As Northern Virginia business leaders downed muffins and coffee yesterday in a Tysons Corner conference room, Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. (R) railed against what he called the "free lunch bunch" and "flat-earth crowd" in the Republican Party that he said have not acknowledged how much it will cost to improve the state's transportation network.
"All of Virginia has to pay for this. Every single man, woman and child will have to pay for this. And it won't be free," the Winchester legislator, who is running for governor as an independent, told the group.
As he concluded, Peggy Trossen, former president of a GOP women's club and a campaign worker for Republican candidates, lifted her purse onto the table, pulled out her checkbook and wrote out a donation to Potts's campaign.
"I think he's a straight shooter," said Trossen, who has known Potts for more than a decade but said his speech yesterday sealed her support. "Most Republicans will say they're going to lower taxes. There's the example of the [rollback of] the car tax -- it was very gimmicky. He's not saying anything like that. He's saying it costs money."
Potts, who has been expelled by the state Republican committee for his independent run, is out to convince voters that his third-party candidacy can be viable in a race in which both national political parties have pledged to contribute millions to their nominees. He is also collecting signatures. To get on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election as an independent, Potts must gather 10,000 signatures from across the state by June 14.
Yesterday, he took his message to executives who are members of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. The group has met with Potts's likely opponents, former attorney general Jerry W. Kilgore, a Republican, and Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a Democrat.
In a version of his stump speech, at turns fiery and folksy, Potts promised to put together a blue-ribbon panel to consider ways to improve transportation, with all ideas on the table, including a gas tax increase. As governor, he said, he would hold a special session of the General Assembly to pass a transportation plan and travel the state to sell it.
Afterward, Potts said he felt confident of the support in the room of influential business leaders, who have traditionally leaned toward Republicans but lately have supported the fiscal policies of Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat. Besides Trossen's check, Potts said he received pledges of support from five or six others.
Whether Potts ultimately will draw more support from Republicans like Trossen or Democrats who might otherwise have backed Kaine, however, remains murky.
John Lesinski, a real estate executive who attended the event, said he had been leaning toward Kaine before the breakfast. Now, he said, he's taking a harder look at Potts.
"I'm still keeping my mind open, but I'm very impressed with his openness and honesty on issues that Democratic-leaning voters care about," he said.
Potts has vowed to let local governments reinstate the car tax to pump more money into state services. Yesterday, he excoriated conservatives for what he called their "obsession" with social issues. And he blasted a Kilgore proposal for a constitutional amendment that would require a voter referendum before raising state taxes, calling it a way to avoid leading.
"Let me spell referendum for you," he said. "It's spelled C-O-W-A-R-D."
Comments such as those have led Kaine supporters to paint Potts's candidacy as a sign of division within the Republican Party.
"There are a lot of Republicans who are not comfortable supporting" Kilgore, said Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner.
But Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh, who said the referendum proposal is about trusting the people to make decisions on taxes, said Potts's message will resonate more with Democrats.
"If you consider Russ Potts and Tim Kaine together, at least you can say about Russ Potts he's telling the truth. He'll flat-out tell you that he's raising taxes," Murtaugh said.
Kilgore will face Warrenton Mayor George Fitch June 14 in the Republican primary for governor. Kaine is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
