From the DPVA — Bob McDonnell shows his true colors (as if there ever was any doubt) as a Pat Robertson Teapublican.
McDonnell embraces radical GOP Senate candidates
Richmond, VA – Yesterday Governor Bob McDonnell embraced two of the most controversial members of his team of radical right-wing candidates for the Virginia Senate. McDonnell endorsed Tea Party State Senate candidates Jeff Frederick and Dick Black and agreed to hold an October 26th fundraiser for Black.
Both endorsements raise questions about Bob McDonnell’s priorities and vision for Virginia. In endorsing Frederick, McDonnell advocated the election of a man he helped to overthrow as Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia in 2009 due to Frederick’s extreme rhetoric and general ineptitude.
The McDonnell-led ouster came after Frederick was widely condemned by Republicans and Democrats alike for comparing Barack Obama to terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. Frederick, who once claimed he as the “Tea Party before the Tea Party,” is known as a crusader for right-wing issues.
He opposes a woman’s right to make her down decisions about her health care and once took to the floor of the House of Delegates to condemn evolution as an atheist plot “to explain away the belief in God.” He also drew personal income from 60 Plus, an organization that proudly advocates privatizing Social Security.
The endorsement of Black may be more troubling as the former Delegate is best-known not for any effort to create jobs, improve education or fix transportation, but for his laser-like focus on a radical social issues agenda that led him to mail plastic fetuses to fellow-legislators as a protest of a woman’s right to choose. He opposes those rights in all cases including rape and incest and once introduced legislation to make it legal for pharmacies to refuse to sell birth control to women in Virginia.
“By endorsing these two Tea Party extremists Bob McDonnell is sending a clear message that jobs and education come second to divisive right-wing social issues,” said DPVA Executive Director David Mills.
“It’s insulting that the Governor would encourage Virginians to let Frederick write our laws just two years after McDonnell himself helped remove him from his position as party Chair. And anyone who remembers Dick Black’s extreme, mean-spirited antics in the General Assembly knows that he is a crusader for his right-wing social agenda, not for working families.
“Embracing these candidates and the rest of the radical GOP team is not what Virginians expect from a Governor who says his top priority is making their lives better. But Bob McDonnell wants total control over our state government and he needs Jeff Frederick and Dick Black to get it. Working families simply cannot afford to give the McDonnell-Frederick-Black slate a blank check to push their backward agenda.”
Earlier this month the Democratic Party of Virginia released a web video introducing the extreme group of candidates running to give McDonnell complete control of state government. To view the video click here.
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