Bacon's Rebellion

I thought the boys at Road to Ruin might jump on this, but since they haven’t, I’ll take a crack at an Augusta Free Press report that Gov. Warner wants to fill the VDOT Commissioner job quickly–and involve the gubernatorial candidates in the selection process:

Warner proposed getting the three candidates for governor – Democrat Tim Kaine, Republican Jerry Kilgore and independent Russ Potts – to be part of a selection process that he would like to see get going “sooner rather than later.”

“I’d love to have all the candidates for governor be a part of a selection process. But that would require the consent of all three candidates for governor,” Warner said.

To date, the governor has but one taker – Potts.

On the surface, this seems like a terrific idea to fix a problem that was ironically caused by the guy who fixed a lot of problems–Shucet. It’s hard to fathom why he couldn’t have hung on until November, at least.

Looking more closely, suspicions abound. Why would Warner make this public? Why wouldn’t he quietly contact each candidate, get their answer, promise confidentiality, and then just go ahead with the recruiting and selection process if all agreed? Why would Potts, the least likely to be elected, get to make public his answer first? Potts has nothing to lose and plenty of credibility to gain by cozying up to Warner on this–why is Warner giving him this free statesman makeover? Why does the Kilgore spokesperson say they are “going to wait until we hear from the governor before we address that issue?” Did Warner contact Kilgore or not? Why does the Kaine campaign give some mumbo-jumbo about being committed to a “process?”

Further, what’s wrong with the interim guy at VDOT, supposedly carrying out Shucet’s policies? I can’t imagine a candidate for the job taking it, not knowing if his boss would be Kaine, Kilgore, or Russ Potts, and not knowing if one of the three could torpedo him during the “process?”

These are some strange machinations and I’d like to hear any theories.

Jeff Schapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the latest example of an outrageous payment to a public servant: the 2x salary severance payment to the former head of the Virginia Retirement System (VRS). On the editorial page, a VRS board member who represents teachers bemoans justifying this action to the low-paid beneficiaries of the retirement fund.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like every week we’re seeing state or local officials receiving huge payments or spending large sums of money on questionable activities. School superintendents are hired then summarily fired (with severance) with alarming frequency. High officials travel around the globe to learn about the latest thing, but rarely implement anything new.

Something’s wrong. Hiring practices and/or expectations are out of whack. We ought to stop a lot of this “national search” balderdash and start focusing on developing talent that can move up within organizations. We ought to select promising candidates from a diversity of backgrounds, not insist that hires have held the same job somewhere else (and somewhere else before that). We hire high-priced retreads who are represented by agents that negotiate lavish (by government standards) perks and severance packages upfront. We don’t check backgrounds as well as we should. We frequently don’t give new hires enough time to establish their leadership and we don’t start overseeing financial matters until they reach scandalous proportions.

I don’t want to hear this “you have to pay for talent” line, either. Sure you do, but there’s a price break point. We all know that the new outsider comes in and leans on the existing staff for everything. Surely there’s someone in every organization that could run the place as well as the high-priced resume. It’s tough to check out the high-priced resume; it’s a lot easier to know what someone who’s been in the organziation many years can do.

How anyone can claim the mantle of “public servant” while simultaneously grabbing outlandish cash and perks is beyond my comprehension.

One specific issue regarding VRS was interesting: Del. Leo Wardrup, Jr., R-VA Beach, criticized the Attorney General’s office for not monitoring the VRS more closely. Is that the AG’s job? Here’s a real live issue for the two AG candidates to debate, as opposed to “top-cop” peripherals.

Yesterday morning someone emailed me a chart showing that Virginia workers ranked 7th among states in the amount of time wasted. Today, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has the story on the front page. So much for my nose for news.

According to a survey by AOL and Salary.com, Virginians waste an average of 2.7 hours per day, most of it surfing the internet or socializing.

Of course, there’s less here than meets the eye. In many jobs, the main responsibility is just to be there. Surfing the net while waiting for the next call to come in to a help desk isn’t necessarily wasting time–it’s passing time. Many workers spread their time wasting over 10 or more hours at the office. Still, the survey probably can lead us to conclude that many jobs are not well-designed and that management oversight could be improved. I know that is the case in the public sector, the second biggest time-wasting sector after insurance.

Usually Virginia is criticized for a “race to the bottom” with Mississippi. Not in this survey. Our low budget colleagues down there were estimated to be 17th–not enough responses were received. They were too busy.

There always seems to be a battle raging somewhere in Virginia between developers and preservationists. The Roanoke Times has a story on the latest skirmish. In Franklin County, the Board of Supervisors is considering “four special use permits to allow construction of a 30,000-square-foot shopping center, an office park, patio homes and town houses” adjacent to the Booker T. Washington National Monument.

