Damn straight:
Former President Barack Obama condemned Ed Gillespie, the GOP nominee for Virginia governor, for airing a misleading, race-baiting ad tying Democratic opponent Ralph Northam to the notorious MS-13 gang, calling the advertisement “cynical” and “corrosive.”
Appearing at a campaign rally in Richmond, Virginia, with Northam on Thursday, Obama accused Gillespie of pulling from the “same old playbook” of other fear-based campaigns. The former president said the ad, which unfairly accuses Northam of enabling the predominantly Latino gang and its violent actions, “sounds like a fib.”
“It’s a tactic, by the way, that shows Ralph’s opponent doesn’t really think very highly of Virginians, because I don’t think anybody really thinks that somebody who spent his life performing surgeries on soldiers and children is cozying up to street gangs,” Obama said.
“What he’s really trying to deliver is fear,” Obama continued. “What he really believes is if you scare enough voters, you might score just enough votes to win an election. And that’s what makes this kind of anything goes politics just so damaging and corrosive to our democracy. It’s just as cynical as politics gets.”
Obama didn’t mention his successor by name, but some of his remarks could be read as subtle jabs at President Donald Trump, who in recent days has accused the former president of not calling families of fallen soldiers.
Obama referenced his many visits as president to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where many wounded soldiers are treated, and also noted Northam’s work on behalf of those hurt in battle.
“When Ralph was tending to our wounded warriors he wasn’t tending to them as Democrats or Republicans, he was thinking about them as Americans,” Obama said.
Obama also issued this warning to Virginia voters:
“We need you to take this seriously. Our democracy is at stake,” Obama said. “Elections matter. Voting matters. You can’t take anything for granted. You can’t sit this one out. It’s up to you. And if you believe in that better vision not just of our politics, but of our common life, of our democracy, of who we are; if you want that reflected in our government, if you want our kids to see our government and feel good about it, and feel like they’re represented and if you want those values that you are teaching your children reinforced … then you’ve got to go out there.”
As former President George W. Bush did earlier Thursday in a surprisingly forward speech in New York, Obama kept to not mentioning Trump’s name, but left no question who he was talking about.
“Folks don’t feel good right now about what they see. Maybe they don’t feel as if our public life reflects our best,” Obama said. “Instead of our politics reflecting our values, we’ve got politics infecting our communities. Instead of looking for ways to work together and get things done in a practical way, we’ve got folks who are deliberately trying to make folks angry, to demonize people who have different ideas, to get the base all riled up because it provides a short-term tactical advantage.”
He returned to some of the Obama classics: kicking off with “Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?” and working his way through to “Don’t boo. Vote!” Then, to criticize ads by Northam’s opponent, Ed Gillespie, as misleading, he used a phrase that’s only a favorite to him, calling it “the okey doke.”
And the kicker: “The question now, at a time when our politics just seems so divided, and so angry, and so nasty, is whether we can recapture that spirit, whether we support and embrace somebody who wants to bring people together,” Obama said. “Yes, we can.”
The “Yes, We Can” chants followed, as he must have known they would.
Over 30 minutes in, he was going full force, whipping into a tangent here in the old capital of the Confederacy about being Jefferson Davis’ eighth cousin, once removed — “I’ll bet he’s spinning in his grave,” Obama said — and weighing in on the Confederate monument debate by noting that while Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, he also wrote the Declaration of Independence, of which Obama went on to recite the first lines.
While Obama didn’t mention Gillespie by name, Northam did and Obama told Democratic voters not to sit this race out:
“My opponent, Ed Gillespie, is cut from the same cloth that Donald Trump is. He’s nothing more than a Washington lobbyist who’s become Donald Trump’s chief lobbyist,” he said after lamenting Trump’s campaign victory “based on hatred and bigotry and fear.”
It was clear that the crowd was there for the former president and not the Virginia Democratic ticket — the loudest applause of Northam’s whole speech was when he went to introduce Obama, having to pause after, “It is time.”
The biggest worry for Northam’s campaign is turning out base Democratic voters — especially the students and African Americans who appeared to make up a plurality of the crowd in Richmond. And it’s unclear how much Obama’s shine can wear off. The convention center had a solid crowd — the campaign said there were 6,250 people — but the room they’d booked was almost half-empty.
