Bacon's Rebellion

“The peculiar population of that suburb were gathered on the sidewalk; bold, dirty-looking women, who had evidently not been improved by four years of military association; dirtier, if possible, children; and here and there were skulking scoundrelly-looking men…hard at it, pillaging the burning city.”

From ‘To Appomattox–Nine April Days, 1865’ by Burke Davis, Eastern Acorn Press, 1959, 433 pgs., on the fall of Richmond.

According to this Roanoke Times editorial, “If Virginia’s next governor gets it wrong on transportation, people will suffer.” The transportation plans of Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore “are as inspiring as sitting in traffic and choking on fumes during a hot August day.”

A transportation plan that will satisfy the Times is actually pretty simple–in fact, it sounds suspiciously like the outlines of the after Labor Day promised Russ Potts plan. Just raise the gasoline tax, “develop and stick to a unified plan to combat the diversified needs across the state,” and, most importantly, stop this talk of regional taxing authorities and regional referendums. Regions can “weigh in” on their needs and offer possible solutions, but anything more than that is off the table. Oh, and throw some “intermodal solutions” in there, too.

This is the ultimate straight talk plan, not an attempt to “appease” voters like the exhaust sniffing Kaine and Kilgore plans. A plan to develop a plan and stick to the plan is just the plan Virginia’s transportation system needs to avoid needless suffering.

OK, ye readers of tea leaves, ponder this: The Kilgore campaign has issued a press release noting that Jerry Kilgore will take “a Warrenton Main Street tour” today. He will be joined by three town councilmen and Patricia Fitch, wife of Mayor George Fitch, whom Kilgore vanquished in the contest for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. There is no mention of Fitch himself participating in the tour.

Surely, this event must have some significance; the Kilgore campaign would not have issued a press release about a routine campaign stop. But the Kilgore crew offers no explanation. What could it mean?

For the record, the Blue Dog is dovetailing Barnie Day’s earlier post.

I’m assuming the ‘Much Ado’ Potts-Wilder summit at Richmond City Hall took place this morning between Russ Potts campaign manager and the Mayor’s policy advisor.

However, Paul Goldman told the Blue Dog, he has also held meetings with Tim Kaine and Jerry Kilgore’s campaign staff.

“There’s no reason why the Virginia Gubernatorial candidates can’t support these issues,” said Paul Goldman.

The list of the 10-urban issues, per policy wonk Goldman…

1) Support legislation allowing Mayors to require that agencies like the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority to use the City Attorney’s office for all legal work. Right now, state law allows these independent agencies to choose whether to use the City Attorney [and it would be free to them!] or hire outside legal counsel, which the RRHA does, for a whopping 1 million dollar a year last year! [It was 1.5 million two or so years ago!]. Thus, this state law change would cost the state NOTHING.

2) Support legislation that requires approval by voters in a referendum before the City Council can pass a new tax, or raise an existing tax, for the purpose of dedicating these new public tax dollars to benefit a private entity.

3) Support legislation expanding the definition of a “persistently dangerous school” under the No Child Left Behind law so that parents in such schools can have more options for their children and so that the school system will know that if such schools are not improved, then parents can take their kids out and send them to another city school.

4) Support legislation to make it easier for cities like Richmond to use existing state laws such as the one promoting public/private sector cooperation sponsored by Henrico Senator Walter Stosch, the leader in this area, to get a desperately needed new City Jail.

5) Support legislation establishing a pilot state/local program in certain cities with the highest Virginia murder rates, to help booster the effort of local police, something that Richmond Delegate Frank Hall has suggested.

6) Support legislation, similar to the current state law sponsored by Newport News Senator Marty Williams, that forbids a lame-duck City Council from giving lucrative golden parachutes to certain top city officials as was done last year in Richmond when a lame-duck City Council gave city manager Calvin Jamison a $170000 golden parachute.

7) Support legislation that gives localities more power to deal with unruly behavior by public school students and to hold parents or guardians accountable for the disruptive public school behavior by these students.

