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GOP aims to hold, add area House seats

October 22, 2005 1:06 am

By GEORGE WHITEHURST

Voters in the 88th House of Delegates District might wonder if they're trapped in "Groundhog Day."

Like comedian Bill Murray in that 1993 flick, residents of the 88th are stuck in a time loop as Republican Del. Mark Cole and Democratic challenger Chuck Feldbush square off again.

Once more, Cole is stumping as the anti-tax candidate, proudly pointing to his vote against last year's $1.4 billion tax increase.

And Feldbush is again excoriating Cole as a "do-nothing" legislator who opposed necessary "investments" in transportation, public safety and education.

If the messages are almost identical to those of 2003, the same outcome also is likely, according University of Mary Washington political scientist Stephen Farnsworth.

"To win this election, Cole has to show up with the Republican nomination in one hand, and a pulse in the other," Farnsworth said. "This is not an attack on Cole. He's seen his advantage and he took it. He didn't draw this district."

Cole was still serving on the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors in 2001 when the GOP-controlled House drew the 88th, which includes portions of Spotsylvania, Stafford and Fauquier counties.

The only question, Farnsworth added, is whether Cole will crack 70 percent of the vote.

Both candidates have jumped on this year's hot-button topic, transportation.

Cole brags about legislation he sponsored last year that would have dedicated an extra one-quarter cent of the state sales tax to transportation. It died in the state Senate.

If re-elected, he plans to revive the measure in next year's legislative session and to bump up the amount of money to a half-penny on the sales tax.

Cole hopes such a move will deter anyone from trying to actually raise taxes to boost transportation spending.

"There is no justification to raise taxes of any kind right now," he declared in a recent interview. He points out that the state budget has grown by 15 percent over the past two years, while the population has increased by only about 2 percent.

"When your revenues are growing more than seven times faster than your population, and you still can't meet your critical needs like transportation, you've got more a management problem than a funding problem," he said.

Feldbush is trying to use transportation as a wedge issue, accusing Cole of turning his back on area roads by casting the sole vote against the budget.

Feldbush is especially indignant about a recent direct-mail piece in which Cole boasted of helping boost transportation funding by $850 million.

"He's brought nothing to this district," Feldbush said. "He voted against everything when he voted against the budget."

Feldbush wants a top-to-bottom review of the Virginia Department of Transportation by a full-time, independent auditor.

"VDOT needs to be revamped," he said. "The public's confidence needs to be restored. There needs to be some accountability with VDOT there has not been for a number of years."

Neither man is calling for increasing the gas tax, and both say they support a constitutional amendment to prevent lawmakers from tapping the Transportation Trust Fund for other needs.

"We've got to restore trust with the people," Cole said. "When they pay their taxes, they've got to have assurance that it's going to go to what we say it is."

Both men also support extending high-occupancy-vehicle lanes from Dumfries down to Massaponax. Feldbush voices vehement opposition to suggestions of financing such lanes via tolls.

As the greater Washington metro area continues to expand southward, localities are clamoring for more tools to control that growth.

Cole regards managed growth primarily as the responsibility of local governments. But he previously has sponsored legislation granting them the power to impose impact fees to offset the costs of new development, and is prepared to do so again.

Feldbush agrees on the need for impact fees and also vows, if elected, to sponsor so-called "adequate facilities" legislation.

"Even though it's been pushed before, it needs to be pushed hard," he said. "We all know that builders control a lot of what goes on [in the General Assembly]."

Both candidates also are claiming the low-tax mantle.

Cole points with pride to his opposition to the 2004 tax package, as well as to this year's tax-fattened budget.

"I thought the budget was growing too fast," he said. "It should have included more tax relief. It turns out I was right. We have a half-billion-dollar surplus at the end of this fiscal year."

He complains that even his Republican colleagues are slipping pork into the budget, and predicts they will regret it during the next economic downturn.

"It's real easy to spend other people's money," he said. "We've got to stop that."

Feldbush decries Cole's budget votes as irresponsible and accuses him of dishonestly claiming to support public services even after voting against the budget.

"You've snubbed every citizen in the district because you've voted against the things that they need for a quality of life--roads, education, health care," he said.

Cole retorts that Feldbush is "just mimicking me" by championing lower taxes and other traditionally Republican positions.

The two men present a study in contrasts.

Cole, 47, is a retired U.S. Navy officer who now works as a systems analyst for Northrop Grumman. He served on the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors from 2000 to 2002.

Though he's quite socially conservative--he sponsored legislation in 2004 to protect the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance--he's not one of the fire breathers who delights in tying up business on the House floor.

He speaks quietly and offers short, clipped answers to reporters' questions.

Feldbush, 50, is a retired Prince William County detective.

He can be garrulous--answering questions with a rapid-fire delivery, often pausing to grab fact sheets to back up his points.

He describes many aspects of Virginia's public life--overcrowded schools, clogged roads--as "unacceptable."

Like former President George H.W. Bush, he often refers to himself in the first-person plural, as when he discusses campaign strategy.

"We have multitudes of Republicans that we've talked to on the phone and in person that are tired of the way things are going now," he said. "We're moderate, we're appealing to both sides of the fence."

Feldbush's hopes for victory rest on the shoulders of moderate Republicans.

To call the 88th District "very Republican"--as does Farnsworth--is a comic understatement.

Cole first won the newly drawn district in 2001 by netting 66 percent of the vote against Bill Jones, a reasonably well-funded Democrat.

Two years ago, Cole racked up 71 percent of the vote against the woefully under-financed Feldbush.

To Farnsworth, such "safe" districts degrade the public dialogue.

"Candidates don't have to go to debates, they don't have to defend past policies, they don't have to say what they'd do in the future," he said. "I believe candidates have a civic duty to engage in joint appearances with major-party opposition at least. But when your election is assured, you may not feel you have to."

Which brings us back to the question of history repeating itself.

In "Groundhog Day," Bill Murray's obnoxious-but-lovable weatherman eventually broke out of the time loop by learning to be a nice guy.

Feldbush is hoping against hope for a miracle of equal proportions on Nov. 8.

To reach GEORGE WHITEHURST:540/374-5438gwhitehurst@freelancestar.com