While the gubernatorial race in Virginia between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli is sure to be a hot race, there’s another individual who is stealing the spotlight in the aftermath of the state’s GOP convention this past weekend.
E.W. Jackson snagged the nomination for lieutenant governor, putting the squeeze on Cuccinelli and other Republicans looking to strike a more moderate tone.
Jackson, an African-American pastor and lawyer, has a history of extreme statements on everything from Planned Parenthood to homosexuality and even constitutional history.
“We are not defending any of our running mates’ statements now or in the future,” Cuccinelli said in a statement to The Virginian-Pilot. “The people of Virginia need to get comfortable with each candidate individually.”
In a Youtube video posted last fall, Jackson rails against Planned Parenthood, suggesting that the organization is on par with the Ku Klux Klan, or worse.
“The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was. And the Democrat Party and the black civil rights allies are partners in this genocide.”
In a 2010 blog post, Jackson wrote that President Obama has a “Muslim perspective” on the world and that these “Muslim sensibilities” could be dangerous for Israel.
According to Jackson, Michelle Obama and her husband are “the intellectual cousins and heirs of a Communist, collectivist way of thinking which is anathema to what this country is all about.”
He also seems to misunderstand the three-fifths compromise that existed in the early days of the U.S. Constitution. As you probably learned in history class, the compromise was meant to beef up representation in Congress for southern states. Even though slaves had no say whatsoever in government, Congress agreed to count each slave as three-fifths of a person, therefore increasing the population count for slave-holding states, and rewarding them with a few more representatives in Congress.
It would be tough to characterize that piece of history as “anti-slavery,” but Jackson did so during his run for Senate in 2011. Jackson took issue with a pastor who suggested that the clause was evidence of our country’s history of racism. This wasn’t just any church service though: President Obama was in attendance.
“Rev. [Charles Wallace] Smith must not have understood the 3/5ths clause was an anti-slavery amendment. Its purpose was to limit the voting power of slave-holding states,” Jackson said in a statement.
Jackson has also said he sees a “direct connection” between homosexuality and pedophilia.
In a post-election report, a Republican committee wrote, “Our candidates and office holders need to do a better job talking in normal, people-oriented terms and we need to go to communities where Republicans do not normally go to listen and make our case.”
So much for that!
Now it’s up to Republican Ken Cuccinelli to appeal to minorities, gays, women, and moderates while running on the same party ticket as Jackson.
Maryalice Aymong