Remarkable news in the Richmond Times-Dispatch today:
Former Democratic Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr. is considering running next year for the U.S. Senate seat held by Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen.
Beyer said yesterday that any plans would be contingent upon what Gov. Mark R. Warner decides to do. Warner, a Democrat, leaves office in January. He hasn't said whether he will challenge Allen, but most associates think he will not. One source said Warner has been encouraging Beyer to run.
Wow.
Beyer said it is always hard to beat an incumbent, but Allen is not as popular as conventional wisdom says he is.
"The first thing you have to ask is, what has he done as a U.S. senator?" he said. "He's kept a much lower profile in the Senate than he did when he was governor."
Beyer, a Northern Virginia vehicle dealer, was lieutenant governor from 1990 to 1998. He lost a race for governor in 1997 to Republican Jim Gilmore. He was the victim of Gilmore's campaign pledge to eliminate the car tax. About 70 percent of the tax on a vehicle's first $20,000 assessed value has been eliminated, but the General Assembly halted the repeal because of rising costs to the state.
Back when Don Beyer ran for Governor against Jim Gilmore, I volunteered for his campaign...in that well-meaning but anemic way that I volunteered on most campaigns before my involvement in the Dean campaign -- I did some phone banking the last few days before Election Day. Now, I think "big whoop" when I think of those hours. But back then I thought I was being an exemplary good Democrat to volunteer a few hours out of my busy life to help Don get elected.
I was teaching public school at the time, and I remember thinking that Jim Gilmore's promise to eliminate the car tax during that campaign was the equivalent of a 6th grader running for student council president who'd promise to outlaw homework.
The smart, hardworking, honest kid would say to his fellow students, "I hate homework, too, but it does help us learn. And I know that I wouldn't have the power on the Student Council to eliminate it entirely, but as president I'll work with teachers to try to come up with a more fair system of balancing our workload."
But then the blowhard bully twerp candidate would say, "What a nerd! He likes homework! Give him a wedgie! Vote for me and you'll get no homework! And we'll have longer recess and replace water with orange soda in the fountains, too!" And the twerp would win, of course.
