Scenes from an Advance

I stopped by the Virginia Republican Advance, a sort of mini-convention the party holds every year. It's just like a convention, and brings together all the same types of folks you'd expect at a convention. I only went to drop in on an acquaintance who's considering a bid for Congress, and as it was being held only a few blocks from my house, I figured I didn't have much of an excuse to not drop by.

The meat of my political experience is in Georgia, and so I know the Georgia political hacks and players, but I know very very few of the ones in Virginia, and none of the ones I knew were there last night. Without anyone to seek out except the candidate, I got stuck in a conversation with a Ron Paul supporter. He supports him because of the war, and I think that's about it. I tried to engage on government spending, but that didn't go very far. He told me as a second choice, he'd go with Fred Thompson.

"Yeah, Fred Thompson's nice," I said, "in that way that sitting by a pond is nice - it looks pretty but it's too shallow to swim in."

We didn't talk much after that.

Except for not knowing anyone, it's interesting to see that the politicos of Virginia are really just like the politicos of Georgia when they get together. There are the overzealous but personally insecure young campaign workers, the College Republicans who think they're the coolest for being there, even when they're just crowding the elevator and sending it to the wrong floor. There are the Republican women with fancy elephant brooches, and the old man in the funny outfit that always gets noticed and is as pleased as punch to be there. There are the candidates, with charm oozing from their pores, and stray county party leaders, forcing out some synthetic variation of charm.

Yet despite all that, there's an energy in the air that brings back memories of excitement tinged with exhaustion and hope. The energy of politics, of The Campaign, of winning.

I came home and reported to the wife that it was just awful. Yet I know that my eye-rolling exasperation with the event wasn't fair. I would have eaten it up if I were in Georgia - even though I'd probably still do the same amount of exasperated eye rolling. Same idiosyncratic people. Same energy. Shared party. Shared goals.

So that's how they're paying for the roads

Virginia lawmakers, rather quietly, have come up with a plan to raise money for new roads while benevolently making all of us just a little safer:

Say you are driving 78 mph on the Capital Beltway and a state trooper tickets you for "reckless driving -- speeding 20 mph over." You will probably be fined $200 by the judge. But then you will receive a new, additional $1,050 fine from the Old Dominion, payable in three convenient installments.

There are other ridiculously high fines for other serious charges, though low-level speeding and parking tickets and the like are exempt from such taxation. The fines are implemented based on the registration on the vehicle, and thus can only be levied on Virginia license holders (all you out-of-staters or DC folks driving in Virginia are safe).

Full article is here, which details the expected increase in litigation, court costs, lawyer fees, and revocation of poor people's driver's licenses.

Choice quote from one of the two Fairfax County Republican delegates that authored the bill:

"My job as a delegate is to make people slow down and build some roads," Albo said.

For the record, the current Virginia Constitution mentions roads only once, in Article X, Section 10:

...nor shall the Commonwealth become a party to or become interested in any work of internal improvement, except public roads and public parks, or engage in carrying on any such work...

It fails to mention the delegates important role in slowing people down.

HT: Tyler Cowen