The core issue highlighted in McDonnell’s address was federal cap-and-trade legislation that McDonnell likens to a “huge new national energy tax” that would threaten jobs and increase energy prices.
To highlight this position, McDonnell referred to his recent visit to the Mead Westvaco packaging company in western Virginia, whose executives fear that the cap-and-trade initiatives would threaten the company’s ability to continue employing its 1,500 workers. As the Covington company is the largest employer in the area, even a moderate staff decrease could significantly worsen the economic realities in the rural area.
As expected, the economy was the primary focus, and McDonnell echoed standard Republican principals of low levels of taxes and regulation, along with legislation to encourage small business.
In closing, McDonnell summed up the topics that he has been concentrating on. Some of them are broad, while others are very specific: environmentally friendly offshore drilling, selling state-run liquor stores, putting more cash into transportation and education at the primary, secondary and higher education levels.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds was quick to point out what could be a sore spot in the McDonnell plan, noting that McDonnell’s ambitious transportation plan includes a provision that would remove $5.4 billion from the public school budget over the next 10 years. Additionally, the Deeds camp continued to associate McDonnell with the economic policies of former President George Bush and the economic problems of the last several years.
McDonnell’s performance during the address is not unexpected. Naturally confident and media-friendly, McDonnell consistently manages to maintain a level of consistency in his message, without resorting to the overly-emotional extremism that sometimes passes for discourse in a minority party.
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