Accepting Accountability

Leslie's presentation pretty much took the evening.  Leslie spoke for herself, then pushed the wider Democratic ticket, explaining how her own experience--and the experience of her fellow Democratic candidates--effectively reflected an appropriate and conscientious path of accountability for each of the three core issues.  She highlighted the links that make problems in education, housing and employment feed off each other, explaining that there was no way to divorce how we teach our children from local land use decisions from the right of employees to a living wage.  Ultimately, she explained, Republicans would like to boil the campaign down to a simplistic debate over "God, Guns, and Gays" in order to avoid direct accountability over more complex issues like education, housing, and employment that have actual consequences for the day-to-day live of ordinary Virginians.

Other candidates spoke through surrogates, who spoke with differing degrees of competency on the policies of their candidates. Emmitt Carlton underscored how Creigh Deed's work in child advocacy and economic development pointed to an accountable plan for guiding future work as attorney general.  Larry Roberts, Tim Kaine's campaign chairman, made an impassioned discussion on the true meaning of accountability, as seen in the life of Kaine, Kaine's record on these issues, and in the negative campaigning of Kaine's opponent, Jerry Kilgore.

Representatives for Republican candidates--Deana Bass, Sr. Ken Cuccinelli, and Elroy Sailor, presented prepared remarks that tended to focus more on biographical data and dry policy records, sometimes couched in indirect code talk--instead of speaking to the overall importance of accountability, not only to people of color, but also to all members of society. Finally, Matt Dost spoke on behalf of Russ Potts, explaining how accountability on core campaign issues like transportation does translate into real consequences for education, housing, and employment. He echoed Leslie Byrne and agreed that it was, perhaps, symptomatic of the terrible ugliness of this campaign season that so much inappropriate focus has become mired in reactive rhetoric over "God, Guns and Gays."

Open question and answer questions highlighted some interesting differences between the candidates.  Leslie Byrne responded to one question concerning illegal immigration, identifying that control lies outside the authority of state government, ending with a pointed comment that all the rhetoric on this matter rarely considers that it is a violation of law to hire illegal immigrants in the first place. Other questions dealt with restoring voting rights to former prisoners who had served sentences and transportation issues.

Things became a little interesting at the end of the evening when Kilgore representative Elroy Sailor spoke on behalf of his candidate.  In contradiction to the theme of accountability, Mr. Sailor confessed to being new to the state and not having focused familiarity with specific details on Jerry Kilgore's positions.  The audience met him with very pointed questions, particularly concerning Mr. Sailor's qualifications to address the audience.

At the end of the evening, all of us in the audience left with a better sense of the kind of accountability the seven major candidates brought to this year's elections.  It was clear in leaving that some candidates got it, but others just really missed the point.

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