8) Support legislation requiring everyone sent to prison for a drug crime to take periodic drug tests for 18 months after release from prison as this will help them stay off drugs, encourage them to get jobs, be productive members of society and thus a new law would not just fight crime but also serve as a rehabilitation measure.

9) Support legislation giving a refundable tax credit to low and moderate-income families to offset the increase in their taxes passed last year.

10) Support legislation giving localities incentives to replace old-style public housing projects with newer and more modern approaches to developing such housing projects.

~ the blue dog

For those who are following the political hackspersonship that is being fomented around the Supreme Court’s Kelo v New London decision: Today’s WaPo has a front page story and a double truck jump spread on what is happening in Southeast Federal District in response to the baseball stadium plan.

Actually there are three points to be made:

One: It is a crime that the stadium is going forward with little apparent conceptual planning to create a Balanced Community in the area between the Anacostia and the Southeast Freeway nor is there any reported acknowledgment of the National Capital Planning Commissions Year 2050 Plan to make South Capital Street into an new monumental corridor with, perhaps a great setting for a relocated Supreme Court complex.

Second: The front page picture of the two story Star Market/open air drug market which is now next to two new 14 story buildings is exactly the sort of problem (if there were a well considered, comprehensive plan) that would be helped by the majority opinion in Kelo and wiped out the knee jerk pandering to erect “safeguards.” See our post of 23 June on this Blog titled New London Hotel Panic.

Third: All that new development and all those new “private property rights/property value” would not exist unless the public was investing/coordinating half a billion dollars in infrastructure and facilities. That reality is omitted in all the discussions of “property rights.”

EMR

Just as he’s putting the finishing touches on his ‘the-sky-is-falling’ campaign– based largely on opposition to last year’s tax increase–you remember, that one that was bi-partisan in nature and saved Virginia’s coveted Triple AAA bond rating–the Virginia Employment Commission up and announces Friday that the Commonwealth gained 50,300 jobs during the last year, shattering the previous 12-month record growth by 26,800. Wish as hard as he might that Virginia suffers under commonsense, centrist government, Kilgore must face the fact that it does not. What’s a guy to do? A thought: he’d be a lock for the role of ‘Chicken Little,’ opening at Republican playhouses everywhere come November. I doubt if he’d even have to audition.

The Martinsville Bulletin has several reports on candidate and officeholder appearances at the Peach Festival in Stuart over the weekend. (No word on whether Barnie did any “belly-bumping.”)

It appears that everyone is in favor of a new college in Southside, although they don’t want to be pinned down on the exact location or the funding.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-9th): “I’m strongly for that (a college in Southside.) I’m hopeful that the state will move forward … once that happens we can work on getting federal funding (for the college).”

Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine: “I am not walking out of office without a four-year university started in Southside.”

Jerry Kilgore: “I have been committed to a four-year college in Southside from the beginning.”

Sen. Bill Bolling: “I support it. I think it’s a great idea.”

Sen. Russ Potts: “Those politicians may tell you they’ll get $500 million for a new college but that’s not reality.” Building a college “step by step” is the way it should be done, he said.

I hope someone will ask the candidates about a university in Southside at the debate in Northern Virginia.

I also hope someone will ask Russ Potts who “those politicians” are and what figure is “reality.” Potts always seems to have plenty to say about everyone else’s position, but not so much about his own.

Based on media reports, Jim has his impression of the Jerry Kilgore and Russ Potts appearance before the Virginia Association of Counties meeting yesterday.

What I noticed in the coverage was the total lack of any specifics from third party candidate Russ Potts. Apparently, when you’re “heaping scorn” on the Republican candidate, you get a standing ovation for platitudes like “no free lunch” and “put every revenue stream on the table.” Kilgore’s specific proposals are detailed and dismissed; Potts’ criticism is hailed as “refreshing.”

