From the Archives: Virginia Senator Mark Warner discusses budget issues, independent voters

Virginia Senator Mark Warner discusses budget issues, independent voters
September 6, 2012
3:06 PM MST

As he has done almost every year since he first ran for elective office in 1996, Virginia Senator Mark Warner (D-Alexandria) marched in the annual Buena Vista Labor Day parade and spoke to a gathering of local citizens and political activists from around the state.

In an interview with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner, Warner looked forward to what Congress is likely to do between its return from its summer recess next week and Election Day in November.

The top agenda item, he said, will be to “continue the funding of the federal government,” adding that “the Republican-Democratic leadership have agreed on a plan on that.”

‘Comprehensive debt-reduction’

His own priority is to “go ahead and give the confidence that the economy’s looking for” by taking on sequestration and “the comprehensive debt-reduction plan.”

That would require two stages, Warner said, but “chances are we won’t [do it] because both national campaigns in the last sixty days before the election probably can’t show any level of compromise that’s going to be needed.”

Warner said he hopes that Congress “will have a bipartisan plan to put on the desk either of Mr. Obama or Mr. Romney after the election,” noting that he personally favors the re-election of President Obama.

“Whoever is elected,” he said, “we’re going to have to work with that individual to get this problem fixed.”

Asked whether the failure of Congress to pass a budget over the past three years has had an effect on business confidence and the economic recovery, Warner replied that “we’ve had this debate before.”

‘Political document’

There is “a budget in place,” he said emphatically. “It was part of the Budget Control Act that passed last year and this year. This will also set the appropriations level for the coming year.”

What Congress has not provided, he said, “is a long-term plan but frankly,” he pointed out, “the federal budget document is a political document. It doesn’t have the force of law.”

This contrasts, Warner explained, with his experience as a business executive and as a governor, when “we had budgets we had to meet” or face adverse consequences.

“What we need is a real plan with consequences,” he continued, “so that Congress doesn’t try to put a plan in place and then, when they care to, continue to spend or create new initiatives without any responsibility.”

The bipartisan coalition of six senators known as the Gang of Six, which included Warner, had proposed “budget control restrictions that would make sure that budgets that were adopted couldn’t be breached in the dark of night.”

‘Folks were mad’

Warner also commented on what former Governor Tim Kaine, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Virginia this year, could do to attract the votes of those who cast ballots for neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney in the presidential race.

“My sense is that 2010 was a year where folks were mad and a lot of folks got to Congress and expressed that anger by just saying no to everything,” he said.

“That didn’t move the country forward,” he explained, adding: “As a matter of fact, we’re in a deeper hole.”

The 2012 election will be different from the 2010 election, Warner predicted.

“My sense is that what people are looking for now, more than party labels, or even ideological labels, are [candidates] who can actually get stuff fixed and,” he concluded, “I think at the end of the day that’s been part of Tim Kaine’s record.”

From the Archives: Constitution Party presidential nominee Virgil Goode talks politics on Labor Day

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on September 3, 2012. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016.  I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

Constitution Party presidential nominee Virgil Goode talks politics on Labor Day

Former Virginia congressman Virgil Goode is running a populist campaign for President as the nominee of the Constitution Party, but first he has to face a hurdle in his home state, where the Republican Party is challenging the validity of the petitions Goode circulated to place his name on the ballot.

The Republican challenge will be formally presented to the State Board of Elections at the board’s regular meeting on the morning of September 4 in Richmond.

Goode spoke to the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner at the annual Buena Vista Labor Day parade and candidates forum, saying his campaign is preparing a response to the GOP’s attempt to get him off the ballot.

“We’re going to present a response to the State Board on [Tuesday], if they will accept it then,” Goode said.

‘Voters deserve a choice’
The Republican Party of Virginia, he explained, “is challenging the Libertarians and us. It’s really sad. They’re trying to stamp out persons who have differing views and giving the voters a choice. I think voters deserve to have a choice.”

