Janet Oleszek is running for the Democratic nod for the seat being vacated by Chap Petersen. But by the flyer she just mailed out, you’d think she’s aiming much higher. She will “fight to”:
*Make health insurance more affordable
*Extend coverage to the uninsured
*Increase the supply of health professionals
How, may I ask, does a state delegate do that?
The race for the GOP nomination for Lt. Guv. has Bill Bolling and Sean Connaughton trading charges about taxes. No surprise there. But for Connaughton, who is supported by Congressman Tom Davis and has potential to be an honest Republican, to have little conviction on taxes is disappointing.
Bolling accused Connaughton of supporting the tax increases that Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) and centrist Republicans pushed through the General Assembly in 2004.
Connaughton said he supported more money for his county but opposed the tax increases in light of the surging economy that was expected to generate more state revenue.
His transportation plan includes proposals to guarantee that the Transportation Trust Fund is spent exclusively on transportation while using budget surpluses to develop specific projects.
Great: another no-tax-hike-and-pay-for-roads-out-of-surplus-funds approach. How novel! (Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!)
Leave you guys alone for a week and look what happens. Russ Potts endorses George Fitch in the GOP gubernatorial primary, who says he’ll never raise taxes, while Potts promises he will. The Dems get a new leader with some fight in him, Tim Kaine wants to save the family farm (from itself, I guess) and Jerry Kilgore gets called a wimp by a resurrected pol.
Relaxed but not rested (pedaling those hills in the Rockies leaves one breathless), I’m back.
Interesting to see the distribution of funds from Governor Warner’s One Virginia PAC. Greg Werkheiser received the most at $15,000 for his race against Dave Albo in the 42nd district. Dave Marsden, who has no primary opponent and is an ex-Republican running to succeed Jim Dillard in the 41st district received $10,000. The same went to Paula Miller in her first general election campaign in the 81st district. Other challengers funded, all getting $5,000 checks, were Dave Poisson in the 32nd race against Dick “I hate homos and baby killers” Black, Earnie Porta, running against Mychele McQuigg in the 81st, Supriya Christopher, running for Bob McDonnell’s seat in the 84th and Bruce Roemmelt, for his fight against Bob Marshall in the 13th.
No report for or by Hilda Barg, running against Jeff Frederick in the 52nd. Maybe she’s just doing OK all by herself. I suspect her big check is in the mail.
Back soon. Share the Road.
This reporter (no doubt part of the liberal media) gets fired, but not the VP for the same language.
The Washington Post editorializes that Jerry Kilgore enjoys the “luxury of inexperience” and notes the hypocrisy of Republican governors who funded his misleading ad.
On the campaign trail, he has advocated a dazzling array of tax cuts while making facile promises to increase funding for vital state needs such as transportation. A neat trick if he can do it; his fellow Republicans — including some of the very same governors who sponsored the silly ad now airing in Virginia — certainly could not.
Trust Bob Marshall or Dick Black to introduce legislation to toughen the ban or the penalties rather than get this law off the books.
This is another example of government fecklessness. But I don’t understand why we cover this drug at all.
Dave Poisson, running against Dick Black the 32nd district, had an extraordinary announcement today: Some of the leading associations in the country — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — will host a fund raising reception for Dave. The release is here.
It’s part of a broader picture. It may well be that national business groups, concerned about the lack of investment in basic infrastructure and the deficit spending of the Bush administration, are looking down the ballot to where the fight for basic services has been driven — the states. No doubt that states are picking up costs that the feds no longer can handle. In Virginia as elsewhere, the battle then is to prevent the state from pushing the costs on to localities.
It may well be, too, given Black’s extreme social agenda [Disclosure], that moderate Republicans, of which I’m sure there is at least a few in the U.S. Chamber, think things are going too far.
Poisson is a businessman and a moderate Democrat. It seems unusual for several national associations to get involved in a state race like this. But maybe there are more Republicans than we can imagine who say enough is enough.
Try Googling some of the names on the host committee.
Want to save an average of $400 a year on car repairs? Get your legislator to find the money to fix the roads! Without a tax increase, of course. In the DC area, 70% of the roads are in fair to poor condition. In Richmond it’s 81% and in Virginia Beach, 78%.