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By Nicholas M. Horrock
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
For Virginia Democrats this wintry month finds a quickened step and a sense of purpose as the Feb. 10 Democratic primary election approaches.
As Laura Bland, spokesperson for the Virginia Democratic Committee, laughingly challenges, “it’s easy to say I’m a Democrat.”
On the state level, despite tougli opposition from Republican fiscal conservatives, Democratic Gov. Mark Warner’s tax proposal is gaining headway. The Republicans are split with some like Sen. John H. Chichester, R-28, proposing even more drastic tax increases than Warner.
Warner’s plan, a combination oi increased sales and tobacco taxes and income tax hikes for those making over $100,000, last week won the approval of the Chamber of Commerce, perhaps Virginia’s most influential business group.
The plan will raise, Warner claims, $1 billion and he told the Associated Press in a Jan. 11 interview that he believes Virginians are willing to pay more to avoid the loss oi state services.
The decision to move the primary election from March to February has also paid off. Perhaps if former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean had steam rolled victories from Iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina, the importance of the Virginia contest would have been diminished.
But even with six primary elections set for Feb. 3, Virginia, says Bland, will be a further important test of Democratic candidates electability in the South.
“We need to make sure that we have a candidate that will appeal tc many Southerners,” Bland said in an interview. South Carolina, she argues, is not enough of a test and the Virginia and Tennessee state primaries on the 10th are important places to find the best candidate.
Certainly the candidates seem to
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