Deeds, Warner, Leonsis Announce "Business Leaders for Deeds"

I just got back from the Kettler Capitals Iceplex above the Ballston Common Mall, where Sen. Creigh Deeds and U.S. Senator Mark Warner joined Washington Capitals and Mystics majority owner Ted Leonsis to announce the formation of "Business Leaders for deeds," described by the Deeds campaign as a "broad-based group of bipartisan, staewide business leaders who have agreed to advise and promote Deeds' candidaacy." The group is being led by Leonsis, who lives in McLean, and is composed of members such as Robert M. Blue of Dominion Power, David Goode of Norfolk Southern, Mark Goodwin of UPS Freight, John T. "Til" Hazel Jr. (former chairman of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council), CarMax co-founder Austin Ligon, WestGroup senior VP Mark Lowhan, Mark Merhige of Shockoe Properties, Richard S. "Major" Reynolds of Reynolds Trust, and several dozen more.

I'll have video as soon as it's uploaded to YouTube, as well as a few more thoughts. For now, here are the main points.

*Creigh Deeds emphasized the importance of keeping Virginia the "best state to do business" and of maintaining our AAA bondrating. In addition, Creigh talked about the importance of a solution to Virginia's transportation challenges, as well as of investing in K-12 education and clean energy. "We can't go backwards"

*Mark Warner said that it's "extraordinary" that Ted Leonsis is leading this effort for Creigh. Warner emphasized that this is about a bipartisan, statewide commitment to continuing Virginia's pro-business and good management reputations. "We face challenges in Virginia" - transportation, job creation - and it's time for a "new business plan for Virginia" to create jobs, particularly green energy jobs, across the state.

*Ted Leonsis said we need to connect the dots from Mark Warner to Tim Kaine and now Creigh Deeds. We need to keep Virginia the best managed state in the country and to invest in technology, energy, education, transportation. We're going to rely on the "wisdom of crowds," bring together the "smartest" and "best and brightest" to rpovide input to Senator Deeds.

In other news, Creigh said that he supports "right to work" and also the "right of people to organize." He pointed out that card check is a federal issue that "will never cross my desk" and jokingly suggested that perhaps Bob McDonnell might want to run for Congress since he keeps raising this issue (Creigh even joked that he might donate to a McDonnell for Congress campaign). Also, Creigh said that he looked forward to debating McDonnell, that he had 8 debates during the primary and he thinks he did pretty well. The key point is that debate times and formats will be worked out by both campaigns, the goal being for every community in Virginia to have a chance to see and hear the candidates.