Warner, Gillespie: My opponent isn't who he claims to be

In Virginia, first-term Democratic Senator Mark Warner has a double-digit lead in opinion polls over Republican Ed Gillespie. But their third and final debate of the election gave Gillespie another chance to capitalize on midterm disenchantment with the party of President Obama.

Race at a glance

Warner was elected to the Senate in 2008 after  he served as Virginia's governor from 2002-2006 and flirted briefly with a presidential run. Gillespie is a longtime Republican leader: a former national party chairman, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, an adviser to President George W. Bush, and a senior adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Virginia isn't a focus of Republican efforts to take control of the Senate, but it's still considered a presidential swing state, though it twice went for Obama.

Lines of attack

In the debate — held in Richmond and sponsored by the state chapters of the League of Women Voters and the AARP — Gillespie referred to the "Obama-Warner policies,"  called the incumbent "a blank check for the president.'' He hammered on the effect of the Affordable Care Act, which Warner supported, on Medicare. Warner called Gillespie a "D.C. lobbyist and "partisan political operative'' who would put politics over policy and whose social positions are too conservative for the state.

Local flavor

Defense spending and military installations are big parts of Virginia's economy, and its northern suburbs are populated with federal employees and contractors. So Gillespie and Warner argued over sequestration — automatic federal budget cuts that hit the Pentagon hard — without worrying whether voters know what the word means. Gillespie said the cuts are dictating national security policy rather than the other way around; Warner said a long-term budget deal is necessary. "We can't keep punting," Warner said.

Pivots

Gillespie turned a question about legislation to restore parts of the Voting Rights Act, struck down by the Supreme Court this year, into a discussion of whether Warner had promised a federal judgeship to the daughter of a Democratic state senator on the verge of quitting the evenly divided chamber. Warner denied anything inappropriate: “I did not offer her a job, nor would I offer her any kind of position.’’

Warner responded to Gillespie's criticism about rising gas prices by reminding voters that Gillespie's lobbying firm had represented Enron, the energy company that collapsed in 2001 due to fraudulent accounting practices. The  firm's 21,000 employees lost their jobs and retirement savings.

Warner was an investor in Enron, Gillespie responded.

"And lost money,'' Warner shot back.

“I had no idea of the fraudulent practices of the company. Nobody did at the time,'' Gillespie said, and bemoaned the "personal" attack. "This is why good people don’t run for office.’’

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