In what was one of the closest convention votes I’ve ever seen, Jim Gilmore defeated Bob Marshall by less than 1%. On the plus side, Jeff Frederick was elected Chairman by an undisclosed landslide.
I’ll have more on the nominee in a later post, but for now, I want to look at the roles the defeated candidate and the victorious Chairman can have on next month’s special session.
As I’ve discussed earlier, both the Democratic Governor and the Republican establishment are looking to raise taxes. Marshall was going to be a leading opponent of tax hikes before today’s vote, but as the guy who came within an eyelash of beating Jim Gilmore, his words will have far more impact. This is especially true if Chairman Frederick will join him in demanding fellow Republicans stop voting for tax increases of any kind.
For those of us who supported Marshall, this is the next fight. We must take all our energy, our strength in numbers, and our goodwill from this convention, and aim it squarely at Bill Howell and Bill Bolling (as well as, if he joins them in their tax-hike agenda, Bob McDonnell). How many Delegates will be so willing to cross Bob now, given the support he garnered across the state?
This is not up to Marshall; he will be the happy anti-tax-hike warrior he has always been; this is up to us. We have to stand with Bob Marshall in this special session, and let our Delegates know that we stand with him and we expect them to stand with him, too.
We may not have nominated a Senator, but if we hold together, we may just stop a tax increase.
May 31, 2008 at 11:41 pm |
Republicans should have a plan for the Special Session. If they don’t then just stopping the taxes and the bad plan from the Dems is good enough for now.
June 1, 2008 at 8:18 am |
I concur with Jim. All eyes will be on the Special Session with hopes the Republicans go in ready to stop the taxing madness.
June 1, 2008 at 2:52 pm |
Sometimes I do issues-oriented polling. I also keep attuned to anecdotal information gleaned from conversations and commentaries of others.
In the recent few years, my impression is this anti-tax message no longer has the same resonance with voters that it once did. The People have become cynical (or better informed) and lament that the government is going to get its pound of flesh one way or the other, and neither Party has stopped the growth of government or government spending.
I have lived and worked in a lot of developing nations, so I have seen what happens when there is no social “safety net.” I want some of my taxes to provide help for those who need it, rather than having our streets filled with shanties and beggars. I do not want to live in an America that has its elderly crawling along the streets begging for sustenance.
As for signing no-tax pledges or making promises to never approve tax increases, that is just bad governance. Nobody has an accurate crystal ball, so there is no logic to tying legislator’s hands with regard to raising revenue, when there is a legitimate need.
Our Republican delegation should first denounce and revoke any no-tax pledges and instead make their pledge to the citizens to uphold our Constitution and defend and enhance the freedom of our citizens. Legislators should then get busy taking a look at the entire budget, making targeted cuts to specific programs where they are warranted and if there remains a shortfall in revenue, our legislators should collaborate with their Democratic colleagues to get the needed revenue from easily audited sources, such as increasing the gas tax that everyone pays and by borrowing a portion through bonds.
We mustn’t resort to the subterfuge of spreading around new taxing authorities, like the RTAs, selling our roads to offshore toll road companies, or trying to hide the tax increase in a bunch of dubious fee increases.
If the legislators do a poor job, or voters really would rather sit, stuck in traffic on lousy roads rather than pay another nickel per gallon, then run another candidate during the next election. Don’t insist on taking away the most rational options to fund needed infrastructure, and don’t paint our Republican delegation into a corner where no matter what they do, it will appear that they are vindictive or incompetent in the eyes of the People. We gave them our votes, now let’s give them the freedom to use all of the necessary options to provide needed solutions to problems.
June 1, 2008 at 2:53 pm |
I find all of this praise of Bob Marshall absolutely absurd. He is a man that only the far-out religious right from the boondocks seems to support. He could never win a state-wide general election. His supporters come out of the hollars and try to disrupt the convention and prevent a conservative icon from taking the chair. This is a man who seems to doubt the humanity of women, quibles over at what stage abortion actually occurs, and cannot get a bill passed to save his life. True, he took the state to court to abolish the transportation plan, but I ask you, did the man come up with an alternative? He certainly did not!
