The GOP's Missed Lesson

JERRY W. KILGORE'S stinging defeat in last month's Virginia gubernatorial race has provoked a venomous debate within his Republican Party: How did things go so badly wrong that a Republican candidate in a solidly red state could lose by 113,000 votes? Unfortunately, the party's leadership seems to have drawn precisely the wrong lesson from the outcome, concluding that Mr. Kilgore, a staunch conservative, was not sufficiently right-wing. If that analysis sticks, look for the Republicans to lose the next gubernatorial election by even more.

Guided by political handlers whose instinct was to throw red meat at the state's most partisan voters, Mr. Kilgore bashed gay marriage and illegal immigrants, celebrated the death penalty and courted pro-life activists and gun owners. His distaste for new taxes was so pronounced that he once cynically suggested that he would oppose a "yes" vote on regional referendums to raise new road revenue -- even as he made a point of favoring the referendums themselves. His favorite president was Ronald Reagan. And this is the man GOP leaders say didn't measure up as a conservative? Please.

Mr. Kilgore lost because he was too much of an ideologue, not too little. He thought Virginians cared more about expanding capital punishment than expanding their road networks. He attacked a Democratic tax increase, broadly accepted by Virginia voters, that helped public schools. He hewed to the GOP's anti-tax rhetoric and disdained the no-nonsense, nonpartisan, pragmatic governance that has made the incumbent Democrat, Gov. Mark R. Warner, so successful.

It's remarkable that the Republican leadership, led by state chairman Kate Obenshain Griffin, doesn't get that. After all, there are plenty of clues. After Mr. Warner pushed through his $1.5 billion tax package last year, anti-tax activists vowed revenge against the 17 Republicans in the House of Delegates who defected to the governor's side. But just one lost his bid for reelection, and his defeat was mostly unrelated to backing Mr. Warner. Rather than being punished for pursuing a pragmatic course on investing in the state's future, moderate Republicans were rewarded.

To support their unfounded theories about Mr. Kilgore's defeat, Republican hardliners cite the victories of his supposedly more unyieldingly conservative GOP running mates, Lt. Gov.-elect Bill Bolling and Attorney General-elect Robert F. McDonnell. But Mr. Bolling won against a weak Democratic candidate, and Mr. McDonnell -- better-known and better-financed than his opponent -- barely won at all; his victory margin of 323 votes, out of some 1.94 million cast, could be reversed in a recount scheduled for next week.

Virginia is a predominantly Republican state, but its voters' brand of Republicanism is moderate and pragmatic. Party leaders who fail to grasp that will face further electoral setbacks.