In deciphering the meaning of Tuesday’s elections, let us not forget Russ Potts, the candidate errant from Winchester. Though Potts was beloved of Virginia’s punditry for his “straight talk,” voters would have none of him. The independent candidate garnered less than 2.2 percent of the vote. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for the No. One plank in his platform: raising taxes by some $2 billion a year to fund a massive expansion of Virginia’s road and rail construction.
Potts and his defenders will argue, of course, that he did not raise enough money to get his message out. But that begs the question. Why didn’t he raise enough money? It’s not as if people didn’t know he was there. He suffered from no lack of press attention. Perhaps he didn’t raise enough money because he couldn’t find enough people who agreed with his solution to traffic congestion.
Transportation, argue Stewart Schwartz and Laura Olson at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, did play a key factor in the race, however. Especially in Northern Virginia. Here’s their take:
All three candidates for Governor talked about transportation issues, but Kaine hit a chord with voters when he linked transportation solutions to land use and growth issues. For five years polls have shown that Northern Virginia residents believe better managing growth is the best way to deal with traffic problems. This year, they had the choice of a gubernatorial candidate who focused on: more money for transportation, general fund for transportation or managing growth to reduce traffic, and they chose the third. (See full comments on the Road to Ruin blog.)
Kaine’s election and Potts’ pitiful performance does not bode well for those in the state Senate who would raise $1 billion to $2 billion per year to enact a Potts-like transportation policy.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.