Jeff Shapiro of the Richmond Times Dispatch claims that Jackson “may be facing a rear-guard effort to strip him of the nomination” by Republicans terrified of his candidacy. But, he adds, “there apparently is nothing in the GOP’s rules authorizing anyone or any committee to remove a duly nominated candidate for state or local office.”
IDENTITY, MINORITY OFFICIALS BLAST JACKSON’S RHETORIC
By JULIAN WALKER
Virginian-Pilot
African American officials in the Virginia Democratic Party are teeing off on E.W. Jackson, the Chesapeake faith leader and Republican lieutenant governor nominee, for promoting what they call political hate speech against fellow blacks in the guise of religion. State Sen. Mamie Locke of Hampton called his rhetoric ugly and mean-spirited, while Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones, who’s also a minister, blasted Jackson for espousing a “message of hate and divisiveness” rather than one of Christian compassion.
DEMOCRATIC LEADERS TAKE AIM AT GOP PICK JACKSON
By BOB LEWIS
Associated Press
Virginia Democrats continued focusing their fire in November’s bellwether statewide elections not at the top of the Republican ticket but in the middle, at the outspoken conservative black minister nominated by GOP delegates for lieutenant governor. Four elected African-American Democratic leaders expressed dismay and outrage at comments by E.W. Jackson in which he compares Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan, likens the Democratic Party to a latter-day slaveholder and suggests the first black president, Barack Obama, is an atheist or a Muslim.
KAINE, WARNER DECRY JACKSON’S PAST STATEMENTS
By MARKUS SCHMIDT
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Comments by E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, about homosexuals, Democrats and President Barack Obama are “divisive” and have no place in Virginia politics, Sens. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine said Wednesday. “Name-calling people in the other party, using brash labels to tar whole groups of people — that’s out of place in Virginia politics, that place is in the past. We fought hard to put that in the past,” Kaine, D-Va., said Wednesday in an interview.
MCCARTNEY: E.W. JACKSON: SO FAR RIGHT HE HAS SAID DEMOCRATS HAVE ‘ANTICHRIST’ AGENDA
By ROBERT MCCARTNEY
Washington Post
I can hardly wait for the first debate in the campaign for Virginia lieutenant governor. Will Republican candidate E.W. Jackson reaffirm a past position by accusing his Democratic opponent of representing the Antichrist? And, if so, how could the Democrat possibly respond? “I deny I speak for Satan” seems awkward. Maybe he could confess to sharing the views only of lesser demons.