Just finished participating in a conference call with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds and DPVA chair Dickie Cranwell. The purpose of the call was to discuss the outrageous statement by RPV chair Pat Mullins.
In an article in last week’s The Recorder, a newspaper that covers Bath and Highland counties, reporter James Jacenich recounts a meeting of Republicans in the area. Mullins threw a lot of red meat to those gathered, not unexpected. But it was the last paragraph of the article that got the blood boiling:
He ended his talk with a story about a Wise County insurance office that had to close two offices, not due to lack of work or the economy, but because it couldn’t find employees. He said the employer tried to recruit employees at a nearby college campus. “They preferred to be on welfare,” Mullins said.
That is the legacy of Democratic rule, he inferred, and one more reason Virginians need to vote Republican.
Deeds commented that he saw the article over the weekend and that what it demonstrated to him was how out of touch with rural Virginia the McDonnell campaign is.
One of the best comments of the call came from Chairman Cranwell in response to a question from the Washington Post. Cranwell pointed out that the paper endorsed Deeds over two Northern Virginia opponents, which should indicate that Deeds understands all of Virginia, not just parts of it.
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While I was on the call, I received an email from the campaign of Democratic candidate for LG, Jody Wagner, in which she denounced the Mullins statement and called on her opponent, Republican Bill Bolling, to do the same.
Pat Mullins’ comments are another example of how out of touch Republicans in Virginia really are. As I’ve traveled throughout the Commonwealth, I’ve met with and spoken to hundreds of Virginians who strive day in and day out to find a job that can provide quality pay and benefits, so they can support their families. Southwest Virginians have been amongst the hardest hit by the global economic downturn, and yet just months ago, Bill Bolling and the Republicans rejected $125 million from the federal government that would have gone to helping displaced workers in the Commonwealth find new jobs and receive training. If Bill Bolling really believes any Virginian would rather receive a handout then take pride in the dignity of work, then he’s simply not qualified to serve another term in state government. If he doesn’t, he should join us in denouncing Pat Mullins’ remarks.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
This is the best Deeds can come up with? Mullins is dead on, I know people who don’t want to work because they make more on welfare, people who purposefully get fired instead of quitting to get unemployment, people who don’t want to get a raise because a raise means a higher tax bracket and smaller paycheck. We are giving rewards for people not to work, it should be the other way around.