Virginia Tomorrow

1. Physically Closed, Politically Open

That’s Virginia’s rest stops. Governor Kaine attempted to place the blame at the feet of Eric Cantor this week, suggesting that the House Minority Whip had jawboned fellow Republicans into not supporting Frank Wolf’s proposal that would allow the rest stops to be privatized.  Cantor denied the charge and Bob McDonnell wrote Kaine a letter, sugggesting that he put politics aside and reopen the stops. I’m not quite sure why the administration continues to dig its heels in on an issue that can’t possibly help the ticket in November. Reopening the rest stops and taking the issue off the table could only help the Deeds campaign.

2. SURVEYUSA Puts Entire GOP Ticket Up By Double Digits

Republicans privately exulted (while saying publicly that early polls are meaningless). Democrats privately fretted (while publicly drawing attention to the poll’s methodological weaknesses).  Election results in November have often diverged significantly from summertime gubernatorial polls. Yet the results clearly raise a pointed question about the basic premise of the Democratic strategy to date. If people are so happy with the direction Virginia is moving and  how Democrats are governing the state, why would initial polls show every Democratic statewide candidate down by double digits?

3. Stolle’s Last Legislative Victory

Retiring Senator Ken Stolle’s crusade to have the special session called by Governor Kaine consider compensation for Arthur Whitfield who spent 22 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit appears to have succeeded. Stolle’s proposal was endorsed by Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds and the Governor’s office softened its original stance about only addressing the impact of the Melendez case in the session to permit discussion of compensation for Whitfield.  Stolle’s tenacousness will enable him to leave the Assembly on a high note and, more importantly, allow the Commonwealth to do the right thing.

4. Stolle’s Departure

I met Ken Stolle when he first came to Richmond as a member of the General Assembly. His brother Colin, now in the Virgina Beach Commonwealth Attorney’s office, had been a student in a number of courses and was instrumental in getting Ken to speak in my Virginia Politics class. He came to the legislature after being a cop on the beat who had become an attorney when he actually “read” for the bar. Stolle was a major player on law enforcement issues in the Assembly and his background as a policeman was invaluable. Over time, he was viewed as one of the Senate “moderates” and in 2001 had widely publicized rift with then Governor Jim Gilmore. He continued to take the time to talk with my students in the evening and I always appreciated his candor and frankness. In fact, I’ll never forget a description he once offered of the challenges he faced in making decisions in the Assembly. He told my students that he was a conservative guy, tough on law and order issues, and not inclined to be a big spender with other people’s money. But what should I do, he said, when a 83 year old woman comes before my committee and tells us that she is having trouble caring for her sixty year old mentally ill son at home and asks whether there is any additional assistance we can provide her so that her son won’t have to be institutionalized. He asked my students “what should I tell this woman?  Should I say that there is nothing more that we can do to assist her or do I try to find an answer (that may cost us additional dollars) but lets her care for her son in her own home.”  I thought then and still think now that this was an extraordinary description of the kind of choices legislators grapple with all the time. He recently announced that he has Parkinson’s Disease, but this won’t stop him from running for Sheriff in Virginia Beach. And it won’t stop him from continuing to be the kind of public servant that takes on causes like Whitfield’s.

5. What Do Virginia Democrats Want From Obama?

That’s the question Politico asked this week in an article. I was quoted saying that they want Obama’s fundraising capacity and his ability to mobilize Democrats to turnout on election day. I don’t think, however,  that they want the national Democratic Party’s issues- cap and trade, card check, health care. etc. Finding a way to benefit from Obama’s talents without having to be associated with the Democrats’ policy agenda is a major challenge for the Deeds’ campaign Watching how he walks this tightrope will tell us a lot about how skillful a political leader Deeds is likely to be if he’s elected Governor.

6. Democrats in Congress Appear to Put Card Check on the Back Burner: Does This Help Deeds?

I believe so. Bob McDonnell has been pounding on Deeds’ refusal to criticize card check legislation for months. The mere fact that the Democrats are unlikely to bring the issue to a vote in 2009 won’t stop him from continuing to do this. But it should reduce the salience of the issue, especially in the minds of ordinary voters. It’s hard to get people excited about a matter that’s not even heading for a vote prior to November.

7. A Moment of Grace

Outside of politics this week. The Washington Post ran an extraordinary story by William Wan that described the odyssey of four young friars who walked from Roanoke to Washington, D.C. (in their frocks) , carying only a cell phone and a change of underwear. Emulating St. Francis, the founder of their order, they depended on the kindness of strangers (and the grace of God) for their food and shelter. They not only arrived safely in D.C., but the sight of the young men walking evoked the curiosity and generosity (along, of course, with some catcalls and pointed gestures) of dozens of Virginians. It was story that offered a unique insight and window on our response to the unusual. The Post’s editors should be commended for placing it on Page One and for understanding that Wan had managed to capture something well beyond the ordinary.