VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local

The high cost of VA’s tax expenditures

Monday, November 9, 2009 – 12:23 pm

The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis released a report (pdf) this morning which assesses the cost of Virginia’s tax expenditures. Calling it a $2.5 billion drain on revenue, the Institute says that these expenditures – tax exemptions, exclusions, deferrals, credits, or preferential rates in the tax code – are implemented and then forgotten.

In a conference call earlier today, Institute Executive Director Michael Cassidy pointed out that Gov.-Elect Bob McDonnell, like his opponent, Creigh Deeds, called for better performance management. One of the recommendations of the report is to regularly publish “a tax expenditure report that is accessible to the public, broad in scope with detailed information, and with an analysis of whether the programs are meeting stated goals.”

The Institute takes no position on the relative merits of the various tax expenditures, the largest of which is $950 million for car tax relief. What it is attempting to do is point out that these items should face the same scrutiny as other budget expenditures.

I think that’s a pretty good idea.

By vjp | Posted in Local, Politics, Virginia | Comments (14)

Nye voted no on healthcare

Monday, November 9, 2009 – 8:37 am

The emails from Saturday night’s votes are flowing into my inbox. Most of them are congratulatory ones – for Congressman Bobby Scott (D-3rd), Congressman Tom Perriello (D-5th), Congressman Jim Moran (D-8th) and Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) – thanking them for their support of healthcare reform.

Some of them are critical of my representative, Congressman Glenn Nye (D-2nd), who voted against the reform. In an email to constituents before Saturday’s vote, Nye informed us of his intention to vote no and his reasons for it. (An expanded version of the email can be viewed here.) At the end of the day, Nye voted against the bill because it wasn’t the “right” bill.

To quote one of my Twitter buds: “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

By vjp | Posted in Hampton Roads, Local, National, Politics | Comments (19)

A sober look at Deeds’ pollster Petts

Saturday, November 7, 2009 – 1:14 pm

In my earlier post, I mentioned some consultants who should never work in politics again. I’m not generally one to name names, but since he’s been outed, David Petts is one of those guys.

Told by Petts that his convincing primary win positioned him well with the Democratic base – core Democrats, northern Virginians and African-Americans – Deeds was advised: “The battleground now appears to be for independents outside the DC media market.”

This is what led to the misguided plan to ignore the base, a mistake of epic proportions and probably the largest contributor to the size of the loss. Petts should have known better – it’s not the first time he’s worked in Virginia politics. He should have recognized that the voters in a primary are not the same group in the general and the need to reach out to base voters who didn’t vote in the primary was critical.

But, to be honest, I agreed with Petts’ assessment of the possible need for the Democratic nominee to distance himself from Obama and said so in this post. But the presence of the OFA organizers made that near impossible.

Petts says now that the campaign lost its grip on northern Virginia over the summer, when Democrats nationally took a hit in part as a result of the healthcare debate and raucous town halls.

That’s why I asked the DNC to remove those organizers here. Send them to one of the 48 states that didn’t have a gubernatorial election. Nationalizing this election was about the worst thing that could happen to Democrats in Virginia. But even with them here, the campaign should have adjusted its strategy and gone after voters in NoVA. That it didn’t happen is indicative of how much faith the campaign put into that June memo.

There’s a whole lot of blame to go around. And some of it should rightly be placed on Petts.

By vjp | Posted in 2009 Gubernatorial Race, Local, Politics, Virginia | Comments (24)

Choo Choo!

Friday, November 6, 2009 – 12:15 pm

Get’em John

UPDATE: The video has been removed. Below the fold is a transcript that I’ve seen in a number of places around the internet.

By vjp | Posted in Sports | Comments (1)

Friday fun: I’m sweet potatoes

Friday, November 6, 2009 – 9:58 am

Probably my all-time favorite food

You Are Sweet Potatoes

You love comfort foods, and for you, there’s nothing more comforting than Thanksgiving dinner.

In fact, you’ve been known to have Thanksgiving favorites all fall… and possibly all year. You’ve got to have your sweet potatoes.

There’s no one who cooked as well as your mom or grandma, but you’re not too bad at whipping up a hearty dinner to please a crowd.

You believe that food is love. And just like you have plenty of love to go around, you also have plenty of food to go around.

What Fall Fruit or Vegetable Are You Most Like?

By vjp | Posted in Fun stuff | Comments (1)

Potential challenger for Bobby Scott

Thursday, November 5, 2009 – 12:42 pm

The Virginian-Pilot political blog posted a blurb yesterday about a potential challenger for Congressman Bobby Scott (D-3rd). Seems the original tip came from United Conservatives that Coby Dillard, who worked on the McDonnell for Governor campaign as Deputy Coalition Director (Veterans/African Americans), is considering a run. Dillard runs a blog called The Dillard Doctrine and, according to a statement posted there, is deferring “any questions or further comments “on his next move “until a later time.”

A word of warning to young Mr. Dillard: take a look at the election results from 2004, the last time Scott had a challenger. That year, Scott beat the Republican Party’s favorite black conservative Winsome Sears by a whopping 69% to 31%. Now, take a look at the race in the 4th CD. Randy Forbes’ underfunded, unsupported (by most of the Democratic Party machinery) challenger got 35% of the vote. Recall if you will that 2004 was a presidential election year. Bush won Virginia that year – but not the 3rd CD. In fact, Bush only got 33% of the vote in the 3rd. He won the 4th (and I use the 4th as a comparison because there is a significant number of black voters in the 4th) by roughly 14%.

Then there’s Tuesday’s results. Bob McDonnell may have won Virginia, but he didn’t win the 3rd. McDonnell only garnered 35% of the vote in this district.

So while I would never tell someone not to run, I would encourage young Mr. Dillard to look hard at the reality of the district – once Tuesday’s euphoria wears off – and recognize what an uphill battle it will be.

I’ve no doubts that Rep. Scott is up for the challenge

By vjp | Posted in Hampton Roads, Local, National, Politics | Comments (26)

A bloodbath

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 – 2:25 pm

The map to the left, which I got from The Washington Post, pretty much says it all: yesterday was a bloodbath. While the map only shows the gubernatorial race, the other two statewide races maps don’t look much different. The added loss of a net of six House of Delegates seats is a bitter pill.

A successful campaign requires time, money and people. Tuesday, the Republicans had all three, while the Democrats didn’t.

By vjp | Posted in 2009 Elections, Hampton Roads, Local, Politics, Virginia | Comments (23)

Congratulations and condolences

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 – 9:01 am

The margin was greater than I expected, the result being the loss the number of House seats at the top of the range I anticipated. My congratulations to Gov-elect Bo McDonnell, LG Bill Bolling, and AG-elect Ken Cuccinelli.

My condolences to Creigh Deeds, Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon.

Congratulations to new Democratic House members Luke Torian in the 52nd district and Robin Abbott in the 93rd district.

Special condolences to the Democratic members of the House of Delegates who lost their seats Tuesday:

Dan Bowling (3rd)
Shannon Valentine (23rd)
Dave Poisson (32nd)
Margi Vanderhye (34th)
Paul Nichols (51st)
Chuck Caputo (67th)
Joe Bouchard (83rd)

(As of this writing, an 8th seat – Bobby Mathieson (21st) – is behind his Republican challenger by 16 votes, but that race will go to a recount.)

I’ll have my thoughts on the 2009 election up later.

EDIT: Obviously, there are other Democrats – even first timers – who won yesterday. My intention was to congratulate the Democrats who won the seats previously held by Republicans.