UPDATE 3:15 pm: From the Deeds campaign, here are some quotes from the call:
Sen. Marty Williams, R-Newport News, member of Senate 1996-2008, chair of Senate Transportation Committee: “When I look at how important and how broad the issues are that the governor has to deal with, I’d certainly like to see someone with a little broader brush… [Creigh Deeds] is the first Democrat I’ve ever supported and the circumstances behind this gubernatorial race are way too important. I’ve always tried to be a reasonable, moderate legislator and in fact lost a primary battle just for that reason. … Those of us who are on this call all care deeply about Virginia. We are not the ‘party of no.’ They’re the ones that have time after time after time stopped any chance of transportation reform in Virginia. Bob was one of the leaders in that ‘just say no’ philosophy.”
Sen. Russ Potts, R–Winchester, member of Senate 1992-2008: “The thesis that I have been reading about is exactly who Bob McDonnell is. He was out of the mainstream all those many years and, over the whole 16 years we served together, he was out of step with the mainstream then. So if you want a governor who’s going to focus the next four years on social issues, then McDonnell’s your guy and [if you’re for] creating jobs through fixing our roads and our bridges, then Creigh Deeds is your guy.”
Del. Jim Dillard, R-Fairfax, member of House 1972-77 & 1980-2005, chair of House Education Committee: “A lot of us have served with Bob McDonnell for a long time so we know him pretty well and we really know him by his record, and his record has been one of pushing social issues the entire time he’s been in the Assembly. And so for him to try now to back away from that is the whole sort of reinvention of Bob McDonnell so he can be governor. …It’s not a distortion of his record when he put in 35 bills to restrict a woman’s right to choose. These are the facts and this is the history of his record. …The Bob McDonnell who is now running for governor is not the Bob McDonnell that we knew in the General Assembly and for him to disassociate himself, if you will, with these recorded votes is a misrepresentation of the facts…”
Del. Katherine Wadell, I-Richmond, member of House 2006-08 and founder of Virginia Republican Majority for Choice: “I have known [Bob] McDonnell for a long time and he’s the same man now as he was then. You can say he’s pretending to be someone he’s not. You know that old saying, ‘You can run from yourself -- but not far.’ He wasn’t a young kid writing his thesis. [He had] served in the Army, was about to finish law school. …He laid out a plan to implement certain policies and two years later he entered the General Assembly and the whole time that’s what he focused on.“
