Districts, News

Be sure to read Bob McDonnell’s Blueprint to take Virginia Backwards:
http://www.bobmcdonnellblueprint.com/
Social Agenda or Pragmatic Solutions?
Campaigning is about telling people what you plan to do if you are elected.? But it?s also about voters deciding if they can trust what they are being told.? I want to talk to you about two very different views of governing: one from Bob McDonnell who has had a career of trying to legislate his radical social views, and the other from Creigh Deeds who has spent 18 years building consensus to solve problems.? I want to test these differing views as supported by their legislative records.
So, let?s look at Bob McDonnell.? Not just what he is saying now, that he is running for Governor, but what he did as a state legislator. Bob McDonnell?s record is one of legislating radical social views.? It?s not just that at age 34 and only a year and half before he was elected to office, he wrote a 93 page thesis outlining an extremely far right conservative social agenda, with a 15 point Republican action plan.? It?s not just that he wrote degrading remarks about women, education, and equality; it?s that he spent his 14 years in the legislature acting on it.
He wrote that working women are ?detrimental to the family.?

As a legislator, he offered up 35 bills that would restrict a women?s right to choose.? Bills that would have outlawed abortion even in cases of rape and incest and that would limit access to contraception, and, even allow pharmacists to refuse to fill a doctor?s prescription for contraception.? He even voted against giving women equal pay for equal work.? These are not old positions.? He sponsored or co-sponsored these kinds of bills every year he was in the legislature.
He opposed efforts for improved child care centers, and, opposed efforts to fund day care for low-income working families.
That?s consistent with his writing that ?bureaucratized child nurture opens the door for an amplification of psychological, physical and moral harm done to children by absent parents.?? He wrote it.? He acted on it.
He wrote that the state government should ensure education only to the point that families could ?operate at a minimum level of self-sufficiency.?? Minimum! That?s what Virginia?s education system is supposed to do?? Operate to provide for a ?minimum? education?
Well, he wrote it and he acted on it.? Or, in this case, he failed to act at all.? With all his radical social legislation, he didn?t seem to have much time for education.? He proposed only two education bills in his 14 years in the legislature. ?One, in 1994, was in support of vouchers -taking money away from public schools-? and the other was to require the reading of an obscure book. Now he has a plan to take $5.4 billion away from schools if he is elected Governor.

He wants us to believe that he is ?Bob for Jobs,? but he didn?t have time for jobs when he was in the legislature.
He joined the obstructionist who held up passing a budget for the first time in Virginia history, and refused to join with Mark Warner and the Senate Finance Chairman from his own party, and Creigh Deeds, to pass a budget that saved our Triple A bond rating and supported our higher education system.? McDonnell also opposed the Governor?s Opportunity Fund which continues to help bring millions of jobs to Virginia.
McDonnell?s new found promises for better transportation is contradicted by his record of voting with the obstructionist who refused to help Gov. Warner and Gov. Kaine and Creigh Deeds do anything about it.? Now McDonnell has a grand transportation plan to take $5.4 billion away from our schools.? Building roads on the backs of our school children is not the way to move Virginia forward.
So we know what Bob McDonnell was doing when he served in the legislature.? He was trying to move a radical far right social agenda – the one he wrote about in his thesis.? We have every reason to believe that is what he would do as Governor.
Meanwhile, what was Creigh Deeds doing?? First, he was not trying to mess with your private life.? You can take care of that yourself.
He consistently voted for a woman?s right to choose, and supported day care and education.? Creigh was working to help move Virginia forward.
Creigh Deeds worked with members from both sides of the aisle to enact laws which would make our communities safer, such as Megan’s Law, and Amber Alert, legislation to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, clean up toxic waste dumps, to reduce class size, improve school performance, and yes, to pay our teachers fairly.
Creigh Deeds says that as Governor he will work to bring more jobs to Virginia.? In the Virginia senate Creigh worked with the Governor and others to build the Governor’s Economic Opportunity fund. That fund has brought more than 78,000 jobs to Virginia.? We can trust what Creigh Deeds says.? Bob McDonnell repeatedly voted against the Governor’s Economic Opportunity fund, yet his campaign says he is ?Bob?s for Jobs.??? Maybe the job Bob McDonnell is talking about is one for himself. He sure hasn’t done anything for the rest of us.
Gov. Kaine recently said ?Creigh Deed’s basic governing philosophy is simple: what is best for Virginia.? That has been his hallmark during his legislative career and no one voting for Creigh would have to wonder whether he had another agenda.?
What we have here is a say one thing, do another Republican with a radical far right social agenda, versus a pragmatic, work across the aisle and across the regions problem solving Democrat.? Not only do we not agree with Bob McDonnell’s radical social agenda, we can?t afford it!? These are difficult times that demand practical leadership to address our Commonwealth?s problems.
These times demand Creigh Deeds as Governor.
Mary Ann Hovis
Chair