In today's main editorial the Virginian Pilot endorses Mark Warner for re-election tot he U.S. Senate. The editorial lays out the case for Warner and looks at some of the foul baggage that clings to GOP candidate Ed Gillespie, including his ties to some of the national disasters that flowed from the Bush/Cheney regime. Here are excerpts from the column:
The latest polls show Warner with a lead of about 10 points against his most serious challenger, Republican Ed Gillespie, and about 40 points ahead of Libertarian and perennial office-seeker Robert Sarvis.
There’s good cause for those margins. Warner, a successful businessman and former state Democratic party official, has remained popular across much of Virginia for more than a decade because of his pragmatism, optimism and willingness to work with political opponents.
As governor, Warner negotiated with Republicans to repair Virginia’s budget and weather the 2002 recession. As a U.S. senator, he has forged relationships with senators from both major parties, identifying common ground and trying to solve structural problems within the federal budget.
Virginia voters would do well to send Warner back for a second term in the U.S. Senate.
Gillespie is making his first bid for public office after a long and productive career as a lobbyist and political operative.
Gillespie’s tenure in the Bush White House and as chairman of the Republican National Committee provides the public with plenty of background to examine.
A decade ago, he advocated for a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage; today, he argues the issue is best left to the states to determine.
Neither policy view can be reconciled with the rights embedded in the U.S. Constitution, or with the multitude of court decisions recognizing gay couples’ legal right to marry.
His support for the Bush administration’s profligate spending, proposal to privatize Social Security and use of widespread surveillance provides ample reasons for voters in a broad swath of the electorate to pause over his candidacy.
Gillespie’s insistence on repealing the law [Affordable Health Care Act] is shortsighted; his alternative — a tax credit-heavy plan to entice Americans to buy insurance, with a pledge that those who like their plan “through Obamacare could keep it” (sound familiar?) — promises to reshape the insurance landscape. It would serve as another major economic disruption and inject uncertainty into an industry in need of stability.
Likewise, his refusal to take a position on the Marketplace Fairness Act — treating online and brick-and-mortar stores equally in terms of collecting and remitting state sales tax — deprives voters of a chance to know where he stands on a critical issue to Virginians, who will have to pay higher gas taxes if it doesn’t pass.
That proposal, stuck in a House committee chaired by Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, prevents the government from favoring online retailers in the marketplace, and the additional revenue projected through the measure would bring an influx of funding for roads and education in Virginia.
Of the candidates on the ballot, Warner is the better choice to represent Virginia, the one far more likely to put practicality before the narrow partisan interests that have paralyzed Washington.
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