Obama specifically talked about the problem of turning out Democrats in off-year elections.
“Off-year elections, midterm elections, Democrats sometimes, y’all get a little sleepy, you get a little complacent,” he said. The stakes now don’t allow you to sleep. It’s going to come down to how bad you want it. I don’t want to hear folks complaining and not doing something about it. All the young people out here, you know, I think that it’s great that you hashtag and meme but I need you to vote.”
And Obama and Northam also emphasized the issues in this race:
Obama called for equality, referencing the deadly alt-right demonstration in Charlottesville and recalling some of the infamous words of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Do you believe that everybody should be judged, not by the color of their skin, or who they love, or their last name, but by the content of their character and their contributions to this great state?" said Obama.
Obama endorsed Northam as the candidate that can unify the people.
"Do you want an economy that only works for the very top, or do you want an economy that works for everybody?" he said.
Northam echoed that theme.
"No individual, no family should be one medical illness away from financial demise. We can't let that happen in the richest country in the world," he said, while reiterating his campaign promises to raise the minimum wage, expand medicaid, and bring the state together.
Attorney General Mark Herring and Lt. Governor candidate Justin Fairfax also spoke, as well as Governor Terry McAuliffe, Mayor Levar Stoney, Congressman Don McEachin and former Congressman Bobby Scott.
And if you had any doubts that Obama didn’t rile up the crowd to motivate Virginia voters to come for Northam, here’s a taste of the responses:
As Dawn Worden, a retired teacher who drove six hours from North Carolina to attend the rally, walked out of the convention center, she said hearing Obama speak felt like “putting aloe on a sunburn.”
“Right now our whole life in America, it hurts because it just doesn’t feel like we’re in our own skin,” said Worden, 59. “Because everything is happening that’s going against our humanity.”
Orna Weinstein, a Richmond homemaker accompanied by her 9-year-old son Judah, said having Obama in Richmond encouraged her to see Northam.
“I’m a little bit concerned about the tightness of the race,” Weinstein said. “But now that Obama is here, that will encourage people who are disillusioned to come out and vote.”
Bernard Logan, a Richmond resident who works at the State Corporation Commission, said he was going into the rally as an undecided voter.
“I’m really interested to hear what Mr. Northam’s platform is,” Logan said.
Logan was accompanied by his wife, Mari, a self-employed retailer who, when told her husband described himself as undecided, replied: “Oh, he is? I don’t think he will be after tonight.”
And Richmond was the key area to be to rile up the base:
Richmond is part of the “urban crescent” that stretches from the D.C. suburbs to Hampton Roads, a densely populated slice of the state where Democrats have successfully driven up margins to win statewide elections since 2009.
The city also has a significant African American population, a key Democratic constituency — and a large portion of the 7,500 people gathered at the Obama-Northam rally were black. Black voters make up nearly a fifth of the state’s electorate and are crucial to Democratic success on Election Day.
Obama’s appearance comes the same week as intraparty tensions among the Democrats threatened to alienate black voters.
Northam’s campaign paid for the production and distribution of 1,000 palm cards that included photos of him and Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D) but not their ticket mate, Justin Fairfax, who is running for lieutenant governor and hopes to become the first African American elected statewide in more than 25 years. The omission was requested by a union distributing those palm cards that did not endorse Fairfax.
While the fliers in question were a sliver of all campaign literature, the perceived snub made its rounds on social media, and several black activists touted it as an example of Democrats taking the African American vote for granted. Fairfax called out the Northam campaign for what he called a “mistake” and urged the party to renew its focus on engaging black voters.
Enter the nation’s first African American president.
Obama made frequent references to Fairfax, bolstering his bid for lieutenant governor.
“He didn’t grow up with much, but with scholarships, a hard-working mom, he went to college and law school and chose public service to make sure other striving young kids could have the same opportunities,” Obama said.
Though he was speaking to Virginia voters on Thursday, Obama seemed to be addressing the whole country as he offered an optimistic vision for politics and a defense of the fundamental decency of the American people.
