This continues a short series of posts discussing Mark Warner and the transformation of the Virginia Democratic Party, following some requests made after Kaine's victory. The
previous part delt with the 2001 Elections. This part will deal with Mark Warner's term as Governor, and the final part will deal with his vision for the National party, views on Iraq, etc.
I strongly support Mark Warner for president. However, I am attempting to paint a richer picture than simply a stump for my guy in 2008. Rather, I am trying to describe how a party in disarray can turn around to effectively build a new machine over the course of 4-5 years. Regardless of your feelings on Mark Warner, I ask you to consider this as a way to regain competitive status in not just red states, but red regions of blue states and purple states.
We start at the beginning of Mark Warner's term in 2002, after resurrecting the dead or damn well near dead Virginia state party to gain control of the statehouse through a mixture of Northern Virginian nods of approval by the business sector and devotion to the needs of rural voters looking for a way to participate in the Information Age. However, just as a sunny sky can sometimes belie the fact that it is cold and windy outside, having a statehouse and hostile General Assembly that felt like you stole their rightful property is a mixed bag in terms of blessings.
The jackals in Richmond were pacing around and around, waiting for Warner to fall, as they knew he was bound to. The job in front on him was monumental and clearly more than one Democratic governor who couldn't run for re-election could handle. When Warner stood on the roof of his campaign headquarters in Alexandria watching the smoke rise from the burning Pentagon, he could not have anticipated this.
The budget shortfall Jim Gilmore had been running with his awful, irresponsible tax cut? The one sure to hinder all of Warner's plans at $500,000 to one billion? Yeah, well, it turned out that Gilmore (flinch when you say the name) was lowballing that figure, and it actually is more like a $3 billion dollar shortfall. (In the end, I believe it turned out to be somewhere between $3-6 billion). And this is Virginia, who just rejected a slew of voter referendums to raise desperately needed revenue because they contained the evil "t" word. Hell, we hadn't really raised taxes since 1966, to pay for the creation of our community college program.
And since 9/11 just happened, there was a billion dollar wishlist for national security. And Warner had promised Southside a University and economic opportunity? Well, considering there was a teacher and building projects freeze at all Universities in 2002, in place from the Gilmore term, one can hardly be surprised that the VA GOP was snickering.
Oh, and I should mention that Republicans had a veto-proof majority in the Gen. Assembly, so if they didn't like what you're doing, they'll just veto it. Try wiggling out of a gay marriage ban now.
This is a good article on where Virginia was at in 2002.
So how did Warner do it? Well, he dropped the partisanship thing as a matter of necessity. When you're facing a veto-proof opposition, you need to do that. And while I cannot speak to his personal desires, he had the hindsight to know, and the lack of power to enact, triangulation. Clinton's triangulation I feel was enacted under the assumption that Democrats would control Congress, and we all know where it got us. Warner, had the opposite assumption, so he did a form of reverse triangulation. Pit the far right against the middle right, and take the middle right and all of the left to get your policy through. In other words, use the third way to break the other guy's party, while holding your own caucus in tact.
He went for the Senate, which in general was older than the House of Delegates, and more reasonable. Many of the delegates were/are young proteges of the Grover Norquist school of taxation...namely "no" at any cost. Others, specifically from around the more affulent business friendly parts of the state, were of the opinion, like Warner, that you cannot run a government in the red, and if you are unwilling to cut spending, then you need to increase revenue. Specifically important, was Senate Finance Chairman Chinchester, who was willing to get Republican moderates on board and pass tax reform. Note I am careful to say tax reform. This is because for the average layperson, taxes went down, and I can honestly say that I myself have not noticed any increased punishment to my wallet. The only reason I know taxes went up is because services are better.
He also made sure to make government sleek and lean prior to asking. He cut dead weight in VDOT, and closed the DMV one day out of the week. Transportation projects went from being regularly overdue to running on-time without accrewing overtime.
As I mentioned in my prior piece on Warner, the most important thing was to give back to the rural communities who had taken such a chance on him. After all, you can't ask someone to reconsider your party and then appeal to the same old special interests once you were in power. That's what disillusions people. So Warner brought development to rural communities, relying on his connections in the Nova Techie community, and innovative measures such as laying down fiber-optic lines in the process of transportation projects than marketing the region as "wired" for business. As a result, I have friends from South Boston to Scottsville working computer jobs that simply did not exist 4 years ago.
He started building support and mapping out a plan for a Southside University, starting by bulking up community colleges in the area while working towards accreditation, essential for the University to be taken seriously and for the degrees to be worth something. (This will take longer than Warner's term, and something Kaine has vowed to follow-through on). And he allowed other schools to give teachers long over-due pay raises and hire new teachers for vacancies that had been growing cold for years.
In general, I can think of very little in the state that is not looking up. Everything is coming up Millhouse, to quote the Simpsons.
And this was done in 4 years as a lame duck with a hostile legislature. And damn, were Republicans furious about it. They tried to punish their own for agreeing with him. They squabbled. They took it poorly. They vowed revenge in 2005. And look how well that turned out.
Which brings us to our next chapter: What Warner wants to do next....
For more information, read this article naming Warner and Finance Chairman Chinchester Public Officials of the Year.