Playing the Warner Card
Or, send in the (wannabe) clones
Erstwhile Democratic LTG candidate Jody Wagner is playing the
Mark Warner card for all it’s worth in her latest fundraising
email. This time, the campaign’s copywriters use my Sorensen
colleague Margi Vanderhye to carry a message that’s sure to become
universal, and ultimately nauseating, by sometime next February.
First, a salvo we haven’t heard in at least three years:
The major credit rating agencies reaffirmed our AAA
credit status, and helped keep our state government finances
running at peak efficiency.
Yup, they are running so efficiently that the state budget is
swimming in red ink. The real question is whether they can continue
to be models of efficiency after they get their “full Detroit”
haircuts next year. We might never know, as the
Democratically-controlled Senate
stomped all over an enhanced budget transparency bill last
year, largely because such a move seemed to offend Sen. Edd Houck’s
delicate sensibilities. We also might never know how one agency in
particular — VDOT — would perform under a tighter budget because
during the special session, Senate Democrats
ignored a bill from the House that would have mandated an
independent performance audit (it passed the House 95-0). But one
we go, to the real meat of the email:
She’s the only candidate who worked as Treasurer with
Mark Warner to save our credit rating after years of Republican
mismanagement, and the only candidate who worked as Secretary of
Finance in the Kaine Administration when Virginia was named best
managed state for the second time in a row.
Does Wagner really want to re-fight the 2004 tax increase? Really?
That ought to be a hoot, in part because the hike passed even as
the state was about to reap a series of budget windfalls. And as
for management, well, I’ll believe her on that one
after she gets that eye exam. So there it is: just as Terry
McAuliffe is running as the Warneresque candidate of competence,
accountability and “moving forward” (are we there yet…anywhere?),
so, too will every other member of the Democratic ticket. It makes
perfect, if superficial, sense, considering how well Warner polled
in the Senate race. But are any of them really Mark Warner’s
clones? Of course not. And let’s not forget that until the
2004-vintage Republicans caved to Warner on taxes, he was widely
derided as a failed governor who was in way over his head.
Everything Warner is today (good morning, Senator-elect), he owes
to a small band of 17 House Republicans and more specifically, to
an even smaller group who famously “took a walk” when it came time
to crush Warner’s tax hike in committee. I don’t think the GOP will
be throwing Terry, Jody, Creigh or Brian any such lifelines any
time soon. Then again… (cross-posted at
Tertium Quids)
Go to Source
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Leave a Reply