|
Christina
Nukols confessed that the lack of competitive races
was the only reason she and fellow commentators Jeff
Schapiro of the Richmond
Times-Dispatch and Michael Shear of the Washington
Post could spare the time to bloviate.
The
headline for Daily
Press columnists Hugh
Lessig and Terry Scanlon said it all: “Fat chance for competition among
legislative seats.” Their assessment of the races to watch
appears to be the conventional wisdom: three Senate
races in Northern
Virginia
and open seats in Fairfax
and on the Eastern
Shore.
Republican Senate incumbent Ken Cuccinelli
may in trouble along with Democratic incumbents
Linda “Toddy” Puller and Ed Houck. Democrats may grab open seats in the House
formerly held by Republicans in Fairfax
and on the
Eastern
Shore
.
Margaret
Edds of the Virginian-Pilot
bemoaned the lack of financial support to Tidewater
Democrats offered by Gov. Mark R. Warner. Should Democratic challengers fall just short
on Tuesday, she has her next column already written.
According to Edds, Warner has been more than
generous to Northern
Virginia
candidates while being stingy with the Eastern Shore
House seat and two Senate seats in Sought Hampton
Roads. A
possible reason: “Warner may be soft-pedaling
opposition to Republicans who, if victorious, he
hopes will side with him on his legislative
priorities come January.”
Two
bitter, hotly contested local races are
overshadowing the pedestrian General Assembly
match-ups. The
Washington
Post’s Metro columnist, Marc
Fisher, attacked both candidates in the marquee
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors race:
The
two contenders to succeed Board of Supervisors
Chairman Kate Hanley (D) -- Supervisor Gerry
Connolly and school board member Mychele Brickner --
offer voters a choice between an ethically
challenged veteran of county government and a poorly
informed extremist who won't even say how she voted
on one of the biggest issues to face the county in
the past decade. This is not a pretty picture.
Former
Virginia Governor
L. Douglas Wilder made a last-ditch appeal in
the Richmond Times-Dispatch for his crusade to allow the City of
Richmond
to elect an at-large mayor.
He attacked opponents of the plan for past
hypocrisy, notably U.S. Representative Bobby Scott,
D-Richmond, D-3rd,
and State Sen. Henry Marsh, D-Richmond.
Wilder appealed to incrementalism:
The
election of the Mayor-at-large by districts is not a
panacea for all of the City's ills. No single thing
could be. Yet you fall into the trap of those who
say if you can't fix everything at once, you don't
fix what you can now.
Look
for fall-out and recriminations over the Fairfax
and Richmond
races to overshadow any statewide reshuffling of
Democrats and Republicans in the General Assembly,
especially if Brickner pulls an upset and the
at-large mayor proposal passes. The establishment always goes down hard.
No
Sign of Politics
When
he wasn’t trashing Fairfax
County
candidates, Marc
Fisher was examining the limits on political
expression imposed by Virginia
homeowner associations. Residents are forbidden from posting
political signs on their property, giving up their
free speech rights:
If
those rights are constitutionally protected, no
homeowners association should be able to strip them
away. But homeowners associations do this all the
time, and some courts have backed them up.
Homeowners
associations present themselves as friendly
neighbors volunteering on behalf of their community,
but in fact, they are rogue governments, with many
of the powers of public authorities and almost no
public accountability.
Fisher
pointed
approvingly to a Maryland
law that prevents homeowner associations from
prohibiting political speech in the form of signs,
noting that Virginia would never pass such a law because
Virginia
is just different, and anyone who takes a day or two
to go down and watch Virginia's legislature will be
impressed by the near-absolute commitment to a
strange mix of libertarianism and conservatism. The
end result is that it's very easy to use property
rights arguments in Virginia
to defeat any restriction on developers and
builders--and they're the ones who write the
covenants in private communities. Of course, you
could argue that individual property rights trump
the developer's rights and that therefore sign bans
must go. But I don't see much sympathy for that
approach in Richmond,
do you?
Perhaps
there wouldn’t be as many political signs on
median strips if homeowners could post them in their
yards. At
least after an election, we’d know who wasn’t
cleaning up after their candidate or their cause.
Tax
Round-Up
U.S.
Senator George Allen took to the op-ed pages of
the Washington
Times to tout his bill to prevent taxation of
Internet access. David
Lerman of the Daily Press analyzed
the problems Allen was having with his cause and
then reported
that the bill had failed, with Allen working on an
amended bill in an effort to save it.
Tax-drum
percussionist Gordon
Morse penned another ode to the joys of
increased revenues in the Daily
Press. Along
the way, he attacked the cynical silence of
Republicans on just what state spending they would
cut. In the Washington
Post, Melanie
Scarborough asked Democrats some tough questions
about taxing and spending.
Virginia
Chamber of Commerce Vice-President Steve
Haner made the case for shielding Virginia
businesses from an increase in corporate income tax.
Writing in the Richmond
Times-Dispatch, he claimed that business already
pays its fair share:
The
coming struggle over the corporate income tax in
Virginia is misguided. The potential revenue will be
minimal and the goodwill lost could be invaluable.
Businesses already have too many incentives to
relocate or downsize.
Free
to Pay Fees
Times-Dispatch
outdoor columnist Garvey
Winegar discussed the increasing trend toward
user fees to support the Department of Game and
Inland Fisheries.
A few days later, he announced his retirement
after recounting some of the outdoor reporting trips
he had enjoyed on the RT-D
tab. “In retirement, I'll probably be lucky to
finance a trip to Bottoms Bridge,” he joked.
Let’s hope that Virginia doesn’t raise
fees to a level that would prevent this fine writer
from enjoying the retirement he so richly deserves.
--
November 3, 2003
|
