Called Virginia Votes 2009, the series features three half hour shows, each including interviews with the nominees for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General.

• Virginia Votes 2009 – The Candidates for Governor: Bob McDonnell (R) and Creigh Deeds (D)
• Virginia Votes 2009 – The Candidates for Lieutenant Governor: Jody Wagner (D) and Bill Bolling (R)
• Virginia Votes 2009 – The Candidates for Attorney General: Ken Cuccinelli (R) and Steve Shannon (D)

In Hampton Roads, the shows premiere this Sunday on Cox Channel 11, with all three shows being aired back-to-back, beginning at 8:30pm. The shows will also be shown on Cox Channel 9 in Roanoke, with a slightly different schedule.

Viewers who miss the airings can watch the shows on Cox on Demand in Hampton Roads, Roanoke and Northern Virginia, as well as on YouTube.

For more information, check out the announcement (pdf).

UPDATE: The videos of the interviews are now available on our Elections 2009 page

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell released a very detailed transportation plan. In an editorial Tuesday, The Virginian-Pilot wrote:

Many of the ideas in his 20-page plan ring familiar because they have been rejected multiple times by state lawmakers, and McDonnell has yet to explain how he plans to recycle these clunkers into a successful road plan – or why this time he expects passage.

The Roanoke Times was even more blunt:

What you’ll find is a patchwork that’s overloaded with complexity, chock full of wishful thinking and seriously flawed overall. It can best be summarized as “Booze, borrowing, tolls and BS.”

Lest you think that Democrat Creigh Deeds fares any better, the Pilot editorial takes him to task:

Democrat Creigh Deeds’ plan is devoid of details, a skeletal framework that asks voters to trust that he’ll come up with a meaningful strategy for relieving congestion once he’s in office.

Deeds’ transportation plan was included in the rollout of his economic plan. As The Daily Press reported:

… Deeds said his goal is to get a long-term, statewide transportation plan through the General Assembly, but he refused to get pinned down on the details.

“I’m running for governor. I’m not running for dictator. So I’m not going to tie myself to any one funding plan,” Deeds said. “The reality is that we tried lots of things in the past, and they haven’t worked.”

At the end of the day, I have to wonder just what it will take to get a transportation package through the General Assembly. Yes, we are going to elect a new governor, but the Senate will have the same makeup as before and the House will only change slightly. I have to agree with Brian Kirwin – the public isn’t going to clamour for increased taxes to pay for roads. As much as political pundits focus on the topic, I suspect that the average voter doesn’t rank transportation very high on the list. Unfortunately, by the time the public sees the problem, it will be too large to fix all at once.

And that’s where the elected representatives come in. What we need from our electeds is a quality they often claim to have: leadership. A leader has the ability to assess the situation and devise a solution. Leaders aren’t afraid to make the hard choices. Leaders don’t fear not getting elected/re-elected.

Our transportation problems didn’t happen overnight. Fixing them won’t happen overnite, either. But the longer we wait, the more difficult – and more expensive – it becomes. Might as well get started now.

How about our electeds walk the walk, instead of talking the talk, and demonstrate that they are the leaders they claim to be?

Image credit: http://acecmw.org

When the never-ending election season turned to the 2009 elections for Delegates, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, there was a lot of talk about winning back the other house in the Virginia Legislature, the House of Delegates. Since then, we have seen a carnival-style primary election season that sucked all the money and air out of the activist base in Virginia. After what seems like years between January and June, our question was answered and we have a ticket of great, qualified and dedicated people.

My good friend Vivian Paige published an article last night that spurred this train of thought. I had been thinking along the same lines, although in the recesses of my brain. Vivian asked some of the same questions I am, namely, “Who will ensure our majority in the House of Delegates?” We both agree that of equal importance to electing a Democratic Governor is electing the majority status in the House of Delegates.

The House of Delegates has more contested races this year than it did in 2007. Today, I believe the total is 69.

