Landes right man in 25th

The preternaturally bland Steve Landes views his political career as that of a slogger trudging through legislative thickets whittling away tax and regulatory weeds. Accountants and morticians are peppier. Regardless then of the results of next month’s election, Greg Marrow has accomplished something: The state House District 25 incumbent is riled and ready to rumble. This is Landes as few have seen him.

Marrow has spent most of the campaign attacking Landes’ record, specifically what the Democratic challenger considers the veteran Republican’s failure to circumvent a little thing known as the national recession. “What has Steve Landes done to help the economy in this district?” Marrow asked during an editorial board interview with The News Virginian.

Similar queries among a series of verbal roundhouses by Marrow elicited unusually spirited responses from Landes last month during The News Virginian’s debate at Kate Collins Middle School. At one point, Landes declared that, “frankly,” he was “P-Oed” by Marrow’s assaults. For those who know Landes, this qualifies as R-rated stuff. Cover your ears.

Tamer are the facts. State statistics show employment in the 25th District has increased by more than a fourth since Landes took office in 1996. Manufacturing has been hit by 30-percent job losses, mirroring a national trend. Monday brought more bad news for that sector: Mohawk Industries in Waynesboro will close by year’s end. Still, the numbers are brighter than the gloom Marrow projects.

And what, by the way, would he do to clear that gloom? He’d lure green jobs into the Shenandoah Valley waving federal stimulus money. Well, that’s worked well across the country, hasn’t it?

The divide between the candidates, Marrow says, is principally one of a different kind of energy, the internal stuff. Marrow says he has it and Landes lacks it. We suggest the split is philosophical. Landes falls in the traditional conservative camp that says removing tax and regulatory shackles from business is the clearest path to growth; Marrow falls, at least somewhat, in the traditional Democratic camp that sees government spending as part of a winning economic formula. Marrow insists he’s fiscally conservative, that he recognizes business not government creates jobs; his positions say otherwise. He would consider, for example, increasing the state’s corporate tax, a veritable poison for recovery.

Further, the arrows Marrow slings at Landes over the economy belie a misapprehension of a delegate’s limits. None can slip national economic realities. Marrow otherwise is a strong challenger; he’s intelligent, engaging and, yes, energetic. His day might someday come.

It is not now. Landes knows the job, has the proper focus, operates from sounder, clearer principles and is the best candidate to ready the region for the recovery we hope soon will come. And, no small thanks to Marrow, Landes is more invigorated than ever we’ve seen him. He’s our pick in the 25th.