973 about the fault, and by then all geologists involved concluded that a fault was there. Justice investigators found that Vepco deleted all references to the fault from safety analyses before filing a report to the commission with a statement that no fault was known at the site.

Both Dominion and NRC officials say this is a non-issue that has been in the public record for some time. Yet, important events lead to important questions. This was the most powerful earthquake in Virginia in a century, and no U.S. nuclear-power station had been tripped offline by an earthquake before. Subsequently, Dominion still wants to build a third unit for North Anna but on a different site from the original one proposed in the 1970s.

As Whitman wrote in the memo, "I deeply regret that criminal sanctions may not be brought against VEPCO for misconduct in an area of such major public importance as the civil construction of nuclear reactors."

That's Dominion Virginia Power, because you can lie to the feds but can't lie to Mother Nature, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Don't forget to vote today, Virginians! Worst Virginians will be taking an extended break until further notice.

Miller Baker, Nikki Poteet, Terry Beatley

Because Corey Stewart, the Republican chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, called George Allen "a terrible candidate" for Senate in January before officially endorsing him on Tuesday, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

First up is Republican state Senate nominee Miller Baker of the 39th District in Northern Virginia.

The Blue Virginia blog posted a video Thursday of Baker at a debate last month where he said, "Obamacare was a serious mistake, it was a serious mistake, it was the domestic equivalent of the Iraq war." Over groans and hissing from the audience, he continued, "It was very much overreach. Obamacare was a terrible mistake."

Baker defended his analogy to The Washington Post, "As a matter of domestic policy, it's overreach." He did note, however, that Iraq is not a "moral equivalent" to healthcare reform, just a "domestic equivalent."

The Iraq War killed 4,500 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis, whereas the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that healthcare reform will insure 32 million more non-elderly Americans in 2016. The eight-year Iraq War cost $800 billion, while healthcare reform will trim $210 billion from the budget deficit over 10 years.

But aside from all that, is Baker too clueless or incompetent to come up with a better analogy – even just comparing healthcare reform to another Obama administration policy – than comparing a healthcare bill to a tragic war that devastated American lives, families, and veterans, and that ripped the nation apart?

Baker has written on his website, "As the Declaration of Independence recognizes, the right to life is unalienable and is the first of all rights. Miller will defend life at all stages." Since he doesn't support expanding health insurance and treats a war as political fodder, Baker should retract that statement.

Our runner-up is Nikki Poteet of Richmond, 2011's Miss Virginia USA and the commonwealth's most famous homophobe not named Bob Marshall or Ken Cuccinelli.

ThinkProgress.org of the Center for American Progress reported Tuesday that Poteet's gay roommate Derek Powell told the blog that she went on a drunken, violent, slur-filled rant one night at their group house, calling him and his boyfriend "faggots" and "cocksuckers." Powell said she was upset that his friends were over, and Poteet didn't have the place to herself. ThinkProgress reported, "She responded by lashing out at Powell, his boyfriend Chris, and their friends, swinging her shoes at the group, pushing people, and claiming that her male companion would 'beat' their ass. Poteet kneed another person, ripped the door off of a family heirloom [a dresser], and 'downgraded people based on their physical appearance and economic status.'" Two other attendees confirmed the story.

Poteet denied the accusations and told ThinkProgress she has no problem with gay people. She denied breaking the heirloom, but she ended the conversation when the blog shared her text message conversation and an accompanying photo with Powell about the damage.

The Miss Universe Organization has not responded yet to criticism over Poteet. Powell told ThinkProgress: "Her comments have outraged and insulted the gay people of Richmond and the community is upset that someone like her would represent the Commonwealth of Virginia. Many young girls look up to your organization and look at these title holders as role models. This is not the kind of person that you want representing your honorable organization."

This weekend she will crown the 2012 Miss Virginia USA. Now the commonwealth of Virginia, city of Richmond, and her alma mater Virginia Commonwealth University can disown her, too.

But our winner, actually topping that, is former financial consultant Terry Beatley, president and founder of something called No Excuse Ministry PAC. (Not to be confused with real religions, faiths, and ministries).

