Us Versus Them

The Daily Press covers some of the jabs back and forth in the fight over transportation funding. Democrats are trying to split the GOP between urban and rural, and it sounds like it's working:

'"The House budget is fiscally irresponsible and shortchanges a range of vital needs," said House Minority Leader Franklin P. Hall, D-Richmond. "Most distressing, the House budget cuts transportation funding in seven of the nine transportation districts."
Hall released an analysis that purported to show that Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia would get the lion's share of new transportation funding and that rural regions of the state would be shortchanged.
Republicans fired back, sometimes cantankerously.
Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax, said he was angry that rural lawmakers would be jealous of increased transportation funding for Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
"To have rural Virginians complain about not getting enough in the budget really sets me off," he said.
He said that Northern Virginians pay 28 percent of all income taxes the state collects and 16 percent of the sales tax. Hampton Roads residents pay a similarly disproportionate share. And they are the people who most often sit in traffic, he said.
"Not one time did anyone from rural Virginia stand up and say 'That is not fair,' " Albo said. "Now, when the time comes to help the people of Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia ... people from rural Virginia say it's not fair."'