Collegiate Times

Clear and important distinctions were made about the candidates and their individual plans for the future of Virginia at the gubernatorial debate held last night in the Lyric.  Brian Moran, Creigh Deeds and Terry McAuliffe waged a battle of the words, in the hopes of winning public support and the votes of Virginians in the Democratic primary this June, and later in the gubernatorial elections this November. As we prepare to elect a leader to guide the commonwealth into the future, we are seeing an increased reliance on technology as part of the campaigning process. Those who attended last night's debate saw the effect of these technological innovations first hand, from an opening montage of Youtube clips awkwardly highlighting the Republican Party's most notable blunders in the past four years, to the live stream of more than 1,000 tweets coming in from Twitter.

These real-time comments allowed Virginians from all over the opportunity to question the candidates, most notably when it came to the issue of the proposed coal-fired plant in Surry County, within Hampton Roads. In conjunction with the CT and Huffington Post, the debate itself was also hosted by two blogs FireDogLake and Not Larry Sabato. The fact that online commentators took the initiative to help organize a primary debate is a testament to the technological advancements made in the past few years, giving us a clear picture of the role social networking sites and commentaries will continue to play in the future of politics. When asked whether they would respond to questions posed via Twitter in the same way as they would to letters from constituents, all three candidates answered with a resounding yes - laughably untrue, but likely said in good conscience, as the effect of the nearly instantaneous transfer of information over the Internet is something all three candidates are keenly aware of.

The other interesting part of the debate was how tailored it was to the issues directly affecting students. Most of the topics discussed directly impact the populous of the Blacksburg community, specifically student voting rights, and potential legislation that would require Virginia's public universities to reserve at least 75 percent of their slots for state residents. All three candidates argued that college voting regulations must be codified - currently the job of deciding where a student may or may not claim domicile is left to the county registrar. Job creation was a hot topic of the night, with candidates promising to put more money into green jobs, and Moran working to raise the minimum wage.

When it came to the gun show loophole, all of the candidates expressed their desire to close it, but offered little insight into what must take place to make that happen. Offering little more than condolences and their promises to try, all three candidates skirted the issue of what it's going to take to pass the bill.

McAuliffe continuously brought up the importance of competition in this election. While some have argued that this primary struggle does not portray the Democratic Party as a united front in opposition to the Republicans, intelligent debate among these three men allows Virginia to select the best of three candidates to compete against Republican nominee Bob McDonnell for the title of governor this fall.

The editorial board is composed of David Grant, David Harries and Laurel Colella.