Drawing an analogy, Goode pointed to “the squelching of Ron Paul at the Republican convention” as a similar tactic by the GOP establishment.

In Tampa, he said, Congressman Paul was faced with “changing the rules right when [he] got there after he had already met the rules. He should have had some role; he didn’t.”

Now, he said, “in Virginia they’re trying to get us off the ballot any way they can [but] I hope the State Board will see through what the Republican Party is doing.”

Goode affirmed that the State Board of Elections had found that his campaign did “have sufficient signatures statewide and in every district,” contrary to the assertions being made by Republican lawyers.

Differences with Greens and Libertarians
Unless the Republican challenges are successful, there will be three third-party presidential candidates on the ballot in Virginia: Goode, Green Party nominee Jill Stein, and Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson.

Goode said he parts company from the other two candidates.

“On social issues we differ significantly,” he said. “I’m pro-life and pro-traditional marriage and I don’t believe either of them are.”

On the other hand, he added, “I’m for balancing the budget now; I think Gary [Johnson] shares that with me.”

Restricting legal immigration
Goode pointed out that he is “the only candidate running for president who recognizes the need for jobs in America to go to American citizens first. I’m calling for a near-complete moratorium on green card admissions into the United States. Last year, for example, we had 1.2 million admitted green card holders. This takes jobs from U.S. citizens. A green card holder can get a job in about any state doing about anything. And those jobs should go to American citizens when unemployment is at 8.3 percent.”

In his speech at the Buena Vista LaborFest, Goode elaborated his stance on immigration, noting that he would maintain the ban on legal immigrants to the United States “until the unemployment rate is below 5 percent.”

Goode’s goals for his presidential campaign are modest and ideologically populist.

“We hope America eventually will wake up and say, ‘We don’t want either the Democrats or Republicans.’”

Both those parties, he explained, “are controlled by multibillionaire interests with the SuperPACs funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to both sides. We’re a grassroots [campaing] and 2012 may be the year that America says, ‘I’m tired of the big money controlling the Republicans and the big money controlling the Democrats [so] I’m going to vote for an ordinary, average citizen running a grassroots, shoe-leather campaign, Virgil Goode.’”

Western strategy
Although his career in politics in Virginia has spanned more than three decades, Goode expects to win more votes in other states.

“I think in some of the western states we’re going to do well. I think in Wyoming we’ll do well. We’ve got some support in Ohio, some support in Florida, so we’re going to do well in a number of states.”

He added that he is “hoping to be on the ballot in New York and get some votes there” and that he is “on the write-in ballot in Texas. I think we’ll get some votes in Texas and North Carolina” where he is also a write-in candidate.

Asked to reveal his preference in the U.S. Senate race in Virginia this year, where former Governors George Allen and Tim Kaine are facing each other, Goode demurred.

“I’ll be voting,” he smiled. “I like one candidate better than the other but my focus right now is on the presidential race and I’m going to be voting for Virgil Goode for president.”

Suggested Links

Libertarian author Brian Doherty compares Ron Paul and Gary Johnson
Presidential hopeful Gary Johnson on health care, marriage, and Colbert
Rasmussen Reports founder discusses opinion trends, future of polling methods
Author David Lampo brings gay-rights message to conservative Republicans
Michael Barone comments on Virginia politics, campaigns, and elections

From the Archives: Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine ponders appeal to third-party voters

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on September 4, 2012. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016.  With the impending nomination of Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) as the vice presidential running mate of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine ponders appeal to third-party voters

Although former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was scheduled to address the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte on Tuesday, where he pointed out that “a few years ago, few imagined that Virginia would be a battleground state,” on Monday he was at Buena Vista's Labor Day celebration, campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Jim Webb.

Because Virginia has gone “from red to purple,” as Kaine put it in his convention speech, polls show the state’s presidential contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is neck-and-neck, and the Senate contest between Kaine and former Senator George Allen is tracking very close to that, a dead heat.

