Moran goes after Democratic rivals; McDonnell backs charter schools

Republican Bob McDonnell talked schools. Democrats who want to take him on for governor talked about each other.

While McDonnell backed charter schools, the Democratic primary fight took another nasty turn yesterday, with Brian J. Moran sharply attacking Terry McAuliffe and R. Creigh Deeds.

In a fresh television commercial just days ahead of Tuesday's primary, Moran presses questions about the origins of McAuliffe's personal fortune and demeans Deeds for favoring higher fuel taxes for roads.

And in a mailer, Moran spotlights an issue that could turn off comparatively liberal Northern Virginians to Deeds, a rural moderate surging in some polls: his support of gun rights and the endorsement of his 2005 bid for attorney general by the National Rifle Association.

McAuliffe again swung through the Richmond area, talking up his jobs-based platform in a meeting with about 35 employees of a Henrico County water-treatment company.

"The economic issues are the ones we ought to be talking about," McAuliffe said.

Joking that members of his audience likely included Republicans, McAuliffe nonetheless urged them to vote in the open-to-all primary next week.

McAuliffe also picked up the backing of Virginia's only African-American congressman, Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-3rd.

Former President Bill Clinton is returning tomorrow to stump for McAuliffe a third time in Virginia. Clinton will be the headliner at a high-dollar fundraiser at McAuliffe's home in McLean.

Today, Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana will plug McAuliffe's candidacy, but not as head of the Democratic Governors Association.

The DGA has pumped about $3 million into anti-McDonnell television ads.

McDonnell told a news conference that Virginia needs more charter schools, or independently run public schools, particularly in areas where schools aren't fully accredited by the state.

McDonnell said the state has only four of the nation's 4,600 charter schools. As governor, McDonnell said, he would seek to give the state authority to approve charter schools. Currently, only local school boards can.

In the mass mailing that fires at Deeds' record on guns, Moran notes that Deeds was backed by the NRA for attorney general over McDonnell. "It takes some pretty extreme positions on guns for a Democrat to win the NRA endorsement away from a Republican, but that's just what Creigh Deeds did."

Moran blasted at Deeds just as a gun-rights group, OpenCarry.org, urged members to vote for Moran, claiming Deeds can't be trusted on gun issues.

OpenCarry.org criticized Deeds for urging compromise on closing a loophole that allows some gun purchases at firearms shows without background checks.

Deeds had previously opposed tighter rules for gun-show purchases.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or .