Editor's note: Beginning Monday, June 8, 2009, Kerry Dougherty's columns will be available only in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.

Read more about this decision.     "Why are we here?" The headline atop Transportation Commissioner David Ekern's latest and grimmest report on budget cuts wasn't intended to be plaintive or profound, but it was both.

Editor's note: Beginning Monday, June 15, 2009, editorial writers' columns will appear only in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper. Read more about this decision.  

The three-way contest for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination is barely getting a golf clap from voters. A recent poll suggests African Americans are particularly unenthusiastic about their choices. Twenty-nine percent of the 600 respondents to a Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll said they were undecided. Among black voters, an astonishing 49 percent had no favorite.

It's going to be a long, hot election season for Virginia's business leaders.

Most Virginians have tuned out this year's elections and don't plan to pay attention until the fall foliage peaks. But over the next month, a tiny fraction of the state's voters will piece together the ballot we will see in November.

MARK WARNER marketed himself to Virginia voters as a smart business guy. The strategy helped the Democrat win a term as governor and then a U.S. Senate seat.

The veiled threats and open taunts bandied around at last weekend's debate in Williamsburg have exacerbated Democrats' anxieties that their three gubernatorial candidates will not just go negative, but go nuclear in the final weeks of the primary campaign.

IN 1969, the shipping industry was on the cusp of a revolution that promised an explosion of commerce and wealth for Virginia's natural port. Large cargo containers were transforming the industry, but they required ports to invest in new equipment that could handle the enormous metal units.

Pat Mullins makes a living selling insurance on horses. That's not the main reason the Louisa County man is getting buzz as a contender for state Republican chairman, but it may well be a relevant background for a party seeking new leadership after a nasty ouster of the former GOP chief.

After squabbling amongst themselves for years over the desirability of a government-imposed smoking ban, Virginia's restaurant owners are trying to regroup and fend off a common enemy. It helps that the enemy is heavily armed.