Collegiate Times

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ROANOKE — In the last debate before the Nov. 3 election, Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates sparred over how to stay on budget in tough economic times while still implementing initiatives.

Republican candidate Bob McDonnell leads Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds in numerous polls with Election Day two weeks away.

Both candidates in the debate held at Roanoke College expressed a desire to increase funding for programs such as education and transportation but disagreed on where the funding would come from.

Deeds emphasized, as he has throughout the campaign, that he would not take money from education for the benefit of transportation.

“Everything is on the table for me except taking money out of the general fund, out of education,” Deeds said in the debate.

McDonnell responded by criticizing Deeds for his lack of a clear transportation plan by holding up a blank sheet of paper while accusing Deeds of planning to raise taxes.

“He wants to have a committee get together and raise taxes,” McDonnell said in the debate.

The Republican said he would unite the two parties with specific plans for transportation improvements.

“Anything that’s going to get done in transportation is going to take leadership,” McDonnell said.

Deeds was pressured to give areas he would take money from for improving transportation.

“The only honest approach is that anything that has a nexus to transportation is on the table. We’ve got to talk honestly and solve the problem,” Deeds said.

Despite a focus on transportation, both candidates plan to transfer resources to education.

Deeds, using a frequent statement, said McDonnell wants to “rob Peter to pay Paul,” or take money from education to fund his transportation plan.

“We have got to make college more affordable,” Mcdonnell said. “We cannot afford the doubling of college tuitions every 10 years.”

Deeds said economic recovery was dependent on higher education.

“From my perspective, this is an area where we can’t afford to fail in,” Deeds said. “We must move forward.”

Brandon Pope, a junior at Southwest Virginia Community College, questioned how college could be made more affordable.

“I think both have pretty interesting plans for helping pay for college,” Pope said. “But will they really do it?”

McDonnell said he had a clearer cut plan to fund improvements.

“The difference between Creigh and I is that he has no way to pay for it,” McDonnell said.

McDonnell said he would like Virginia’s government to run more like a business.

“It’s about setting priorities,” McDonnell said. “I think we need to have government run a little more like business. We need to have more innovation, more consolidation.”

McDonnell proposed a raise for teachers and increases in classroom funding within the education budget. Deeds fired back, labeling McDonnell’s increase as an unfunded mandate for school districts to shoulder. As an alternative, Deeds said schools and the Virginia Department of Transportation had room to improve efficiency.

One of Deeds’ specific proposals was privatizing food services and janitorial services.

Candidates also addressed campaign attacks. Moderators Jay Warren and Virginia Tech communication department head Bob Denton asked Deeds to explain the significance of McDonnell’s graduate thesis, a document from Regent University that has been addressed in the campaign.

Deeds responded that McDonnell shows a tendency of concentrating on social issues above the economic issues central to his campaign.

“The thesis is relevant because it puts into context Bob’s record,” Deeds said. “Virginia needs a governor in these troubled times who will focus on these big issues. Bob McDonnell has spent his legislative career focused on social issues.”

Carlin Crowder, chairman of the College Republicans at Tech, said Deeds’ negative advertisements have hurt him.

“Deeds has been a running a negative campaign and I think in this debate we saw the reason that Virginia is supporting McDonnell,” Crowder said. “It’s going to take more than platitudes like opportunity, prosperity and hope.”

McDonnell said while he thinks values and character are important, Deeds has looked too far into the past.

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