Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell upped the stakes Monday for the panel designed to trim the commonwealth’s government, pitching the new commission as a way to implement sweeping change in state spending.
At a forum in Richmond discussing his Commission on Government Reform and Restructuring, McDonnell said “incremental and marginal change will be unacceptable” in the effort to overhaul state government.
“I didn’t run for governor just to nip around the edges a little,” he said. “I want to see some bigger systemic changes.”
The 31-member commission embodies much of the governor’s campaign platform. One of its primary tasks will be to draw a blueprint for turning over Virginia’s more than 330 liquor stores to the private sector, a plan facing stern resistance in the General Assembly.
He again pitched the privatization plan at Monday’s forum, speaking optimistically about its chance for success. With private businesses already selling beer and wine, “it doesn’t make sense to control only one portion of the distribution of alcohol,” McDonnell said.
The governor has argued the plan could pump as much as $500 million into state coffers, although that figure is hotly disputed.
McDonnell’s choice to head the commission, former Nixon administration official Fred Malek, has drawn fire from a Northern Virginia Democratic delegate. A statement from David Englin, a Jewish delegate from Alexandria, called the appointment an affront to Jews in state government.
Malek had been tasked by Nixon to furnish a list of high-ranking Jewish employees in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The ensuing scandal caused Malek to resign in 1988 as deputy Republican National Committee chairman. He has apologized for the action.
Other groups pushed back against Englin’s criticism Monday. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called the comments “absurd” in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
“One mistake and one indiscretion does not an anti-Semite make,” said Foxman, who referred to Malek as a friend. “In the last 30 years, he has built relationships, established relationships, strengthened relationships with the Jewish community, with the state of Israel.”
