Virginia, Maryland and the District handed President-elect Barack Obama all of their 26 electoral votes last Tuesday, but experts say it could be tough to translate that political support into heightened support for regional priorities.
The commonwealth’s Gov. Tim Kaine was on Obama’s short list as a vice presidential pick. A Kaine spokesman said the governor hoped that would translate into increased help on infrastructure spending.
Stephen Fuller, director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, acknowledged the close relationship between Kaine and Obama and said it was “possible” that connection could result in increased attention to Virginia projects.
But Fuller chuckled, adding, “Where’s the money going to come from? We’re bankrupt, we have a trillion-dollar deficit, there is no money for the Chesapeake Bay or anything else.”
In Maryland, Gov. Martin O’Malley was an early backer of Obama’s Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton. But Maryland leaders said they had high hopes for an Obama administration.
Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, whose district covers parts of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, said, “He’s been a very strong booster of [Montgomery County-based National Institutes of Health] and I look forward to increasing our efforts there. … I am confident he will support the legislation Congress has passed that includes a record increase in federal support for Chesapeake cleanup efforts too,” Van Hollen told The Examiner.
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin echoed Van Hollen. “You will see fundamental change,” Cardin said. “He clearly will be a president who will help us with the Chesapeake Bay, with clean air and clean water initiatives.” But Chris Summers, president and founder of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, said the D.C. area already does “fairly well, it seems, regardless of who is in office in terms of bringing home the bacon.”
According to Summers, more federal funds for Maryland infrastructure is the last thing the state needs. “This is not a state with a revenue problem; we have a spending problem,” Summers said, pointing to a more than $1 billion projected state budget gap despite Maryland’s largest tax increase ever last year.
