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Virginia Democratic candidates for governor clash over style more than substance in second debate

May 7, 2021 at 2:25 p.m. EDT
Democratic candidates for governor of Virginia participate in a debate Thursday, May 6 in Bristol, Va. From left: Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, Del. Lee Carter, state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, former delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy and former governor Terry McAuliffe. (David Crigger/AP)

RICHMOND — The five Democrats seeking their party's nomination for Virginia governor met in a debate Thursday night in Bristol that brought stylistic differences into sharper focus but highlighted few substantial policy disagreements.

Former governor Terry McAuliffe seemed to look past his rivals in the June 8 primary election and instead attacked Virginia Republicans, who are choosing their nominee through a complicated convention process beginning Saturday.

Former delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy (Prince William), on the other hand, jabbed repeatedly at McAuliffe, who is far ahead of the others in fundraising. Carroll Foy is a distant second. State Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan (Richmond) cited her lengthy legislative record, while Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax touted accomplishments that have taken place while he has been in office during the administration of Gov. Ralph Northam.

And Del. Lee J. Carter (Manassas) steered hard to the left, setting himself apart from the others with an anti-corporate message that provided the only real policy contrasts of the night.

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All are vying for the chance to succeed Northam, who — like all Virginia governors — is prohibited by the state constitution from serving a second consecutive term.

The debate was the second of four planned by the Democratic Party of Virginia, and the only one set for the far Southwest region of the state, which is generally a Republican stronghold. Many of the questions focused on issues related to that area’s struggles with the loss of jobs and the environmental damage associated with the declining coal industry.

All five candidates stressed the need for investing in education and job training in the area, called for spending to spread access to broadband Internet and pledged to work for environmental cleanup. Carter emphasized that he would provide economic stimulus directly to individuals and small businesses, not big corporations.

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Carter then blasted all four of his rivals for their support for the deal that enticed Amazon to locate its East Coast headquarters in Northern Virginia. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post).

He said the deal “gave $1.8 billion of your money in cash, tax breaks and infrastructure upgrades to a corporation owned by the wealthiest man who has ever lived.” The result, he said, has been worsening problems of affordability for residents in Northern Virginia.

McAuliffe stoutly defended the deal, which came together at the end of his administration in 2017 and was executed by Northam in 2018.

“I’m the one who wrote the bid to get Amazon to come to Virginia,” McAuliffe said. He noted that it contained “no upfront money” and that “not a penny of state money can be spent until we get the tax revenue for the new jobs.” The package included about $800 million in incentives for the company and about $1 billion in education investment.

“That’s a very good deal,” McAuliffe said.

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Carroll Foy later went after the former governor for his approach to economic development, saying it failed to help the financial struggles of the town where she grew up: Petersburg.

“Terry McAuliffe talks ‘big and bold.’ We didn’t feel that … in my hometown,” she said, using two of his favored adjectives. “When Petersburg, Virginia, was falling on hard times . . . the community asked for help from Governor Terry McAuliffe, and he chose inaction. So where was his big and bold then?”

In fact, as Petersburg faced near-bankruptcy in 2016 and 2017, McAuliffe sent his finance secretary to sort through the city’s books and help find solutions. A spokeswoman for Carroll Foy’s campaign said later that she was referring to broader issues of jobs and child poverty.

During the debate, McAuliffe also touted his efforts to focus on child nutrition in Petersburg, saying the city’s schools became a model for a program that provided free meals to all students. He also noted that by the end of his four-year term, all of Petersburg’s schools were fully accredited, meaning they met all state standards.

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Carroll Foy took issue with that. “I would like to say that facts matter. Right now there is only one accredited school in Petersburg, Virginia,” she said. Her campaign said later that Carroll Foy misspoke — there were two accredited schools last year; currently the accreditation process is suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

McAuliffe’s campaign noted that if schools lost accreditation, it happened after he left office.

Carroll Foy also went after McAuliffe on issues of law enforcement, saying her career as a public defender puts her on the side of average people while McAuliffe was once quoted as saying he would “always come down on the side of law enforcement.”

McAuliffe chastised Carroll Foy, saying, “We should make sure we get our facts correct tonight.” The law enforcement quote related specifically to the issue of license plate readers, he said. McAuliffe opposed a bill in the General Assembly that would have limited police use of the devices; he argued that they helped track the man who murdered a University of Virginia student in 2014.

Carroll Foy’s campaign said after the debate that McAuliffe falsely claimed the device led to the killer’s capture — “How did we catch that murderer? It was for license plate readers,” he said — when the device was not a direct factor in his arrest.

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McClellan delivered a low-key performance but emphasized her legislative track record. While all the candidates said they were in favor of ending qualified immunity for police officers, which protects them from some civil lawsuits over misconduct, McClellan pointed out that she had championed the issue in the state Senate — though the bill ultimately failed to pass.

After Carroll Foy noted that she had been a supporter of the Clean Economy Act that passed the legislature last year, setting statewide goals for renewable energy, McClellan responded: “I wrote the Clean Economy Act.”

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Fairfax, who drew headlines in last month’s debate for comparing himself to George Floyd and Emmett Till over his treatment for unproven sexual assault charges, stuck to the issues this time. He repeatedly emphasized an ambitious, $30 billion plan to rebuild all Virginia schools more than 40 years old.

McAuliffe, who had regularly invoked his friendship with President Biden throughout the debate, cast the election in terms of national politics.

“You look at the Republicans, they’re fawning all over Donald Trump. They’re trying to bring their Trump politics here to Virginia,” he said. “We can’t allow it. We’ve got to stop them.”