Will the GOP Toll Plans Take Down the GOP in 2013

Just about everyone I speak to is vehemently against the GOP backed "public-private" deal for the Midtown Tunnel that provides rather obscene guaranteed rates of return for the private players while screwing local residents who must use the Midtown and Downtown Tunnels. A new poll has confirmed what I've been hearing and some suggest more problems for Bob "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell and the Virginia GOP. The simple reality is that anyone running for statewide office will find it difficult to win if they cannot carry Tidewater which has a population of roughly 1.7 million. Seventy-two percent (72%) responding to a new Christopher Newport University/Virginian-Pilot survey oppose Governor Ultrasound's deal which he helped ram through to penalize Hampton Roads while other areas of the state remain toll free notwithstanding massive highway spending. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

They overwhelmingly dislike the tolls planned for the Midtown and Downtown tunnels. If they had to pay, 50 cents seems about right, but certainly not $1.84 at rush hour. And without question, they prefer a regional sales tax over tolls to pay for Hampton Roads' next big road project.

Those might sound like the opinions of activists in Norfolk or Portsmouth, the cities closest to the tunnel project and the epicenter of public anger over the deal. Actually, they reflect how the rest of Hampton Roads feels, according to a poll by Christopher Newport University and The Virginian-Pilot.

[O]pposition to the public-private venture to expand the Midtown Tunnel is widespread even where people are less likely to use the crossings, including Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and the Peninsula. Such strong anti-toll sentiments are new for the region, said Quentin Kidd, a CNU political science professor who designed the study in consultation with The Pilot and analyzed its results.

[T]hree out of four participants opposed additional tolls for future state projects in Hampton Roads. The percentage in opposition dipped slightly on the Peninsula, to 72 percent, and climbed to 86 percent among Norfolk and Portsmouth participants.

Let's hope that the toll issue combined with the GOP's obsession about micromanaging women's vagina's comes back to bite them severely in the ass in 2013.