Bacon's Rebellion

Notable Quotable

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Good to see our intrepid (Update: Oops! See Steve’s comment) Bacon’s Rebellion colleague Steve Haner providing Chris Jenkins of the Washington Post some good quote at last night’s Gov-elect Kaine transportation meeting in Roanoke:

“He’s going to hear more songs than a Broadway musical,” said Steve Haner, the lobbyist for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and a spokesman for the advocacy group Virginians for Better Transportation. “There remains a lot of debate, a lot of discussion and a lot of disagreement on these things, and I suspect he will get them all on this issue.”

“He isn’t giving any indication of which way he wants to go on any of this,” Haner added. “I think it’s going to be wide open. I’m not expecting any deep insights.”

I may be in the minority here, but I am still baffled why we had an election campaign with transportation as a top issue. Why didn’t Kilgore and Potts think to just promise statewide meetings, instead of promising to complete specific projects or raise taxes? The genius of Kaine is becoming apparent.

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

Comments

3 responses to “Notable Quotable”

  1. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    I always talk to Jenkins with a bit of care, because he likes to parse quotes more than some others. I’m not expecting any deep insights from the meetings, but I do think Kaine will put something together for the session. He has time.

    And for the record, Jenkins caught me on my cell in Chesterfield County. I couldn’t make the Roanoke trip, but will catch a couple of the other meetings — and will report in if worthwhile.

  2. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    And I would be remiss in failing to note, Will, that many people worked all year to see to it that transporation was one of the main topics of discussion this year. That was the main goal of the Virginians for Better Transportation campaign. And while we haven’t achieved consensus, I think the effort raise the level of debate. The PEC backed “The Road to Ruin” as a direct response, and that’s fine — this deserves debate.

  3. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Will, I’m mystified as well. The Kaine Krew originally billed the meetings as a tour to build a coalition behind Kaine’s transportation agenda. That would have made sense. But they’ve conducted it more like a listening tour, as if Kaine really hasn’t made up his mind what he wants to do. He’s sending very mixed signals.

Leave a Reply

ADVERTISEMENT