The question before voters, Obama said, is “at a time when our politics just seem so divided and so angry and so nasty, it’s whether we can recapture that spirit, whether we support and embrace somebody who wants to bring people together.”
“Yes we can,” he said, repeating his 2008 campaign slogan and triggering the crowd to chant the phrase in response. “We can do that.”
“President Obama spoke to my heart,” said Dorothy Ware, a 66-year-old retiree in Chesterfield County outside of Richmond. “We want a united United States, not the crap that’s going on now. That’s what we’ll get with this man right now,” holding up a Northam sign.
Dionne Jennings, 48, said Obama’s speech impressed upon her the urgency of a race that seemed low-key to her until now.
“This is going to inspire people to be more active,” said Jennings, of Prince Edward County in central Virginia. “The way society is going right now, we need some help. Everything he said made that point. We’re going to continue that work.”
Ruth Twiggs of Richmond waited in line with two friends and acknowledged that energy levels in the Northam campaign may have been low through the summer.
“I think people were exhausted from last year,” she said.
“I think part of it is [Northam’s] personality,” added her friend Anne Barriault, 65, also of Richmond. “He’s low-key, which is okay.”
“It’s a relief — sane and low-key,” Twiggs said. “This is good.”
I want to touch upon this topic:
The union requested a flier that did not include Fairfax, said Brian Petruska, general counsel with the LIUNA Mid-Atlantic Region Organizing Coalition, because Fairfax did not complete their questionnaire and “wasn’t supporting us on the issues,” he said.
Among those issues: Two controversial natural gas pipelines, the EQT Midstream Partners’ Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which are proposed to cross Virginia. Fairfax is among the environmentalist Democratic base in Virginia that’s opposed to the pipelines. Northam does not oppose the pipelines. The union also has endorsed Herring, according to Herring spokesman Adam Zuckerman.
Northam campaign spokesman David Turner downplayed the flier.
“Out of over 3 million pieces of literature printed for the campaign, this literature constituted less than roughly 0.5% of the literature printed, and was only for LIUNA to carry on their canvasses,” he said in a statement. “These doors have also received the regular literature. This means roughly 1.5 million households in Virginia have received the regular literature.
“You can be rest assured, voters will know who Justin Fairfax is, what he stands for, and why he is the best choice for Lt. Governor in November.”
Now, this was not the best move but Fairfax has called for moving past this:
The Fairfax campaign issued a statement from him that said: “This was a poor decision, which shouldn’t have happened, and we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. People who are canvassing for the coordinated campaign should be carrying (literature) for the entire ticket. I’ve heard that they’ve pulled the lit and it won’t be used. Sadly, this issue detracts from what we should be focused on which is getting our base, especially our African-American base in Virginia, excited about this election so that they come out to vote.”
Northam campaign spokesman David Turner issued a campaign statement that said:
“Ralph Northam is making a historic investment in the coordinated campaign, including giving or raising $9 million in get out the vote efforts for the entire ticket without asking for any additional investment from the ticket mates. Turning out more Democrats to support Democratic candidates is critical to Virginia’s future. This is a historic investment and Ralph is thrilled to make it to support Justin Fairfax and Mark Herring.”
The Collective, a Washington, D.C.-based political action committee is pledging to reach out to 200,000 African-American voters in Virginia and spend about $50,000 and use volunteers to reach out, via text message, to promote Fairfax’s campaign. The emphasis on generating high black and minority turnout in Virginia is key to Northam’s victory as Mother Jones points out:
“BlackPAC, which mobilized voters in support of Hillary Clinton in 2016, has launched a $1.1 million campaign to get African Americans to vote for Northam and other Virginia Democrats running for statewide office. According to the Washington Post, the group will spend $500,000 on digital ads, social media outreach, and mailers. An affiliated nonprofit, the Black Progressive Action Coalition, will invest $600,000 in voter education, including 100 paid canvassers who aim to engage 24,000 black voters ahead of the November election. In total, the two campaigns hope to reach more than 250,000 black Virginians.
