Good guys do win in the end!
The
Washington Post endorsed our very own Mountain Valley boy -
Creigh Deeds.... Mr. Deeds -- a decent, unusually self-effacing man who calls himself "a nobody from nowhere" -- has a compelling life story and an admirable record of achievement as a legislator from rural Bath County.
If the current campaign for governor has clarified anything, it is that state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee, has the good sense and political courage to maintain the forward-looking policies of the past while addressing the looming challenge of fixing the state's dangerously inadequate roads. The Republican candidate, former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell, offers something different: a blizzard of bogus, unworkable, chimerical proposals, repackaged as new ideas, that crumble on contact with reality. They would do little if anything to build a better transportation system.
I know the good folks in NoVa and the urban regions around Richmond and Tidewater may think we are bunch of hayseeds out here in the mountains and valley region of Virginia, but hopefully moderate Republicans and Independents will read this endorsement for the cogent case that it makes for putting Creigh in the Governor's mansion. Fundamentally, this is about the ability to do the
hard work of making progress for all Virginians, not just the elites and well-connected. The No Pain, No Fuss, No Sacrifice , No Compromise solutions being offered by his opponent ring hollow -- and familiar -- this is
Jim "No Car Tax" Gilmore 2.0. We all know how that worked out.
We all need access to good schools, good roads and to ensure the good use of our precious natural resources. The choices we have to make are tough, and there are no easy answers. Compromise and collaboration worked the last time we were in such a deep hole... ask Russ Potter and John Chichester, who helped Mark Warner, right the ship of state after the Gilmore debacle.
Sadly, McDonnell's team gleefully look forward to turning backwards, to a Virginia that historically protected the interest of the plantation elites, dictated social behavior from the pulpit and served the Big Money special interests, that profit from taking advantage of those of us that have the least power - all in the name of an unbridled free market, where those in power never pay for the consequences of their unethical, immoral and occasionally illegal actions. (see Wall St., Fall 2008)
We need leaders like Creigh to stand up for us, the common folks, and do the right things to move Virginia forward, not placate us with plastic promises and deferred financial reality.
