RICHMOND, Va. — In the latest episode of “Untold – A WTVR Podcast,” host Catie Beck sits down with Bill Bolling, who served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 2006 until 2014.
The Republican has one of the most fascinating “what if” stories in the history of Virginia politics. Many assumed he would his party’s next gubernatorial nominee after Bob McDonnell. But the GOP went with a more conservative candidate and lost the next election.
Bolling now teaches political science at Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University, and he has no qualms about criticizing Democrats or Republicans, when he thinks it is warranted.
“I tell folks I'm an equal opportunity offender,” said Bolling. “I love talking with these young students about how government is supposed to work, you know, and when you think about it, most of the students that I'm teaching were maybe born in 2005, 2006, or 2007, and they've never known government that worked the way it was supposed to.”
During his two terms, Bolling served alongside a Democratic and a Republican governor. The former was harder, Bolling said, but he told Beck about how he and Tim Kaine figured out how to work together.
“Tim Kaine and I were good friends before we were elected in 2005. We both kind of grew up on Metro Richmond politics, Tim in the City of Richmond and myself in Hanover County,” said Bolling. “I remember the day after the election, Tim called me on the phone and he said, look, we have to figure out how we're gonna make this work, and he said, let's get together, let's have lunch, let's talk about it. And we did, and we came away from that luncheon with two principles in mind. Number one, when we disagreed, we disagree without being disagreeable, and we did that for the most part. And number two, we'd focus on things that united us and not on things that divided us.”
Asked about next week’s election, Bolling said he thinks Spanberger wins the governor’s race, but thinks the contests for attorney general and his old job will be close.
“The two down ticket races are much more difficult to call,” said Bolling. “This time a few weeks ago, we would have probably said was a likely Democratic sweep. I'm not sure that's true anymore. I think Republicans have a very good chance of winning the attorney general’s office.”
Regarding the lieutenant governor’s contest, Bolling said he predicts Ghazala Hashmi by one or two points, but said he would not be surprised if it goes the other way and John Reid emerges victorious.
Bolling and Beck also discussed the unusual nature of this election cycle, from the early pressure to try to get Reid to drop out, to the Jay Jones scandal, to the fact that three statewide Republican candidates will not be together on election night.
“I'm not sure we've ever seen that before, frankly,” said Bolling. “I know in 2005, when I was elected to my first term as lieutenant governor, and in 2009, we were, all three Republican candidates were together, here in Richmond on election night waiting on the results to come in.”
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