In the last week our local newspapers have printed articles announcing that James McIntyre is challenging Sen. Ken Cuccinelli for the Republican nomination in this fall’s 37^th District Senate race. One would think that Mr. McIntyre would have some very important and specific reasons for opposing an incumbent officeholder from his own party. Unfortunately, after a careful reading of these articles and attempts at researching Mr. McIntyre’s positions, I have been able to determine hardly anything about Mr. McIntyre’s reasons for running. It seems his baseless beliefs that Sen. Cuccinelli is a poor legislator (after a single session in the Senate) and that Mr. Cuccinelli does not compromise or work well with others in the Senate are his sole reasons for running. Mr. McIntyre states (about Sen. Cuccinelli) in one of these articles that "positive attitude does not appear in his arsenal". Perhaps he should apply this definition to himself as he spends most of his time making negative comments about his Senator and refuses to make any specific, positive statements about what he would accomplish given the opportunity as a State Senator.

Let’s look for a minute at Mr. McIntyre. He calls himself a "conservative Republican", but I saw no conservative stances in any of his statements made in the articles. While he says he want’s Virginia to remain a low-tax state, he also wants to give counties their own taxing authority. There is only one result of such a policy, higher taxes! Secondly, he calls attempts to cap the growth of government (supported by Sen. Cuccinelli) "simple-minded". Perhaps Mr. McIntyre is overlooking the simple problem which is that the State and local governments are too used to unrestrained growth and spending and most legislators are unwilling to make a stand on the issue. Sometimes a simple-minded solution is best for simple problems, but of course I don’t want to be accused of under-complicating things. Point one, Mr. McIntyre fails the conservative test on taxes and government growth.

McIntyre says he wants to "change hearts and minds" on controversial issues such as abortion. I can only assume from this statement that he believes Mr. Cuccinelli has overemphasized legislative solutions to abortion problems such as requiring parental consent for minors and making Partial-birth abortion illegal. As a legislator I just wonder how Mr. McIntyre would go about "changing hearts and minds" if he is unwilling to promote legislation to that end. After all, bringing legislation to the table allows us all to discuss the issue in the Public Square and perhaps change a few of those hearts and minds. Ignoring the issue by not bringing important legislation up will do nothing to change hearts and minds. Point two, McIntyre fails the conservative test on social issues.

Mr. McIntyre says that we should support him because Sen. Cuccinelli "does not represent the people of the 37^th District" and he asserts Cuccinelli cannot be a successful legislator due to his inability to work in a bipartisan manner. Sen. Cuccinelli certainly represented well the people of the 37^th district in their opposition to last fall’s gimmick to increase the sales tax in a supposed attempt to help our transportation woes. He worked in a bipartisan manner with groups from both liberal and conservative traditions to oppose this tax. Opponents of the tax from across the political spectrum lauded him for his willingness to hear them out on the issue and work together to defeat this bad legislation. Additionally, Cuccinelli’s votes in the Senate were pivotal in overturning the Governor’s veto on the legislation banning the heinous Partial Birth Abortion procedure. Additionally, it was his votes that were also critical in keeping the Governor from further attempts at raising our already high taxes. McIntyre gives us not a single example of how he would be more successful as a legislator than Sen. Cuccinelli. He simply says he will "look for ways to accomplish our common goals" and "I’m able to work with members of the legislature to get things done". Nice sounding statements, but unfortunately he gives no substance to back-up his claims as he has no experience as a legislator. Point three, McIntyre offers no confidence that he can win over people from the other side of the aisle or pass meaningful legislation.

Finally, when he had the opportunity to comment on his ideas for prioritizing programs in Richmond, McIntyre just responds, "It’s time for people in the community to decide.." and "I haven’t spent a whole lot of time worrying about what I would do..". These don’t sound like words of a person ready to be a leader for us in the State Senate. They rather sound like someone who doesn’t have a clue on his agenda except that he is willing to compromise and get-along with the others in the Senate, perhaps even send more difficult legislative decisions to the voting public via referenda instead of doing his duty as a Senator. Point four, McIntyre is not ready to be a legislator.

Senator Ken Cuccinelli has served us all very well in his first session in the General Assembly. He has among other things been there for us protecting our wallets from the big-spenders in Richmond and working to re-establish respect for human life. He is proven to listen respectfully even to those he disagrees with, and stands by his principles. Richmond needs more leaders like Ken Cuccinelli and less of the current network of good-ole-boys that will either side-step their representative responsibilities by supporting referenda or compromise their constituents’ best interests in exchange for some meaningless legislative victories, power grabs, and pork-barrel projects. Ken Cuccinelli will be there for us in the long haul and will over time make real changes in the General Assembly that will benefit Virginia well into the future. Support him on May 10^th at the Republican nomination mass meeting.

J. Evans
Chantilly