It didn't seem right that we'd just post our list of The Top 25 Reasons Not to Vote for Jerry Kilgore on Raising Kaine. We owe it to our readers to say why we support Tim Kaine for Governor. The real problem with both these lists was paring them down to ONLY 25 items each. Well, we did our best. Here is our countdown of The Top 25 Reasons to Vote for Tim Kaine , counting down one-by-one, here's #13.13. Southside Virginia is the only area of Virginia that lacks a 4-year college. Tim Kaine has championed the creation of a new public Southside university.
As the Martinsville Bulletin said, Kilgore's stand is "at issue". There's no issue with Tim Kaine's stand. He's been a champion of the new public Southside university for YEARS.
Kilgore college stand at issue
By GINNY WRAY
Bulletin Staff Writer[...]
Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the former attorney general continues to support the New College of Virginia proposal developed by Dr. Ronald Carrier for the Henry County-Martinsville area.
"His position has not changed," Murtaugh said.
But state Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Ridgeway, and Del. Ward Armstrong, D-Collinsville, took issue with Kilgore's statement.
"What we need is to ensure there will be a four-year institution, not access to a four-year degree," Reynolds said. "The problem is not access to degrees; the problem is having a university in the community which students can attend without leaving. Tim Kaine made it clear he supports this and will fight for it.
"The remark made by Jerry Kilgore is not the kind of remark we really need if we want to see progress made on a four-year university now, not at some indefinite point in the future," he added. Armstrong called Kilgore's statement "misleading to the public.".
"We know how to get to college. The problem is we don't have a college in Southside. Kilgore is not saying he's going to support the establishment of a four-year college in Southside. His silence on that is deafening," the delegate added.
Reynolds and Armstrong both pointed out that Lt. Gov. Kaine, the Democratic candidate for governor in the Nov. 8 election, suggested 18 months ago that a Southside university was needed. Shortly after that, The Harvest Foundation issued its $50 million challenge grant to the state to open such a university within two years in Henry County or Martinsville.
[full story]