In Re-Match, Pro-life McDonnell versus Pro-Abortion Deeds

By Dave Andrusko

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It's not always clear, but this time it is cut and dry. In November Virginians will have a stark choice in the race for governor. It also happens to be a rematch of a 2005 contest for attorney general carried by the pro-life candidate by less than 400 votes.

Left to right. NRLC President Dr. Wanda Franz, Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, and Olivia Gans, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life.

On the pro-life side is Republican Bob McDonnell, the state Attorney General. McDonnell, who spoke last year at the National Right to Life Convention, was a prime sponsor of pro-life legislation going back into the late 1990s. As AG, he has been particularly aggressive in defending Virginia's Partial-Birth Infanticide law. In addition, he took a leading role in helping Virginia pass its ban on assisted suicide.

As Holly Smith, director of the Virginia Society for Human Life PAC said, "The pro-life ticket is McDonnell for governor, Bill Bolling for Lt. Gov., and Ken Cuccinelli for attorney general."

On the pro-abortion side is state Sen. Creigh Deeds, who won the Democratic primary Tuesday. Deeds is a master at planting his flag in the "conservative values" camp.

For example, he touts his support for gun owners' rights and his fiscal conservatism. But hardly had his 2-1 victory been declared Tuesday night than Deeds criticized McDonnell for being pro-life and for opposing stem cell research [actually embryonic stem cell research].

Virginia is one of the two states, New Jersey is the other, with gubernatorial contests this fall. As such the Commonwealth race is receiving loads of national attention.

For much of the time leading up to the June 9th Democratic primary, Deeds' far better known rivals were thought to be well ahead. He was dismissed as an afterthought.

But Brian Moran, who resigned as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates to run full-time, and Terry McAuliffe, former Clinton honcho and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, faded badly. In the end Deeds carried 50% to 26% for McAuliffe, and 24% for Moran.

Since it is inevitable that the Washington Post will endorse Deeds for governor (as it did in the Democratic primary) and will hammer McDonnell mercilessly in its news pages, it's interesting that a number of publications consider what Politico called the Post's May 22 "pitch-perfect" editorial endorsement to be pivotal.

According to Politico, the Post highlighted Deeds' ideological acceptability, electability, and his "moderate platform." Having received the equivalent of the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval," Deeds was off to the races.

But pro-lifers in Virginia know what they have in Bob McDonnell. As he told NRLC 2008, ‘"It is the solemn duty of us in elected office to protect those enumerated, fundamental rights [found in the Declaration of Independence] that pre-existed our entry into society, but that--as Jefferson noted--government is designed to protect. And first and foremost among those is the right to life.

Jefferson didn't parse words and say that was only for people that are born. He said that this is a right that we all have as a God-given right."

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