The Augusta Free Press makes it official: Emmett Hanger is running for Virginia lieutenant governor:
Hanger began exploring a possible candidacy for the second spot on the Republican Party state ticket last May.
He told The Augusta Free Press this week – drum roll, please – that he is in.
“I will be making a formal announcement defining my positioning in the race shortly. I know I’m getting a late start to it, and that it’s going to be more difficult to raise money with the late start that I’m getting. But I’m not really the type to run a campaign that raises a lot of money and has me going everywhere bragging about what a great guy I think I am anyway,” Hanger said.
Hanger is somebody with whom I have both serious disagreements and great respect. When he ran for reelection in 2003, his Democratic opponent, bizarrely, ran on a less-taxes platform (nobody with the ability to do simple math agreed with him), while Hanger refused to take a no-tax pledge, saying that taxes very well may have needed to be raised. When it became clear as daylight a year ago that taxes had to be raised, Hanger did the right — and difficult — thing and voted for a tax increase. Kilgore has come out clearly against the tax increase, having been wooed by Grover Norquist and company to the all-taxes-are-bad school of thought.
Hanger, along with Del. Bob McDonnell, delivered the Republican response to Gov. Warner’s State of the Commonwealth address last night. Hanger has fiscal commonsense and the same gen-you-ine Virginiana that Kilgore has.
Update: As is obvious to anybody reading the story other than me, Hanger is running for lieutenant governor. As the rumors had been pertaining governor, and I’d wanted to see him challenge Kilgore, I’d stupidly read the story as governor, rather than lieutenant governor, as commenters and e-mailers pointed out. D’oh. This, of course, is why comments are a good and useful thing. :)
I had gone through and used the strike tag to cross out all of the stuff that was wrong, but that just made everything look screwy and render badly, and kept the last 2 paragraphs from showing up, mysteriously. Suffice it to say, I referred to Hanger as a candidate for governor when he’s plainly not, and now I’ve fixed that.
Still, I think that the dynamic of a Kilgore/Hanger ticket would be really interesting, and quite bad for Kilgore. They have a high-profile disagreement on what’s likely to be one of the biggest issues of the campaign, and a split ticket is not going to help. They may try to campaign altogether separately, but the lack of a unified message is going to be a problem, again, should Hanger and Kilgore get the nomination.
Here’s what’s going to happen.
Hanger is going to lose the primary for Governor, as he should. He will finish out his term in the Virginia Senate. Delegate Ben Cline will run to succeed him, and who will run in Cline’s seat is still up in the air. However, no matter who runs, a Republican will win… That’s VAGOP father, Vance Wilkins former seat.
Your other governor. Lt. Governor.
I know this rains on your parade. :-(
I don’t think Kilgore is going to lose. I doubt that the DNC will shell out anymore than they already have for him. Watch the RNC very closely… that big donation will come in soon.
Don’t worry. Russ Potts may still get in, and then you could have your top slot controversy…
I did want to comment substantively on this two points
1) When he ran for reelection in 2003, his Democratic opponent, bizarrely, ran on a less-taxes platform
I don’t think this is as bizarre as you may think. Steve Sisson was copying Del. Johnny Joannou, a Democrat who has been very successful with a no taxes platform. The Republican Renegades have opened up a tremendous amount of territory on their right. A Democrat who is relatively liberatarian on social issues and conservative/anti-tax on fiscal policy can make a strong challenge, provided that she can get the nomination.
The Chichester/Bryant/Jones guys are reportedly going to try to push right on some social issues this session. This is supposedly going to provide coverage from their tax vote.
2) Hanger also has an interesting pushback to the right. Quote: “I plan to advance legislation in the session that will continue us on the path toward true tax reform, and I hope we can see some success to those efforts…All of these things are part of the package that I introduced last year. If they would have looked, they would have seen that…The idea from the start, for me, was to enact a tax reform that was revenue neutral. Some of these other things fell by the wayside, but I’m still committed to seeing them through.”
In other words, I wanted revenue neutral tax reform. I only got 50% of what I wanted in 2004, but I will be fighting for more tax cuts in this session and the future. I’ll vote for estate tax repeal, and other tax reofrms.
Interesting, Addison. In particular, I wasn’t familiar with either Joannou or Sisson’s attempted emulation of him. Obviously, it backfired, hugely — Sisson got beat down really badly. But at least there was a plan, it seems.
Hanger is, it seems, has both fiscal commonsense and is a fiscal conservative. (Compared with the Norquist school of thought, which is merely conservative.) As I said, I disagree with Hanger about just about everything, but the guy’s smart, wants to do right by Virginia, and seems to base his votes on both solid beliefs and logic. He’s somebody that, if he proposes a tax cut, I expect he’ll also propose a corresponding cut in expenditures, and he’ll be able to justify it. I may not agree, but I’ll respect his position.
At any rate, I don’t think you have to concern yourself with a Kilgore/Hanger ticket. Hanger is getting into the race awfully late; Sen. Bill Bolling has been campaigning for the better part of two years for the position (although I still can’t figure out for the life of me why someone would want to be Lieutenant Governor).
My opinion is that Hanger has a slightly greater chance of being the GOP nominee in 2005 than I do. Slightly.
JB
You run for Lt. Governor for a couple of reasons.
1. You’re the president of the Senate and you decide all ties.
2. It gives you a platform to run for Governor.
Waldo, I also assumed that he was running for Governor, but I see Addison corrected me.