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Score one for Ken Cuccinelli. Or at least his supporters.

Backers of the attorney general, running for governor next year, succeeded in winning a number of new spots on the state GOP’s
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (L), and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) stand side-by-side on the steps of the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. (Photo by Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post)governing board over the last few weeks.

What does that mean?

The 81-member State Central Committee will now revisit the issue of whether the party should hold a convention or a primary next year for governor.

Cuccinelli, who faces Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling in a tough contest, has long backed conventions. Many political watchers believe he would be more likely to win the nomination in that kind of contest because he has strong support among the party faithful. Bolling has long favored primaries.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released his second general election TV ad in a handful of swing states, including Virginia.

In the ad, Romney says he will announce deficit reductions, end big government and stand up to China on trade on his first day in office. In an earlier ad, he said he would approve the Keystone pipeline, introduce tax cuts and start undoing the federal health care law.

Read more on The Fix

Update, 10:15 p.m., May 24:

The City of Falls Church has decided to suspend Friday’s planned auction of its water utility after the federal agency that supplies the city with water determined that it could not sell water to an investor-owned utility, the city manager said late Thursday.

The city had planned to open sealed bids to begin an auction for any qualified utility interested in purchasing its water utility for at least $44 million. But its plans were dashed by a ruling from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ legal counsel that the Washington Aqueduct can only provide water from the Potomac River to governmental agencies.

“It’s unfortunate the Army has reversed itself,” Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields said late Thursday. He said the city had proceeded with the sale on the basis of a March 8 memorandum from the Corps that suggested the Washington Aqueduct could serve a governmental or an investor-owned water utility. “In light of that, the city will suspend until further notice the bid opening and auction scheduled for May 25. It’s disappointing. That’s all I can say right now.”

The decision to sell off the utility came after Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors voted last year to assume authority for setting all water rates for county residents, including those who received their water from municipal utilities in Falls Church, the City of Fairfax or Vienna.

Update, 3:55 p.m., May 24: Less than a day before the City of Falls Church prepared to open sealed bids for the possible purchase of its water system, Fairfax County officials said Thursday that the federal agency that supplies the city’s water has issued a definitive legal opinion saying that it can sell water only to another governmental agency, not a privately owned utility.

Until Thursday,  the City of Falls Church said it was proceeding with the sale of its water system for at least $44 million to all comers, based on a memorandum from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that said the agency would continue supplying water from the Potomac River to any qualified purchaser, including an investor-owned utility or another governmental entity. But Fairfax County officials, armed with a contradictory opinion from Earl Stockdale, who is the corps’ chief legal counsel, warned that the city could end up selling nothing but a bunch of pipes to a private company. On Thursday,  it appeared that the Fairfax County view of federal law had prevailed, according to an e-mail they received from the Pentagon. 

“Following separate briefings yesterday from counsel for the City of Falls Church and counsel for the Fairfax County Water Authority, the Army General County Counsel has elected to let stand Mr. Stockdale’s May 17, 2012, legal opinion regarding the authority to deliver water from the Washington Aqueduct to Falls Church,” writes Craig R. M, deputy general counsel for the corps’ Installations, Environment & Civil Works.

It’s not clear what bearing the new legal ruling will have on the proposed sale.   

Former U.S. Rep. William Wampler Sr., a Republican who represented Southwest Virginia in Congress for 17 years, died Wednesday night at his home in Bristol.

He was 86 and had been in declining health for at least six months, said Del. Terry G. Kilgore (R-Scott), a family friend.

Wampler served in the House for two years in the 1950s, and again from 1967 to 1982, when he was defeated by Democrat Rick Boucher.

“At the age of twenty-six, he had already served in World War II and been elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he championed the causes of his constituents in Southwest Virginia throughout his distinguished career of public service,” Gov. Robert F. McDonnell said in a prepared statement. “I have personally been touched by the passion the Wampler family has for Virginia and for creating opportunity for all of the people of the Southwest.”

Vice President Biden will headline a fundraiser for former governor Tim Kaine Thursday night in his race for the U.S. Senate.
Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Keene State College on May 22 in Keene, N.H. (Jim Cole/AP)

The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. in McLean, according to the White House.

Other details were not available and the Kaine campaign did not immediately return a request for information.

Kaine will likely face Republican George Allen, who is the front-runner in a four-way race for the GOP nomination.

Republicans, including Allen, have criticized Kaine, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, for his ties to the Obama administration. Kaine has not shied away from Obama in his race, though he has broken with him on a handful of issues.