The organization was apparently created in September with the help of a $10,000 donation from House Speaker Bill Howell, R-28th. With a slogan of "Preserving America's Republic by Advancing the Christian Worldview in Politics," the PAC's "primary objective is to defeat any incumbent who has voted to advance or inflict the abortion industry’s agenda on minorities and children, undermine or usurp parental rights, redefine marriage, or prevent school choice." Besides the usual conservative causes on abortion, marriage, and education, No Excuse Ministry wants to push a radical agenda on race politics.

Beatley has fully embraced the right-wing conspiracy theory that legal abortions are actually a plot to kill black children. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that she distributed flyers in the Fredericksburg area attacking state Sen. Edd Houck's record. Beatley claims that Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a racist and supporter of eugenics, and because of that a majority of abortion providers in America today are in black urban neighborhoods.

This is another shameful ploy by anti-abortion radicals who, rather than debating the issue on policy, science, or even morality, choose to slander and demean those who perform or obtain abortions. (Worst Virginians called out Jeff Caruso of the Virginia Catholic Conference two months ago for saying that health exceptions for abortions are a farce.) A 2005 survey found, "The decision to have an abortion is typically motivated by multiple, diverse and interrelated reasons." Additionally, Planned Parenthood said that about three-fourths of its clinics are in rural areas.

A Washington Post fact check on Tuesday over Herman Cain's similar comments found that eugenics was not an uncommon belief in the early 20th century. Planned Parenthood said in a statement, "For all her positive work, Margaret Sanger made statements some 80 years ago that were wrong then and are wrong now. Those statements have no bearing on the high quality health care Planned Parenthood provides today." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself lauded Planned Parenthood's founder in 1966 upon receiving its Margaret Sanger Award: "There is a striking kinship between our movement and Margaret Sanger's early efforts. She, like we, saw the horrifying conditions of ghetto life. Like we, she knew that all of society is poisoned by cancerous slums. Like we, she was a direct actionist – a nonviolent resister. She was willing to accept scorn and abuse until the truth she saw was revealed to the millions."

But aside from all of that is one big point: Sanger was an avid advocate for birth control, not abortion. Before Roe v. Wade and a public emphasis on abortion as women's reproductive rights, abortions were generally criminalized and dangerous, and Sanger believed birth control was the best way to prevent deadly illegal abortions and infant deaths. (Indeed, the Supreme Court held in Roe that America's modern anti-abortion laws were rooted in health-risk concerns.) She wrote in 1932, "In preventing conception, one does not destroy life; one does not interfere with the development of life; no life has been conceived to destroy." Sanger explained in 1921 her vision of what would become Planned Parenthood: 

"Why continue to send home women to whom pregnancy is a grave danger, with the futile advice 'Now don't get this way again!' ... Consultation rooms in charge of reputable physicians who have specialized in contraception, assisted by registered nurses – in a word CLINICS designed for this specialty – would meet this crying need. Such clinics should deal with each woman individually, taking into account her particular disease, her temperament, her mentality, and her condition, both physical and economic. Its sole function would be to prevent pregnancy. In the accomplishment of this a higher standard of hygiene is attained."

If radical abortion critics understood the real Margaret Sanger, they may instead adopt her belief that preventing unwanted pregnancies should be a top priority. Although said under different social circumstances in her day, these critics would fully embrace Sanger's sentiment in 1916: "A few simple words of advice would avoid the horrible slaughter of abortion going on in this country today."

That's Terry "Henry Ford was an anti-Semite, so Ford owners are anti-Semites, too!" Beatley, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Loudoun County Republican Committee, Eric Cantor, Fort Monroe Authority

Because state Senate candidate Caren Merrick won't release her National Rifle Association questionnaire despite touting her "A-" NRA rating, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The bronze goes to the Loudoun County Republican Committee and its disturbing sense of humor. The Too Conservative blog reported (and condemned) Monday that an LCRC email to supporters titled "Halloween 2011" had a cartoon montage of zombie Democrats, including a zombie Barack Obama with a bullet hole in his head. (See image at right.)

The email stated, "LCRC members and Republican candidates: We are going to vanquish the zombies with clear thinking conservative principles and a truckload of Republican candy...It's fun and a great way to represent our candidates to a ton of voters (and their kids) just before the election."

