Sunday, November 06, 2005
Editorial: Russ Potts is no loser
Polls indicate the maverick candidate with the most sensible campaign can't win; but his message shouldn't be lost.
From the RoundTable blog
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Stagnant at around 4 percent in the polls just days before Virginia elects a new governor, independent candidate Russ Potts already was talking last week as if he were a loser.
He doesn't look like a loser from here, though.
He looks like an honest politician who has the state's priorities right: transportation, education, health care -- and the revenue to fund them adequately.
Unfortunately, having those priorities and speaking about them honestly pretty much precludes the No. 1 priority of most candidates for public office: winning.
In an interview last week with Marc Fisher of The Washington Post, Potts sounded like a man who did not realize at the start of his maverick run how quixotic his quest would be.
Without the nomination of his Republican Party, he knew he wouldn't have its money funneling into his campaign coffers (though, in the interview, he sounded awed by the "unbelievable fundraising machinery" of the two major political parties). And he didn't start the race with the name recognition of a Jesse Ventura, whose professional wrestling persona guaranteed media interest in what, in 1998, seemed a long-shot third-party run for Minnesota governor -- until he won.
Still, Potts had a rare commodity on his side: the gumption to talk forthrightly about a real issue that affects Virginians in their day-to-day lives: transportation. More precisely, an already frustratingly inadequate transportation system that promises only to get worse unless the state veers from its current course.
"Why," Potts asked, "can't we look people in the eye and say this is what we have to fix, and this is how we're going to pay for it?"
Why, indeed?
As they head to the polls Tuesday, Virginians should ponder his question and ask one of themselves: When are we going to stop kidding ourselves and start accepting obvious, but unwanted, truths? Such as, that $203 billion in transportation needs over the next 20 years will cost, well, $203 billion. And that this is more than twice the money that will be coming in, only a sliver of which will be available for new construction.
Potts never became enough of a force to make the governor's race a referendum on transportation, and neither major party candidate dared.
But Potts has drawn attention to a simple reality: One or the other of his opponents will need to show leadership on the vital matter of transportation funding. They could afford to ignore the man; whoever takes office cannot afford to ignore his message. Nor can Virginia.
