change what it stands for. it has been long-standing. i think the republicans have to do a better job of connect and with how people live in the 21st century and also using 21st century communication tools. the days of just issuing a press to do tvr going off and the television ads, that is as much.cting we talked a little bit earlier about social media. in the two thousand eight election, when president obama was able to create this network and2, 13 million people their e-mail addresses, that was a real wake-up call to meet. >> 6:35 eastern and

9:35 eastern. the candidates for attorney general in their final debate before the november 5 election. courtesy fromus roanoke. >> we have republican and attorney general, mr. ken cuccinelli and democrat terry mcauliffe. thank you for being here tonight. our panel, dr. harry wilson, the director of policy at roanoke college and political analyst, and by co-anchor, chris, will be asking questions that came from you, the viewers from across the state. each candidate will have one

minute 30 seconds to answer each question followed by a one minute rebuttal by the first candidate. on a viewer candidates, each -- viewer questions, each candidate will have 30 seconds to answer. i asked the candidates to remain in the allotted time. we have timers to keep track. first, we began with opening statements. determined by a coin toss, terry mcauliffe goes first. you have 90 seconds. >> thank you to virginia tech for hosting us this evening. there has been a lot of back and forth over the last 11 months. there is a simple question that virginians must answer over the next 11 days. who will work with both parties to focus on jobs and education. i have been honored to earn the support of an historic number of

republicans, many of whom have never supported a democrat for governor. it is the same kind of coalition i will assemble in richmond, with responsible leaders who will put jobs first and partisanship behind, focus on mainstream issues of job creation and maintaining fiscal responsibility. my opponent has become increasingly desperate. that includes false attacks on me and false attacks about his own record. during this debate, just like his previous campaign, my opponent will claim he will focus on jobs. even the conservative richmond times dispatch, he " pursues his strident agenda with --" he tried to derail the transportation bill. this week, he refused to say whether he supported reopening the government.

>> mr. mcauliffe, that is your time for an opening statement. >> thank you. i want to thank my wife for being here as well. unlike my record of service, terry mcauliffe did nothing for virginia or virginians before deciding to run for governor. nothing. some people run to be something and some people run to do something. i am the only one with a plan to create 50 8000 new jobs, improve education at all levels and protect our -- 58,000 jobs. by opponent will speak in platitudes without telling you he will pay for all of the empty promises he has made. his extremist big government spending promises add up to new taxes.

the obamacare plan is unfolding with failing websites and sky high premiums. i was the first to fight obamacare. my opponent did not inc. it went far enough. he wanted the federal government providing your health insurance. look how badly they are doing with the health care exchanges. now they say obamacare has to be expanding -- expanded in virginia. why would we expand failure? vote for me on november 5. creating jobs and fighting off washington overreach is what i will do as your governor. >> let's go right to our first panelists with a question for terry mcauliffe. >> both of your proposed budgets suggest billions of additional spending. mr. cuccinelli, you have suggested covering loopholes,

but there is not enough to cover suggested spending. mr. mcauliffe, you suggest the expansion of medicaid, but that is not guaranteed. will you raise taxes on virginians or cut programs? if it is the latter, be specific and tell us what you would cut. >> first of all, no new taxes. i have talked about the medicaid expansion, which would free up $500 million from the general fund. what we need to do is first figure out what efficiencies we can have in the government, the money we could save from medicaid expansion.

once we know how much money we have, we can put the priorities i talked about -- teacher pay, investing in committee colleges, financial aid in higher aid -- that is the approved way of improving government. my opponent has proposed a 1.4 billion dollar tax cut. he does not say how he will pay for it. the former chair of the house appropriations committee says it will bring fiscal disaster to virginia if his plan actually went through. e.w. jackson said he and ken cuccinelli want to eliminate the culprit tax in virginia. get rid of the corporate income tax. he did not work the governor's tax package. he does not want the medicaid expansion. his plan is a fiscal disaster for the commonwealth of virginia. we cannot grow and diversify when we cut public education and much-needed money we need to grow our economy. >> that is time.

mr. cuccinelli, you have 90 seconds. >> the washington post said a lot of what you just heard from terry mcauliffe was not true. my tax cut plan would grow 58,000 jobs and raise the business income tax. i am the only candidate with enact jewel plan with details to grow new jobs. we pay for that because, unlike washington, we reduced the growth of government spending to just under the world 3.5% and cut one sick -- 1/6. the only major spending program i have proposed is in the area of mental health. i have said how i would pay for that. it is to move jobs that are now used for non--healthcare services over to treat children non-healthcare services over to treat children with mental

health needs. i have explained how i will pay for my proposals. terry mcauliffe has proposed spending. he pretends to get $500 million out of a medicaid expansion. he calls it a jobs program. it is welfare. you cannot make magic money out of the federal government like he would like to. that is going to cost every family a $1700 tax increase. >> terry mcauliffe, dr. bob has said where the money will come from. what programs would you turn down? >> we can always bring efficiency to government. there is a study. my opponent talks about staving money from tax incentives. it is not billions of dollars. his plan has been attacked by

democrats and republicans. the former chairman of the house appropriations committee said it would bring fiscal disaster to virginia. senator mark warner just commented on it, as have so many local elected officials. the idea that you can do 14 $4 billion in tax cuts per year with -- $1.4 billion in tax cuts per year and say -- in not say how you will pay for it is fiscally responsible. his plan would see thousands of teachers laid off. we are facing cuts with sequestration. we need to be growing and diversifying our economy. >> mr. mcauliffe, that will do it.

i do not know if you answered what we asked. we will go to question number two from dr. harry wilson. this question is for ken cuccinelli. >> both of you have acknowledged that it can be a problem with teachers teaching to the test. what are your alternatives to the s.o.l.'s? >> i do not want to get rid of them. i want to improve them. that reform of 20 years ago was a great addition to our educational system. it gave us accountability for taxpayers and teachers. i do not think it is working quite as well as we all envisioned. we are teaching to the test too much. i believe we can go to more generalized tests. we are still testing children for their progress, but allow us to be more flexible source -- so schools can test at different times. they do not all operate on the same school schedule.

we will involve teachers, parents, academics in putting together a commission to review the s.o.l. tests so they better evaluate our children and so we can better -- more fairly evaluate our teachers. i have talked about the need to make sure parents have control over their children's education, particularly where they are in failing schools. we have great schools in virginia. every school is not a success. terrance need to be able to move their children out of that school to another public school or to a private school. -- parents need to be able to move their children out of that school to another public school or private school. >> mr. mcauliffe, your alternative to the s.o.l. >> they do not work for our parents or for our teachers.

we need accountability. they are judged on whether students pass and -- an s.o.l. when i am on the campaign trail, i talk about reform. teachers said, i was teaching to the test. students are being forced to learn how to memorize. we want critical reasoning going on with our students so we can build jobs of the 21st century. it is great we've memorized the date of the man -- the date a man landed on the moon. but how can virginia become a world leader in space exploration? we can understand how that child is thinking. let's collaboratively come

together and work for our students. education is important. that is how you build a 21st- century economy. my opponent has proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow public school funds to be taken out for private schools. i do not support that. as governor, i do not want to see a penny being taken out of our public schools. we need to make virginia a model in america and the globe for our k-12 system. >> mr. cuccinelli, your opponent has criticize you saying you want to cut funding for education. your response to that? >> it is important to note i want the strongest possible public school system we can have. it is more important to make sure every child in virginia has the best opportunity to veggie to be educated as possible. he has made that charge before. i have told you how we would pay for our tax cuts. it is not like washington where

terry comes from. we have to pay for the things we want. i will give you my last 30 seconds. you did not tell us how you are paying for any of your pet -- plan. >> let me say it again. we need to look at government efficiencies. i am not committing money until i know exactly how much money we are going to have. i am not going to have fiscally irresponsible budgeting like ken cuccinelli. if we can get the money from the medicaid expansion and we can bring efficiency, that is what we will have. >> that is time. this comes from michael anker -- michael anker -- my co-anchor. this comes from a viewer.

>> on the issue of gun control, we got a lot of tweets from our viewers. do you support or oppose universal background checks on every gun sale, even on private sales where neither seller nor purchaser has a firearms license. and do you support a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault rifles? >> let me first speak as a parent, as a spouse. it is important to understand that when we drop our children off at school or our loved ones off at work, we want to make sure our children and loved ones are safe. i am a strong supporter of the second amendment. i support universal background checks.

my opponent and i differ on that. i am wearing my pen today in memory of all of those folks at virginia tech that went through that tragedy. the other day a young man came to see me. he was in one of the classrooms. he was shot 4 times. he still has three bullets in his body. i think it is critical, imperative for every community and every elected official to do the best thing we can. some people should not own guns. >> that is 60 seconds. mr. cuccinelli. >> what happened here at virginia tech is a tragedy that affects every virginian. none of the rings you asked about would have affected that tragedy. -- things you asked about would have affected that tragedy. i have spent more than 15 years working to help people suffering for -- from mental illness.

we need to do more in that direction to make sure less of those tragedies happen because they are all tied in one way or another to mental health failures. i also would note that i am a strong advocate of enforcing our gun laws. virginia is one of the best states in the country for doing that. i am an a-rated candidate and i am running against the only f- rated candidate running statewide. he is running an ad that says the only way we can be safe is to have restrictions on law- abiding citizens. >> we have a panel question from dr. bob. this is directed at mr. cuccinelli.

>> southwest virginia has been hit hard. what in your job plan would specifically help the hard-hit areas here in the commonwealth of virginia, particularly south side and southwest virginia? >> i agree with you that they have had the hardest time economically over a number of years. my jobs program was designed to maximize the number of job creation in the private sector without the government picking winners and losers. that is what we started the whole campaign with. it is what we still advance as one of the most important things i am campaigning on. that matters most in the parts of for junior that are struggling the most like southside, where we have the longest term unemployment. they are also suffering from a lot of the regulatory onslaught out of washington.

the war on coal heard west virginia. -- kurt west virginia -- hurt west virginia. my opponent said when he was running last time that he never wanted another coal plant in west virginia. i have fought that kind of onslaught from washington that kills jobs and kills opportunity in the parts of opportunity we need it the most. you look over in southside virginia where an enormous torsion of electricity is from coal-fired electricity generation. it is critically related to job creation for manufacturing, which we would like to see coming back to that part of virginia. it will not happen if we do not have reliable low-cost electricity, and i have been fighting for. >> thank you. mr. mcauliffe, 90 seconds. >> we have to focus on these communities and open these

communities up to new business opportunities. the medicaid expansion would help tremendously. millions of dollars would be invested with quality, life- saving care. a lot of people get forced into poverty by their health care costs. i supported the governor's transportation plan. my governor sided with the tea party. if you want to open up communities, we have to get trucks off of 81. i support the coalfield expressway. i also talked about what we need to do. rod band, cell phone access. i was out of cell -- broadband, cell phone access. i talk about the work being done here at virginia tech. i just met with a professor here. the idea that we can create all

of these new jobs is really spectacular. it is there in front of us. we need to invest in that research. i commend virginia tech for the outstanding work they have done. you cannot grow the economy and bring in new professor. -- new professors. you cannot grow an economy by suing scientists. >> mr. mcauliffe. >> we have an area of some agreement here. the state has a role to play in energy research. where we part ways is terry mcauliffe wants to have one quarter of our electricity coming from solar, wind, and geothermal by 2025. that would cause 30% higher electricity rates. they estimate they are going to lose 10,000 jobs by 2020 and

they are less than half our size. that is 20,000 lost jobs for virginia. that is not the way to ensure the southwest can continue on. you here again, the medicaid expansion. the magic money tree that funds everything terry mcauliffe talks about. the $300 million in new spending that will cost every family $1700 more in new taxes every year. >> dr. harry wilson, your question for terry mcauliffe. >> many citizens say they want elected officials that will compromise to get eggs done. at the same time, people want -- compromise to get things done. how can you know when to compromise and when to fight for principles? can you give an example form your own experience when it was right to compromise and an

example of when it was right to stick to your principal? >> the medicaid expansion is critical for virginia's future. i spoke to both democratic caucuses twice. i thought it was important for how we grow our economy. i want every woman to know that i trust women to make their own decisions about their own health care did -- health care decisions. my opponent will not compromise. he is a rigid -- he has a rigid ideological agenda. it is my opponent who threatened and bullied the board of health that could result in 20 women's health centers being shut down. thousands of women use the centers for cancer screening and affordable birth control. my opponent has referred to gay virginians as selfless and soulless human beings.

who talks like that? you cannot grow and diversify our economy with its mean- spirited language. he sponsored legislation to tell virginians when they can and cannot get out of a marriage. he wants to define when you can get divorce. there is an important bill to increase child support payments to rise with inflation. not all that controversial. guess who voted against it? ken cuccinelli. compromise is not a bad word. >> time. mr. cuccinelli. >> i am the only person with experience working on a bipartisan basis to do anything. terry mcauliffe did not do anything for the transportation bill. i have compromised on a previous transportation bill when i was actually involved in it.

in 2007 when i was in the state senate, we got 21 votes for a compromised transportation bill. governor tim kaine proceeded to make it unconstitutional and it collapsed. i did not compromise when it came to getting property rights passed in virginia. it took eight years of hard fighting. the you know who the key vote was, the last democrat. it took many years of fighting with the leadership of both parties. there is a time to fight in a time to compromise. he mentioned abortion clinic regulations. i have long sought to compromise and they rejected. what he said was flat out false and i believe terry knows it. that personhood till was a bipartisan bill.

we have never had a bill -- that personhood bill was a bipartisan bill. he is treating you falsely and you have to be careful not to believe what he is saying. >> mr. mcauliffe, do you want to address that? we are talking about compromise. someone said, having the experience to work with government. how would you work with richmond? >> the day after the election, i will meet with ever republican in the house of delegates. sequestration is going to be in for another year. you have got to learn to work together. that is why 12 former public and legislators, many of whom worked with ken cuccinelli, have endorsed my candidacy. the mayor of virginia beach. the fairfax chamber of commerce

supports me. look at the endorsements i have received. the washington post, the virginian-pilot, the daily post, which endorsed mitt romney. they say, terry mcauliffe will bring people together. pragmatism over ideology. in order to move forward, we have to do it in a bipartisan way. that is why so many republican business leaders and leaders -- officials have endorsed me. >> chris with a question from the viewers. the libertarian candidate for governor has been denied the opportunity to take place -- take part in this debate. how do you feel about the decision not to allow him to participate in this debate? was his exclusion from the

debate in the commonwealth's best interests and why? >> i was an invited candidate here and i am happy to participate. wdvj set the rules and i abide by the rules. i inspected be participating in an event with him on saturday. the race is not over yet. i am proud to have congressman ron paul's endorsement. in my lifetime in virginia, i am the strongest pro--- liberty candidate ever -- pro-liberty candidate ever elected. i have fought for the smallest, one person, who served 27 years for a crime he did not commit. i defended his liberty to get him exonerated. i worked with democrats in the senate to make that possible.

next month, i will argue another one of those cases to exonerate another man was convicted falsely. >> thank you, mr. cuccinelli. mr. mcauliffe, what do you think of his exclusion from the debate? >> we were happy to have him. we made that clear to the television and everybody else. a lot of the issues that he campaigns on, he and i have talked on different issues. we are about bringing folks together to move the, well forward. my opponent always attacks the federal government. he was quiet on one big issue. when the violence against women issue came up for reauthorization, 47 attorney generals -- attorneys general signed a letter asking that that be reauthorized. only three attorneys general did not do it.

one of them was ken cuccinelli. we have got to stop this attack on women. we have got to stop this attack on gay virginians. we cannot put walls up in virginia if we are to grow. >> thank you, mr. mcauliffe. now we go to dr. bob with a question for terry mcauliffe. >> the two of you have raised over $40 million for this election. the libertarian candidate has raised less than $100,000. polls suggest he is drawing support from both parties and across the ideological spectrum. can you explain how you have not been more effective at keeping your natural constituents more loyal to your campaign? what message are you hearing from the voters? >> i hope on election day they will be loyal. let's wait until everybody

actually goes and votes. from the beginning of this campaign, december 4, when i got into this race, i talked about the issues that are important. in northern virginia where dorothy and i have raised our five children, i can tell you as a parent, we have serious issues on transportation. we are stuck in traffic 67 hours a year. we have to preserve our tourism business. we have to make sure we are protecting our military assets. and i talk transportation, bipartisan, it is important. i talk about education reform. i talk about pre-k, early childhood development. if you take the average teacher pay, we ranked 50th out of 50 states. this is a great nation.

we need to be bringing everybody together. i talk about what we need to do with the community colleges. i have visited every single one of them. how do we build upon that? that is what i have talked about from the beginning of this campaign. we have a difference on the medicaid expansion. i want to make sure the commonwealth of virginia is the best of the 50. the way to do it is do a bipartisan way. i hope the voters will show they will listen. >> thank you, mr. mcauliffe. mr. cuccinelli. >> a lot of platitudes and no details. this is one thing terry mcauliffe is the best in the history of the country at. that is raising lyrical money. you can -- that is rating political money. in his book, he says, i like governor's race the best. when he was asked about a

teamsters case in which he was an unindicted co-conspirator in in the 1990s, he said, you help me, i help you. that is politics. that is not my politics. i believe good policy is good politics. i passed a piece of electricity legislation. i had donors on both sides of that. virginia got lower electricity bills by about $1 billion between now and 2025. i am the only candidate in this race who have ever poke holes -- who has ever proposed a solution. the gas companies did not like it. if you elect me your next governor, we will move ahead with a mandate from you to implement that solution whether those companies like it or not. you get you help me, i help you. that is politics from terry

