Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Tim Kaine Feels Your Pain

Gov.-elect Tim Kaine's 'town hall' listening tour is the gift that keeps on giving - in the form of friendly stories beforehand, like this one from The (D.C.) Examiner, in which Kaine comes off as a thoughtful fellow already hard at work. Then come the follow-up stories, like this news-free article from The (Lynchburg) News & Advance.
"It's the most urgent issue," Kaine said.
Yep.
“You’re helping me increase my learning curve,” Kaine said.
I think the idea is to lessen the learning curve, or at least climb it quickly, but nevermind. The details of what gets said don't matter so much at these events, though Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth delivers a nice framing-the-issue quote in the Examiner story:
"Too many in the development industry are expecting the General Assembly to write a blank check for transportation, and I don't think that's what the voters are prepared to do," said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, which advocates for a stronger connection between urban planning and transportation growth. "They want to know there's a real plan for where and how we grow."
'Blank check' - that one will fit into a lot of sound bites, and it's a good point.

2 Comments:

At 11:36 AM, Blogger Will Vehrs said...

I appreciate a tiny bit of validation, however oblique, for a point I was chastised for making.

Candidate runs on a plan, candidate is elected presumably to implement plan, candidate-elect tours state in search of a plan, receiving huzzahs all along the way.

After four years in office, one would think he'd heard it all, but if so, he's hearing it all over again and again.

I hope some good comes of it.

 
At 7:42 AM, Blogger Toomanytaxes said...

Both Tim Kaine and the members of the General Assembly from NoVA need to remember that the recent election was about voter anger over growth that has exceeded the capacity of the supporting infrastructure, the will of many to continue to pay more to fund even more growth and the patience to tolerate excuses ("It's Judge Dillon's fault!").

Remember also that these very same voters rejected the sales tax referenda that were designed to fuel the development fires.

Circumstances are developing that will push our new Governor to end the status quo much further than he or some of his backers may have expected.

 

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