Of course, as the supervisors consider this request,

A group of activists has rallied to spread the word about what they see as a threat to the tranquility and health of the 239 acres of federally owned land. They oppose the rezoning, saying that heavy development next to the national monument, which had 18,477 visitors in fiscal year 2004, will damage views and a creek that runs along the border between the two properties.

Booker T. Washington, controversial today because of his “accommodationist” racial views, would probably be pleased that the developer is trying to accomodate the concerns of opponents by offering a larger than required wooded buffer between the development and the park. The opponents aren’t interested in being accommodated.

One might argue that there is plenty of undeveloped land in Franklin County, so a spritz of development near a national monument isn’t a big deal. One could also point out that Manassas National Battlefield Park used to be miles from the nearest commercial or residential space.

In a smaller battle, a Williamsburg resident has written to the Daily Press to argue against putting lights at William and Mary’s Cary Field/Zable Stadium. Colonial-era light conditions must be preserved!

This morning CNN headlines the “research” that leads to identifying the 10 Best Places to live in the US of A.

Peachtree City, Ga a place I helped design and manage is number 8. I should be happy, right?

The real estate agents in “Vienna, VA” are happy because it came in number 4.

Unfortunately the whole story and the “research” behind it is more evidence of the Fundamental Thesis Number Two: Citizens do not know where they are.

Go to the “Contenders by State” listing and look up the 41 Virginia candidates. The headlines say these are “cities.” At first glance it appears that most are unincorporated places within counties. The ones that have the same names as cities have the populations of the postal zip codes with that name.

See “Where is Northern Virginia,” 11 August at db4.dev.baconsrebellion.com for the reason knowing where one is important.

EMR

The July 11, 2005, edition of Bacon’s Rebellion has been posted to the Web. You can read it here.

As indicators of the mainstream media’s decline continue to accumulate, I have noticed that the Richmond Times-Dispatch has been trying to adapt to new realities.

Those realities include this wry observation by projects editor Gordon Hickey:

Surveys, studies, focus groups, and countless letters to the editor inform us that we are losing circulation in the ages 4-98 demographic.

I’ve become so convinced that people aren’t reading the paper anymore that I feel safe in telling you that you’re not reading this.

Hickey goes on to subtly disparage one of the paper’s competitors, blogging, in a tongue-in-cheek way, but one has to take seriously the idea that blogging by RT-D staff is under consideration.

More substantively, President and Publisher Thomas Silvestri introduced a major change to the Sunday Commentary section that debuted today. He also described a “Public Square” initiative to tie the paper more closely to the local community. Apparently, one public event will be held this year to test the concept before a large number are held next year.

While the RT-D is to be commended for attempting to change, that kind of lumbering pace doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

John M. R. Bull of the Daily Press reports today that Gov. Mark Warner has reversed the trend of placing big campaign contributors on the boards of Virginia’s universities:

The Daily Press identified 248 of Warner’s appointments to higher-education boards of visitors and boards of trustees and cross-indexed them to political contributions made in Virginia since 1997, as compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project.

More than one-third of the appointments went to people who didn’t donate money to any candidate since 1997, the earliest year for which contribution data was available.

Another one-third gave campaign contributions, but not to Warner or to his political action committee, One Virginia PAC.

Of the 81 appointees who gave Warner money, some gave him big bucks but most made only token contributions, and 25 percent gave more money to Republican candidates over the years than they gave to him.

Lessig quotes UVA’s Larry Sabato and Mary Washington’s Stephen Farnsworth praising Warner for bucking tradition and taking some of the politics out of appointments to these plum, influential positions.

It certainly is a positive that being a campaign contributor was not a prerequisite to being considered for an educational board appointment by Warner, even granting a certain amount of moderate Republican “cultivation” in his choices. Still, what matters is the overall quality and background of the appointees. Bull should follow up by analyzing the qualifications of those chosen, especially in light of his reporting that universities offered the Warner selection team feedback on the type of candidates they wanted.

Here’s a good question for the gubernatorial candidates: will they follow the Warner example?

Looks like I picked a good week to go on vacation and give the ol’ brain a rest from Virginia politics. So little happened while I was gone that the main preoccupation of Bacon’s Rebellion bloggers was the Valley Blue Dog. Is he a hypocrite, a fool, a closet Republican? C’mon guys, let’s focus on more important things….

Like last week’s unveiling of Jerry Kilgore’s environmental plan. Lisa Guthrie, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters, which has already declared for Tim Kaine, characterized the plan as “very fuzzy.” And I have to agree. Kilgore declares his support for such worth goals as clean water and clean air without providing a lot of specifics on how he would achieve those goals. It’s as if his campaign staff was checking off another box on the issues list. The environment? Yeah, sure, we’ve got an environmental plan.

