$5 million? What $5 million?

Chris Graham is the Chairman of the Waynesboro Democrats.  He is also a reporter for the Augusta Free Press (I mean that not as a slam against the AFP; we all have our biases; the honest reporters admit to them).  In his comments on the Rasmussen poll (which I examined on VV), he commits some news:

The bad poll news comes on the heels of a story circulating in Democratic circles today that the Democratic National Committee is reportedly holding on to its $5 million financial commitment to the Deeds campaign out of concern that the Deeds campaign has focused too much of its attention on the controversial Bob McDonnell 1989 grad-school thesis setting out a hardline social-conservative political agenda for his budding political career and not enough on putting down a framework for what a Deeds administration would do for Virginia.

So now things are so bad for Deeds the even Tim Kaine is hesitant to fork over any funds.

Does Tim’s father-in-law know that?

Survey USA: GOP ticket still up double digits

Survey USA – which even PPP admits was more accurate than it was last year, has its own poll on the statewide races, and it has the Republican ticket up by double digits – again.

McDonnell stood at 55-41, Bolling at 54-41, and Cuccinelli at 53-42.

Now, I can faintly hear (even from this far away) the wails of the leftysphere about the Republican heavy sample.  I’d be more sympathetic if McDonnell didn’t lead by twenty-four points among independents.

Even more interesting, McDonnell scores 24% of the African-American vote.  I’m sure the Democrats are relieved that Wilder’s slamming of Deeds had no effect.

Finally, I would note that this poll is more recent than the PPP poll by one day.  Normally, that wouldn’t be a big deal, but an extra day for Wilder’s statement to sink in clearly had a dramatic effect.

My comments on the PPP poll

As my lunch hour fades, the best I can do is put up a link to my VV post.

Congratulations to the Free Democrats (of Germany)

Germany held its election today.

The left-wing Social Democrats plummetted; the far-left Left Party gained by too meager an amount to make up for the rejection of the center-left.  Meanwhile, the Green Party (more a centrist option in Germany than anywhere else on the planet) ticked up slightly.

This may surprise some, but the “winner” – the center-right Christian Democrats (a.k.a. the Social Christian Union in Bavaria) actually slipped a little in support.

The big winner, the folks who scored enough to oust and replace the SDP as the coalition partner for the CDU/SCU was the small-l libertarian Free Democratic Party, who scored their highest vote percentage in history – and did it with a platform of major tax cuts (Bloomberg).

Something for American politicians to note . . .

Wilder on Deeds’ tax hike plans: “That’s not leadership”

Doug Wilder continues to pound home the low-tax, efficient goverment message that won him admirers throughout the Commonwealth during his tenure as Governor (Washington Times via SWAC Girl):

Spurning pleas from the president and the leader of his party, former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder refused to endorse Democrat R. Creigh Deeds for Virginia governor, taking issue with the candidate’s willingness to raise taxes in a weak economy.

“That doesn’t show leadership and responsibility to me,” Mr. Wilder told The Washington Times on Thursday after he announced that he would not endorse either Mr. Deeds or Republican candidate Robert F. McDonnell.

Mr. Wilder objected to statements by Mr. Deeds indicating that he would not rule out new taxes if they were part of a bipartisan bill that contained a dedicated funding mechanism for transportation.

“We are in the toughest economic times that we’ve had. I think the most driving thing to do now is to be a part of fiscal sanity and restoring accountability,” Mr. Wilder said in a telephone interview.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Meanwhile, Bob Holsworth notes that hardly and Democrat running in Virginia can avoid the Deeds-tax-hike question now (Virginia Tomorrow):

Deeds’ decision to write an op-ed for The Washington Post directly expressing his belief that taxes will need to be raised in order to respond to Virginia’s transportation needs has reframed the gubernatorial campaign.

In a bold way.

It has also added a statewide element to the House of Delgates races that had been, until yesterday, bereft of a unifying theme.

Now, every Democrat involved in a competitive House race will have to answer their version of the Gregory Question.

Are you a Creigh Deeds Democrat?

Their answers will tell us something important about the gubernatorial race.

So, the Democrats running for office now have to choose between Creigh Deeds – a State Senator who has never won a statewide election - and Doug Wilder – former Lieutenant Governor, former Governor, and former Mayor of Richmond.

Good luck with that, Creigh.

Another registered voters poll, and McDonnell still leads

Politico is the latest to join the Virginia-is-getting-tighter bandwagon – except that they have the wrong type of poll.

The numbers have McDonnell at 48%, Deeds at 44%.  Good news for Deeds, right?  Not quite: “The automated poll of 602 registered Virginia voters poll has a 3.8 percent margin of error” (emphasis added).

