An enthusiastic crowd greeted Republican Bob McDonnell in Lynchburg on Tuesday night on the fourth day of his gubernatorial campaign kickoff tour of about 20 Virginia cities.
“It’s a great crowd. I’m pleased,” said Mark Peake, Lynchburg Republican Party chairman. An informal headcount found about 150 people filling the ground floor of an office building on Commerce Street.
McDonnell, delivering essentially the same jobs-oriented speech in Lynchburg that he’s used in other cities, said over cheers that “maybe I should have started here.”
Wendell Walker, another local party leader, surveyed the crowd and saw several Republican leaders from Amherst, Bedford and Campbell counties.
“These are people who will write checks” to support candidates, Walker said.
Unlike some Republican events in the city, the rally had few Liberty University students in the crowd. Mid-term tests are under way there, Walker said.
Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, introduced McDonnell, saying, “this is a critical election.”
“What Obama is trying in Washington can be stanched by the election of Bob McDonnell,” Newman said.
Many pundits have pictured the race in November between McDonnell and whoever wins the Democratic nomination as an early indicator of the public’s response to President Barack Obama’s administration.
McDonnell, attorney general for the past three years until he resigned in January, has been the GOP’s choice for governor for more than a year.
Democrats will vote June 9 in a primary election that will choose either Creigh Deeds, Terry McAuliffe or Brian Moran as the party’s candidate for governor.
McDonnell told the crowd that as governor he would focus on creating jobs and that he was setting “big, hairy, audacious goals” to accomplish his purpose.
Those goals include making it possible for people starting small businesses to get the permits they need within 48 hours, McDonnell said.
Other goals include making Virginia the most attractive place to film movies. “We love that out-of-state money coming into Virginia, don’t we?” he asked.
McDonnell said Wallops Island can become the best private spaceport on the East Coast, adding that it received $1.6 billion in federal stimulus money.
Virginia also can be the leading energy state on the East Coast, he said, by becoming its first state to drill for oil and gas 50 miles offshore. Drilling would create 2,600 jobs, plus royalties from energy companies, he said.
The Democratic Party’s state chairman said McDonnell’s focus on economic revival is a new direction after he spent 14 years concentrating mostly on social issues while representing Virginia Beach in the House of Delegates.
“He’s at the old political game of reinventing himself, trying to become a middle-of-the-road guy,” said Richard Cranwell, the Democratic chairman.
McDonnell also touched on social issues during his speech, pledging to support home-school parents and oppose abortion.
“Values matter,” McDonnell said. Rights are shared by “every American, born and unborn, and as governor I will defend innocent human life,” he said.
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