By Gordon C. Morse
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Less than a month remains before Virginia's June 14 major party primaries and, by gosh, we have candidates who have something to say.
Let's see. We have a "conservative leadership for the future of Virginia," and we have a "progressive leadership, traditional values." One candidate promises, for reasons unspecified, that he's "uniting all Virginia." Then there are the details.
Virginia spends too much, seems to be the thrust of Warrenton Mayor George B. Fitch's bid to snatch the Republican nomination for governor from the well-funded favorite, former attorney general Jerry W. Kilgore.
"Did you know," Fitch declares on his campaign Web site, "that spending in Virginia has increased 50 percent in the past four years?" To learn more, the Web site says, "Click here."
So the visitor clicks and then reads, "Did you know: Spending has increased by 50 percent in the last five years?" Four years, five years -- what's the diff, right?
Fitch then makes his pitch to do something about this situation and offers "My Solution." First on his list: "Eliminate all programs that are no longer relevant, e.g., Department of Mattresses, and save $10 million."
Now that sounds like mighty fine cost-cutting. Only one thing: This department doesn't exist.
The state Department of Health does include a Bedding and Upholstered Furniture Inspection program, created by the legislature in 1946 in the cause of bedbug-free stuffed stuff. But the program is a fee-based, self-supporting enterprise, according to state health officials.
Fitch's $10 million, by the way, comes out to $232,000 in actual money spent per year, and 60 percent to 80 percent of that, officials estimate, is paid by out-of-state firms.
Fitch's heart is in the right place, you might say. You might say that about all the candidates. If only their brains would join in the festivities.
It may be a little unfair to resurrect golden oldies, but Kilgore has done as much in a new TV ad. The announcer, who has one of those voices familiar from every campaign cycle, sonorously states, "It's about experience, the experience to take a stand on tough issues -- abolishing parole for violent criminals . . ."
Okay, stop right there. Tough stands. Abolishing parole. Violent criminals. That's a throwback to George Allen's administration, in which Kilgore was secretary of public safety.
Some sensible sentencing reform emerged from Allen's efforts to end parole, but the issue's utility for rousing the rabble was never overlooked -- especially when Allen made prison construction an essential corollary of parole abolition and dispatched Kilgore to deliver the message in no uncertain terms. The idea was to frame the issue for the 1995 legislative races.
So Kilgore appeared in Williamsburg to warn a local crowd that new prisons must be built, lest violent criminals, by necessity, be set loose in the streets of the commonwealth. Your life is at risk. Vote Republican. Simple.
Not quite. At that time nearly half of the state's prison inmates were in the clink for nonviolent offenses. What Kilgore was implying was that convicted murderers and rapists would be freed before drug users and burglars. As a political position, it was novel. Yet it went unobserved. Kilgore likely surmised, if he thought about it at all, that no one cared who was who in the prison system or what they did to get there.
But we have politics, and we have heroics. In the latter category is Bill Bolling, a state senator from Hanover County who is contending for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. In the world of political invention, Bolling stands out.
"Developing a transportation system for the 21st century is the most pressing issue facing Virginia's state government," he says on his Web site. "We must increase the amount of money that is available for highway construction projects."
Got it: More money, better roads, less congestion. Wrong.
"While additional funding for highway construction is needed, it is not necessary to increase taxes to secure this funding," Bolling says. Well, what a relief.
At different times, Bolling has favored elimination of the local property tax on cars; cutting taxes on food and income; increasing dependent deductions and indexing them to inflation; and a fixed requirement that all state budget surpluses be returned to taxpayers. Bolling also has supported smaller class sizes; better educational facilities; enhanced adult and juvenile literary programs; improved teacher pay; and tax credits for parents with children in non-public schools.
Still looking for hope? One candidate has yet to embarrass himself. He plays down the social stuff and seems to appreciate the costly and dysfunctional arrangement between Virginia state and local government. His name is Sean T. Connaughton, and he is chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
That's not an endorsement, just information. Hey, at least he hasn't jumped on the great mattress issue.