Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Torches Held High and Pitchforks Stabbing the Sky

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

It’s summer, the air is sweltering and tempers are flaring. A most propitious moment for the latest edition of Bacon’s Rebellion… the July 21, 2008, edition. (Never miss an issue, have the e-zine mailed directly to your in-box. Sign up for a free subscription.)

Here are this week’s manifestos:

No Salvaging the Mill Towns
Ten years and $400 million has failed to transform the economies of Southside and Southwest Virginia. Until leaders confront dispersed human settlement patterns, they will never address root causes.
by James A. Bacon

Thank You, Joe
Former state Senator Joe Gartlan left his fingerprints all over the Code of Virginia and boosted the future of the Commonwealth.
by Doug Koelemay

Rocky Mountain Low
A WaPo story highlights the threat of converting Montana wilderness into masses of McLodges. But there’s more to the story: Developers are destroying the land they exploit and, with rising energy prices, are creating the ghost (non) towns of tomorrow.
by EM Risse

Democrats for (School) Choice
Putting the interest of the nation’s children ahead of those of the teachers unions, an increasing number of Dems are supporting school choice.
by Chris Braunlich

Summer Sweats
Tim Kaine looks like a long shot to get the VP nod from Barack Obama. But it’s fun thinking about the what-ifs back in the Old Dominion if the governor were drafted into national politics.
by Norman Leahy

My Lunch with Big Oil
Mr. Big Oil spilled the beans: Offshore oil drilling means bupkis for Virginia. He ginned up the flap here in the Old Dominion to win support for opening up California, Alaska and the Gulf where the big barrels are.
by Peter Galuszka

How Tim Kaine Lost his Mojo
Tim Kaine campaigned as a liberal who would oppose tax increases. He has governed as a moderate who has advocated tax increases. Many Virginians feel betrayed.
by Frank Kilgore

Nice & Curious Questions
The Developer’s Daughter: Road Names in Virginia
by Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

  1. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Re Tim Kaine – Kaine won big in NoVA because of his position that we cannot build enough roads to fix the problem and that it was time to tie land use to transportation. Virtually everyone in NoVA short of Bill Lecos and the garboons at the Post think the area is over-developed and would like to see a big slow-down in development. Toss in the changing demographics (Fairfax County would be declining in population, but for overseas immigration)and Kaine won handily.

    Kaine’s proposal was the most sensible thing most people in NoVA have heard in years. I know a number of good Republicans and Independents who voted for Kaine because of the land use issue.

    But despite being raised Catholic, Tim Kaine quickly shifted to the Virginia state religion — developer worship. He pushed for more tax increases, but unlike Mark Warner, who tied his increases to education, Kaine was roped to the road builder – developer crowd. Many people in NoVA would probably pay higher taxes if they truly believed the revenue would fix traffic. But take a look at the $5 billion Dulles Rail — Tysons Corner landowner welfare project — the $170 M Columbia Pike trolley in Arlington. Etc. Most understand that the proposals mean higher taxes now and in the future.

    So Kaine has stumbled. He’s certainly not failed and has accomplished some things. But asking people to pay higher taxes so we can see even more development doesn’t cut. He picked the wrong horse in the race.

    TMT

  2. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Interesting article by Frank Kilgore.

    Kaine won because of liberal Northern Virginia. Sort of. Kaine won more than 70% of the popular vote in 7 localities:

    Arlington
    Alexandria
    Charlottesville
    Falls Church
    Petersburg
    Richmond

    Meanwhile, Kilgore won over 70% of the popular vote in only one locality:

    Scott County

    The Republicans are losing all the urban votes – not just the NoVA votes. Tim Kaine won 30 of Virginia’s 39 cities. His biggest win anywhere was the City of Petersburg where he won 82% of the vote.

    Kilgore did much better in the counties winning 67 of the 95 counties. However, he lost such un-NoVA counties as Accomack, Alleghany, Buchanan, Henrico, etc. Unfortunately for Kilgore, 47 of the 67 counties he won had fewer than 10,000 votes cast (65 counties overall). All of these counties combined (even the ones Kaine won) cast 342,074 votes. That is fewer than the combination of Fairfax and Henrico. If this is the Republican Party base, they will lose again and again and again.

    Tim Kaine won more than 60% of the popular vote in 15 localities including such non-NoVA places as:

    Albemarle County (61%)
    Brunswick County (60%)
    Charles City County (69%)
    Northampton County (61%)
    Surry County (61%)
    Covington City (61%)
    Fredricksburg City (61%)
    Hampton City (64%)
    Lexington City (65%)
    Martinsville (62%)
    Norfolk (66%)
    Portsmouth (66%)
    Roanoke (62%)
    Williamsburg (61%)

    And this election was prior to Bush’s unbelievable fall in the polls. As Virginia continues to urbanize one can only expect the Republicans to do worse and worse. The redistricting from the 2010 census should pretty much kill the Republican Party of Virginia altogether.

    RIP RPV 2011

    The amazing thing to me is how little the RPV seems to care about its impending demise. They whine about “liberal NoVA” doing them in despite the fact that they lose many localities outside of NoVA. They keep trying to feed the voters the same pap and they keep losing. I’d like to have a choice in upcoming elections. Time for the RPV to try something new.

Leave a Reply

Read More