Unlike campaigns that focus on mobilizing likely voters, BlackPAC is partnering with other groups—including the New Virginia Majority, the NAACP, and the Virginia Black Leadership Organizing Collaborative—in an effort to reach voters who are less likely to vote. Pollsters say that reaching this group is crucial and that the effort could hold important lessons for engaging voters of color in the post-Obama Democratic Party.
Here’s something else to highlight:
The BlackPAC/Brilliant Corners survey, which reached 1,031 African American, Latino, and Asian American voters in Virginia in early September, found that 55 percent of Latino voters and 54 percent of black voters felt that minorities were under attack in the current political climate. When it comes to voting, racial groups seem to be responding to this anxiety in different ways. Overall, the majority of voters of color said they were likely to vote in November, with 67% saying that they were extremely likely to cast a ballot. Latinos were the most likely group to say they felt under attack and to report an increased interest in voting this November: 71 percent said they were extremely likely to vote. Just 64 percent of African American respondents said the same. Minority voters who back a third party or lack a political affiliation reported the lowest likelihood of going to the polls, with only 49 percent saying they were extremely likely to vote.
Cornell Belcher, a pollster who works for Brilliant Corners and has worked for the DNC and Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaign, made this point very clear:
“One of the things that you have to underline for Democrats and progressives in Virginia is that when you look at these voters [of color], particularly millennials, these are not GOTV voters,” Belcher says, referring to reliable supporters of Democrats who simply need to be targeted by get-out-the-vote efforts. “These are voters that you have to treat like swing voters, because the swing is either for you, or for a third party, or sitting at home.”
BlackPAC’s polling has shown that an anti-Trump message is not enough for Northam to win. Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, has explained that black voters do rank the economy, health care and education as major concerns but racial justice issues including police brutality, voting rights, hate crimes and institutional racism remain the top issues. But Northam’s campaign knows this and wants and has been taking black outreach operations seriously:
David Turner, a Northam campaign spokesman, argues that the Democrat is working hard to reach Virginia’s black voters and is running close to McAuliffe’s 2013 performance in polls. Compared to Gillespie, “we feel like we have a much better message for black voters,” he says, noting the campaign’s extensive black outreach efforts, including visits to black churches, events with black political leaders, and collaboration with groups like the NAACP, and Northam’s longtime support of criminal justice reform and restoring felon voting rights. Asked about any efforts directly targeting young black voters, a group that Northam’s Democratic primary opponent, Tom Perriello, worked hard to court, Turner points to the campaign’s work on a radio series aimed at younger voters and field operation at local historically black colleges and universities and schools with high populations of black students.
As the election approaches, Shropshire says she’s seeing promising signs that black voters will show up at the polls. Of the more than 4,000 people the canvassing effort has reached in the past month, 90 percent have said they plan to vote. In the closing weeks of the race, as minority voters recognize what’s at stake, Shropshire says, “There seems to be more motivation.”
Touching back on the issues in this campaign, education is a key issue where Northam and Obama differ on but in a good way:
One subject the pair likely won’t discuss, however, is their differences on K-12 education, the issue one recent poll found is most important to voters in the race. Northam represents a distinct departure from Obama’s emphasis on charter schools, support for high-stakes standardized tests, and tense relations with teachers unions. In fact, the lieutenant governor has explicitly deemphasized charters and critiqued the testing regime, while unions have sung his praises. His campaign is at once the first big battle against the privatization agenda of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos—whose family gave more than $100,000 to his Republican opponent, Ed Gillespie—and a kind of prototype for left-wing critics of Obama’s education agenda who hope Democrats will chart a new course on public schools.
“Northam is a breath of fresh air,” Diane Ravitch, the education historian and activist, told me this week, lauding him as “what every Democrat should be” on school reform. Julian Vasquez Heilig, an education professor at California State University, Sacramento, said Northam’s campaign is “a bellwether of what you’re going to see in other governor’s races,” including Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom’s candidacy in the Golden State next year. “There really is, for the first time in a statewide race, this opportunity to make a decision between the Betsy DeVos vision of privatizing and cutting funding for public education as public good versus someone who has more interest in a local community approach and listening to some of the critiques of the past 15 years of failed top-down education policy,” he said.Northam spokesman David Turner told me, “For obvious reasons, I’m not going to be discussing differences with President Obama right now.” But in Vasquez Heilig’sview, Northam represents “where the new wave of Democratic leaders are going....He is breaking from Barack Obama and he is charting a different course from Trump and DeVos.”