On September 4, the State Board of Elections confirmed that there will be three third-party presidential candidates on the ballot in Virginia, in addition to Obama and Romney: Constitution Party nominee Virgil Goode, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, and Green Party nominee Jill Stein.

‘Same questions’

Given that some voters will cast their ballots for neither Obama nor Romney on November 6 but rather for one of those three independent candidates, the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner asked Governor Kaine in Buena Vista how he would appeal to those third-party voters to garner their support for his Senate bid.

Tim Kaine

“I bet they have the same questions that other Virginians do,” Kaine replied. Those voters want to know “how to fix the economy, how to balance the budget, how to find common ground.”

Kaine said that he has “a better plan than my opponent in all three of those areas, so I’m making my case to them based on the record but also based on what we need to do on the national level.”

A lot of third party voters, he added, “are interested in the spending issues. I’m the only governor of Virginia who left office with a smaller general fund budget than when I started.”

Kaine explained that that situation may have been due to the fact that he was governor during the onset of a severe recession, but even so, he added, “I had to make a lot of painful cuts.”

Making those kinds of cuts, he pointed out, is something that “very few people in the Senate have had to do.”

George Allen, he said, “didn’t have to do it when he was in the Senate -- but I know how to do it.”

Suggested Links

Tim Kaine argues for balancing individual liberties, communal responsibilities
Senator Jim Webb talks about U.S.-Korea free trade and stability in Asia
In Crozet for Independence Day weekend, George Allen warns of ‘perpetual debt'
Constitution Party presidential nominee Virgil Goode talks politics on Labor Day
Presidential hopeful Gary Johnson on health care, marriage, and Colbert

Because of the demise of the Examiner.com publishing platform, the original URL for this article is no longer available.

From the Archives: House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte is 'sympathetic' to Kim Davis

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on September 7, 2015. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site is scheduled to go dark on or about July 10, 2016.  I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte is 'sympathetic' to Kim Davis

The chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee says he is "sympathetic" to Rowan County clerk of courts Kim Davis but also believes she is obliged by law to do her job and that no government official is "above the law."

At the annual Labor Day festival in Buena Vista, Virginia, Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA6) spoke to the crowd and spoke separately with members of the news media.

Offering an enthusiastic endorsement of local Delegate Ben Cline for re-election to the Virginia General Assembly in his speech to voters from Buena Vista and surrounding Rockbridge County, Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and an attorney by background, also answered questions about current events.

Kentucky contempt
One question posed by the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner concerned the situation in Rowan County, Kentucky, where clerk of court Kim Davis was jailed for contempt of court when she refused to issue marriage licenses or allow her staff to do so.

Davis claims her religion forbids her to endorse same-sex marriages, so she halted all marriage licenses in the county in protest of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. That ruling, in late June, declared that laws prohibiting marriages between gay or lesbian couples are unconstitutional.

Davis, a Democrat elected to her post in 2014, was jailed for disobeying a federal court order to issue marriage licenses in Rowan County, a standard and expected service normally provided by county clerks.

“I certainly am very concerned about the Supreme Court decision” in Obergefell, Congressman Goodlatte said, and “did not agree with that decision.”

He added: “I respect people who want to take that personal step but [Kim Davis is] a government official and, unfortunately, because she is a government official, she is required to uphold the law and that is to do what the law and the courts require of her.”

'Above the law'
The situation in Rowan County, he said, is “very, very difficult,” noting that he is “very sympathetic to her position. I agree with her position on this but I don't think she can use a governmental office for that purpose.”

“No one is above the law,” Goodlatte added, explaining that “you can certainly use your religious position as a private citizen or a private business owner or a member of a church – in your private life – to reflect your values of traditional marriage and belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman.”

The judiciary committee chairman said he shares that belief in traditional marriage, “but when a court enters an order, a clerk who has been sworn to take an oath of office does not have the option of not choosing to uphold her oath in that public office that she has been elected to or appointed to.”