The lead plank in Kilgore’s plan calls for “a stewardship based model for governing Virginia’s natural resources and environmental assets.” It’s not clear what exactly Kilgore means by a “stewardship based model,” but his press release implies that it entails consulting with “all involved parties” from government, landowners, corporations and advocacy groups. C’mon, people now… let’s get together and love one another… right now… The press release also alludes to “science-based policies.” Sounds good. But, as a practical matter, what does that mean?

Praising Republican legislators for allocating $50 million this year to modernize sewage treatment plans, Kilgore also says that he “will honor this historic commitment to the Chesapeake Bay.” He will honor the commitment… What does that mean? That he won’t renege on the deal? That he won’t ask for the money back after it’s already been spent? If Kilgore proposes to actually do something, it’s not clear what that is.

Additionally, Kilore says he would extend the nutrient credit trading system for point source pollution (like factories and waste treatment palnts), to non-point sources (like farms and parking lot run-off). The idea of creating market mechanisms for reducing pollution is an interesting one. But, again, let’s see details.

Finally, I would observe that there is one nugget worthy of everyone’s attention. Kilgore would reverse previous funding cuts to the Department of Environmental Quality’s pollution prevention program. By disseminating best management practices across the private sector, DEQ’s pollution prevention programs “help businesses reduce costs by advising them on initiatives like materials substitution, inventory control, preventive maintenance, and office waste reduction.” By appealing to the profit motive, pollution prevention induces companies to conserve water, reduce discharges and cut back on waste — often in excess of state and federal standards. Virginia gets a tremendous bang for the buck with this program. Nothing vague about Kilgore’s recommendation on this issue. Let’s hope he can move it forward.

I’m back after a refreshing week at the Outer Banks. The political landscape looks a little different from the one I left ….

Jerry Kilgore being in trouble for not debating seems to have vaporized in the summer humidity, while everyone is now all a-twitter over perceived problems in the Kaine campaign. “John Behan,” outed by the Washington Post while I was away, has a nice summary of the Kaine situation over at Commonwealth Conservative.

I suspect more is being made of Kaine campaign problems than is really there. The proliferation of blogs and comments on blogs magnify small dust-ups and natural disagreements. Still, being unable to capitalize for more than a day or two on the Kilgore debate story before your own campaign woes become the story is an indicator that something is amiss. National news trends–Supreme Court vacancy and terrorism–seem to favor Republicans right now and that helps Kilgore.

Third party gadfly Russ Potts seems to be flailing around a bit, too. He’s suddenly going to have a transportation plan before he’s elected and, in a bid to peel off some one-issue voters, is now a champion of gays being allowed to adopt. While I agree with his position, where has he been on this? Potts apparently wants to be the eclectic candidate–one who is experiencing all sorts of conversions now that he’s on the ballot statewide.

The Kaine campaign is ‘not mark warner’ — Because sources say Gov. Warner is very disappointed with Kaine’s effort — and there’s noticable separation with them. I’ve been told Warner no longer wants to be associated with Tim Kaine’s campaign.

A politico buddy shares the sense that Warner isn’t keen on Kaine. But he says the Dog’s source seems to make the separation official. And harsh. The truth hurts… and sometimes draws emotional responses.

Today, the Blue Dog and others have checked out John Behan’s Salem posting and the one on Commonwealth Commonsense, there’s quite a storm brewing over on the wires today. Think anyone in the Kaine campaign, or Democratic Leadership is paying attention?

Kilgore’s campaign manager, Ken Hutchesen traded emails with the Blue Dog concerning the latest in campaign fodder.

Hutch wrote, “I have not heard the Mark Warner tidbit you referenced, but I will say the Kaine presence across VA this weekend was dismal. We had some to significant presence at 137 events around the state and all but a handful had no discernable Kaine presence.”

“In fact, the big showdown in NOVA never took place—the Kaine folks barely had a presence in the 2 biggest parades of Monday.”

Commonwealth Conservative » Tim Kaine’s meltdown — UPDATED
I’ve had a few emails about Tim Kaine’s unpleasant experience Saturday at the Salem Fair, so I thought I’d see if any of our readers witnessed the scene. Evidently, the entire fair was covered in Jerry Kilgore signs and balloons, and Marty Kilgore was there for 5 hours. My sources say that Kaine showed up at 4:30, after saying he would be there at 3:30 — and that’s when the drama began. For starters Kaine was an hour late, and he had a 5PM event scheduled elsewhere, so he was just stopping by the Fair for twenty minutes or so. But when he saw that there were no Kaine signs anywhere, he proceeded to lay into his staff at the fair so loudly and viciously — I’m told he was cursing — that even bystanders could hear it (a couple of whom contacted me, saying that people were startled by it). Sounds like a public meltdown, and a bad time for the Kaine campaign. It really does seem like that campaign has been in a slow burn for a while. The ship is sinking. Were any of you at the Salem Fair at that time?
…
Commonwealth Commonsense: Passion from Kaine
As evidenced by one of the comments, organization, or lack thereof, for both campaignsis spotty. But I wonder if it’s time for some heads to roll in the Kaine campaign. The candidate certainly seems exercised about it. If the status quo remains, how can we be sure he’ll have a sense of urgency once elected?
…

The Cherry on the GOP Cake: It looks like Howard Dean’s minions are assisting the Kaine campaign in Northern Virginia. But most believe, it’s going to take a lot more than a bunch of Dean re-treds to get Kaine back on track.

http://www.democracyforvirginia.typepad.com/

How do you spell, m-e-l-t-d-o-w-n?

~ the blue dog

There’s a column in the WaPo about blogflogging with ‘not larry sabato’ … I’ve enjoyed the NLS blog and the primary election predictions, but the web post have been politically adrift and personal in nature for several weeks.

The WaPo column notes Bacon’s Rebellion, the 800lb gorilla of blogs in the Commonwealth, as an honorable mention in the column’s side bar.

Q. But where’s “One’s Man’s Trash,” “Raising Kaine” and “The Jaded JD” web logs???

Obviously, the WaPo is no longer the high quality ‘Kate and Meg Show’ of the ’80s and ’90s.

File this under, ‘hacks, handlers and hustlers’…

Politicians Deal With Newcomer, The Blog / Va. Candidates Find Help, Lies on Web
David and Shayna Englin are all too familiar with the power of bloggers. Courting these off-the-cuff Internet columnists helped David Englin, a relative unknown, win a Democratic primary for a Northern Virginia House seat last month. “You can imagine how much fun it is when [state delegates] have a closed meeting . . . and all of a sudden, the secret meeting . . . is now out on the Internet.” Organizers of the Not Larry Sabato blog contend that postings about candidates are fair, especially because they are public figures. Speaking only on condition of anonymity, one of them said the blog criticizes politicians on both sides of the aisle. “We are equal opportunity bashers here.”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/04/AR2005070401164.html

The Blog Spots
At least 20 blogs are discussing various aspects of the 2005 election campaign and Virginia politics in general. Here is a sample.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/04/AR2005070401099.html

~ the blue dog

Speaking on his monthly call-in show on WRVA Radio, Gov. Mark R. Warner counter attacked Republicans who, in response to the ever-growing budget surplus, have said the 2004 tax hikes were unnecessary. According to Michael Hardy’s recounting of Warner’s remarks in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Warner said:

Republicans, primarily in the House, “are quick to point out the surplus, but they’re quick to spend” the higher-than-forecast tax collections.” He emphasized that members of the GOP-dominated House budget committee sought more than $2 billion in additional spending requests last session.

Oh, come on. Every legislator submits spending proposals. Tallying up the price tag of all those proposals is a meaningless exercise. What matters is how much the House decides to spend after sorting through all the initiatives. In this case, the House followed the Governor’s lead and decided to spend almost all of the surplus (excepting only that portion legally required to go into the Rainy Day fund and a bit that would allow the state to reduce the sales tax on food earlier than scheduled). I dare say that virtually none of that “$2 billion in additional spending” made it into the House’s final budget documents.

What would Gov. Warner have said in January/February this year if the House had stuck to its convicinos and tried cutting taxes instead? The Governor and the state Senate would have have shut down any such bill before the ink had dried. Knowing that a tax cut was a political non-starter, the House leadership did what it had to do, which was spend the money in the most responsible manner it could — on one-time initiatives that didn’t add to programmatic overhead.

Having boxed in the House to spend the surplus, Gov. Warner now criticizes the House for spending the surplus. That’s a nice trick if you can get away with it.

Finally, a transportation editorial in the (Newport News) Daily Press that I can agree with. The anonymous editorial reviews a series of mega-projects where cost estimates are escalating out of control, undermining the original justification for the projects. Two cases in point… (Read rest of post on The Road to Ruin blog.)

Hey, What’s Hillary Clinton doing in Northern Virginia? According to the WaPo‘s Michael Shear, (“Clinton Cashes in in Warner Territory), some 200 people gathered at the Old Town Hilton in Alexandria–Gov. Warner’s old stomping grounds–to bash Bush administration fiscal policies and raise money.

Clinton tactfully praised Warner, a presumed challenger in her bid for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2008 presidential election. Wrote Shear: “Clinton praised Warner, wishing him a speedy recovery from a broken hand “so he’s back in fighting shape and fighting spirit as soon as possible.” But, Shear added:

Clinton’s decision to raise money in Warner’s home town put Virginia Democrats in an awkward spot. Some are wowed by Clinton. But many of the same Democrats have privately pledged to support Warner if he decides to make a run for the nomination.