Talk of a seismic shift in the Democratic Party’s education policy is premature. But with DeVos making “school choice” like charters and private school vouchers increasingly toxic for Democrats, there’s certainly room for a stronger defense of public education on the left. Yet as Northam is learning late in this campaign, pushing back on decades of accepted wisdom can be politically perilous.
Almost exactly a year ago, as the Obama presidency wound down, Washington Post education blogger Valerie Strauss wrote that “the growth of charter schools was a key priority in his administration’s overall school reform program.” The president had incentivized the expansion of these publicly funded but independently operated schools, which proponents say give students an alternative to failing traditional schools. But earlier this year, neither Democrat running in Virginia’s gubernatorial primary campaigned on expanding charters in the state.
In a June “email debate,” Post editorial board member Lee Hockstader asked both Northam and former Congressman Tom Perriello “why you want to continue to keep [charters] out of Virginia when there are schools in many communities that have so consistently failed their students—many of them in predominantly black and low-income areas—and when there is no hope of change or improvement.” Northam replied that “we need to make sure that we fund K-12 first before we move on to other things like charter schools.” He stressed that any charter authorization decisions should be “left to our local leaders and those closest to the communities,” and that “the charter proposals seen in Virginia would ultimately divert much-needed funding from school divisions, often those that are in the most need.”
Perriello’s rhetoric was even more cautious. “The performance of charter schools has simply not exceeded performance within the system, despite years of investments,” he told the Post. “The evidence does, however, show one clear trend, which is that schools in areas of concentrated poverty are far more likely to be underperforming.” He then went on to say, “Instead of blaming the teachers and principals, we should ask why we have not done more to reduce poverty.... Some of the solutions to our education performance must be found outside the classroom, in restoring the broken promise of social mobility and economic security for all Virginians.”
This kind of rhetoric might have endeared Perriello to the Virginia Education Association, which represents 50,000 educators in the state. But in April, the group swung its weight behind Northam, saying, “He’s the best candidate for our students, schools and educators, and he has an excellent track record of working to meet their needs.” The reference to his track record was telling. Though Perriello ran on skepticism of charters, even his past ties to “school choice” advocates like the Democrats for Education Reform was enough to turn the union off. “There was some extreme concern with regard to that issue,” the union’s president, Jim Livingston, told me. “That issue did play a significant role in our decision to embrace Ralph Northam.”
Livingston says Northam will be a better partner for teachers than Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, was. “Northam understands that in order for us to move the needle on improving public education we have to include the practitioners,” he said, “and that’s something we did not see under the Arne Duncan years, and it’s something we certainly will not see under the Betsy DeVos administration.” Livingston added that Northam “provides us with the opportunity to turn away from that failed experience and really move in a new direction.”
Northam also provides a stark contrast with Ed Gillespie, who has fully embraced DeVos’s privatization agenda. “Gillespie wants to expand the state’s charter schools beyond the eight in operation,” the Post reported. “As a state senator Northam voted against loosening restrictions that govern the establishment of charter schools, and as a candidate for governor he has advocated investing in traditional public schools.” Meanwhile, Gillespie supports education savings accounts, which are basically a backdoor private school voucher scheme diverting money from public schools. According to Turner, Northam’s spokesman, DeVos looms large in the minds of many voters in this race. “I have never seen a cabinet member with the name ID of Betsy DeVos,” he told me. “Honestly, I don’t know how it happened.”
The race baiting attacks from Gillespie have also bled into the New Jersey Governor race as exemplified by Lt. Governor Kim Guadagano’s (R. NJ) campaign:
But recent commercials suggest both candidates have turned Trumpian, meaning nativist, race-baiting and unconcerned with accuracy. Mrs Guadagno’s advert stars Jose Carranza, an “illegal alien and child rapist”. The ad warns that Phil Murphy, the Democratic candidate, “will have the backs of deranged murderers like Carranza”.
