"A crowd of about 200 Charlottesville area Democrats heard four Virginia Senate candidates agree Thursday on a host of issues, including the proposition that the state should pay its employees a living wage.

Democrats R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County, Al Weed of Nelson and Nancy K. O'Brien and Meredith Richards of Charlottesville answered questions for nearly two hours at a Buford Middle School party forum.

By the end, the candidates seeking the party's nomination Saturday to run for the remaining two years of the late state senator Emily Couric's term pronounced themselves impressed with each other's responses.

A number of Democrats attending the forum said the responses of all four impressed them, as well. 'I have no problem with any of them,' said Del. Mitchell Van Yahrees, D-Charlottesville. 'The meeting tonight showed we have a tremendous amount of talent in all four of them.'

'They made me proud to be a Democrat tonight,' said Albemarle resident Paul Saunier 'They are all thoughtful.'

Each candidate gave reasons the state should make affordable housing a higher priority, place at least a moratorium on the death penalty pending a state study of its fair application and pay teachers better salaries.

Richards, a city councilor and former vice-mayor, criticized state government for making it hard for localities to expand their $8-an-hour living wage requirements for contract workers and said she would challenge the state to pay its own workers at least such a minimum.

Weed, a Nelson vineyard owner, agreed and said as a state senator he would 'definitely push the state to pay a living wage to all employees.'

'The state's not somebody else,' O'Brien responded to the living wage question from the audience. 'We are the state. Do we want to pay people less than a living wage? I don't think so.'

Deeds, a member of the House of Delegates since 1992, said, 'The state ought to lead,' and noted he had voted against a bill to deny cities the right to demand that contract workers be paid a living wage.

'I would support a state policy that would require all state employees to [earn] a living wage,' Deeds said. 'I think government ought to lead.'

Questions on gun control, the death penalty and whether burning a cross on one's own property is protected free speech elicited some differences among the four.

Deeds and O'Brien said they disagreed with a state court opinion that struck Virginia's cross-burning law, while Richards and Weed called burning a cross on one's own property ugly but protected speech. 'I think we ought to err on the side of protecting free speech,' Weed said.

Deeds called guns 'the defining issue in rural Virginia' and a reason some Democrats now struggle in rural areas that once were solidly in support of the party.

'The real issue is how do we reduce violent crime,' said Deeds, who has an A rating from the National Rifle Association and worked with Gov.-elect Mark R. Warner to take guns off the table as an issue in the governor's race this year.

'I believe in gun safety' and gun education in the schools, said Deeds, who, like Warner, does not favor changes in state gun laws.

Weed called for mandatory trigger lock sales with pistol sales and more gun education in schools so students know how dangerous guns can be. 'You don't get up if people shoot you in the chest,' said Weed, a former Army Special Forces medical sergeant. Resales of guns should carry the same checks as initial sales do, Weed said.

'If we have child safety caps on aspirin, why don't we require child safety locks on guns?' Richards said. She said she would outlaw guns in recreation centers and call for more gun education and measures to keep illegal guns out of juvenile hands.

O'Brien, Charlottesville's first woman mayor, agreed with calls for gun education and gun locks.

Deeds said he was one of a handful of Democrats, and the only former prosecutor, to vote this year for a moratorium on capital punishment until a state study of it is completed.

'I am not satisfied that punishment is handed down ... in a way that is fair to all Virginians,' Deeds said. He said the death penalty is appropriate for some crimes if fairly applied.

O'Brien said that too many times innocent people are convicted, and until that problem is eliminated she could not support state executions.

'I don't believe there are any circumstances where the state should take a life,' Weed said. Richards said that with doubt about guilt there should be no death penalty.

In an unrelated development Thursday, former governor Gerald L. Baliles issued a statement saying he was not endorsing any of the four Democrats seeking Saturday's nomination to run in the Dec. 18 special election for the remainder of Couric's term.

Supporters of Deeds complained that O'Brien sent Democrats a postcard with an undated quote from Baliles calling her a creative leader and 'a driving force in improving the planning process in local and regional governments.'

The months-old quote was wrongly used to imply an endorsement, Deeds' supporters said.

'I can confirm that I made a statement about Nancy O'Brien's abilities and accomplishments for a magazine publication, but I have not made any endorsements in the Senate campaign to fill the late senator Emily Couric's seat,' Baliles said." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, November 9, 2001)

In the meantime, residents received a card four times the size of Nancy's from Creigh Deeds, promoting his experience, leadership and values.

Please send your thoughts about questions and answers at the forum to george@loper.org where the most representative comments will be placed on my web site with full attribution.