His political action committee, Spirit of Virginia, recently unveiled a $150,000 television ad buy in Virginia’s largest media markets during the NCAA “March Madness” tournament to rally Virginians behind his Republican menu of sweeping tax cuts that stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate during the regular session. In the ad, filmed in a basketball gym, the former collegiate basketball player makes his appeal as he passes the ball to a military veteran, homeowners and a grocery shopper — primary would-be beneficiaries of his cuts — and drives it home by sinking a nothing-but-net shot from three-point range.
The governor’s move adds a new twist to the old maxim that governors propose and legislators dispose: Now, it’s the governor proposes and then tries to sell what he is proposing through paid media, like brand-name consumer products.
How well the tactic works is to be determined. The trouble is that legislators jealously guard the dispositive roles and don’t like being backed into corners by governors or anyone else.
Youngkin set the session start date without assurance that a deal was within reach on differences between House and Senate versions of the new state budget. Summoning 140 legislators back to Richmond with no agreement in sight is quite a gamble, risking the embarrassment of a discordant session adjourning in futility.
Going directly to voters to pressure lawmakers is not new. But, until now, governors relied on barnstorming the state, influencing public opinion through earned media and involving allied interest groups to carry out grass-roots advocacy efforts.
Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) did that in 2004 when he enlisted surrogates, particularly educators and public school administrators with additional money pledged for schools, to help him shape support for reforming Virginia’s tax codes after years of revenue shortfalls. Republican lawmakers balked, declared a recess from the special session and returned to their districts only to be chastised at town hall-style forums by constituents who told them to return to Richmond and fix the problem. It flipped enough Republicans to give Warner his signature policy victory.
Does throwing down the gauntlet with broadcast ads establish a new precedent for the deliberative process of policymaking? Once Youngkin’s position is indelibly articulated on TV, the issue becomes binary: Battle lines form, and there is little room to negotiate, maneuver and compromise.
There is a valid argument that hashing out public policy on a high-profile macro scale moves the process of forming public policy out of the hands of the few huddled in backrooms, but reaching consensus is far easier outside the bright lights and camera lenses.
Though the governor has the bully pulpit and a PAC with an enormous advertising budget, opponents of his ideas are equally able to run their own ads in rebuttal, further widening the divide and hardening opposing positions.
Such a scenario would test the public’s tolerance for, essentially, a permanent, inescapable, year-round campaign season.
Taken to its absurd — but not illogical — conclusion, every issue in the commonwealth could someday be fought out in dueling, mass-market ad campaigns barely distinguishable from the tiresome, venomous election advertising that dominates media from late summer into November each election year.
And with Virginia’s staggered electoral calendar, every year already is an election year.
"Opinion" - Google News
April 04, 2022 at 09:34PM
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Opinion | Governing campaign-style in Virginia - The Washington Post
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