Mr Gillespie’s ads both play on voters’ fears of MS-13, a notoriously violent Salvadoran street gang linked to several crimes in northern Virginia. One shows a hooded figure holding a baseball bat in a dark alley while the words “Kill, rape, control” appear on screen; another shows heavily tattooed dark-skinned men behind those words, while an announcer warns, “MS-13 is a menace.” (In fact, those men were members of a different gang, photographed in a Salvadoran prison.) Mr Northam “increase[s] the threat of MS-13”, the ad warns, because he “voted in favour of sanctuary cities.”
Virginia has no sanctuary cities. And Mr Murphy gave an uninspired, rambling answer in support of undocumented immigrants brought to America as children that Mrs Guadagno took out of context. But both Mrs Guadagno and Mr Gillespie trail mainstream Democrats in states that Hillary Clinton won easily. The Democratic base appears motivated by its hatred for Mr Trump, while the Republican base seems depressed by his lacklustre record. Though Democrats have lost four special congressional elections this year, they outperformed expectations in staunch Republican districts. To rally the base, both candidates have repudiated their past comity, and turned to the same anti-immigrant sentiment that vaulted Mr Trump into the Oval Office.
And recent news in the Gillespie campaign highlights a bigger riff in the GOP base than within the Democratic base:
The man who rallied Southwest Virginia to vote for Donald Trump last year quit Republican Ed Gillespie’s gubernatorial campaign this week, offended by a personal snub and exasperated by the campaign’s highly cautious stance toward the president, according to three Republicans familiar with his decision.
Jack Morgan’s departure follows a half-empty Gillespie rally headlined by Vice President Pence on Saturday in Southwest Virginia, a coal country region that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in November.
Gillespie hired Morgan, a colorful evangelical preacher and former 9th Congressional District GOP chairman, as his ambassador to Trump country after nearly losing the June primary to a rival who had run in the president’s bombastic, populist image.
But Gillespie’s campaign did not let Morgan help plan or speak at the rally — over the objections of another GOP candidate who employs Morgan, state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, who is running for lieutenant governor and wanted him to introduce her.
Morgan’s wife was so offended that she refused to drive John Whitbeck, chair of the Republican Party of Virginia, to the airport for his return trip, according to the three Republicans familiar with the matter. And in an area of the state that Gillespie needs to turn out in force to overcome Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) on Nov. 7, activists took to social media to vent their outrage.
“I will guarantee you all this,” Republican activist William Totten, the Smyth County director for Vogel, wrote on Facebook, “should Ed ever run for anything in politics again I will work my every waking moment to make sure he loses the primary.”
Blunter still was activist Patricia Bast Lyman. “Ed showing his elitist butt to the 9th was a MONUMENTAL error from which he will not recover, ” she posted on Facebook.
Gillespie has avoided wanting to be seen with Trump and instead chose the least exciting option:
Mike Pence traveled to the reddest district in Virginia Saturday to headline a rally for GOP gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, where was he was greeted by a half-empty room.
Rally organizers had said they expected a turnout of about 1,200 people at the event in Washington County, VA, which Politico referred to as “one of the few politically safe regions of the state to bring a Trump administration official.”
But reality did not meet expectations.
In an embarrassing turn of events,
only about 400 people showed up for the rally, which was held at the Washington County fairgrounds.
Not to mention Gillespie flip-flopped on an issue that resonates with social conservatives but pisses big business off:
Republican Ed Gillespie won the endorsement of an influential Northern Virginia business group after privately pledging he would oppose any bills dictating which bathrooms transgender people must use — a promise that shocked conservative backers and seems to differ from some of his public statements.
The gubernatorial candidate “vowed to oppose bills like North Carolina’s HB2 that would threaten Virginia’s reputation as an open and welcoming Commonwealth,” Jim Corcoran, president of the Northern Virginia Chamber, said in a written statement announcing the endorsement by the organization’s political action arm, Novabizpac.
Corcoran was referring to North Carolina’s now-repealed law mandating that transgender people use the bathroom corresponding with the sex on their birth certificates. The law faced an intense backlash, including economic boycotts and job losses, with sports leagues relocating games and companies nixing expansions in North Carolina.
