Clear Choice in Race for Virginia Governor

By Carol Tobias, NRL PAC Director

Pro-lifers in Virginia know they have a difficult challenge ahead of them as they get ready to elect a new governor this November. However, they're very excited about the prospects of their pro-life candidate, Mark Earley.

Mark Earley served as attorney general since 1997. He resigned the position after receiving the Republican nomination for governor at a statewide convention held in Richmond June 2.

Earley was elected to the state Senate in 1987 where he proceeded to become the primary sponsor of several pieces of pro- life legislation. He was the chief sponsor of a parental notification bill, successfully guiding it through the many minefields laid by opponents of the bill. Earley was also chief patron of three other pro-life bills: to outlaw partial-birth abortion, to prevent assisted suicide, and to make feticide a crime.

In Earley's 1997 race for attorney general, he defeated a pro-abortion opponent who tried to make abortion the issue in the campaign. Earley, who believes abortion should not be allowed unless the mother's life is in danger, received 57% of the vote.

As the state's chief law enforcement officer, he successfully defended Virginia's parental notification law all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Shortly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the abortion pill, RU486, Earley ruled that the state's law requiring parental notification also applied to RU486.

In 1998, Virginia's partial-birth abortion ban was challenged before a federal district court. Earley defended that law, and immediately appealed to the Fourth Circuit when the law was struck down by the district court. Eventually, Virginia's partial-birth ban was invalidated by last summer's U.S. Supreme Court Stenberg v. Carhart decision.

Earley's Democratic opponent is pro-abortion businessman Mark Warner. Mark Warner challenged Senator John Warner (no relation) for the Senate seat in 1996. Mark Warner took 47% of the vote. In that Senate race, Mark Warner outspent Senator Warner by a two to one margin, spending $10 million of his reported $200 million personal wealth.

During the 1996 campaign, Mark Warner supported abortion. However, in recent years, Democrats with radical pro- abortion position have gone down to defeat in Virginia.

Just last year, Senator Chuck Robb, who campaigned on his pro- abortion record, lost his Senate seat to now Senator George Allen. Learning from past mistakes, Warner now says that he supports Virginia's parental notice law.

Mark Warner surprised many with his strong campaign against John Warner and is not to be underestimated. But Mark Earley is an excellent candidate, possessed of strong convictions, a friendly smile, and an energetic campaign style.

Virginians have a hard-fought race coming up between two tough competitors with vastly different views about the sanctity of human life, but pro-lifers are ready to go.