At this point, the Virginia gubernatorial election is a race to the bottom, and Republican candidate Ed Gillespie has the edge over Democratic challenger Ralph Northam.
True, the now-cancelled anti-Gillespie ad showing a Confederate-loving pickup driver running down a group of minority children is ridiculously irresponsible. It’s downright shameful. But that ad was made by an outside group, and Northam’s campaign claims it had nothing to do with it (if they lied, that changes things significantly).
The trucker commercial was produced by a progressive group called the Latino Victory Fund. Though the Northam campaign briefly promoted the ad, it ultimately distanced itself from the LVF’s efforts.
“Ralph Northam would not have run this ad and believes Virginians deserve civility, not escalation,” a spokesperson told the Washington Post.
Gillespie’s campaign, on the other hand, is 100 percent responsible for a series of ads focused on preserving the state’s monuments to secessionists heroes.
“[Democratic candidate] Ralph Northam will take our statues down,” a narrator says in one ad funded by the Republican campaign. “Ed Gillespie will preserve them.”
The GOP candidate himself says in the ad, “I’m for keeping them up, and he’s for taking them down. And that’s a big difference in November.”
This is irresponsible and below the dignity of the office for which Gillespie is running. That the Republican candidate would choose now of all times to focus on the monuments is inexcusable, and it suggests something either very dark or very cynical about his campaign.
Remember, this pro-secessionist stuff from the Gillespie campaign comes not long after white supremacists descended twice on the Old Dominion State to stage pro-Confederate demonstrations.
As we noted here, Gillespie’s heavy focus on the monuments issue comes after an anti-Nazi demonstrator was murdered this summer as she protested white supremacists in Charlottesville.
Gillespie’s timing here sends all sorts of messages, and none of them are good. It’s doubly disheartening considering his forceful response to the Charlottesville violence was pitch-perfect. He was right on!
Perhaps Gillespie is dog whistling now to the preserve-our-heritage crowd. Perhaps he’s just trying to cash in on a topical issue. Whatever the case, Virginia deserves better.
The LVF trucker ad, which was pulled this week after a fatal terrorist attack by a motorist in New York City left eight people dead, was trash. It shouldn’t have taken a terrorist attack from them to realize it. But you can’t exactly blame Northam for this fiasco, if we’re to believe his campaign spokesman.
Gillespie’s monuments commercials, on the other hand, are very much the handiwork of Gillespie’s campaign. And then there are his pro-Confederate monuments mailers.
If we’re giving out points for most irresponsible campaign rhetoric, Gillespie has the edge on Northam.
