The climate could not be better for leveraging the Democratic Party brand into a sustainable long-term coalition. However, the Washington Post's poll findings demonstrates that the Virginia's Democratic Party has utterly failed in its mission. I believe this is because it has failed to publicly leverage virtually every opportunity to draw a distinction when we had the chance.
First, ask yourself what do the voters think the Democratic Party stands for? When Newt Gingrich launched his mission to capture Congress, he did it with a ten-point Contract with America. His deciphels were on message from beginning to end. There are no such visionary thinkers in today's Democratic Party stating exactly what they will do either at the National or State level. Nationally, our ascendancy was a function of George Bush's incompetence and fortuitous circumstances (e.g. page sex scandals and maccaca). We will not be so luck at the State level.
Historically, my Democratic Party has been one that stood for the disadvantaged, the downtrodden, the poor over the rich, for community brokering solutions where individual responsibilty frequently broke down, for the People over the Powerful.
Where have we fallen down?
#1 - The Estate Tax. The Democratic Party's capitulation on the Estate Tax was a disastrous decision. If there ever were an issue to leverage a distinction between the GOP and the Democratic Party, that was it. When nearly every Democrat voted to take $120,000,000 out of the General Fund by repealing that tax, we lost our claim as defenders of the General Fund.
#2 - Transportation. We followed it up the following year by conceding a raid on the General Fund with the latest "Transportation" Plan that relies on surpluses, debt, and "abuser fees" to fund road improvements. The Governor and several Democratic legislators went along with abuser fees further muddying the message as to exactly who is to blame for these things although they were a peculiarly Republican idea.
But the important point is where we could have again leveraged a distinction between a party that specializes itself on mismanaging governmetal responsibilities - linking it to the national GOP's incompetence - we punted.
I am still mystified why the Democratic Party of Virginia has done NOTHING to publicize Gov. Warner's VTRANS 2025 study which says there are $108,000,000,000 - yes billion - of UNFUNDED road needs in the Commonwealth of Virginia over the next 20 years. There is a NEED for more funding than what was just done. For God's Sake, there's not even enough money to mow the grass. Why is no one talking about what is needed? This "plan" raises 1/5th of WHAT EVERY LEGISLATOR KNOWS WHAT IS NEEDED - why is no one speaking up?
The list goes on.....
#3 Underfunded Mental Health. As the Virginia Tech massacre is bringing to light, mental health services are massively underfunded in Virginia. Article here.
#4 Underfunded Children's Programs. 10,000 Northern Virginia children are excluded from subsidized childcare because the House of Delegates couldn't find $18M (only 15% of what was cut with the Estate Tax). Article here.
Plus, 1,800 Northern Virginia children were excluded from subsidized childcare because the House of Delegates wanted to save $6M of General Fund money for roads last fall. Article here.
#5 - Underfunded DMV. How long did you spend in line at the DMV last time you went? Looks like all this anti-terror stuff actually costs money? Article here.
#6 - Starving Our Colleges.There's only a 56,000 more students heading to Virginia's colleges between 2004-2012 that is estimately to cost $770M +/-(CLICK HERE) - they're all going to pay for themselves, RIGHT?!?
#7 - Non-existent Consumer Protection.So when was the last time you heard of any elected official in Virginia doing something, anything in consumer's interests (just look to the AGs in NY, CN, IL)? Are businesses in Virginia just super nice and friendly to Virignians and never do anything wrong or do we cherish our "#1 for business" ratings so much that we'll never do anything to go after big business?
#8 Underfunded Secondary Education. Why do 63% of Virginians say that our public schools need more money? Poll Here (see page 4).
#9 - Can't Pass a Budget. How many times did the Republican Party pass a budget on time since taking control? Has anyone mentioned this lately? Are we just going to run every race on a district by district level or is there going to be any noise machine setting the agenda, setting the tone, saying what it is WE'RE GOING TO DO IF WE WIN?
#10 - Environmental Protection. George Allen famously gutted Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality ("A 1996 audit of the agency ?s performance, for example, described a regulatory system kept intentionally weak, its staffing and budgets trimmed, which made enforcement and monitoring of potential pollution sources difficult at best. ?At present,? the audit found, ?nearly half of DEQ?s employees fear for their jobs if they make a decision consistent with law or regulation that upsets a member of the regulated community. CLICK HERE) So will Virginia join any other state in doing what the federal government is not doing or are we going to muddle along waiting for the feds?
What are we doing to do?
Since they captured control under Gilmore, the Republican-controlled General Assembly has been a mass exercise of sticking ones head in the sand and deferring responsibilities to our children. If voters don't understand that today and don't see parallels to the mismanagement in Washington, D.C. why should anyone not be surprised - Virginia's Democratic Party has done little to show or inform the voters that its vision and its alternative brand of leadership will actually represent a real alternative.
Until we do so, we will only be chipping away at the margins and hoping for some luck instead of forging some true long-term coalitions in the Commonwealth of Virginia. There is no macaca that will save us this time.