Many in Fredericksburg and Stafford are convinced that Bill Howell could be vulnerable to a serious challenger next year. The problem is that the district's GOP slant plus the "Speaker" title scares away a lot of potential challengers. But apparently that's not stopping someone from softening up Boss Howell a little with this interesting piece of gossip from a new site, Speaker Howell is a Puppet:
Delegate Clark Hogan (R-Righofattillaville) met with longtime Republican political operative Kenny Kling.The skinny: Clark told Kling that the House of Delegates was not going to pass any new transpo funding - no way, no how - and that is just the way it is.
Seems the answer to Kling's inquiry about handling the political fallout was simple:
"We may lose a couple of seats in Northern Virginia, but we are willing to do that."
According to an article in the May 15 edition of the Free Lance Star, Speaker Bill Howell (R-Falmouth Light) "acknowledges that there are issues with maintenance funding, although he disagrees with (Gov. Tim) Kaine on how bad it is and how to fix it."
So if Speaker Howell acknowledges the problems, why isn't he willing to deal with them?
Perhaps he is not the Speaker... perhaps he is just a puppet.
But I guess they're "willing to do that" because the alternative is giving the most populated part of the state what it wants, and that's just irresponsible.