The Washington Post recently unearthed Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell's 1989 controversial master's thesis, possibly endangering his 8 to 10 point lead in most polls against Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds.\nMcDonnell expressed controversial views about gay rights, working women and abortion in the thesis, written during McDonnell's time at Regent University in Virginia Beach.\n"Every level of government should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals, or fornicators," McDonnell wrote in the thesis. The "trend of working women and feminists ... is ultimately detrimental to the family."\nHe also opposed the decisions of several 1970s U.S. Supreme Court cases, which he believed failed to uphold marriage standards, noting that they helped create "the perverted notion of liberty that each individual should be able to live out his sexual life in any way he chooses without interference from the state."\nPolitics Prof. Larry Sabato said while aspects of the thesis are still being scrutinized, the impressions conveyed thus far upon the voting public already have had a detrimental effect on McDonnell's campaign.\n"It potentially damages him with moderate swing voters, independents, working women and young people," Sabato said.\nMcDonnell, though, claims to have since distanced himself from many of the views expressed in the thesis. In a conference call with the press Monday, McDonnell said he was very supportive of women working and noted that both his wife and daughters work.\nNevertheless, Deeds' Press Secretary Jared Leopold maintained that the thesis illustrates key differences between the two candidates.\n"Creigh Deeds has focused on economic issues," he said. "Bob McDonnell has been pursuing a narrow social agenda, and this really brings it into sharp focus."\nDeeds' campaign raised several criticisms against certain points in the thesis. Leopold said Deeds "trusts the women of Virginia and supports their right to choose," noting that Deeds supports equal pay for equal work, whereas McDonnell voted against equal pay for equal work and sponsored bills opposing abortion rights.\n"What Bob McDonnell wrote in a blueprint in 1989 was the exact thing he pursued as a legislator and Attorney General," Leopold said.\nIn Monday's press conference, McDonnell replied to Deeds' criticisms, stressing that Deeds was focusing on "former governors, former presidents, and a decades-old term paper."\nThe Republican Party of Virginia also issued a press release that stated there is an unfair difference in how people treat "decades-old writing" by Republicans and Democrats, highlighting the fact that Democratic Senator Jim Webb's 1979 article for Washingtonian Magazine included controversial statements about the capability of women in combat.\nFurthermore, although Sabato acknowledged that McDonnell's thesis could sway some voters, he said he remains skeptical of the large-scale relevance of it in this year's gubernatorial race.\n"The real question is what does he still believe and what would he do as governor," Sabato said, noting the thesis' age. "This is not the only issue in the governor's race"
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