Virginia Tomorrow

1. Senator Warner Returns to Richmond

Mark Warner’s work on financial reform and health care cost containment has gotten him a lot of favorable national media attention. But some of his old supporters in the Virginia business community have not been very pleased with his support of much of the Pelosi-Reid agenda in Congress. I’m often asked about Warner and “where he really stands” whenever I speak to a business group around the state.  The Senator returned to Richmond this week, gave a well  received speech at the Commonwealth Club (where he reportedly took some tough questions), met with the RTD,  and observed that he had a “list of frustrations” with the Obama administration.  There’s no doubt that Warner would like to position himself as an independent moderate voice in the Senate, but if he doesn’t vote the party line, he diminishes his ability to be of direct benefit to Virginia.

2. The List of Frustrations

That Warner was reported to mention was very instructive in this regard. While most critics of the stimulus package, for example, are worried about the expansion of big government and the tax increases that hit next year, Warner took a different tack. The RTD reported that he was most critical about the “selling” of the stimulus, suggesting that the Obama administration had done a poor job of public relations, especially with its incapacity to publicize the “tax cut” embedded in the package. An enterprising graduate student could write a wonderful book - The Trials of a Business-Oriented Democrat- about congressional moderates in an era of partisan polarization that uses Warner as case study. 

3. A Seat at the Table

The one where the Metro Board sits. That’s what Governor Bob McDonnell says that Virginia should have. The administration contends that while the state makes a major financial contribution to Metro, the Virginia seats are currently taken by local NOVA representatives who may not have either transportation expertise or a statewide perspective. McDonnell’s threat to withhold funding until the state’s granted representation has angered some Democratic political figures, but whatever the partisan dimension of the situation may be, I think that McDonnell’s position stands the test of common sense. Given the contribution made by the state, why should it be denied a seat at the table?

4. “Absolutely”…., Fooled Ya

It might have been better if it had occurred on April 1, but the u-turn that the Hurt campaign took on including an independent, tea party candidates in this fall’s 5th congressional district debates was the talk of Virginia political circles this week. The candidate initally told a reporter for the Daily Progress that he would absolutely include the independent candidate in debates only to have the campaign release a statement 24 hours later to the effect that it would be irresponsible to waste voters’ time by debating a candidate who did not stand any chance of winning. I was actually more stunned by the original statement than by the retraction, as I’m sure that some of Hurt’s campaign strategists were as well. The Perreillo campaign, of course, enjoyed the flap immensely.

5. Stalin in Bedford?

The controversy about the decision to place a bust of the Communist dictator at the D-Day Memorial in Bedford does not show any signs of abating. This week the local American Legion post joined other critics in asking that the bust be removed. The Museum Board of Directors has refused to do so. But it seems to me that the critics may have a point. It  is, of course, worth pointing out the historical fact that the Soviet Union was allied with the American side in World War Two and its people suffered terrible casualties. Yet honoring Stalin in the same category of artistic representation with Roosevelt, Truman and Churchill may be a kind of moral equivalence that distorts the complete historical record.

6. Burgers with Bill

It was quite the Happy Meal for Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling who accumulated more than $300,000 in his first major fundraising event.  It’s just the start of the war chest that the LG will be accumulating to fund his gubernatorial run four year from now. If Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli ultimately decides to contest the nomination, he’ll have to mobilize his activist base with what is likely to be a major financial disadvantage. I’m not certain that money woud dissuade the AG or necessarily be decisive, but it is a factor that would have to be considered.

7. Saslaw v. ABC Privatization

The Senate Majority Leader came out this week and said that he was opposed to the Governor McDonnell’s effort to privatize the ABC stores. A signature McDonnell campaign proposal, this is setting up to become one of those clasic battles between a Governor and a powerful Senate leader.  There hasn’t been much discussion of this, but it’s likely to occupy more and more airtime as the Governor’s Regulatory Reform Commission completes its work.