Here’s a question. With the large number of House races this year, who will be doing the usual jobs of Levar Stoney and Jared Leopold? These races need to be worked by the party, and from what I have seen in previous House election years, they couldn’t cover the races they had with a full complement of people at DPVA. In one instance at the end of the election season in 2007, a literature drop was scheduled at little or no cost to the party. Unfortunately, unless you lived in Northern Virginia, Roanoke, Danville/Martinsville or Hampton Roads, there were no events listed. This is inexcusable.

The whole of western VA, aside from a few areas like Roanoke and Danville, are routinely written off. Prince Edward County went for Obama last year. Will we see any sort of focus on Southside areas outside the ones I mentioned? Not likely.

Without the House of Delegates, there is a real good chance that redistricting would happen under the rules and carving knife of the Republican majority. We can’t let that happen to Virginia for ten years, because we couldn’t adequately staff our organizations. We can’t let it happen to Virginia’s people either, they are pushed to the economic limit now, along with the usual headaches. We especially can’t allow it to happen to the children that have no say in any of this. They deserve a good education and good health care, and a reasonable government that does the things that help people.

Will we rise to the occasion? I am hopeful, but I am not optimistic.

How did we pick up those four seats in 2007? I believe it was a combination of things. First, we had really good candidates. Second, we had extremely active caucus members. Brian Moran, as chair of the House Caucus, spent a tremendous amount of time in Hampton Roads. Creigh Deeds, although not Caucus chair, spent a tremendous amount of time here helping Senate candidates. The coordinated campaign – warts and all – did an excellent job on the ground, bringing in volunteers to help paid staff. Finally, the candidates and the caucuses raised significant amounts of money.

Reading through the various sources over the last few days one would think that the only goal this year is to win the governor’s mansion and that the only place that matters is Northern Virginia. I can only hope that I am misreading these early signs.

The announcement that DPVA Executive Director Levar Stoney was taking a leave of absence to be political director of Creigh Deeds’ campaign for governor was the first shoe to drop. Wedesday’s announcement that DPVA communications director Jared Leopold is also heading over to the Deeds campaign left me wondering who the heck will be running the DPVA through the fall.  According to vpap, there are 68 69 contested House of Delegates races this fall.  While it is arguable that each of these races is competitive, truth is that resources will be tied up fending off challengers. That makes the role of the DPVA even more critical.

The House Democratic Caucus does the bulk of its fundraising through the Commonwealth Victory Fund. As of 3/31, the PAC had a paltry $35,442 on hand.  The caucus was a little better off, with $243, 022 on hand, but nowhere near the amounts they are going to need to help fund the races. Note that the second largest contributor to the Caucus has been Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, who contributed $483,000 in 2007. (He was actually the top contributor in 2007.)  I don’t expect to see those kinds of numbers from him this year – he has a challenger. And that $100,000 from John Stryker in 2007? Forgetaboutit. It’s unlikely to happen this year.

None of this bodes well for Democrats gaining the six seats necessary to obtain the majority in the House of Delegates.  And it seems that no one is even talking about that anymore. What’s at stake here? One word: redistricting. Without some gains in the House, we are staring at virtually the same districts as we have now for another ten years! Do you really think bipartisan redistricting is going to be implemented without Democrats at least gaining some House seats?

And then there is the emphasis on Northern Virginia.

Yeah, I know that NoVA represents a significant portion of the electorate. But let’s be real: they can’t do it alone. NoVA may turn out lots of votes, but they can’t pull the load without help from the rest of the state.  Hampton Roads, historically, has come through time after time.

Within days of winning the nomination, we learned that Deeds is moving his headquarters to Northern Virginia. “Resources” was offered as the reason, not a completely invalid one but one which makes the argument that the Democratic ticket is regionally diverse less believable. Already AG candidate Steve Shannon is from NoVA, and LG candidate Jody Wagner seems to spend most of her time there, based on her tweets.

It is a constant refrain of residents outside of NoVA that they are ignored. I hear it from almost every corner of the state.  Here’s what The Virginian-Pilot editorial board said last week:

Steve Shannon of Fairfax County has not distinguished himself during his short tenure in the House of Delegates, and he remains a stranger to voters outside his district. If he wants to be the next attorney general, he should start explaining now why he’s qualified for the job.