Add county officials to the editorial boards as Russ Potts’ constituency. They both savor the idea of increased taxes–they don’t need to know anything more. I could be wrong, but I think voters will want to know how much their taxes will go up and where that revenue will go.

Tyler Whitley’s Richmond Times-Dispatch story is here; the Roanoke Times story by Michael Sluss is here; Kate Andrews’ coverage in the Daily Progress is here. Were 50 people in the audience–or 150? That’s one discrepancy in the coverage.

It will be interesting to see reports tomorrow on Tim Kaine’s appearance before VACO today.

Russ Potts received a standing ovation at a Virginia Association of Counties gathering in Charlottesville Sunday for a speech in which he stated his willingness to raise taxes and denounced Jerry Kilgore, as a “coward.” Kilgore, by contrast, drew a “tepid” response when he appeared earlier in the day and defended his proposal to cap real estate assessment increases at five percent, according to a story filed by Virginian-Pilot writer Warren Fiske.

For the first time in this campaign, I actually agree with Potts: State government should not meddle with local taxes. Enough is enough, the independent candidate for governor said. The flexibility of local governments has been crippled already by the General Assembly’s efforts to reduce car taxes. “Let me see a show of hands for how many people think the commonwealth of Virginia should have anything to do with the way local governments assess real estate taxes,” Potts asked. Of the 50 local officials in attendance, not one raised a hand.

There’s a fundamental principle at stake: The state should address those issues, including taxes, over which it has direct authority and for which it is accountable, and leave local matters to local elected officials.

Assuming the Pilot’s account was a fair and balanced capsulization of what transpired (not something that I take for granted), the Republican contender turned in a weak performance. Kilgore argued that a limit on assessment increases is needed to protect homeowners from the escalating tax bills that accompany soaring home values. “I know my plan is not popular in this room, but I also know it’s something we must do for the taxpayers of Virginia,” Kilgore said lamely. “I ask today that you not judge me on one proposal.”

What Kilgore should have done: He should have challenged local government officials to combat higher taxes by more aggressively cutting expenses. Local governments, like the state, should be continually re-engineering administrative processes and using IT to bolster employee productivity. Even more fundamentally, counties need to rethink their zoning codes and comprehensive plans that perpetuate scattered, disconnected, low-density development patterns that make it impossible to efficiently provide an urban level of municipal services. Unfortunately, Kilgore has never indicated that he has much of a grasp either of re-engineering or land use reform, so it’s not likely that we’ll ever hear such a message from him.

In fairness Potts seems totally unacquainted with those concepts, too. His solution to every problem is simply to raise taxes. But he’s right about keeping accountability where it belongs.

This past Wednesday I drove 500+ miles to Upstate New York. Today I returned.

The only significant delays I encountered in either direction were on I-95 in Northern Virginia. Where was Russ Potts when I needed him?

Looks like I’ve got a good bit of blogosphere catching up to do; I better unpack and get started.

By opposing public spending on behalf of illegal immigrants, Jerry Kilgore “appeared to engage” in the demonization of Hispanics. That’s the inexplicable logic of Richmond Times-Dispatch political writer Jeff Schapiro in his column in today’s paper.

Schapiro takes on Jerry Kilgore for criticizing a decision by the town of Herndon, in Fairfax County, to finance gathering spots for day laborers, many of whom are Spanish-speaking illegal immigrants from Central America. The laborers have been converging at a convenience store to scout for construction, landscaping and janitorial jobs, creating something of a public nuisance.

Although he quotes Kilgore’s “handlers” as saying that government services should be available only to people who reside legally in the country, Schapiro describes that argument as “a coded appeal to voters.” Kilgore is sending signals “rooted in ostracism rather than assimilation” that please conservative voters. “Kilgore’s unspoken message is nativist, spiced with resentment and fear: It is us against them.”

