McDonnell confident of victory in the fall

Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell said Friday he is not sweating a GOP losing streak in U.S. Senate and gubernatorial elections that stretches back to 2001.

He vowed he’ll halt the slide with a win in November over Bath County Sen. Creigh Deeds in a race sure to be closely watched nationally as a gauge of the GOP’s strength or enduring want of it.

McDonnell bases his forecast on his conservative credentials that include nearly two decades in elective office and his solutions to the state’s most vexing problems.

“These are tough economic times and I’ve got the experience and leadership ability to govern Virginia well and the ideas to solve the quality of life issue,’’ McDonnell said during an editorial interview at The News Virginian.

McDonnell also said that despite the recent Democratic success, Virginia is still “a right-of-center state” politically.

A look at McDonnell’s stand on the issues:

The economy

With the fall election four months away, McDonnell is already providing concrete details on improving the economy and education.

Virginia’s fiscal issues are at the top of this year’s race, McDonnell said.

Recruiting industry to Virginia means spending more in that area and offering more incentives for businesses to locate in Virginia, he said.

A key to doing that, McDonnell said, is increasing money for the Governor’s Opportunity Fund from the $20 million now appropriated every two years.

“In North Carolina and Tennessee [$20 million] is a couple of deals,’’ McDonnell said of neighboring states who spend more on industrial recruitment. “We have to get in the game. We are the most business-friendly state in America.”

One niche economic area McDonnell would hope to improve on is recruitment of the film industry to Virginia.

He said projects such as the filming of a miniseries on the life of John Adams have brought millions to the commonwealth in revenue.

But the industry’s presence has recently lagged in Virginia, resulting in a Petersburg movie studio being put on the sales block.

Education

In addition to beefing up the opportunity fund, McDonnell said he would put more education money in the classroom, provide performance-based pay for teachers and administrators and trim the education bureaucracy.

“I want to streamline the Department of Education and various educational bureaucracies at the local level,” he said.

While the federal No Child Left Behind law had noble intentions for education reform, McDonnell said, “education is not a federal responsibility,’’ and is best left to states and localities.

The federal government could most help localities with block grant funding for education, according to McDonnell.

He thinks Virginia’s Standards of Learning accountability program has accurately measured student achievement.

But McDonnell is displeased that 72 Virginia schools lack full SOL accreditation.

“They are all in inner cities where people must be trained,’’ he said.

If elected, McDonnell would appoint a turnaround education czar to work with the underachieving schools. Such czars have worked well in business, he said.

And he said softening SOL standards is not an option, because Virginia is no longer just competing with neighboring states economically, but with China, India and others in a global economy.

Transportation

McDonnell has no quick fixes for transportation.

He is in favor of strategic widening of Interstate 81 where needed, the greater use of rail to get trucks off the highway and increasing state police patrols.

But McDonnell would defer to expert engineers for the ultimate solutions to the congested interstate that runs through the Shenandoah Valley.

On statewide transportation, McDonnell said more must be done with public-private partnerships, and more of the transportation money must be used for operations.

Three billion dollars in bond project money that has yet to be appropriated for roads also must be tapped. McDonnell also is asking for an external audit of of the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“Is it operating at its peak or can it do better?” McDonnell asked of VDOT’s performance. He acknowledged that the transportation agency has done a better job in recent years of completing projects on time.

McDonnell said Deeds previously voted to raise gas taxes to deal with transportation.

Deeds reaction

Jared Leopold, the press secretary for the Deeds campaign, said McDonnell supported the increase in diesel taxes in the 2007 transportation package.

“Creigh is supportive of solving our transportation issues’’ by having both sides work it out at the table, Leopold said.

And Leopold said when the 2004 budget and tax reform was approved by the Virginia General Assembly, “Creigh stood with Gov. (Mark) Warner and moderate Republicans to put our commonwealth’s economy back on track and preserve our triple-A bond rating. Bob McDonnell on the other hand, opposed that business-friendly legislation.”

McDonnell defeated Deeds by 360 votes four years ago to become Virginia’s attorney general.

One of their greatest disagreements, according to McDonnell, is on the federal card check legislation which effectively would eliminate employee secret ballots in votes to form unions.

McDonnell opposes the check card legislation but said his opponent “won’t take a stand on card check.”

“He (Deeds) is expecting contributions from labor unions,’’ McDonnell said.

McDonnell said the legislation if passed would harm Virginia’s right-to-work state law status. He said it is possible he would challenge the federal act on constitutional grounds if it is passed.

“This is bad for Virginia,’’ he said of the card check legislation. “I will fight it politically now and legally later.”

Leopold said Deeds considers card check a federal issue.  McDonnell, Leopold said, is falsely attempting to link the card check legislation with Virginia’s right-to-work law, which Deeds supports.