Wilder: Va. race a referendum on Obama

The November election will be a referendum in part on whether the Obama administration has done what it promised to do less than a year ago, said former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat.

During an interview with The Washington Times, the nation’s first elected black governor said that if Democrats lose either or both of the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia - the only two in the nation this year - it would send a “telling message” to the Democratic Party and the president.

“It is an opportunity for people to compare where they were last year at this time in terms of the Bush administration and what was being said by Democrats, in this particular instance, the president, in terms [of] what he saw and how he would change and what he would change. This is the first real opportunity for people to have some degree of measurement as to whether that has been successful or not or is being successful or not,” he said.

Seeing this as a pivotal moment in a very important election, Mr. Wilder said he would break with tradition and announce his endorsement for governor late this week at a time when polling numbers indicate that the race has tightened.

Mr. Wilder refused to specify who he intends to endorse, but his tone toward both candidates has changed - less critical of Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and less effusive toward Republican Robert F. McDonnell than he was just a few weeks ago.

“The most important thing is what is best for the people of Virginia at this time and who is best prepared in these really tough times to govern. That is all that is governing me in terms of my decision,” Mr. Wilder said.

He was sharply critical of Mr. McDonnell’s graduate school thesis, in which the candidate was critical of working women, gays and abortion; however, Mr. Wilder said judging the candidate on that alone would ignore the issues most important to Virginia.

“I thought it was stupid. I thought it was almost out of touch with reality. I thought it had passages in it that had such unrealistic proportions that you would say: ‘What is going on?’ ”

But if you dismiss Mr. McDonnell, Mr. Wilder said you are left with Mr. Deeds and the issues that he has as a candidate. Additionally, he said, while not attempting to explain or excuse Mr. McDonnell’s thesis, the issues brought to light by it aren’t the most relevant at a time when the state is grappling with huge economic problems.

Plans to fix the state coupled with leadership skills and vision are what’s most important, Mr. Wilder said.

When asked to rate the candidates’ plans to fix transportation and education, Mr. Wilder said both men need to put forward plans that are realistic.

“I’ve been there; you can’t resist the temptation to over-commit. You want to say more than what your opponent is saying. You want to give people a reason. Like for instance, when I was running, I really thought we had money and I told a whole bunch of lies and not intentionally, then I found out … we’re broke.”

Mr. Wilder said both candidates should be judged on their records.

And it is because of Mr. Deeds’ record that Mr. Wilder declined to endorse him in the past.

When the Democratic state senator was running against then-Delegate McDonnell for attorney general in 2005, Mr. Wilder refused to endorse either candidate, specifically saying that he was not supporting Mr. Deeds because the candidate had refused to vote in favor of his one-gun-a-month bill.

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