Race is on for lt. gov., but eventually top job is goal

Amid all the sound and fury surrounding the Virginia governor's race, it would be easy for voters to overlook the campaign for lieutenant governor. But that would be a mistake.

True, it's only a part-time, $36,000-a-year job with two constitutional duties: presiding over and casting tie-breaking votes in the state Senate and standing by to take over if the governor is unable to finish his or her term.

But it's often a steppingstone to the governor's office. That's how the current governor, Timothy M. Kaine, got there. And neither of this year's candidates for the No. 2 job has made any secret of their ambition to follow his example.

Incumbent Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, put his hopes on hold and decided to run for re-election rather than oppose Bob McDonnell, the GOP candidate for governor. The two are running as a team.

Despite the campaign's low profile, Bolling has found himself in a spirited and often acrimonious race against his Democratic challenger, Jody Wagner.

Wagner, 54, a Virginia Beach attorney and businesswoman, served as finance secretary under Kaine and as state treasurer under his predecessor, Mark Warner. If elected, she would become Virginia's first female lieutenant governor.

Bolling, 52, is an insurance executive with the Baltimore-based firm Riggs, Counselman, Michaels & Downes.

He was elected to the state Senate in 1995, defeating a 20-year Democratic incumbent, and became lieutenant governor in 2005.

He and Wagner are ideological opposites - he is staunchly anti-abortion, for instance, while she is pro-choice - but neither has emphasized such issues in this campaign.

With state finances reeling from the recession and the General Assembly gridlocked over how to address a host of unmet transportation needs, the two have sparred mostly over who is better equipped to bring the warring sides together and get something done in Richmond.

Bolling has signed onto the transportation plan put forth by his running mate, McDonnell. They have taken a hard line against any tax increases, relying instead on such measures as bonds, public-private partnerships, selling state liquor stores and dedicating future royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling to transportation.

Wagner said the McDonnell-Bolling transportation plan would be "dead on arrival" in the General Assembly. She opposes any "one-shot fix", such as selling the liquor stores, calling it fiscally irresponsible.

With the economy in recession, she said, this is not the right time to raise taxes. Ultimately, Wagner said, new revenue sources will be needed, however.

She said she would take a bipartisan approach to transportation and other tough issues. As an example, she cites her role as Kaine's point person in resolving a deadlock between the Democrat-controlled Senate and the Republican House on a college building measure in 2008.

Wagner has slammed Bolling as a "no-show" lieutenant governor, accusing him of attending only 6 percent of the meetings of the state boards and commissions of which he is a member. If elected, she has pledged to work full-time at the job, using it as a bully pulpit to advance such causes as early childhood education and attracting "green energy" jobs to Virginia.

Bolling said that when his attendance was not required at meetings, he sent staffers in his place.

He said he would use the lieutenant governor's office to promote such causes as improved access to health care. As a senator, he was chief sponsor of legislation creating a health insurance program for children in low-income families.

Bolling says Wagner bears blame for the nearly $7 billion in budget cuts made by the Kaine administration because the revenue projections she submitted as finance secretary were overly optimistic. "She did a terrible job," Bolling said. "Those were fantasyland revenue projections. If she'd been CFO of a company, she would have been fired."

Wagner said the forecasts came out of meetings with a bipartisan group of business advisers and economists. Bolling was invited to those meetings but never showed up, she added.

She also points out that on her watch, Virginia received national accolades as the best-managed and most business-friendly state.

In any event, Wagner said, it is unfair to blame her for a recession-induced revenue shortfall. "I didn't take that money and park it in Switzerland," she said. "It just wasn't there."

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com