New Creigh Deeds ad wagers big on Bob McDonnell's 1989 thesis

RICHMOND — Democrat R. Creigh Deeds thrust Republican Bob McDonnell’s 20-year-old conservative thesis squarely into their bitter campaign for governor in television ads that began airing statewide Monday.

Deeds inserted two 30-second ads — each a withering statement on McDonnell’s 1989 graduate thesis critical of working women, feminists and gays — into his statewide ad buy, worth at least $750,000 over the next seven days.

Though Deeds and Democratic operatives have hammered McDonnell for weeks in speeches, e-mails and Web videos about the paper, Monday’s two attack ads marked a strategic decision to clearly put the thesis front-and-center as polls suggest McDonnell’s lead is narrowing.

A third, upbeat Deeds ad shows him driving through the countryside, extolling a love for his state and proclaiming himself a candidate “who can bring people together.“ It’s as folksy and bright as its two companion ads are brooding and dark.

"This one story has changed the dynamics of this campaign in a big way."

~George Mason University political science professor Mark Rozell

Deeds ads use McDonnell's comments about women, contraception, abortion

One of the attack ads features nine unsmiling women, and the first says, “Bob McDonnell, we know what you wrote about working women.“ A second says she’s heard his excuses, and a third continues, “but your record troubles me.“

The other hits the hottest buttons, establishing that McDonnell “was 34, married and attending Pat Robertson’s law school” when he wrote the paper. It contends he supported restrictions on birth control, even for married couples, and sponsored 35 abortion restriction bills as a House of Delegates member.

On contraception, McDonnell wrote in his thesis that a 1965 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on marital privacy rights was based on “radical individualism.“ But his paper didn’t advocate government control of contraceptives for wedded couples.

As for the number of abortion bills, the total of 35 doesn’t distinguish between bills for which McDonnell was chief sponsor and similar ones for which he was a co-sponsor. McDonnell’s campaign claims he authored only eight abortion bills.

McDonnell says thesis irrelevant now

McDonnell, in interviews, public appearances and news conferences, dismissed the thesis as a long-ago academic exercise, a requisite for his combined master’s and law degree from Regent University, the Christian college Robertson founded in Virginia Beach. He notes women are in key posts in his campaigns and his office as attorney general, and that his oldest daughter served as an Army platoon leader in Iraq.

McDonnell’s campaign on Monday decried the ads as “false and deceptive.“

Deeds adviser Mo Elleithee defended attacking McDonnell on the thesis and his subsequent actions as a state legislator. Many voters — particularly women — are just now tuning in to the off-year race, he said, and as they learn about the issue, Deeds benefits, Elleithee said.

George Mason University political science professor Mark Rozell said Deeds must use the issue.

“There were people several weeks ago who were almost ready to write him off in this campaign,“ Rozell said. “This one story has changed the dynamics of this campaign in a big way.“

McDonnell still ahead of Deeds, but gap narrowing, poll says

A Washington Post poll conducted last week and published Sunday showed McDonnell slightly ahead, 51 percent to 47 percent. In August, the Post poll showed McDonnell up by 15 percentage points, 54 percent to 39 percent. Sunday’s poll was based on interviews with 2,113 Virginia registered voters, 1,003 of whom said they were certain to vote in the Nov. 3 election. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

But there is danger for Deeds if he intends to win with attacks on the thesis alone and without a clear policy message of his own, Rozell said. Deeds has been criticized for lacking specifics, particularly for transportation funding, and he bristled at reporters who pressed him for them after a debate on Thursday.

“So Deeds has to make a positive case for his own election, and that requires presenting a coherent plan on issues such as taxation and transportation, where he hugely faltered, I think, last week,“ Rozell said.