After breaking with longstanding, bipartisan support for Virginia’s Right to Work laws during the Democrats’ race-to-the-left primary, Democratic nominee Ralph Northam again yesterday refused to defend and stand up for the very laws that have long been regarded as crucial to maintaining Virginia’s reputation as a pro—business state where employers should seek to locate. In a May primary debate, Northam refused to outright support Virginia’s Right to Work laws, happily celebrated the defeat of a Right to Work constitutional amendment at the polls, and inferred his willingness to support a repeal if he had a Democratic majority in the Virginia legislature.
Responding to an inquiry yesterday, a Northam spokesperson affirmed his break with Governor McAuliffe, 2009 Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Creigh Deeds, and former-governor, now United States Senator Tim Kaine, who all STRONGLY AND VOCALLY backed our Right to Work laws, weakly stating:
“Dr. Ralph Northam knows right to work has been the law for 60 years, that it’s not going to change anytime soon, and he won’t make any attempt to change it.” (The News Virginian, 9/16/17)
Northam’s comments come just one day ahead of the The Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce gubernatorial debate – an organization that has made clear their position on Right to Work:
“Keeping Northern Virginia businesses competitive is critical to Virginia’s economy. The Northern Virginia Chamber has been a longstanding defender of Virginia’s right-to-work laws and a strong advocate for keeping Virginia competitive in the global economy.” (Legislative Agenda, 2016)
Will Ralph Northam EVER say the Commonwealth’s existing right to work laws are beneficial and will he stand up for them? Will he pledge to oppose any effort to overturn them?
Background
During a Democratic Primary debate held at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall, Ralph Northam said:
“Well first of all I want to congratulate labor tonight for helping to defeat the constitutional amendment this past year…you all deserve a tremendous deal of credit for doing that. As far as a constitutional amendment, we don’t need that, and I stood up and I traveled around the Commonwealth of Virginia and helped to fight that as well.
“I think also we have to be realistic in Virginia, what we can get done with our current legislature. I think rather than pick fights that we perhaps can’t win right now, we need to talk about how can we help labor, how can we help with PLA’s, which are project labor agreements. Those are very important to labor and unions right now.” (Democratic Primary Debate, 5/9/17)
The Commonwealth’s existing Right-to-Work laws have enjoyed long bipartisan support.
In 2013, while running for governor, Terry McAuliffe noted: “We are a great right-to-work state,” he said. “We should never change that. It helps us do what we need to do to grow our businesses here in Virginia.” (PolitiFact, 6/21/2013)
In 2009, during his gubernatorial campaign, Creigh Deeds strongly backed the law: “Democrat Creigh Deeds got support from corporate captains and venture capitalists Thursday in his run for governor as he pledged to honor Virginia’s right-to-work legacy if elected.” (The Washington Times, 7/3/2009)
In 2005, so did then Lieutenant Governor, now former governor and current United States Senator, Tim Kaine: “But, as The Washington Post noted when the former Virginia governor was preparing his 2012 US Senate bid, “Kaine has supported Virginia’s right-to-work law since he ran for governor in 2005, and his campaign says that position has not changed.” (The Nation, 7/22/2016)
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