Ken Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe took turns stripping the bark off one another in their respective presentations before the Northern Virginia Technology Council. It’s an indication of where the gubernatorial campaign has been, and where it’s heading.
Social issues seemed to consume a fair amount of the candidates’ time, but at least one policy issue — taxes, and specifically, Ken Cuccinelli’s tax cut and reform proposal — managed to get a bit of time as well. Terry McAuliffe appears to think Cuccinelli’s idea is all wet:
McAuliffe described as “fiscally irresponsible” Cuccinelli’s plan to cut $1.4 billion in taxes through reductions in personal income and corporate income taxes and reiterated Cuccinelli’s opposition to the multibillion-dollar transportation plan the General Assembly passed this year.
That’s the Democratic mantra in a nutshell: tax cuts and reforming the code are bad, tax increases that make the code even more cumbersome are good.
And the less said about McAuliffe’s own proposal to eliminate a slew of local taxes the better.
Later, Cuccinelli got a question about ending Virginia’s subsidies for coal:
Cuccinelli, who has received substantial financial support from energy companies, said cutting state tax subsidies to coal companies would be up for consideration among other tax credits when it comes to funding his proposed income tax cut.
“They’re on the table for sure,” he told reporters. “I’m not taking them off the table,” he added, saying he would spare health and education subsidies.
“Who supports me isn’t a determinant of our policy outcomes — it just isn’t,” Cuccinelli said.
As it should be. And good on Ken for sticking by his original idea. What too many in Virginia’s political and business class tend to ignore is that every dollar of subsidy or support given to one entity must first be extracted from another. These wealth transfers makes for great press releases, but they are terrible economic policy.
And what press gaggle featuring Cuccinelli would be complete without the E.W. Jackson question:
He said they had no planned events to appear as a joint ticket except for the traditional “fly-around” at the end of the election. “I’ve got to stand on my own and they have to do the same thing,” Cuccinelli said.
“Do I want every Republican in Virginia to win? You bet I do, you bet I do. … We got a 20-20 Senate — and I’d sure like to have the 21st vote.”
This qualifies, in the media’s eyes, as “distance.” Once upon a time, it was considered par for the course. Each campaign has to stand on its own merits. That does not mean the campaigns won’t work together outside the public eye. They do. But as we have seen in past elections, Virginians are quite prepared to split their votes on the three statewide contests. Will they do so this year? We have no way of knowing that — yet.
But were I looking for a unifying theme for the Cuccinelli and Jackson campaigns, it would be this:
