Businessman best to replace Stolle

When Ken Stolle becomes Virginia Beach's sheriff next month, the city will lose a state senator whose depth and understanding of transportation, budgeting and public safety made him one of the most effective lawmakers in Richmond.

Replacing him will be difficult. The special election on Saturday - a Republican canvass in Senate District 8, encompassing the easternmost sections of the city - is likely to draw only a few thousand voters. Two Republicans, both longtime party regulars, are the only announced candidates in the overwhelmingly Republican district.

The candidates have vastly different resumes.

Rosemary Wilson, a former School Board member who was re-elected last year to her third term on the City Council, is a lifelong resident of Virginia Beach whose knowledge of the city and its issues is unmatched. A Realtor and former teacher, she's been a voice for good government, an advocate for the Navy and a leader on affordable housing, historic preservation, parks and open space - initiatives this page has supported. She's voted to spend beyond basic services on projects such as the convention center and on public-private partnerships, including Town Center and the amphitheater.

Unfortunately, that has not been the message of her campaign this time.

In its place, Wilson has become a staunch foe of taxes and spending, even on neglected transportation projects. On critical state issues, she has resorted to platitudes about government waste while vowing to protect public safety and education as much as possible from budget cuts - which will be measured in the billions of dollars. To create jobs, she suggests tax breaks and more money in the Governor's Opportunity Fund. She says tolls should help pay for road improvements, and more bonds should be issued, but she's unfamiliar with the debt-to-revenue ratio that limits Virginia's borrowing.

In short, Wilson's strengths - familiarity with the city's needs and a vision for what it can be - haven't so far translated to leadership on state issues.

Instead, Wilson has made the national debate on health care an issue in the campaign. She linked her opponent, Amerigroup Corp. founder Jeff McWaters, to President Barack Obama's efforts to reform the industry, because she said it's one area where they differ. She wants the federal government to back off on proposed reforms. "Mandated health care," she said, "will add a huge amount to your bottom line."

Of course, a Virginia senator has almost no ability to shape a health care reform measure now wending through Congress.

Wilson makes the case that the issue is pertinent because Virginia may have to decide whether to opt out of government-run health care. She's right that it's germane, but for another reason. Her opponent, whose job until 2007 was leading a company that provides health care for the poor, has an intimate understanding of health care costs, Medicaid and Medicare. His ability to cut through the bureaucracy to find efficiencies would be invaluable as Virginia prepares to slice more than $3 billion from its budget early next year.

McWaters contends that health care is a right, not a privilege, but that private insurers, not the government, should be competing to provide coverage. Diverting people from emergency rooms, which are exorbitantly expensive, to primary care physicians will save billions and get rid of a "hidden tax," he said.

McWaters, who began his career as an accountant, has never run for public office before, though he's been a big-dollar contributor to Republican candidates for years. Like Wilson, he wasn't familiar with payday lending and the multiyear efforts in Richmond to limit interest rates on small consumer loans to 36 percent. Like Wilson, he advocates for gun rights and opposes abortion. Both say a bipartisan redistricting commission is the fairest way to draw congressional and legislative district lines. Both support Virginia Beach's purchase of the Norfolk Southern right of way.

And both have courted conservatives in their efforts to win over voters, acknowledging that only the Republican faithful - not the broader moderate vote - would show up at the polls Saturday. The result has been a campaign surprisingly noted for its distractions, which will make it unnecessarily hard for the winner to lead from the moderate middle where Virginia's electorate still stands.

As the retired chief executive of Amerigroup, which employs 1,700 in Virginia Beach, McWaters knows how to recruit businesses and rein in spending - two of his three priorities. He comes across as pragmatic and thoughtful about lawmaking while leaving no doubt about his conservative bona fides. As a regional coordinator for Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell who works closely with Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, McWaters has the ear of the state's top leaders.

His third focus, improving Virginia's roads, hinges on setting priorities, he said. The lack of focus and money have resulted in "a public safety problem... a tourism problem... a security problem." But like his opponent, he remains frustratingly fuzzy about how roads should be paid for or when.

Voters of District 8 have been spoiled for years by Stolle's diligence and advocacy. Agree with him or not, the outgoing senator was a leader in Richmond and the Senate. Last month, Stolle endorsed McWaters to succeed him, calling him "fully capable to tackle the complex problems facing our state and region."

McWaters can't be expected to immediately fill the void Stolle leaves, but he's a perceptive leader who knows how to ask the right questions and has the confidence to reach his own conclusions on tough issues.

The district's voters should send him to Richmond.