At the last Governor’s debate in Roanoke, Creigh Deeds indicated that he opposed the cap and trade bill that has been introduced in Congress. This opposition was even featured in a recent ad, and now, this is beginning to infuriate the League of Conservation Voters, who endorsed Deeds.
According to The Politico, the Director of LCV’s global warming project, Navin Nayek, Deeds’ recent opposition and ad is an example of what not to do after receiving an endorsement.
Energy is a potent issue. The lesson Deeds is teaching candidates is how NOT to deal with it in a political context. Anti-climate candidates will run hard to their base on this issue portraying a cap and trade plan as a job killing energy tax. That’s their playbook and we’ll see it over and over again.
Deeds could have embraced the issue and sold the benefits of a comprehensive approach to energy: new jobs and greater security. A message that happens to resonate strongly with Democratic and Independent voters. And in this case, Deeds had all the political cover he needed to embrace this issue: Rick Boucher, who has represented coal country for more than a quarter century, voted for the bill in Congress because it will move southwest Virginia forward. Instead, Deeds decided to ignore the issue. It clearly didn’t work, and certainly didn’t prevent McDonnell from tying him to it.If there was any debate about how to handle the energy/climate issue in 2010, Deeds has ended it. He’s strengthened our case that this is an issue worth embracing.
Cap and Trade is going to hurt Virginia more than one would think. However, Creigh Deeds did mention at one point during the campaign that he supported cap and trade. Perhaps, this is another one of his famous flip-flops.
