Why campaign for 2007 begins now

Republican Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter of Prince William, one of the lawmakers Democrats are targeting, said Kaine is "always focused on campaigning as opposed to governance."

"The governor has chosen the path of starting the November 2007 campaign in November 2006," Lingamfelter said. "The people want us to stop the bickering and do the people's work. All I hear from the other side is campaign, campaign, campaign."

FOR READERS who drive in Fairfax County, here's your traffic report, five years in advance: With around 20,000 new Army employees working at Fort Belvoir by 2011, expect bumper-to-bumper commutes along Interstate 95. Route 1 will be more snarled than ever. Road improvements to accommodate the Army's workers (if they've started at all) are only partially completed, so expect construction delays, too.

That's where the county is headed -- unless someone turns the wheel. Most of the county's politicians are trying to do just that, and they have had some recent, if limited, success. But others, including state Sen. James K. "Jay" O'Brien Jr. (R-Fairfax), who represents the area around part of Fort Belvoir, are putting ideology before prudence and opposing the reforms that their constituents need to avoid the car wreck ahead....

[N]o real, long-term solution is possible without help from Richmond, where some Republicans have fought a common-sense proposal to modestly raise taxes to fund road and rail improvements in Fairfax and elsewhere. Mr. O'Brien, a seasoned legislator who should know better than to work against his constituents' interests, supports the obstructionists, while his colleagues in Fairfax, who did what they could pressuring the Army to alter its plans, continue to beg for state money.

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