In an interview Friday, Corcoran said Gillespie promised to oppose similar legislation two weeks ago during a private interview with the 25-member board. He said the position factored into the board’s decision to back Gillespie over his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who has long supported LGBT rights. Corcoran said Gillespie made the vow after the board expressed concerns about HB2.
“We stated that we are an open and welcoming state here, we don’t want anything that is going to persuade persons that this is not a conducive place to do business,” Corcoran said.
Gillespie spokesman David Abrams did not dispute that account and said the candidate’s opposition should come as no surprise. “Ed has always been clear he opposes legislation like HB2 in North Carolina, and he is honored to earn this critically important endorsement from the NOVA chamber,” Abrams said.
But when the General Assembly considered a bathroom bill in January, Gillespie did not state a clear position. Rather, his campaign issued a statement that seemed aimed at having it both ways — echoing concerns raised by the bill’s advocates and taking a swipe at an Obama administration restroom directive, while also suggesting that the matter should be left up to localities.
“Ed doesn’t think girls should be compelled to share a locker room shower or hotel room on an overnight band trip with boys,” then-spokesman Matthew Moran said via email. “As governor, he would work with the Trump Administration to end the Obama Administration’s overreaching policy so parents and local school boards can enact commonsense policies to protect the safety and privacy of our children. They should make these decisions, not the state or Federal Government.”
But that’s who Gillespie has always been, a big business establishment type:
As the Republican gubernatorial nominee in Virginia, Ed Gillespie has vowed to make health care more affordable and accessible, pledging at a recent debate to “incentivize greater competition in the insurance marketplace.”
But as a private consultant, Gillespie advised Anthem, the nation’s second-largest insurance company, as it pursued a merger last year with Cigna, the No. 3 insurer. Virginia insurance regulators said the merger would raise costs and reduce competition, and a federal judge cited the same concerns when she later blocked the deal.
Anthem is among four companies with extensive interests in Virginia that paid Gillespie between $50,000 and $250,000 last year for consulting services. Anthem, AT&T, Bank of America and Microsoft contract directly with the state government, do millions of dollars of business in Virginia, and lobby to influence state laws and policies. All but Anthem have hired Gillespie on and off for more than a decade, dating to his time as co-founder of one of the most successful lobbying firms in Washington.
If he is elected governor, Gillespie would face decisions in which the public’s interests may conflict with the interests of companies that have paid his firms millions of dollars collectively for lobbying and consulting services — and that could hire him again.
“That’s an issue for him to overcome, and it’s a nonpartisan concern for both liberals and conservatives,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group. “The concern is that politicians are more concerned about the payout on K Street that they may get when they leave office as opposed to the public’s interest when they are in office.”
And Washington Post conservative columnist, Jennifer Rubin, hits the nail on the head again about Gillespie’s problems:
For months now, Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie has been suffering from an identity crisis. He doesn’t want to identify with President Trump, but by keeping his distance his base may stay home in the election less than three weeks away.
The problem here certainly is not Pence, nor Morgan, nor even Trump. Gillespie has never decided what he wanted to be in this campaign — loyal nationalist who wants immigrants out and statues up — or the suburban-friendly, pro-business Republican who used to work for immigration reform under President George W. Bush. By attempting to be both of these, Gillespie has not endeared himself to Northern Virginia moderates nor has he convinced conservatives he is “one of them”.
Bathrooms. Statues. “Sanctuary cities” (of which there are none in Virginia). This sounds more like the agenda for Roy Moore’s Alabama Senate campaign than a candidate who is going to hold his base and win over independents and Democrats.
While both Northam and Gillespie have had their missteps in their campaigns, it’s becoming more and more clear that our side is still more motivated to vote and we have to capitalize on this. So let’s make sure we get out the base we make sure the WHOLE DEMOCRATIC TICKET gets out to vote on November 7th. Click below to donate and get involved with Northam, Fairfax, Herring and the Virginia Democratic Party so we can usher in a Democratic majority:
Ralph Northam for Governor
Tim Kaine for U.S. Senate
Justin Fairfax for Lt. Governor
Mark Herring for Attorney General
Virginia Democratic Party