Kilgore Mandates Wider I-66 For N.Va.

Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said: "This is just another instance of Jerry Kilgore making promises that he can't keep. He's made it clear he's going to give Virginians two choices: To vote in referenda he will campaign against to raise taxes or sacrifice school funding for the sake of transportation."

Kaine's approach to transportation is based less on a commitment to specific projects and more on better coordination of land-use decisions with planning for road and rails. He has proposed a measure that would give localities the power to reject development if roads are too congested to support it.

Kaine supports a project underway to add a westbound lane on I-66 inside the Beltway, but he has not committed to an additional eastbound lane, as Kilgore has. Kaine spent yesterday campaigning with Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) at rallies in Fredericksburg, Culpeper and Warrenton.

Supporters of a wider I-66 say it's a no-brainer. The highway it clogs for miles in both directions during weekday rushes and throughout weekends, and more lanes would be needed to evacuate the District, if that became necessary.

"You cannot solve the transportation problems of this region if you do not widen I-66," said Wolf, who, like Davis, commutes on the highway.

Opposition to adding lanes is fierce among Arlingtonians who were promised when it was planned that it would remain four lanes through their county. That statute has since been undone, but the county board and residents contend that the spirit of the agreement should be honored.

Opponents say more lanes would just add more cars to more backups and create more noise and air pollution in neighborhoods. Others contend that widening the highway would do little to solve traffic problems because a bottleneck would remain where the road enters a tunnel in Rosslyn.

"This is merely political posturing one week before an election," said Arlington County Board member Paul Ferguson (D), who attended the news conference and recalled similar promises from then-Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) and Wolf the week before legislative elections in 1999.

There's also the question of money. Kilgore has pledged as much as $193 million to widen I-66 and he, Wolf and Davis said there is enough state and federal money to cover costs. Virginia transportation officials, however, have said the total cost would be somewhere between $224 million to $466 million, depending on the scope of the project.

Also yesterday, new campaign finance reports shows that from Oct. 1 to Oct. 26, Kilgore raised about $4.4 million, taking his total to about $21.2 million, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks contributions. Kaine raised $3 million for a total of $18.4 million.

Independent candidate H. Russell Potts Jr., a Republican state senator from Winchester, said yesterday that he intends to be a candidate until the end of the election, despite polling in single digits.

At a press conference in Richmond, he criticized Kilgore for running a "horrible campaign" and said Kilgore's "no-show" at a recent visit by President Bush was a disservice to the Republican leader.

Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh said of Potts: "Desperation has clearly taken hold. He is an angry, bitter, spiteful man."