After last year’s election, when Republicans won a 68-seat majority in the House of Delegates (including an independent delegate who caucuses with them), a Republican delegate told me that his concern with this level of victory is that it’s unsustainable and that when the Republicans lose seats in subsequent elections, the “news” media will spin it as a loss of confidence in the GOP. I responded that I thought it was a good problem to have.
Governor Bob McDonnell has enjoyed the same “problem.” A new Rasmussen poll released today shows him with an approval rating of 58%, a stratospheric level of support that most politicians would be willing to make a trip to the Crossroads to obtain. But we can expect the Democrats and their loyal “news” media to spin this poll result as a deterioration of McDonnell’s support from a high of 67% a few months ago.
The truth is that McDonnell entered the recent legislative session with an enormous amount of political capital, and he expended some of it to overcome Democrat obstructionism and achieve results that will benefit Virginia for years to come. Indeed 88% of McDonnell’s common-sense conservative legislative agenda was passed into law – This despite the State Senate being evenly divided between Republicans and hyperpartisan Democrats who attempted to deny Virginia a budget (as their partisan brethren have succeeded in doing at the national level for the past four years) as a protest for not getting committee chairmanships to which they were never entitled.
In McDonnell’s words:
Our legislative agenda focused on the core areas of government. It started with our job creation agenda, which continues to promote investments in public policies that will help businesses start and grow in the Commonwealth. Through our K-12 education reforms, we will ensure that our children are receiving the high-quality education they must have to be ready for the top jobs of the 21st century. We are investing in higher education to increase access and affordability so that more Virginians can attend our world-class universities. By enacting dramatic long-term pension system reforms, and by making the largest investment into VRS in history, we have taken a great step toward ensuring the system’s long-term solvency, so that the retirements of thousands of hard-working Virginians will be there in the future. Our successful transportation legislation ensures that we continue the path of reform and new funding so we have the infrastructure needed to move goods across the Commonwealth and get our citizens to work and home on time. We have continued to make government more efficient and effective for Virginia’s taxpayers through legislation to streamline and eliminate certain state entities and reduce unfunded mandates on our localities. We have advanced initiatives to achieve our goal of having Virginia be the Energy Capital of the East Coast, by making it easier to develop and provide energy to our growing businesses and all residents of the Commonwealth. Finally, we are near our goal of being the most veteran-friendly state in America, by increasing job opportunities for members of the military who choose to make Virginia home. We have continued to keep our streets and communities safe through strong legislation that will make our citizens and communities more secure by new legislation targeting repeat drug dealers.
When a Democrat (in or out of the “news” media) characterizes McDonnell’s 58% approval rating as reflecting “eroding” support, Republicans should respond by asking them what Barack Obama’s 49% approval rating means – especially in the context of him being out-polled in Virginia by his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney.
In the end, all the Democrats have to show for their efforts is spin. Bob McDonnell and the Republicans have results.
