Virginia is at a critical crossroads. For the last decade, the state has been on a tax-and-spending spree under Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. Now it needs to sober up. But tax-and-spend politicians never know when it’s time to stop. So Virginians must decide on Nov. 3 whether to continue to raise taxes and bust budgets – and become a failing state like California and Michigan – or to return to the commonwealth’s sterling tradition of fiscal restraint and careful governance. Only one candidate, Republican Bob McDonnell, clearly understands this choice and is focused like a laser on the most important tasks facing the next governor – creating new jobs to keep Virginia growing and getting state government taxes and spending back to prudent levels.
McDonnell has the correct approach to both taxes and transportation, the top two issues facing Northern Virginians. In an editorial board interview with The Examiner, McDonnell pointed out that his transportation plan includes a dozen funding mechanisms that do not raise taxes, including selling off state-owned liquor stores and earmarking royalties from future offshore oil and natural gas production. McDonnell’s approach will enable Virginia to maintain existing highways and mass transit services, while building the new roads commuters so desperately need. A military veteran who served 14 years in the General Assembly before being elected attorney general in 2005, McDonnell has been a superlative public servant and will make an excellent governor. The Examiner enthusiastically endorses him.
In contrast, Democrat Creigh Deeds – who ignored our repeated invitations to come in for a talk – has offered only one “solution:” Trust him now with your vote and later he will appoint a bipartisan commission to solve the state’s problems. But that idea didn’t even fly with his admirers at the Washington Post, who admitted that such an approach will lead to renewed demands that citizens pay more in taxes instead of officials doing better with less.
McDonnell doesn’t shrink from the long overdue reordering of spending priorities in Richmond. And he knows that using existing resources for transportation does not, as Deeds falsely maintains, cannibalize education, health or public safety. School buses, ambulances and police cars need an adequate road system just as much as private vehicles.
To succeed McDonnell as attorney general, The Examiner endorses Northern Virginia’s Republican state Senator Ken Cuccinelli, who is clearly the most qualified candidate. In addition to his unparalleled legislative leadership on mental health and veterans’ issues, Cuccinelli was the first legislator to call for a special session to fix a potential prosecutorial nightmare. It was triggered by a Supreme Court decision requiring forensic lab analysts to appear in court when demanded by defendants. Del. Steve Shannon, Cuccinelli’s Democratic opponent, called it a “political stunt,” but even Gov. Kaine eventually followed Cuccinelli’s wise counsel.
