You know, Chichester isn't wrong about this
Jeff Schapiro with the RTD talks about outgoing Senator John Chichester's remarks at a recent VACO conference. The topic? Myopia at the General Assembly:
He (Chichester) griped about raids on the portion of the budget that finances schools, cops and social services. The so-called general fund is bled for car-tax relief and, now, for a transportation fix widely viewed as broken.
Were roads and rails, Chichester suggested, financed the usual, Virginia way -- through taxes and fees specific to asphalt and steel -- Gov. Tim Kaine wouldn't want to raid the rainy-day fund to pay the public's bills.
All this is symptomatic of fiscal sloppiness, and that is a consequence of sending to Richmond people ill-prepared to be there. Chichester recommends a back-to-the-future remedy: community leaders, rather than partisan bosses, recruiting candidates.
Until this change occurs, he said, there will be the wrong kind of safety in numbers.
"This herd mentality exists because today's candidates for the legislature no longer emerge from the grass-roots community. They are selected and bankrolled by the party leadership to cement loyalty to the party, rather than loyalty to Virginians." Now I'm not so certain that Republican leadership really has that much say in who runs for what. Candidate recruitment isn't a strong suit in either the House or the Senate (surprisingly, RPV as an organization has little input in this process).
Rather, local party leaders tend to be the power brokers for who comes forward. While ideally one would like to think that unit chairs are "grassroots", by definition they are ultimately grassstops, rarely reflecting the mood of the community and mostly reflecting a strong base of support within the unit committee itself -- not the community writ large.
Chichester's ultimate wish to drive the candidate recruitment process towards communities rather than committees seems outright simple... perhaps even laden with common sense.
Too often we're quick to promote from within the party, rather than from outside. Yet quality candidate recruitment comes from drawing from the community and using the committee as a prism to shape and advise those candidates.
That way, a dualism forms. Community leaders may know the climate, but it's still the grassroot conservatives working their candidates towards election. Both need the other, and woe to a machine that lacks one angle (or both). It's not selling out, it's matching our values with the district.
So Chichester has a point. Even a broken clock can be right twice a day.
|
 |
Brandon Bell 
5 Comments:
Time for a little reality here. There is a hidden 2% tax on all auto insurance premiums in Virginia. Why do I say hidden, because it is not disclosed on your Declarations page you receive from your insurance carrier.
Senator Chichester... exactly how much closer than a tax on auto insurance premiums can you get to the asphalt? I have asked every delegate and senator I know about this tax, and none can tell me when it was first even implemented... but I know one thing for sure, it goes into the general (slush) fund....
Only Gov. Kaine let onto it in 2006 as he suggested we dedicate 1/3rd of it to go to transportation... Kudos for telling us about it, no kudos for not sending all of it $600+ million annually I have found out.
My understanding is the $200M is dedicated to paying the debt service on the $3B bond issue for transportation....
This of course coming from the same Senators who refused to enact a 'Lock Box' for transporation....
Last comment.... Thank God Gov. Gilmore found a way to keep actual tax dollars in the form of the car tax relief in my pocket, and the poor, poor General Assembly members have to do without 950M each year to fatten up the goose of govt. in VA.
Chichester's derailment of car tax relief was the beginning of the end.
My point is SOLELY on the issue of candidate recruitment.
Currently the GA spends every dime it gets into the treasury and more. If inflation was 3%, and tax revenues received were 6%, does the GA restrain itself to 3%, and attempt to send the balance home?
If we recruited candidates who didn't think the state coffers were their own personal little goody bag... we would still be in the majority in the State Senate.
Post a Comment
Home