Gubernatorial Race: Tourism, Inc.

A recent editorial on the GOP and the South quoted a decade-old passage from The Atlantic arguing that Republicans are too conservative, but also "too liberal, too, as their all-out retreat from shrinking the government indicates." For close-to-home evidence that the charge still holds, look at the otherwise appealing gubernatorial campaign of Bob McDonnell.

The other day the McDonnell camp rolled out a self-described "sweeping set of proposals to boost Virginia's tourism, hospitality, and film industries." Among other things, McDonnell promised to double funding for the Virginia Tourism Corp., increase funding for the Governor's Motion Picture Fund by $2 million, host a tourism summit, and promote Virginia as a leader in wine tourism.

The argument for these activities holds that they are money-makers for the state: Each dollar dedicated to tourism promotion brings a $5 return on investment, for instance. Maybe so. But even if that is true, it doesn't explain why state government -- rather than (say) the state's hotels, theme parks, and restaurant associations -- should be doing the promotion.

Likewise, the state's wineries should be able to promote themselves without the coerced assistance of other taxpayers and businesses around the commonwealth. And it's great that the film industry spends a lot of money in Virginia. But the Virginia Constitution doesn't say anything about the governor being a location scout for Hollywood.

In a way, treating the Executive Mansion as the headquarters for Virginia's marketing department does no great harm. It's hardly in the realm of stealing elections or running guns to narcoterrorists. But it does erode the notion that government has limits. If it's government's proper job to promote the wine industry, then there would seem to be very little left that government shouldn't do.

As recent events have demonstrated, America -- and Virginia -- already has one party that believes government should do pretty much everything. We'd like to see campaigns that offer voters more of a choice, not an echo.