Hampton Roads is supposed to be a part of the golden crescent, yet the editorial board knows little of Shannon. Knowing the editorial board, I know they didn’t say this without justification.

And then there are the blogs. During the primary, all three candidates had bloggers’ dinners – in NoVA. Wednesday night, Deeds had a bloggers’ dinner – in NoVA.

Let me let you guys in on a little secret: Hampton Roads bloggers enjoy the support of the main stream media. That’s right: our blogs, in addition to reaching the very small number of blog readers out there, are included in The Virginian-Pilot as pundits. Right alongside folks from the likes of The New York Times and The Washington Post. Instead of reaching a couple of thousand visitors a day, when our posts are published in the Pilot, we reach about 200,000 households.  Does The Washington Post include blog posts in the daily paper or have a whole section in the Sunday paper devoted to blog posts?

Two years ago, Hampton Roads Democrats delivered four seats. In 2009, we will defend our House seats and pick up a couple more.  But it sure would be nice if we didn’t have to do it alone.

I’ll be voting for Brian Moran for Democratic nominee for Governor, Michael Signer for Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor, and Miles Grant for Democratic nominee (i.e., general election winner) for delegate in the 47th District.   My first two choices are, perhaps, obvious.  I think Terry McAuliffe is a charlatan of the worst kind, and cringe at the idea of defending him against neo-troglodyte Bob McDonnell in the general election.  See the link to Waldo, above, for more about that.  As to Deeds, I refuse to reward pandering to bigotry when I have other choices.  No matter the infinite ways his supporters try to spin it to you, this man put our fundamental rights up for a popular vote when he supported the Marshall-Newman (anti-equality) amendment in 2006.  So, despite the fact that I think he is generally decent on all other issues and stands a good chance against McDonnell, I simply cannot vote for him.  That leaves Brian Moran.  Moran is a reliable and thoughtful Northern Virginia Democrat.  That means, to me, that his policy positions meet my threshold tests for most important issues (even while he fails in some, like the death penalty, or occasionally panders, as with the asinine move-Gitmo-detainees-to-NoVA matter).  Further, in my limited personal interactions with him, he strikes me as confident without being demanding or needing affirmation (an important quality in a candidate, I’ve decided.)  Further, I am confident that, given the chance, he can beat Bob McDonnell.  On the matter of Mike Signer, I’m going with him because Jody Wagner hasn’t given me any particular reason to vote *for* her.  My personal and public knowledge of Signer – as a competent individual who wants to try to use the generally-useless office of Lt. Gov. as a bully pulpit on some issues – gives me the comfort I need in casting that vote.

And that leaves us with the 47th District for the Virginia House of Delegates.  In conversation, I’ve termed my dilemma as being faced with “an embarrassment of riches.”  We have five candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, the gaining of which will almost certainly secure them the seat this fall.  Every candidate has appeared at my door (tho’ I haven’t always been around to answer it) many times.  I have, truthfully, wavered amongst four of the five candidates throughout the primary season.  And the only reason that that isn’t five out of five is that I think Parkhomenko needs some additional time on this planet before he can really represent the 47th (that may sound condescending, tho’ I really don’t mean it to be.  I expect good things out of him, and can imagine supporting him in future efforts).  Every one of the other candidates have strengths that I respect and would like to see brought to bear in Richmond.  That said, I can only cast my vote for one.  And that one will be Miles Grant.  To say that I’ve disagreed with Miles on many things would be an understatement.    I have never, however, been given reason to question his sincerity or commitment to his positions.  And be sure of this – his positions are Arlington’s positions.  There is no watering down of our ideals so they can past muster in Richmond or at some fundraiser on the southside.  In the course of the primary I’ve seen him articulate – forcefully – the idea that Arlington needs to send an outspoken voice to Richmond.  While I think that Tobar, Hope, and Howze would all do fine jobs, Grant’s willingness to act as a pointman for decency and forward-looking policy is what gains my nod.  I truly have no idea who will win this contest tomorrow, but I hope that the winner will seriously examine the constituencies of each candidate and bring them into not just the general election, but his ongoing representation of the 47th District.