Bacon's Rebellion

George Fitch Throws his Hat into the Ring

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Well, it’s official now. George Fitch has officially declared his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor. If crime were an overriding issue, I might give Jerry Kilgore some thought. But, let’s face it, it’s not. To my mind, the overriding issues facing Virginia are figuring out how to provide core services without raising taxes. And that requires two things: reforming government processes and changing land use patterns.

I am not privy to George Fitch’s thinking in any detail, but my understanding is that he has done a creditable job with the first (efficiency in government) as mayor of Warrenton, and has at least a passing awareness of the issues pertaining to the second. My impression of Kilgore is that he’s a nice enough guy but is utterly conventional in his thinking.

While Fitch seems a long shot for the nomination, I’m hoping he can stimulate some fresh ideas in the GOP…. which sorely needs them.

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

Comments

  1. Will Vehrs Avatar
    Will Vehrs

    Jerry Kilgore certainly sounds depressingly conventional thus far, but he hasn’t really kicked off his campaign or introduced the issues and programs he will be running on as yet.

    I’d be a lot more interested in George Fitch if he’d taken any kind of high profile on state issues. I guess he’s created the “Warrenton Miracle,” but I’d feel a lot better about him if he’d stood up and proposed some state efficiency measures before now.

  2. Phil Rodokanakis Avatar
    Phil Rodokanakis

    Will: I agree generally with your comments, but the idea that Kilgore hasn’t kicked off his campaign is only technically correct. As you know, Kilgore has been campaigning for years now. The fact that he hasn’t held his official campaign kickoff, is rather immaterial. He’s had ample opportunity to talk about the issues he’ll be running on–and he’s been pretty muted on this front.

    I got a 7 page letter from Kilgore the other day. He was asking for money, of course, but I thought that given the unusual length of the letter, it might include some pointers about what Kilgore believes in or what direction he will want to follow if he’s elected. Needless to say, there was no substance to all those pages–it was a money appeal based on generalities.

    Campaigns are won on ideas. Kilgore to date has failed miserably to express any ideas–come to think about it, I really wonder whether he has any, other than it is his turn to be our next governor…

Leave a Reply

ADVERTISEMENT