Back when the 5th District nominee was not known, I expressed my concern about the tax-hiking history of Rob Hurt. Wouldn’t you know it, Tom Perriello blasted Hurt on the Transportation Tax Hike of 2007 (otherwise known as HB3202).
From a local perspective, I can only say this – if Perriello beats Hurt, it will be yet another painful lesson about the fate of the Virginia GOP when it does not purge the tax-hikers in its midst. Remember, the special session of 2008 cleansed every Virginia Republican of the tax hikes from the past . . . except the State Senate caucus. That could mean some surprising headaches in 2011.
From a national perspective, this is more telling than anything that happened in last night’s primaries. Alaska merely confirmed that the name Murkowski has become political poison (Sarah Palin knocked off Lisa’s father, Frank, in the 2006 gubernatorial primary). In Arizona, voters made the best choice in a bad field. Florida’s GOP finally paid the price for Charlie Crist as its anointed choice – Bill McCollum, whom I personally like – went down in defeat to outsider Rick Scott. Reading national implications from deeply local primaries is unwise, at best.
Instead, look to what the arguably most vulnerable Democrat in America does – he hits his Republican opponent from the right. That’s all you need to know about which party’s ideas and prospects are ascendant.
