AN ACCIDENT of geography—that Virginia is hard by Washington, DC, albeit separated by the Potomac River—means that the federal government is a huge economic engine for the state. More than one in four dollars flowing through the state’s economy is linked to direct and indirect spending by the capital.
So when President Donald Trump suggested that he might favour a government shutdown next month to exact funding for his wall on the border with Mexico, Virginia politicians, particularly those running for governor this year, took notice.
Their concern—in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville that looms over the campaign—is electoral as well as economic. They know only too well the consequences of the federal government going dark.
There is little doubt that a federal shutdown would exacerbate voter hostility towards Mr Trump in a state that was comfortably carried last November by Hillary Clinton. And that would probably help the Democratic nominee for governor, Ralph Northam, who rarely misses an...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2xNsAtB
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