McDonnell and Deeds facing questions over votes in House

By Garren Shipley -- gshipley@nvdaily.com

Republican Bob McDonnell shouldn't be allowed to disavow his vote against a resolution supporting Equal Pay Day, Democrats argued Friday.

But McDonnell isn't the only candidate in the race for governor who has disavowed a vote in the General Assembly.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, advisers to the campaign of Democrat Creigh Deeds hammered on the Republican candidate for his opposition to a House of Delegates resolution in 2001.

House Joint Resolution 800 recognized "the significance of Equal Pay Day to demonstrate the disparity between wages paid to men and women and supports efforts to eliminate wage discrimination."

The day marks how long into the next year women must work to earn the same amount of money that men earned in the previous year.

"[McDonnell] repeatedly referred to this as a ceremonial resolution, that it was not something that mattered," said Mo Elleithee, a senior adviser to the Deeds campaign.

If that's the case, why did McDonnell vote in favor of a number of other resolutions that would not carry the force of law, Elleithee asked.

McDonnell's opposition shows that he's far out of the mainstream on social issues. "It's another example of Bob McDonnell trying to rewrite his record," Elleithee said.

But branding votes as unimportant isn't unique to McDonnell's campaign.

Deeds disavowed his own vote on a same-sex insurance issue during his House re-election campaign in 1999.

Republican challenger Michael Collins attacked Deeds during that race for a 1994 vote against a measure that would have blocked colleges and universities from offering health benefits to same-sex partners. The amendment was included in the House version of the budget, but did not become law.

Brian Worthy, Deeds' campaign manager in 1999, dismissed the criticism and said attacks distorted his candidate's position.

"That was a meaningless vote," Worthy said, quoted in an October 1999 story in the Staunton Daily News Leader.

"This was an unrelated addition to the budget. Mr. Deeds does not support gay rights," he said. "There is no law that says that gay partners can get health insurance."

Deeds went so far as to take out a full-page ad in the paper to disavow the Collins campaign's charges.

"I don't believe in discrimination, but I don't believe in special rights for anyone," the ad states. "I have never voted to allow gay partners to receive medical insurance -- or any other benefits -- from the state."

That's not because Deeds doesn't support benefits for same-sex partners, Elleithee said Friday. Rather, Deeds simply did not have the ability to vote on such a measure at that time.

"At that point, that was true. But at that point there was not a vote to extend rights," Elleithee said. "Later in [Deeds'] career, when there were votes to allow localities to extend rights to same sex couples, he voted for that."

"Whenever there was a bill that dealt with the issue of discrimination or employment discrimination, he voted against the discriminatory practice," Elleithee said.

"Creigh has been honest about his, Bob McDonnell is now being dishonest about his record," he said.

Election Day is Nov. 3.