russ-potts.jpg The Virginia governor's race pits Democratic Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine against Republican former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. Both are proven vote getters and party stalwarts, and they're locked in a very competitive campaign. But the venerable Washington Post might endorse neither of them because their editorial board has fallen in love with a little-known state senator named Russ Potts.
Recent Post editorials have ripped into Kaine and Kilgore alike. In a brazen display of gratuitous quotation mark use, the Post opined in July, "Like the 'plan' announced by his Republican opponent, Jerry W. Kilgore, Mr. Kaine's transportation package ticks off a bunch of likeable ideas but punts when it comes to proposing any immediate, sizable or long-term infusion of additional money to get Virginia moving."
In contrast, the Post has swooned over Potts, a Republican running as an independent. They praised his transportation plan in the aforementioned editorial, then griped not once, but twice, about his exclusion from debates. Then, the Post, with hearts presumably pitter-pattering, penned "A Radical in Virginia," which called Potts "the only candidate bothering to level with Virginia voters."
Whether the Post will give in to temptation and endorse Potts, who has no chance of winning, remains to be seen. That doesn't matter much anyway. To their credit, Americans don't give a hoot who publications tell them to vote for.
Instead, what's significant is that the left-leaning Post (their Iraq War cheerleading not withstanding) finds Potts' candidacy alluring. Potts appeals to the Post because he is running to the left of the Democrat Kaine on some issues, most notably gay rights and the use of tax increases to fund transportation.
If voters with the same ideological bent as the Post also find him enticing, Potts could siphon votes from Kaine. In an election this close (or this close), that could be enough to give the governorship to the Republican Kilgore.
