Virginia's Race Now a Page-Turner

[question everything]

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Virginia's Race Now a Page-Turner

By COREY DADE
WSJ

RICHMOND, Va. -- Mimi Herrington hosted a dozen women at her home recently for what might have appeared to be a neighborhood book club. But this was more of a literary clobbering: It was designed to pound Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell for a graduate-school thesis in which he criticized career women and encouraged government discrimination against homosexuals.

Though written 20 years ago, the document has become the centerpiece of a strategy by Democratic opponent R. Creigh Deeds to gain ground on Mr. McDonnell, long the front-runner. One Deeds campaign tactic since the thesis surfaced six week ago has been the organization of more than 60 "book club" gatherings, at which hundreds of mostly female voters have been told the document is a "blueprint" for how Mr. McDonnell would govern the state.

A month from Election Day, Mr. Deeds, who lagged badly during the summer, appears to have pulled within striking distance by energizing African-Americans and other core Democratic voters. Mr. McDonnell led by 12 percentage points in an average of multiple polls tallied by RealClear Politics just before the thesis surfaced weeks ago. That margin had eroded to an average of just less than 5 percentage points by Sept. 20. Since then polls have shown the McDonnell campaign regaining momentum. A SurveyUSA poll released Monday put the Republican ahead by 54% to 43%. The latest RealClear survey of polls indicates a tighter race, with an average margin of 7.3 percentage points.

(snip)

Mr. McDonnell said he wrote the paper, titled "The Republican Party's Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of The Decade," as a 34-year-old completing a joint law and master's degree program at Regent University, the Virginia school founded by Christian fundamentalist Pat Robertson. In it, Mr. McDonnell wrote that government should actively discriminate against "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators" in favor of married couples. He criticized federal tax credits for child-care costs as promoting the entry of women into the work force, a trend he said was "ultimately detrimental to the family." He called feminism one of the "real enemies of the traditional family." Now 55, Mr. McDonnell has said the passages about women don't reflect his opinions. "Like everybody, my views on many issues have changed as I have gotten older," he told reporters. He said he no longer believes government should discriminate against unmarried or gay people.

(snip)

Mr. Deeds, 51, a state senator, generally favors abortion rights but has backed measures to restrict the procedure, such as requiring parental notification when a minor seeks an abortion. The battle over the thesis and Mr. McDonnell's history on gender issues underscore how critical female voters are in any statewide Virginia race, and especially for Mr. Deeds to close the gap. Women make up 54% of Virginia's electorate.

(snip)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125496002194772107.html (subscription)

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A4

[Mz Pip]

1. Regent University

That pretty much is all I would need to know if I lived in Virginia.

[YOY]

2. I am voting for Deeds but I am scared as hell for the amount of folks for McDonnell.

That's the problem with Republicans in Virginia. They tend to be the HOLEE SHIT SCARY fundie types and not the cute "all talk about fiscal responsibilty" types that you get up north.