OUR VIEW: CSE columns are drawing replies from politicians

Culpeper is talking about politicians and — to their credit — they are talking back.

In the past couple of weeks, two high-level state political figures have replied to columns published on the Star-Exponent editorial page.

In a Feb. 21 guest column, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore took issue with a column by James Clements titled “Smoking ban will be Kaine’s legacy and help preserve our health” published Feb. 8.

Gilmore, a Republican, responded that the column “took a little shot at my governorship” when Clements wrote, “sometimes it is better if they don’t remember you after you leave.”

Gilmore said he addressed the issue partly because “I care what readers in the Culpeper area think of me, especially with my family’s Madison County roots.”

More recently, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe fired off a response to Robert Legge’s Feb. 26 column titled “Which of these men will emerge as the Dems’ candidate for governor?”

McAuliffe specifically took issue with this comment by Legge: “This is a bad time to have a reputation for making lots of money, primarily due to your personal connections. Ten years ago, McAuliffe turned a $100K stock buy into $18M thanks to his relationship with the CEO of Internet firm Global Crossing. Shortly thereafter the company went bankrupt, the stock price collapsed and 10,000 employees lost their jobs.”

McAuliffe pointed out that as an entrepreneur he invested in a lot of start-up companies and “as is always the case in venture financing, most don’t work. Only a few do.”

It’s encouraging that Gilmore and McAuliffe took the time to engage in dialogue with our local columnists and, by extension, the entire Culpeper community.

We appreciate their willingness to respond and hope more state-level political figures will find it beneficial to do the same.