Buena Vista's Laborfest marked its 45th consecutive year. In addition to Congressman Goodlatte, speakers included Delegate Cline (R-HD24) and attorney Ellen Arthur, Cline's Democratic opponent in the November election for the 24th district seat in the House of Delegates.

SUGGESTED LINKS

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring discusses federal gay marriage appeals
Virginia political leaders react to Supreme Court marriage decision
Author Charles Murray argues same-sex marriage is ‘not a big deal’
Author David Lampo brings gay-rights message to conservative Republicans
Congressmen Bob Goodlatte and Robert Hurt comment on WDBJ-TV killings

Original URL: http://www.examiner.com/article/house-judiciary-committee-chairman-bob-goodlatte-is-sympathetic-to-kim-davis

Virginia gubernatorial candidates speak at Buena Vista

Delegate Lacey Putney, grand marshal of the Buena Vista Labor Day parade

(This article appeared originally, in slightly different form, on Virginia Politics on Demand on September 2, 2013.)

Over the past 43 years, the Labor Day parade and festival in Buena Vista has come to be viewed as the official launch of the political campaign season for Virginia politicians. Like its eastern counterpart, Shad Planking, it began as a Democratic Party event but has grown to encompass all parties, including Republicans and Libertarians.

This year's festivities, however, seemed to be thinner than in years past. Even Delegate Lacey Putney, who was honored as grand marshal of the parade, commented about the paucity of the crowd this year. Putney should know -- he's retiring after 52 years in the House of Delegates (a record) and he's had plenty of time to observe events like this.

Others noted the smaller crowd, too. Even compared to last year, when the headliners were U.S. Senate candidates (and former governors) George Allen and Tim Kaine, the number of people along the parade route and under the pavilion to listen to political speeches appeared fewer.

One explanation could be there is diminished interest in politics in 2013, a gubernatorial year, compared to 2012, a presidential year. Yet there was a standing-room-only crowd (as I recall) in 2009, when Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds ran against each other for governor.

Even though all seven candidates running for statewide office were there -- plus U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte and Delegates Ben Cline and Putney -- they did not seem to drag large numbers of their supporters along. Perhaps there were other Labor Day events around Virginia competing for interest.

Will the small turnout in Buena Vista today presage a small voter turnout on Election Day? We'll find out in just about two months.

The three candidates for governor -- Republican Ken Cuccinelli, Democrat Terry McAuliffe, and Libertarian Robert Sarvis -- all spoke. McAuliffe was called to speak first and quickly departed; he had later engagements in Covington and Newport News.

Cuccinelli was next. He was introduced by Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA6).

The third gubernatorial candidate to speak was Libertarian Party nominee Robert Sarvis.

Lieutenant governor candidates E.W. Jackson (R) and Ralph Northam (D) and attorney general candidates Mark Herring (D) and Mark Obenshain (R) also spoke. Click on their names to see their speeches on YouTube.

If It's Labor Day, It Must Be Buena Vista

Jamie Radtke and Tim Donner

Yesterday was Labor Day, and that means the launch of the political season in Virginia at the annual Buena Vista LaborFest, which features an old-fashion community parade and stump speeches by political leaders and candidates.  Like the Wakefield Shad Planking each spring, the Buena Vista event began as a Democrats-only political gathering but has become bipartisan (even multipartisan) in recent years.

I captured most of the speeches on video (see below) but, first, to give you a flavor of the day, here are a couple of scenes from the parade as recorded by Steven Latimer.

The first is the lead-off musical group, a pipe band from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) preceded by a Boy Scout honor guard bearing the colors and the second is the marching band from the local Buena Vista local secondary school, Parry McLuer High School.  ("Parry McLuer" is also the namesake of the local middle school.  Is that odd?)

