The Virginian Pilot is reporting that Del. John Welch, a non-voting member of the Hampton Roads Transportation Authority and the General Assembly liason, is going to introduce a bill in the upcoming session to “to change the taxes and fees.”
Sounds a little like campaign season politicking to me.
Welch, if you recall, said he supported an increase in the gas tax to pay for transportation. He did not, however, introduce any bills during the last session that included such an increase. Now, we all know that the Republican majority in the House wanted to be able to say “no statewide tax increase” so a gas tax increase was unlikely to get any traction. However, if Welch truly believed that the gas tax increase was the way to go, and given that his constituents wanted it, he had an obligation to introduce legislation to accomplish it.
He didn’t then, and I don’t expect him to do so if he manages to get past Bobby Mathieson in November.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Ducks? Hardly. As for producing polls, I don’t seem to recall Welch releasing his.
That’s just BS, Brian, and you know it. I haven’t seen any candidates on either side release a poll yet.
I noticed Brian didn’t read my post which did contain facts that I can statistically verify. If all politics is local, why don’t we look at the localized election returns? For consecutive cycles, the district has been very friendly to democrats, voting for Tim Kaine, Jim Webb, and Phil Kellam. Which means it wasn’t ready to support a Jerry Kilgore/George Allen/Thelma Drake kind of Republican. Voting against Jerry is understandable, of course, but George Allen? He’s well known, was a fairly popular Governor and an incumbent United States Senator that thinks he channeling Ronald Regan and George W. Bush. In short, he’s supposed to be a likeable, known quanity as a Republican, and they voted against him. And Jim Webb didn’t even campaign seriously in Virginia Beach! I’d have to check the FEC reports to verify but I’m pretty sure he only had one paid staffer down that way.
Voting for Kellam, whom you lampooned, over Drake is just the icing on the cake that is an increasingly-blue district.
You can go ahead and try and confuse the issue (maybe you’re confused, yourself?) by talking about how Bobby claimed that he’s polling ahead without releasing the numbers (that was Bouchard, silly) or that he’s going to get blown out by Purkey (that’s Bob MACIVER, Brian, but I know all these different Bobs can be perplexing to a body). Feel free to keep spinning your wheels in someone else’s mud. The simple truth, though, is that this district obviously does not think like you do.
So I’ll say it again, plainly. The voters are obviously there for Bobby. There will be no excuse for him losing, except possibly a lazy campaign.
I’m supposed to read “facts that I can statistically verify” from “anonymous”?
When Bouchard, Mathieson and MacIver had their opening of their joint-campaign office, Bobby Mathison’s quote was “we’re all in this together.” So, don’t blame me if the nutty statements of one are heard as nutty statements by all three.
No Brian, you’re supposed to read them from the Virginia Beach Voter Registrar or, if you prefer, the State Board of Elections. Hey remind me, which one of us was it that was supposed to be loading his arguments with personal invectives rather in lieu of facts?
And some of us prefer to post anonymously so that when an editor from the Virginian Pilot takes a coffee break to read Viv’s blog, that editor won’t say something like, “geez, is Welch’s campaign staff clueless about what’s going on around them.”
If you want to run a campaign based blending races with others, go ahead. Tell me how George W. Bush, Bill Bolling, and Bob McDonnell did in the 21st.
Meanwhile, keep making this thread about me. It keeps you from asking Democrats what they offer the voters. Illegal Immigration. Taxes. Education. Health care. Don’t talk about those issues, now. You’ll confuse Mathieson.
Ya know…the lazy campaign you were talking about.
“Meanwhile, keep making this thread about me.” See, that’s why you’re not as good at this job as you seem to think you are. I wasn’t trying to make it about you. I was trying to make it about the district and the voters who live there. You can try and tout your hot button issues and your personal invectives about how Bobby Mathieson isn’t releasing his poll numbers in his race against Purkey all you want, like Mathieson, Bouchard and MacIver are all the same person. And you think I’M the one who ‘wants to run a campaign based [on] blending races with others?”
Yes, Brian, I’m perfectly comfortable basing a campaign on counting voters. That’s what’s beautiful about election day, kiddo, is that it stops being about the annoying narcissistic candidates (and their narcissitic campaign staffers who insist on posting under their own names when they probably shouldn’t) and it suddenly is about the individual voter who goes to the poll casts his ballot. But hey, keeping my focus on the decision makers this November is only one strategy; by all means, keep blogging your way to victory. Hopefully there are about 7,000 voters who read Bearing Drift every day in the 21st district, in which case you might have a shot.
Ho hum…..the things anonymous people say without any proof…
“Ho-hum” . . . I think that perfectly describes everything Brian has to say and what happens to all the campaigns he gets involved in. You have to wonder at what point does he quit whining and mouthing off and start accomplishing something. But not Brian . . . snipping and bitching on blogs — and making NO SENSE while he does it — is his life.
He takes cheap shots at Vivian which are unwarranted. He misstates facts. He whines. BUT HE NEVER DELIVERS. Yet, he wonders why people ignore his opinions and think so little of him. He reminds me of the Hollywood star who once complained: “Why does everyone hate me?” His friend replied: “That’s not true. Everyone doesn’t know you.”
No wonder he sounds so miserable and grouchy. For someone who claims to be so involved in local politics, he has no grasp whatsoever of what is going on around him. Why? Because he can’t look at anything other than “it’s-all-about-me.” His track record only confirms this.
And Brian’s comment on Mathieson stating “We’re all in this together . . . ?” That refers to the constituents of the 21st District who have to suffer with Welch and his lap dog Brian . . . kinda like hostages.
Just sit back and don’t take Brian seriously, folks. It’s kinda like watching a toddler play in his diaper and wipe his poop all over himself.
Yes, Brian, THIS TIME . . . it IS about you. Now go get a clue.
Pat, Spotter and I have decided you are our hero!
Good. Maybe you can repeatedly email them to have lunch with you instead of me, Eileen.
I take it that’s a “No” on lunch sometime, Brian? Not now, not ever? Oh, poo!
No loss.
That’s one Happy Meal you don’t have to spring for . . . .
Was that a Happy Meal with a Mattel toy in it? 😉
For BK, only if the toy is a hand grenade