Perhaps that’s all true. I’m not privy to the inside thinking of the Kilgore campaign, so I can’t say for a fact that his handlers aren’t racists and bigots. But Schapiro offers absolutely no evidence other than his own authority that they are the Machiavellians he claims them to be. What I can say is this: Many people, like me, have a problem with illegal immigrants — not because we’re prejudiced against Central Americans but because they’re here illegally! You see, some people have this funny thing about obeying the law. Obeying the law is not just something Americans should do. It’s something that everyone should do.

There may be pragmatic reasons for Herndon’s proposal. (Will Vehrs discusses some of them here.) But to describe Kilgore’s position than anything other that what it is — that government should not provide services to illegals — is to engage in reverse race baiting.

Schapiro and others “appear” to characterize conservative Republicans as racists and bigots with the goal of turning law-abiding voters in the Hispanic community against them. Unlike Schapiro, I have concrete evidence to back up my assertion: Schapiro’s own words. Noting the divide between Kilgore Republicans and President Bush, who supports limited amnesty for illegals, Schapiro notes: “Perhaps Kaine and Warner can use this latest Republic fissure to mobilize the Hispanic vote for November.”

Remember the list of 10 urban issues presented by yours truly, on behalf of Mayor Wilder, to all three of the gubernatorial candidates last week? They have created a lot of discussion. So tomorrow, at 10AM, August 15th, at Richmond City Hall, the campaign manager for Russ Potts is going to meet with the Mayor’s policy advisor to discuss them.

Translation: The Potts Plot thickens!

Diallo Dphrepaulezz is an African-American of Haitian descent, a graduate of Petersburg public schools and Virginia State University, an executive with the Edison Schools, an “education reform” consultant, and a critic of public schools. He’s also running as an independent against Rosalyn Dance, a Democrat and former mayor of Petersburg, who is now considered a shoe-in in the race for the 63rd House of Delegates district.

South of the James, a new blog, has a fascinating profile of Dphrepaulezz, an intense but mysterious young man who could either crash and burn in a very public way, or could stun the local political establishment. Either way, the 63rd district is definitely a race to watch.

It was only a matter of time before Bill Bolling, Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor, began attacking his Democratic adversary Leslie Byrne for her “liberal extremism.” My only question: What took him so long?

Bolling is running a sound clip on his website from an Aug. 8 meeting between Byrne and the United Mine Workers of America in Castlewood. Someone posed the question: “If you had a chance to do away with the right to work law through legislation would you vote for it?”

Byrne replied: “Absolutely. I call it the right to be poor law.”

For decades, it was political suicide in Virginia to oppose the Right to Work law, which allows employees in a unionized workforce the right to opt out of joining the union. Given the steady erosion of manufacturing employment in Virginia, however, the issue doesn’t resonate like it used to. Labor unions are increasingly irrelevant in Virginia’s service-based knowledge economy. Right to Work still may matter to the few remaining labor unions in Virginia and their die-hard liberal allies like Byrne, but most people see unions as a hindrance to flattening hierarchies, on pushing decision making down to the guys on the factory floor, and dissolving distinctions between “management” and “labor.”

The question is, will Bolling’s attack mean anything to anyone either? Or is the obsession with Right to Work, on both sides of the issue, an artifact of Virginia’s industrial past?

With not much press fanfare, a Republican Congressional debate has come full circle and is being made to sound like the right friends in right places, or perhaps it’s a case of friend’s rights, or what’s left of the mail-ordered leftovers?

“COME ON DOWN!” Mr. Charles Abell … you’re the next appointment director on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Apparently, the Price is Right with DC politics.

The Blue Dog’s conservative friends should demand to hear who barks the loudest about ‘Congressional Nearsightedness’ — including those lame post-911 security background checks concerning the new majority staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Which should be required especially after finding out our ‘sleeping-at-the-spinning wheel’ Senator is busy closing bases in Virginia. ‘Ooh, say can’t you see’ the unemployment lines around DC — and Hampton Roads and Norfolk?

Senator John Warner has gone spinning around and around, where he stops … Nobody knows?

~ the blue dog