Once again, the key poll here is likely voters, not registered voters.  Despite this, McDonnell still leads by four points, just outside the margin of error.

Meanwhile, McDonnell still has a whopping lead among independents (55-33).

The worst part for Deeds, though was when the poll ended – yesterday.  That shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it also means the poll came before McDonnell was endorsed by FOP, and before Doug Wilder put the rhetorical 2×4 to Deeds.

So the poll doesn’t include Deeds’ worst day and had registered voters rather than likely voters . . .

. . . and McDonnell still was ahead.

Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded

Whether I deserve it or not is not up to me, of course, but suffice to say, Doug Wilder certainly rewarded my faith in him. Today, Wilder issued a statement announcing his refusal to endorse either candidate for Governor. In explaining his reasons for his first neutral stance in 12 years (Wilder has never endorsed a Republican for statewide office), he pointedly blew a gaping hole in the elite conventional wisdom about the need for “new revenue.”

His clarity was breathtaking (Virginia Tomorrow, emphasis in original):

Throughout my entire involvement with public service, I have tried to be a voice for those most often left out when decisions are being made which affect them in their everyday lives. As a state senator, I fought to get rid of the sales tax on food. As Lt. Governor, I fought to get rid of the sales tax on non-prescription drugs and opposed the increased sales taxes for transportation, because they are regressive taxes, meaning the poor pay at the same rate as the rich. I have lived long enough not to assume that these voiceless people can always count on someone articulating for them.

This is not the time in our Commonwealth to talk about any kind of tax increase, especially those that are fundamentally regressive and will hit hardest those who are struggling.

Rather, it is the time to put our fiscal house in order, strengthening the Commonwealth for the future.

Now is the time to replenish the “Rainy Day” fund which has bailed several administrations out of deficits, but will be all but depleted for future administrations to have at their avail. It is a time to do everything possible to let the public know that we are serious about getting a handle on spending and controlling it better. Re-examine the efficiency and effectiveness reports, previously administratively commissioned, draw from them, and make this reform agenda further known to the public. It is a time to return to the funding of “necessities” rather than “niceties”.

This is nothing less than a shout heard round the state for efficient government, coming from the only Democrat in the last forty years to serve as Governor of Virginia without demanding a tax increase during his tenure.

You can almost hear the walls of the Washington Post shaking as a result of the shockwave. With these four paragraphs, Wilder turned opposition to a tax increase from a popular yet largely Republican position into a bipartisan stand that any candidate would and should be proud to hold.

After this, the following was practically a formality, but still (same link):

The requests, made of me, have been to endorse Mr. Deeds, the Democratic Candidate, for Governor. I refrain from doing so and will leave that choice to the voters.

Keep in mind, said “requests” have come from Deeds himself, Kaine, and even the president. Wilder effectively told them all that none of them are as important as his principles.

Simply put, those of us (OK, OK, maybe it was just I) who still had faith in Wilder’s determination to keep government small and taxes low just had it rewarded, and then some.

Cross-posted to Virginia Virtucon

Will Doug Wilder break my heart – again?

Cross-posted to Virginia Virtucon

By now, dear reader, you’ve all-but-certainly heard that former Governor and Mayor Doug Wilder has come to a decision about whom he will endorse to succeed him (five times removed).  We may – or may not – hear the verdict tomorrow (NBC-12, Richmond).

Yes, I know, Wilder has never endorsed a Republican for statewide office, and given that, a Deeds nod would not have as much punch as Wilder would like, especially as the entire Republican ticket is about to get the blessing of the Fraternal Order of Police (Riley at VV).

Still, for me personally, this is always painful.  I first came to Virginia in 1990, escaping a state where Jim Florio had just proposed – and his legislative allies imposed – what was at the time the largest state tax increase in American history.  I get here and find the state’s liberal elite up in arms because the governor they elected refused to raise taxes and insisted on reducing government spending to keep the state solvent.  The Democrats hated him for it, and never forgave him.  Tax-hiking RINOs chortled at him.

That governor was Doug Wilder.  He has been my favorite Democrat ever since; in fact, I have always hoped, however forlornly, that Wilder would eventually see the light, bolt the big-government Democrats, and join the Republican Party.

Of course, that never happened, but for a while, Wilder’s estrangement from the DPVA was real and deep.  He refused to endorse Don Beyer in 1997.  His apparent return to the fold in 2001 for Mark Warner went into a deep freeze with Warner’s tax hikes (Wilder remains the only Virginia Democrat since the 1960s to serve as Governor without asking for a tax increase).

