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Sound bites fly as candidates square off for 88th House

October 4, 2007 12:35 am

BY EMILY BATTLE

Carlos Del Toro thinks Mark Cole has "not a whole lot of anything" to show for his six years in the General Assembly. Cole thinks Del Toro is trying out for "the John Kerry flip-flopping gymnastics team."

Those are your TV-ready sound bites from last night's debate between Del Toro, who is running as a Democrat for the 88th District House of Delegates seat, and Cole, the Republican incumbent.

But the hour-and-a-half debate, sponsored by the Legislative Affairs Committee of the University of Mary Washington's Student Government Association, covered a wide range of issues, from illegal immigration to whether school boards should be elected.

Immigration was one of a few issues where the two candidates showed moderate to no differences in their positions.

Del Toro said a lot of the immigration issues that get attention are only symptoms of the root cause: the search for higher-paying jobs.

He said while the federal government should do more to enforce immigration laws, Virginia should go after employers that provide the jobs immigrants seek.

Cole agreed, and said the federal government should work harder to build physical barriers along the borders.

The two both opposed spending state money for colleges to distribute contraceptives, and both thought a bad precedent could be set if Virginia makes financial settlements with families of victims of last spring's massacre at Virginia Tech.

The candidates locked horns the most in discussing transportation, although they're both against so-called "abusive driver" fees, and neither favors setting up a transportation authority to fund roads in this region.

Cole made his "flip-flop" comment about Del Toro's position on the General Assembly's 2007 transportation bill.

Cole has remarked that Del Toro first criticized him for voting against the bill, but then turned around and denounced the abuser fees that came with it.

Del Toro said he would have first eliminated the fees from the bill, then worked with other legislators to pass a transportation law to bring road money to this area.

"He's trying to have it both ways," Cole said. "He would not have had that option down in Richmond."

Del Toro returned repeatedly to his theme that Cole has been just lacking in leadership, and, "It's time for people who are going to work collaboratively across both parties to get things done."

Asked whether local school boards should be elected or appointed, the candidates both seemed to favor appointed boards.

Cole said if boards are elected, they should have taxing authority.

"If they had the responsibility for setting that tax rate, I think they would be much more frugal," he said.

He added that the Spotsylvania County School Board put forward a budget request that would have required a massive tax increase when he was on that county's Board of Supervisors.

Del Toro said Cole's comments amounted to saying, "the schools are getting too much money," but he said he thought appointed school boards would be less bogged down in politics.

Cole shook his head and grinned at that statement, and said Del Toro was being "deceptive" in interpreting his words.

Voters in the 88th District--which includes parts of Spotsylvania, Stafford and Fauquier counties--will choose one of these men to represent them on Nov. 6.