likely would not be going to Virginians.
By Chris Braunlich
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger wants voters to believe she’s a moderate.
That’s understandable. At a time when the Democratic Party’s favorability is at 33 percent and with an avowed socialist as the party’s nominee in the most highly visible election in the nation, the smart money is for Democrats in Virginia to run far from their party’s reputation.
She is especially anxious to re-assure large and small employers of her “moderation,” making much of her announcement that she would not “repeal” the state’s Right-to-Work law, but was merely open to “reform.” The problem for Ms. Spanberger, however, is that as a Member of Congress she voted multiple times for the PRO Act, a bill that would repeal Virginia’s Right-to-Work law, creating negative consequences for the employment rate.
Voting records are annoying reminders of where one stands, so in a further effort to credential herself as a moderate, Ms. Spanberger recently released her plan for economic growth, the Growing Virginia Plan. As blogger Jim Bacon notes, most of the plan “does little more than restate the aims of existing state programs in workforce development, international trade and marketing.”
But while it uses soothing moderate language (“cultivate a supportive business environment” and “grow Virginia’s economy the right way”), a core of the proposal is anything but soothing or moderate – at least not for Virginia workers or the people who hired them.
Hidden in one paragraph on page four are essential promises reversing any good that might be done by the rest of the plan – prime among them a commitment to use Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) for large state construction projects.
