Virginia Democrats tried to shift the focus Monday from their own embattled gubernatorial candidate to newly minted Republican lieutenant governor nominee E.W. Jackson Sr., whose controversial remarks on abortion and gay rights have quickly landed the fiery Chesapeake minister in the national spotlight.
Mr. Jackson, a Harvard Law School graduate who has quickly endeared himself to the Tea Party in Virginia, won the nomination over the weekend after an impassioned convention speech that excited many of his followers and propelled him past six other candidates.
But by Monday, Mr. Jackson, the first black candidate Republicans have chosen to run statewide since 1988, was being slammed by critics for statements he’s made in the past likening Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and that gays and lesbians are “very sick people psychologically, mentally, and emotionally and they see everything through the lens of homosexuality.”
In a video he produced last year addressed to “Christians in the black community,” Mr. Jackson said that “it is time to end the slavish devotion to the Democrat Party.”
“Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was, and the Democrat Party and their black civil rights allies are partners in this genocide,” Mr. Jackson said.
Later, talking about gay people, he said that “they can keep their homosexuality private — you and I cannot hide being black.”
On Monday, Democrats trotted out two former Republican lawmakers, former Delegates Vincent Callahan Jr. and Katherine Waddell, to denounce Mr. Jackson and a ticket that also includes Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, who is running for governor, and state Sen. Mark D. Obenshain of Harrisonburg, who is running for attorney general.
“Having been involved with the development and building of the Republican Party here for 40 years, my problem is that the party has gone astray,” Mr. Callahan said. “Traditional Republicans like myself are left out, and I think the party has been hijacked by reactionary Republicans masquerading as conservatives.”
But Mr. Cuccinelli and his ticketmates have stressed that they will be running a campaign for “all Virginians,” and that issues like the economy and jobs, not social crusades, will be their focus.
“It is no secret that E.W. Jackson has deeply held Christian conservative beliefs,” RPV spokesman Garren Shipley said in a statement to Politico. “But the race for lieutenant governor will be fought on economic ground as opposed to social policy. In the weeks and months ahead, Jackson will focus on ideas that produce more quality jobs for Virginians and make life easier for families and workers.”
© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: 'You Say What You Like, Because They Like What You Say' - http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/731-you-say-what-you-like-because-they-like-what-you-say.html
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEI4uLWVCeaJROT10dTHrQVl4CjKA&url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/20/va-gop-lieutenant-governor-nominee-under-fire-comm/
0 comments:
Post a Comment