Virginia is a state proud of its oratory history and rich traditions in the art of debate. That is why any candidate running for governor of Virginia should be proud to engage in verbal swordplay.....wait, never mind, turns out there will NOT be a televised debate between Republican Jerry Kilgore and Democrat Tim Kaine. That dwindles the number of debates down to two, one of them actually occurring in
West Virginia.
Its a shame, too, because even those of us who already know damn well who we're voting for would very much like to see the differences between their transportation plans explained.
From the
Augusta Free Press:
The Kilgore campaign informed sponsor WSLS-NBC10 in Roanoke on Monday that Kilgore, the former state attorney general, will not appear in the station's planned debate, which had been scheduled to go out over the airwaves statewide.
"It's hard to say what Jerry Kilgore is hiding from," Kaine said in a statement on the issue on Monday.
"This pattern of avoiding debates should raise a red flag with the voters," said Kaine, the current state lieutenant governor. "Virginia has a strong tradition of leadership, and when a candidate running for the state's highest office flinches again and again from the chance to stand on a stage with his opponents and share his vision for Virginia, he shows he is unworthy of carrying on that tradition."
And what about those transportation plans? Well, Potts and Kilgore have been riding Kaine for the cost of his programs. The would be typical Republican banter, if not for the opposing plans that their camps have offered.
Potts' strategy is to raise taxes now, figure out what to do with the money later, as far as I can tell. (Meaning he wants to consider raising gas taxes then have a commission study transportation needs after funds have been raised). Kilgore's is simply to, well, Kilgore wants to penalize drivers more (i.e. raise the cost of speeding tickets), give it higher priority in the budget (which he will talk about constantly as if there was a lot of cutting room in Virginia's budget. There's not. It's lean, mean, and not hiding any revenues), and, strangely enough, appoint a new group of unelected officials with the power to raise taxes on the localities through referendum per region. The idea is that the regions can decide their own transportation needs. The reality is that it shifts all the burden of funding transportation from the state level to the regional and local level, and creates another layer of bureaucrats to oversee this. Doesn't sound very small government to me.
But what about Kaine's plan? Well, its true that there is some ambiguity in how he's going to pay for it, but he has put his foot down on gas taxes and highway related fees (which I assume or rather HOPE includes HOT lanes). He wants to create a constitutional lock box with the state's surplus for use in transportation in years to come, bringing back memories of 2000. Oh Al Gore. Silly, silly Al Gore. Overall, I don't think Kaine's plan is perfect, but it seems to be the only one that is at least sensitive to the fluid nature of policy-making and that its going to have to include smart growth.
But overall, both this and the real estate issue are tremendously complicated, and a debate open to the public airwaves would do a lot to help explain the differences between the plans and what each plan does.
So Kilgore, what's your damage? Is it that you have a tendency to screw up real bad and become volatile when directly confronted with opposing views? Because I think that's relevant to the election, as is explaining how you plan on making money for your programs magically appear. Honestly, I'd like to know.