Will anyone end the drift?

A year occasionally makes a difference, and none hope so more than those who march under the banner of the Republican Party, a group suddenly believing in change, so long as it means a return to power rather than more of the wilderness wandering that began here with the election of Mark Warner as governor in 2001. Democrats are splintered over the gubernatorial race, while Republicans are remarkably unified, leaving the former grasping for the tailwinds provided by Barack Obama’s meteoric rise.

Three candidates are seeking to replace fellow Democrat Gov. Timothy M. Kaine under conditions unlike those Obama rode to his historic presidential win last fall. Kaine’s reputation started taking lumps in 2007 as the economy began teetering and a state budget gap began forming. Obama ran against the record of President George W. Bush; Democrats will shy — if not run — from the record of Kaine.

Although Obama’s ascension to the top of Democratic ranks surprised some, he had widely been recognized as a star in the making after his stirring speech at the party convention in 2004. None of the Democratic gubernatorial contenders – Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds – carries the relative equivalent of Obama’s drawing power. McAuliffe is a well-heeled insider whose name pricks the ears mostly of political junkies, while the names of Moran and Deeds are likely to inspire shrugs from much of the electorate.

Waiting for one – likely McAuliffe – to emerge from the primaries is Republican Bob McDonnell, the former attorney general around whom the party began rallying last year in anticipation of his run. While the state GOP continues in its usual state of dysfunction – having recently ousted lightning rod Chairman Jeff Frederick – there’s scarcely a trace of division to be found over McDonnell’s candidacy. That makes the challenge for Democrats more formidable than it’s been since Warner began unraveling the GOP machine eight years ago.

What all of this means for both parties is that there are opportunities in this race that have been absent from many others. For Democrats, it’s a crucial test of life after Obama’s ascent into the presidential heavens. Can they sustain the wave of momentum he initiated and turn it into a lasting shift? For Republicans, can they regain equilibrium after having been knocked silly by their foes for eight years running?

There are bigger, more important questions. Both parties steadily have drifted from their philosophical moorings over the course of decades, leading to the explosive expansion of government. That played a part in a massive tax increase enacted under Warner with Republican acquiescence and a state budget crisis engendered by wishful thinking on tax revenues.

Virginia needs what the country lacks both in the White House and Congress, a leader who will stand against these trends and draw the state back into a pattern of fiscal responsibility. No matter Republican claims to the contrary, neither party can claim a consistent record of having done this in recent years, nor is it a thing that precludes Democrats.

A businessman’s approach to governing, something with which Warner is credited though failing to fully deliver it, is what Virginia needs next. We hope the state gets this rather than what we have come to expect: more partisan grabs for power mindless of sound principle. It’s up to voters to demand as much.