[VAcourier] McDonnell-Bolling Ticket Confirmed

Mon Mar 24 21:20:12 EDT 2008

This potentially is the dream team for the SCV. BUT, I have learned through
many years and many trying experiences that when our supporters reach these
positions, things like Confederate History and Heritage Month suddenly
become impossible. Both Bolling and McDonnell have been strong supporters in
the past. It will be up to our membership to hold them accountable.

Brag Bowling

 Ticket Confirmed

Lt. Gov. Bolling will seek re-election, not governor's office

By BOB LEWIS

RICHMOND

Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling will seek re-election next year, forgoing
an anticipated run for governor, Bolling said Monday.

Bolling said in a state Capitol news conference he decided that family
finances and the necessity of building a new business precluded a costly,
full-time run in 2009 for an office he said he still wants.

His decision not to run for governor and former Gov. George Allen's decision
to sit out the race leaves Attorney General Bob McDonnell uncontested for
the GOP nomination.

Bolling said he will support McDonnell and said his decision would unify the
GOP ticket next year after two consecutive gubernatorial losses.

"Bob McDonnell and I are stronger running together than either of us would
be running individually," Bolling said.

"The party will line up behind this ticket, a ticket that can beat anything
the Democrats throw our way," he said.

Bolling, 50, said he finalized his decision about two weeks ago but had been
leaning toward staying put for several months. By 2013, he said, he will
have his mortgage paid, the last of his children out of college and his
business on sounder footing.

"It's like Clint Eastwood said in that movie, 'Dirty Harry:' A man's got to
know his limitations,'" Bolling said.

The governor's election, still 20 months away, finds Democrats Brian Moran,
a delegate from Alexandria, and state Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath County
jockeying for their party's nomination.

Bolling served nearly 2 1/2 terms in the Senate from Hanover County before
winning a narrow victory for lieutenant governor over former state Sen.
Leslie Byrne in 2005.

An anti-tax conservative and protege of former Gov. Jim Gilmore, Bolling
found new opportunities this year to exercise the rare discretion his
position affords.

Bolling was more strategically important this year in the first legislative
session in 12 years with Democrats holding a one-seat majority in the
40-member Senate.

It was Bolling's ruling that the version of the state budget drawn by the
Senate Democrats needed passage by a four-fifths majority that briefly
ensnared the spending blueprint for government.

Bolling invoked a provision of the state Constitution that required a
32-vote majority because the Senate version of the budget changed the way
state lottery proceeds were appropriated. The Constitution directs lottery
profits to localities to use in public education.

Bewildered Democrats recessed to discuss Bolling's maneuver. When they
returned, they challenged his ruling and overturned it with a simple
majority vote.

Bolling this year cast a tie-breaking vote that stripped from the Senate
version of the budget funding for Planned Parenthood. The money was later
restored in the compromise between House and Senate budget conferees and
finally passed on March 13.

  _____  

Source URL (retrieved on 03/24/2008 - 15:43):
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/03/lt-gov-bolling-will-seek-reelection-not-gove
rnors-office 
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