I actually missed the parade, even though I was there. Just before the parade began, I realized I had lost my cellphone. And I mean really lost it, not just misplaced it. One minute I had it -- I checked into Foursquare upon arriving at Glen Maury Park -- and a few minutes later, it was gone. So if anyone in Buena Vista found a Samsung Galaxy S along the parade route on Monday, please send me an email. (I had the phone remotely disabled by Sprint and arranged for a replacement to be sent to me, but it looks like I'm stuck in the 1980s for the next couple of days.)

After retracing my steps three or four times, I gave up and headed to the pavilion to interview some politicians and watch the speeches. Over the next couple of days, look on Examiner.com for my interviews with Congressman Bob Goodlatte, Delegate Ben Cline, U.S. Senate candidate Jamie Radtke, and Sixth District GOP congressional candidate Karen Kwiatkowski.

I videotaped speeches by all those people plus U.S. Senate candidate Tim Donner, State Senator Creigh Deeds (D-SD25), and Deeds' challenger TJ Aldous.

Bob Goodlatte:

Creigh Deeds:

(Shaun Kenney points out over at Bearing Drift that at the one minute mark, Deeds implies that he may be thinking about running for governor again in 2013.)

TJ Aldous:

Ben Cline:

Jamie Radtke:

Tim Donner:

Karen Kwiatkowski:

You can also see previous reports from Buena Vista's Labor Day festivities, from 2008 and 2009.

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Labor Day in Buena Vista - 2009

For nearly four decades, the Labor Day parade in Buena Vista has marked the beginning of the statewide political season. Candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general (and, in even-numbered years, for U.S. Senator) walk the parade route, shaking hands with as many spectators as they can, and follow up with speeches in the pavilion at Glen Maury Park.

The event is virtually the only time that one can see all the statewide candidates speaking on the same platform. While each pair of competitors has debates lined up (the numbers vary from office to office, and according to the recalcitrance of those who fear facing their opponents in front of reporters or TV cameras), there are few -- if any -- opportunities to see and hear all three pairs in the same place at the same time.

This unique situation gives Buena Vista pride of place in campaign season. How this small city off of Route 60, just a few miles from Interstate 81, received this honor is lost in the mists of 20th century history. (Buena Vista's Labor Day parade parallels the evolution of the Shad Planking in Wakefield as an odd but significant annual political event.)

This year's speakers at Buena Vista's LaborFest included the incumbent governor, Tim Kaine, who is not running for anything but whose role as chairman of the Democratic National Committee gives him a national spotlight. Kaine used his few minutes on stage to praise the participants for keeping politics retail (and not reducing political campaigns to TV advertising) and to boost his party's ticket of R. Creigh Deeds, Jody Wagner, and Steve Shannon, who are running, respectively, for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general. All three candidates were also present, along with Jeff Price, a candidate for the Virginia General Assembly.

On the Republican side, former Attorney General Bob McDonnell, the GOP candidate for governor, and his ticket mates -- current Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and AG candidate Ken Cuccinelli -- also spoke, as did Sixth District U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte and Ben Cline, who is running for re-election in the 24th District of the Virginia House of Delegates.

I was able to capture all of the candidates on video, but I missed Congressman Goodlatte's speech because of the need to change video cassettes in my camera.

But first .... here are some highlights from the parade itself:

The political speeches were preceded by the national anthem. Mr. C.P. Brinkley led the crowd in singing "The Star Spangled Banner":

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was the first speaker:

The first candidate to speak was State Senator R. Creigh Deeds (D-25), who is the Democratic party's nominee for governor:

Deeds was followed (for a change of pace) by former Attorney General Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor. McDonnell's remarks are divided into two parts, because he spoke at greater length than any of the others.

Part I:

Part II:

Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling (R-Hanover) followed his ticketmate and preceded his opponent, Democratic nominee Jody Wagner (D-Virginia Beach):

The two candidates for Attorney General were next -- first, Delegate Steve Shannon (D-Fairfax County), followed by his opponent, State Senator Ken Cuccinelli (R-Fairfax County):

The final two candidates to speak are rivals for the 24th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, incumbent Delegate Ben Cline (R) and challenger Jeff Price (D):

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