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Posses
and Vigilantes
Virginians
may have to ride hard to keep their
politics
local.
Despite
the fact that 2004 is an off year for electing
state officials in Virginia, leaders of the
Commonwealth are showing up on wanted posters one
day and at award ceremonies the next. All the
hoopla makes one ask whether this nationalization
of state politics is a good thing for Virginia.
Grover
Norquist and his Washington, D.C.-based Americans
for Tax Reform group, for example, recently
decided they represent Virginia
taxpayers better than officials actually elected
by Virginians. In Sept. 14 announcement, Norquist
unveiled a “Virginia’s
Least Wanted” poster that suggests a “posse of
taxpayers” will put away 15 Virginia Republican
senators and 19 Virginia Republican delegates who
approved “an unnecessary tax increase” earlier
this year. The poster, incidentally, features a
photo of Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat.
Now,
we know from our Western history that sheriffs and
U.S.
Marshals are the officials who form posses. The
people who appoint themselves are called
vigilantes. Leading Virginia Republicans such as
Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and Speaker of the
House William J. Howell are not asking
colleagues to saddle up and ride out against one
another. They and other Republican leaders, in
fact, are making it clear they hope to bridge
divides, strengthen the Republican majority in the
House and Senate and elect Kilgore governor in
2004.
Along
with anti-tax Republicans such as the Virginia
Club for Growth, however, Norquist lays claim to
a superior political strategy: Extend the
Republican majorities in the Virginia Senate and
House of Delegates by targeting 34 Republican
members for defeat, and improve Republican
governance by taking out 16 of 25 Republican
committee chairmen in the primaries next year.
Wow, no wonder President George W. Bush and Karl
Rove hang on every word of advice from that guy!
In
another stroke of genius, Norquist included Sen.
Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, R-Vienna, who, pssssst,
Grover, is the new spouse of U.S. Rep. Tom Davis,
a Fairfax Republican who knows a thing or two
about winning elections, raising money for
Republican majorities and targeting opponents.
Have you forgotten what Clint Eastwood’s
character in the movie Hang
‘em High advised as he rounded up another of
the vigilantes who did him wrong but didn’t
recognize him? “If you’re gonna hang a man you
better look at him.”
From
appearances, it doesn't look like Nordquest looked
too closely at the photos of the senators
and delegates he included in the poster. They're
not unflattering. Norquist should have drawn some
long, droopy mustaches, facial scars or dusty
cowboy hats on those varmints so they'd look more
like Black Bart or at least Yosemite Sam. Every
kid knows that makes bad guys really look bad.
Norquist
announced that he would distribute the poster
mainly to supporters and state legislators in
every other state. That sounds more like a
fund-raising tactic
for Americans for Tax Reform than anything else
– or an attempt to threaten legislators in other
states up for election this year, not Virginia
delegates, who aren’t up for election until
2005. (Senators don’t run again until 2007.)
Where is the reward money? Even bounty hunters
need to get paid.
The
tax vigilante probably meant to say that he would
tack those posters on every telephone pole in Virginia
to make sure those 34 desperados don’t go
unrecognized. He probably meant to say that he was
going to burn a giant pile of dollar bills on the
front lawns of those ornery senators and delegates
to suggest it was time to get out of town.
Just
three days later, incredibly, Governing
Magazine announced it was giving Gov. Mark R.
Warner and Sen. John H. Chichester, Chairman of
the Senate Finance Committee and Senate President
Pro Tempore, two of its 2004 Public Official of
the Year awards. Warner and
Chichester,
the magazine announced, “formed a bipartisan
alliance that moved a comprehensive tax reform
package through an initially hostile
legislature.” That is a pretty succinct and
understated summary of the most contentious
six-months ever spent by a Virginia General
Assembly.
Other
winners include the state treasurer of North
Carolina,
the chief information officer of Utah,
the mayor of Atlanta,
the child and family health director of Rhode Island,
a judge in Minnesota
and the chief facilities executive of the
Los Angeles
Unified
School
District.
“Some
of these people,” said Alan Ehrenhalt, Governing’s
executive editor, “came into situations that
involved almost unbelievable complexity and
seemingly endless bureaucratic and political
obstacles. Ordinary public officials might have
just steered clear. And yet they persevered, and
they accomplished remarkable things. They got
budgets balanced, schools built and infrastructure
repaired. They are truly deserving of honors and
public appreciation.”
Sounds
like a posse might be organizing next in
North
Carolina,
Utah,
Rhode
Island,
Minnesota,
Atlanta
and
L.A.
What must taxpayers and Clubs for Growth in those
locations be thinking right now? Right, of course
-- get us
a least-wanted poster!
Oh,
Governing recognized
good governance of the Commonwealth under
Republican governors and Democratic majorities in
the General Assembly by giving
Virginia
a financial management award in 1999. John
Chichester and another Dirty Dozen of those
Republican Senators and Delegates were a part of
that recognition, too. If only Grover Norquist
had been riding higher in the saddle then, maybe
Virginia could have stopped the General Assembly
before it acted responsibly again.
The
determination of Virginia Republican leaders to
support one another, meanwhile, seems to be
working while the vigilantes continue to ride
around in circles. A group of Northern Virginia
Republican legislators, some of whom voted for tax
reform, some against, gathered recently to endorse
a common approach on dedicating revenues to
transportation. The “Class of 2002 Southside
Leadership Fund GOP 500” joint fundraising event
scheduled October 3 and 4 at the Virginia
International Raceway by Republican Delegates
Danny Marshall, R-Danville, Robert Hurt,
R-Chatham, and Clarke Hogan, R-South Boston, is
almost sold out.
And
everyone except Grover will be more worried about
who is leading the Grand Am Rolex race than which
of those three is on whose poster. That’s the
way to keep politics in Virginia
responsible to Virginians.
--
September 20, 2004
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