This imagery is beyond repulsive. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in the head earlier this year, and there is an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to "Barack Obama assassination threats." Gov. Bob McDonnell called the cartoon "shameful and offensive," and state GOP Chairman Pat Mullins said, "The disgusting image used today on a mass e-mail has no place in our politics. Ever."

LCRC Chairman Mark Sell issued a non-apology apology statement in response:

"The Loudoun County Republican Committee yesterday sent an email to its members that represented a light-hearted attempt to inject satire humor into the Halloween holiday. Apparently, some individuals have interpreted an image of Barack Obama that appeared within the email as intending to portray the president as a victim of a violent crime. Nothing could be further from the truth, and we deeply and sincerely apologize to the president and anyone who viewed the image if that was the impression that was left. The LCRC deplores any effort to display, suggest or promote violence against the president or any other political figure."

"I'm sorry if" or blaming the recipient for not having a sense of humor is not an apology. We'll see if Sell finds it funny when he's thrown out with the garbage on the next trash day.

The silver goes to U.S. Majority Leader Eric Cantor – stimulus hypocrite. He has lied repeatedly that the 2009 stimulus didn't work or create jobs, being called out by PolitiFact in May for his claim.

Well, as Ronald Reagan once slipped, "Facts are stupid things." Newsweek revealed Sunday that the Virginia delegation, including Cantor, R-7th, petitioned the Department of Transportation for subsidies for a high-speed rail service through central Virginia. For example, Cantor and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd, wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on April 29, 2009: "High-speed rail provides a sensible and viable solution to our region's transportation challenges. ... Providing a high-speed rail service from Washington, D.C. to Richmond will drive economic development throughout our region for many years to come. ... We believe it is truly an investment in our economic future." What they're referring to is the Federal Railroad Administration's High-Speed Rail Strategic Plan, an $8 billion program launched that month with stimulus funding.

LaHood wrote to Cantor and his colleagues that November, "I look forward to working with you as we begin to realize the Obama Administration's far-reaching vision of building a national passenger rail network."

We have a twofer for Cantor: He apparently thought Ann Arbor, Michigan, was an ideal place on Monday to redeliver his speech on how taxing the rich is not very nice, and he was challenged by Occupy protesters. Cantor said protesters' "ire and hatred toward certain people is not something that is constructive and I don't think it's reflective of the majority of America." Worst Virginians has already called out Cantor's hypocrisy on criticizing Occupy Wall Street while embracing the tea party with divisive and derisive rhetoric.

Mr. Cantor, do you feel lighter on your feet because you aren't weighed down by any principles?

But chalk up one more for government incompetence on the Peninsula, our winner is the Fort Monroe Authority.

The Daily Press of Newport News did some in-depth reporting and revealed Saturday that military family apartments at Fort Monroe outside Hampton (so-called Wherry houses) are in dilapidated condition. Before many tenants were told to move because of Hurricane Irene damage, families and officials discovered asbestos, cracked foundations, peeling lead paint, mold, and severe leaks.

A house occupied by a wounded warrior was found to be structurally unsound and unsafe, and is slated for demolition. One vacated mother left the houses with her family entirely because of her children's health conditions and age; her rent is now more than double it was at Fort Monroe. "They [the Fort Monroe Authority] should not have ever rented out these apartments. They already knew the problems. They had a full year ahead of them," she said. Another woman said her husband has suffered respiratory problems since moving into Fort Monroe.

In an email obtained by the Daily Press, Cmd. Sgt. Maj. John R. Calpena wrote, "You can see in the pictures the bricks separating and the windows coming apart. This is a media nightmare waiting to happen." Well, it happened. The Fort Monroe Authority executive director, who took over last month, said, "I had not been in the job 24 hours before I had to close them down" and cited "years and years of neglect" at the apartments.

Because the Fort Monroe Authority took responsibility of the apartments from the Army in August of last year and it allocates funds for maintenance and repairs, this is ultimately the authority's responsibility. Now under new leadership, hopefully the authority can set things right.

Virginia's troops and their families sacrifice plenty already, and they absolutely deserve better.

That's the Fort Monroe Authority, "What do you mean you don't want fungus growing in your walls?," today's Worst Virginian in the World!