Even now, Wilder holds out a little hope for me with this (NBC-12 again):

Wilder would not tip his hand during our conversation today, but perhaps provided some insight when I asked him if it was realistic to propose a transportation plan that does not include raising taxes.  The former Governor, who dealt with his own share of fiscal turmoil during his time in office, laughed and said, “that will be part of what I talk about when I share my endorsement.”

For Wilder, keeping taxes low and government efficient has always been his hallmark (see above), if that is more important to him than his ties to the president, his loyalty to his party, the clear safety of avoiding massive alienation, he might just surprise us all.

Still, I am preparing myself for having a broken heart tomorrow – or Friday . . .

Creigh-Card Monty

Cross-posted to Virginia Virtucon

Some politicians employ what might be called revisionist history; others use verbal misdirection; and many more lunge for half-truths.  Hardly anyone has ever used all three as richly as Creigh “What’s in Your Wallet?” Deeds did in his painfully tragic Washington Post Op-ed.

It’s easy to see why Creigh needed to get this in the paper: the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce had just endorsed his opponent (Bob McDonnell) yesterday (WaPo).  In particular, McDonnell’s transportation plan won them over:

“Mr. McDonnell earned the support of NOVABizPAC because of his overall stronger support for the Fairfax County Chamber’s priorities, specifically for identifying a plan for transportation,” NOVABizPAC Chairwoman Fran Fisher said.

Transportation was the issue that has peeled the NoVa business community away for the GOP.  For Deeds to read that it was the issue that brought them back to the Republican ticket must have been painful.  I’m guessing his Op-ed piece was thus rushed to the Post – it certainly reads like it was rushed.

For starters, the headline is flat out wrong: Deeds has no transportation plan.  He even admits it in the sixth paragraph:

The day after I’m elected, I will begin assembling a bipartisan commission to craft a comprehensive transportation package.

In other words, he has no plan, not even one he’s keeping under wraps.  Say what you want about Nixon’s “secret plan” to end the Vietnam War, but at least he had one.  All Deeds has is a “bipartisan commission.”

Well, Deeds does know what he won’t do: “All funding options are on the table except taking money from education and other obligations met by Virginia’s general fund” – and this is where the convenient memory kicks in.

The Democrats (and most RINOs) would like us to believe the transportation funding problems we face just fell out of the sky this decade, or are the effect of trends that are now coming to fruition.  In fact, they were caused by Mark Warner, who gutted the Transportation budget in 2002 to address a budget shortfall, and then demanded Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads raise their taxes to make up the difference (Free Lance-Star, emphasis added):

Supporters had argued the taxes were necessary to relieve gridlock and improve public transit–especially since not much money is expected to come from Richmond any time soon. Virginia’s six-year transportation plan was cut by $2.8 billion this summer due to state budget shortfalls.

But groups who opposed the tax said the projects the state planned to pay for would enrich developers and highway-builders, contribute to urban sprawl and make little difference in reducing gridlock.

They also took issue with politicians who used Virginia Department of Transportation money to balance the rest of the state budget–and then asked voters to tax themselves to take care of transportation ills.

As one would expect, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads weren’t about to bail Warner out; they shot down the tax increases.

Now, one would think that the post-2002 boom and the state budget growing by more than 60% in six years would mean the transportation funding issue would be resolved.  No such luck; instead, Warner blew the money on a massive increase in government-controlled health care and pretended that we were “out of money” for roads.  Warner’s LTG, Tim Kaine, became his successor and continued to peddle the myth.

Now Deeds, who did nothing to stop his would-be predecessors from balancing the budget on the backs of drivers and redirecting money from roads to Obamacare-writ-small – yet still wants to run as the heir to their “legacy” – refuses to own up to what happened, and is now pretending that restoring the funding-priority balance in Richmond is “taking money from education and other obligations.”

We all know how Creigh Deeds would fund transportation – with tax increases.  He repeatedly calls for “new revenue” – a dodge that would be more artful if it hadn’t already been beaten to death by every tax-hiker in both parties.

I could go on about Bob McDonnell’s plan – its farsightedness in tying transportation funding to economic activity in a region, its refusal to demand more money from Virginians, and the fact that, contrary to Deeds’ strained language, it was the only plan that passed the House of Delegates in the last two years.  At its heart, however, is this simple truth: Bob McDonnell will correct the Warner-Kaine-Deeds mistake and restore transportation funding to its rightful priority in Virginia’s spending plans.

Deeds would prefer to pretend the problem doesn’t exist, but throw more of our money at it anyway.

You can call it Creigh-card monty.  I just know I’m not going to play, and I doubt the Virginia electorate will either.

I hate to say I told you so, but . . .

. . . read what Jim Geraghty discovered . . .

and then remember, I told you so.