What role will outrage over Abuser Fees play in the fall General Assembly elections? Some interesting clues emerge from the latest opinion poll conducted by Christopher Newport University’s Quentin Kidd….
Republicans got more agitated about the Abuser Fees than either Democrats or independents. While a majority of all three political groupings expressed dissatisfaction with the driving penalties, Republicans and independents were the most distressed. Negative Dems outnumbered positive Dems by a mere eight-percentage point margin. By contrast, independents responded negatively by a 23-percentage point margin and Republicans by a 28-percentage point margin.
Hard pressed as it is to hang on to its majorities in the House and Senate, however, the Elephant Clan has no motive to turn the issue against candidates who supported the fees. The GOP would simply like to see the issue disappear. Meanwhile, given the relative ambivalence that Democrats feel about the fees — and the fact that the Governor, a Democrat, supported them — Donkey Clan candidates haven’t pushed the issue as hard as they might.
Another reason the issue has stopped simmering may be that voters don’t know whom to blame for the fees. Statewide, eight percent said Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was the most responsible, nine percent blamed Republicans, and two percent blamed Democrats. Seventy percent said it was a mix, and 12 percent said they didn’t know. With legislators promising to fix the most egregious aspects of the Abuser Fees, the issue seems to be fast sinking out of sight and out of mind.
