Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell hammered Democratic rival Creigh Deeds on Wednesday for having “the most backward-looking platform in Virginia history.”
McDonnell said the Deeds campaign, down in the polls, was obsessed with looking to the past, while he was committed to focusing on Virginia’s budget and creating jobs. A Rasmussen poll released Wednesday shows McDonnell leading Deeds 51 percent to 42 percent, which is comparable to a 49-percent-to-41-percent margin from a month ago.
“[Deeds] must have the most backward-looking campaign in Virginia history,” he told editors and reporters at The Washington Examiner. “His platform is based on past presidents, past governors and a 20-year-old thesis.”
McDonnell’s master’s thesis, first reported in The Washington Post, has created his first major stumbling block in an otherwise smooth campaign. In the 1989 paper, McDonnell criticized working women and put forward that the government should favor married couples over homosexuals and “fornicators.”
Deeds has spent much of this week hammering McDonnell on the thesis. Throughout his campaign, he has tried to tie McDonnell to the economic policies of President George W. Bush, while touting his own connections with popular former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.
McDonnell pointed out that Deeds pledged at their first debate not to emphasize social issues, but has talked mainly about those topics for the last three weeks. Deeds said during the debate that McDonnell was outside the mainstream on abortion issues, and has accused him of spending his career “single-mindedly advancing his anti-choice agenda.”
But McDonnell appeared to welcome his opponent’s tack.
“If that’s what he wants to do, I think that’s a winning formula for me,” he said, adding that he’s more concerned about fiscal issues, such as cutting spending in the state budget.
“I’m trying to focus on … quality-of-life issues” that Virginia voters have said they’re interested in, such as education, transportation and creating jobs, he said.
Still, McDonnell did not mince words in defending his commitment to “traditional” values he said has not wavered over his career.
“I’m strongly pro-life and I will be a pro-life governor,” he said. He added that political leaders have said a strong family is beneficial to society, and that the stronger a family can be, the less the government has to spend on services.
McDonnell said it was “disingenuous” to look at a few lines in his thesis and conclude that he has a radical agenda.
“I fully and wholeheartedly support women in the workplace,” he said.
