U.S. Senator John McCain rallied fiscal conservatives in Virginia today by calling Bob McDonnell the man who will keep down pork-barrel spending in Richmond.
At least two hundred people crowded into a VFW hall in Virginia Beach to see the man most there would like to see as president and hear from the man they’d like to see as the next governor.
“These are difficult times in the world and in America. We now have a $1.4 trillion deficit,” said McCain. “[Bob McDonnell] is a man who will bring about fiscal discipline; who understands how to balance a budget; who understands what pork-barrel spending is; who understands that we have an obligation not just to our present citizens and veterans but to our children and our grandchildren to not hand them an unsustainable debt.”
McCain also lamented about the current nature of the Deeds campaign. Living in the DC area, he has been able to monitor the Northern Virginia ads and called what he has seen from the Deeds camp “scurrilous.”
“Negative campaigns don’t work in Virginia,” said McCain. “I’ve seen the ads night after night – they’re wrong and the people of Virginia will reject that kind of campaign.”
In the press briefing afterwards, McDonnell was challenged by AP’s Bob Lewis to state whether he believes in the science of global warming, as Deeds accused him yesterday of running an “anti-scientific” campaign.
“I think [global warming] is a real concern and we have to find ways to reduce CO2 emissions,” said McDonnell. “We need to promote new industries like carbon sequestration…to try to reduce the amount of CO2 going into the air.”
McDonnell also reminded reporters of his plan to send 20% of state revenues that come from offshore drilling into promoting alternative energies such as wind, solar, and biomass.
“I’m going to accept the science that’s out there and the science says that we need to do everything that we can to reduce CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and that will help,” said McDonnell. He also said that this was a distraction by Deeds who has “no transportation plan, no comprehensive energy plan.”
McDonnell reiterated that the top issue of this campaign is job creation.
“Governor Warner and Governor Allen had some good programs, but we have not done as well recently,” said McDonnell. “We’ve got to be much more competitive.” He went onto say that Virginia has to not rely on reputation, but be assertive in negotiating and opening new markets. He proposed opening trade offices for Virginia in China and India, potentially reaching 2.5 billion to tell the Virginia story to.
He said he’d look CEOs in the eye and say “You need to grow a business in Virginia.”
Audio from today’s event will be available in tomorrow’s podcast.
