Four Virginia governor hopefuls discuss traffic woes

As it has been for the past three gubernatorial elections, highway gridlock emerged repeatedly as not only a frustrating quality-of-life issue for the affluent Washington, D.C., suburbs but one that traps commuters for hours daily and imperils the commercial vitality of Virginia's economic engine.

By BOB LEWIS
The Associated Press

4/3/2009

RESTON, Va. — Three Democrats and the lone Republican hopeful for Virginia governor expressed similar views on ending highway gridlock and boosting public education at a forum with high-tech business leaders Friday, doing little to highlight their contrasts.

Differences were more in subtle shades than bright lines as members of the Northern Virginia Technology Council separately questioned Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrats R. Creigh Deeds, Terry R. McAuliffe and Brian J. Moran.

Deeds promised legislation to finance major investments in new road construction within his first year if elected. That goal eluded the Democratic administrations of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and his predecessor, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner.

For Kaine, it was a decisive issue in his 2005 election, but transportation tax legislation foundered in the Republican-run House of Delegates during three special legislative sessions called to address the issue since Kaine took office.

McAuliffe, speaking in a rapid-fire pace that at times bordered on shouting, said he would get the funding passed because he intends to bring a Democratic House of Delegates to power with him in this fall's elections. Republicans hold 54 of the House's 100 seats not counting two conservative independents who organize with the GOP.

McDonnell proposed greater reliance on automated tolls and public-private partnerships for projects such as four-laning U.S. 460 from Petersburg to Suffolk and deploying high-tech accident-control and stoplight-synching technology.

Moran said he would find the means to finance new roads to relieve traffic jams that he said are the East Coast's worst. But he was candid about the cost.

"The discussion must be what revenues do we raise, how do we appropriate the revenue, not whether or not we need it," Moran said. "If you can find — and I know you haven't been able to — someone who's willing to fix your bridge, or put a mile of asphalt down or lay a mile of track, let us know who it is."

All four used the Northern Virginia forum to burnish their pro-business credentials before a select crowd of about 100 corporate chieftains and technology business leaders in the region, which is home to AOL and a major world Internet backbone.

They were largely in lockstep in pledging relief for the region's crippling traffic, for more support for public schools and colleges, and for attracting advanced technology jobs employers and research.

Deeds, the only candidate from Virginia's rural areas, conceded that textile, mining, furniture and tobacco jobs, once the bedrock of small-town economies, are gone forever.

"You can't save what's part of the past," Deeds said, proposing a major infusion of funding for state community colleges to retrain displaced workers.

"I knew lots of people who used to work in textile mills — sewing factories, we called them. Now they work at Wal Mart if they work at all," he said. Retraining makes it possible for people to transition from such minimum-wage jobs to $50-an-hour pharmaceutical or technology workers, he said.

The Democrats and McDonnell were all behind Virginia's right-to-work law that bans compulsory union membership, a commitment the anti-union executives and entrepreneurs wanted to hear.

The sharpest difference was on the question of federal union card-check legislation. Republican Bob McDonnell was the only candidate to explicitly denounce it.

"I think [it] is the most anti-free enterprise, job-killing bill to come down the pike in a long time," he said, claiming it undermined the state's right-to-work heritage.

The three Democrats took no position on card check, dismissing it as a federal issue that governors would be powerless to affect. McAuliffe was the only candidate to note that the bill is doomed because its supporters lack the 60 votes they need to break a Senate filibuster against it.

The card check bill would allow a majority of employees at a company to organize by signing cards, a change from current practice that allows employers to mandate secret ballot elections. It also would boost penalties for retaliation against workers seeking to organize and call for arbitration if management and the union cannot agree on a first contract.

McDonnell said card check was just part of a national government that he said has overreached its bounds for nearly 70 years. He called for "a great rebirth of federalism in this country" to protect states' rights. He cited Obama administration restraints on General Motors and insurance giant AIG in return for federal bailouts as examples of excessive federal intrusion.

"We need a resurgence of 10th Amendment litigation to say 'No, the states and the individual have certain liberties protected by the founders,'" McDonnell said.

The Trucker staff may be reached to comment on this article at editor@thetrucker.com.