With regard to his further legislative record, he seemed only to be able to pass 13% of his bills, even when his Republican bretheran were in power. He did get the Marshall-Newman Amendment passed banning gay marriage, but Newman refused to endorse him and endorsed Gilmore. In his concession speech, Marshall refused to unite behind Gilmore and his party, and instead chose to use his pulpit to jeer at Gilmore once again. With all of the bickering that we have within the party right now, we need a uniter and not a divider. The party needs to turn its back on the likes of Bob Marshall and embrace uniters. I hope Jeff Frederick is able to bridge the divide and remove the rediculous from the party.
June 1, 2008 at 3:16 pm |
Huh?
Bill Bolling has been a conservative and consistent leader for our values for 15 years now. He’s been one of the most vocal opponents to Kaine’s tax increases. What you just said was off the wall and frankly a little ignorant. There were a lot of positives coming out of the Convention this weekend. Rather than participate in the “everyone a critic” movement, we need to all work together (letting our voices be heard not just brief and frezied during an election, but by offering to help and share opinions with those in office). Things get done by those who work, not those who gripe.
Cannibalism isn’t going to move us forward. It’s going to give us two or more decades of being in the minority with tax and spend Dems. Besides, I love President Bush and all, and he did great for tax cuts. But, cutting taxes hasn’t stopped the abundant growth of the government or the holding on to inefficient and outdated programs.
June 1, 2008 at 4:14 pm |
I think it’s utterly ridiculous to try to turn this into a Howell/Bolling referendum. People are just frustrated at the Republican brand-name tarnish and they want to blame someone. Hager was an easy target. Bolling and conservative belong in the same sentence and his 15 year record shows it. By the way, Bill Howell is the only one that stands in the way of a tax increase right now.
June 1, 2008 at 4:20 pm |
This is absurd. Why in the world would anyone want to direct their frustration over higher taxes at Lieutenant Governor Bolling? He has been one of the few people in Richmond who has consistently opposed higher taxes and argued that transportation should be funded from existing revenue sources. Bill Bolling is one of conservative Republicans best friends, not only on taxes, but just about every other issue I can think of. To lump Bolling and Bill Howell in the same category is way out of line.
June 1, 2008 at 11:16 pm |
Good to see the Bolling people read my stuff!
Seriously, FYI, all of you would have seen your comments up quite a bit sooner if not for the power outage that left my home in the dark for 6 hours.
Anyway, my problem with Bolling is his continued support for regional tax hikes. Trust me, I’m not alone there, and you folks can’t just wish it away. Bolling and Howell did themselves a lot of damage, and they’re continuing to do it by refusing to back away from the regional taxes that made HB3202 a dirty word (or number).
June 1, 2008 at 11:21 pm |
“Tax-hike agenda?” Are you serious? Lt. Governor Bolling opposes higher taxes in Virginia without fail. Bolling is a strong, conservative leader, and to attack him falsely is shameful and wrong. He wants the localities that are having transportation problems to have to the ability to decide how they fund the solutions. In NoVa and Hampton Roads, the local goverments may need to use taxes to fix the roads. Bolling is not proposing ANY tax increases, he simply wants the people in the places that need money for transportation to have the freedom to choose how they raise the funds. Aren’t Republicans for self-government?
June 1, 2008 at 11:49 pm |
Did you actually pay attention last year, Witness? Bolling backed HB3202, which even in its orginial version put a gun to the heads of local officals and demanded they raise local taxes. That’s not oposing tax hikes “without fail.” He did fail then, and by refusing to recognizing it, he’s continuing to fail now.
June 2, 2008 at 12:56 pm |
Bill Bolling has been an opponent of raising taxes for years. He offers steady principled conservative leadership in state government, and that in the midst of a tough situation. Bolling is caught between a legislature that is only partially conservative, and in which he must find ways to unite the GOP members, and a Democrat Governor, who works tirelessly to raise our taxes any way he can. Under these circumstances Lt. Gov Bolling has done an admirable job of appealing to the broader GOP membership in both the House and the Senate, while maintaining his role as “loyal opposition” to the Governor.
We need more men like Lt Gov. Bolling in state government, men who will work hard, hold to sound conservative principles, and do so with the kind of winsome humility and graciousness that has characterized effective conservatives throughout this nation’s history.
June 2, 2008 at 1:16 pm |
I still do not understand how so many people can pretend HB3202 didn’t exist. This is mind-boggling.
June 3, 2008 at 12:39 am |
What a bunch of crazy trolls.
“It [HB3202] never happened!”