{"id":1044,"date":"2004-11-01T15:53:10","date_gmt":"2004-11-01T20:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/11\/01\/virginia_news-2\/"},"modified":"2004-11-01T15:53:10","modified_gmt":"2004-11-01T20:53:10","slug":"virginia_news-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2004\/11\/01\/virginia_news-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest Richmond Times-Dispatch poll<\/a> has Governor Mark warner\u2019s approval rating at 61%. Not shabby for a Dem. in what is supposed to be a rock solid Red state. <\/p>\n

But I think it\u2019s less so and may surprise a few folks tomorrow. Clearly, Kerry has an uphill battle here. A Mason-Dixon poll in the last week of October had Bush up by 6%. That\u2019s within what I call the MOMTIONV — margin of misrepresenting the impact of new voters. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

But the long-term view is very encouraging. I talked with someone recently about the turnout at town hall meetings on taxes last winter. Though sympathetic, he was of a mindset that that was an organized effort led by Mame Reilly, Warner\u2019s PAC director, and therefore discounted it. But the RTD poll also found that a clear majority of Virginians \u2013 56% — say the tax increase was necessary. Only 21% — one on five \u2013 say it wasn\u2019t; the rest are undecided. It seems the anti-tax crowd is dying a slow death.<\/p>\n

Here in Fairfax County, the Fairfax County Taxpayer Alliance<\/a> has posted road signs saying \u201cBonds=Taxes\u201d and urging a vote against park and transportation bonds. The FCTA was helped by a Washington Post story<\/a> the other day of a Club for Growth TV ad that\u2019s run lately against the bonds. We\u2019ll see how that goes.<\/p>\n

With no party registration, we rely on self-identification. And the RTD polls say GOPers enjoy a 31\u201427% margin over Dems. That leaves over 40% independent. If you say that the lion\u2019s share of the 21% who opposed the taxes are GOPers, there is room aplenty for Dems and more moderate voices to be heard in the next General Assembly session \u2013 and in the 2005 House of Delegates elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest Richmond Times-Dispatch poll has Governor Mark warner\u2019s approval rating at 61%. Not shabby for a Dem. in what is supposed to be a rock solid Red state. But I think it\u2019s less so and may surprise a few folks tomorrow. Clearly, Kerry has an uphill battle here. A Mason-Dixon poll in the last… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}