mcauliffe. or you get good policy from ken cuccinelli. >> mr. mcauliffe, you talk about the medicaid expansion. if you do not get them, how will you pay for the things in your budget? >> you do not get them until you pay for them. he called social security and medicare -- he said these were government programs created by politicians to make people dependent on government. my mother is 91 years old. she has paid into this her entire life. she is not dependent on the government and it was not created by ad politicians. that was in his book. he talks about the own nations. ken cuccinelli got a $100,000 contribution from counsel energy. they were siding against

thousands of people who were due money and the attorney general's office was providing data, hurting thousands of for genuine's. >> mr. mcauliffe, thank you. dr. harry wilson for ken cuccinelli. >> governor serves only 14-year term. assuming you are the next governor of virginia, at the conclusion of your term, what do you hope journalists and pundits identify as your signature issue. please limit yourself to one issue. >> i believe getting the economy moving as fast as possible and more diverse as we watch the damage we are taking in virginia from sequestration, from a federal government we all know has to shrink. we have such a big part of our

economy tied to those federal dollars. we need diversification in those areas. you have already asked about the needs in southside and southwest where we have longer-term and more difficult circumstances. the single most important thing i can get accomplished is my jobs land. it will create 58,000 new jobs by reducing personal income tax. that is where small businesses pay their taxes. when they are growing, they hire faster than any other business. also, we will lower the business income tax to 4%, which will make us most competitive state in the country, paid for by reducing the growth of government spending. as well as getting rid of about 1/6 of our tax credits and loopholes. if there is one thing i can get

done, that is the one. more people are dying for the dignity of work and i mean full time work, not obamacare part- time work. >> mr. mcauliffe. >> obviously, growing and diversifying the economy is the huge challenge we face. sequestration will most likely be here for another year. it will have a dramatic impact on the virginia economy. we are the number number one recipient of dod funds. how do you grow and how do you diversify? that is why i talk about education. the great work being done here at virginia tech. old dominion university. new-wave technologies. i talk about the r&d tax credit. doubling the angel investor tax credit. we need to be doing a better job

of taking the great research we have and helping to take that out to market, to commercialize it. that is how you grow and diversify an economy. have to have an effective health care delivery system. >> what one issue do you want to be remembered for? you still have a little more time. you have 20 more seconds. >> i will say it again. creating jobs and diversifying the economy. dorothy, who is with me tonight, we want our five children to stay here. i have 2 in college. they will be getting out soon. we want to make sure they stay here. you have to have those jobs in the future. >> mr. cuccinelli. more platitudes -- >> more platitudes. no plan. he has made clear he does not

like my plan. saying the words education and research, that is all great. those are goals. those are platitudes, what they are not plants. i like education. i like puppies. i do not bring a puppy home if i do not have a plan for dealing with that puppy. he is all copies and no plans. that is the way this has gone. look at his jobs promises from green tech. he promised 5000 jobs. in 2010, 2000 union jobs in virginia from green tech. then 900 jobs in the. i the time he left -- 900 jobs in mississippi the. >> thank you. we go to chris with a question from someone in the commonwealth.

>> what will you do to address child poverty and preschool readiness given that current governor's decision not to apply for money for preschool readiness? >> we should not be giving up money that is due us from the federal government. my government likes to attack the federal government. i want to work with the federal government to bring those dollars in. i always talk about what we need to do in early childhood development. it is absolutely critical. when a child is born, between birth and three years old, 80% of the brain has been developed. let's not start and end early age picking winners and losers an early age picking winners and losers. that will be one of my top priorities as governor.

it is important to build the workforce development of the future. it will be one of my biggest initiatives when i am elected governor. i will apply for that federal funding. i do not want to see us giving away our virginia federal dollars. >> thank you. >> we have a plan as part of our education program to provide for parents who are eligible for vouchers at the pre-k level so parents can waste their children where they can do the best job in development. the most important thing for any poor family is employment. it comes back to so many things that grow out of that. ronald reagan said the best social welfare program in the world is a job. and he is still right. my italian grandfather did not have a sixth-grade education. he was proud to work to support

his family. there are so many people in virginia judge us -- that just want the opportunity and the dignity of work. as we fight off the washington regulation, that is when it is appropriate to fight washington. that hurts the poor first and worst. i will be a governor for the war and all virginians. >> thank you, mr. cuccinelli. dr. bob with a question for ken cuccinelli. >> student debt averages over 25 thousand dollars per graduate, an all-time high. -- 25,000 dollars per graduate, an all-time high. will you increase funding for state in just -- state institutions or make state institutions semi-private or more independent?

>> my greatest concern with higher education is affordability. many of our universities do a good job providing financial aid for those at the lower end of the economic scale. as we have seen with the numbers and you have cited some of them but a class families are getting squeezed. we are committed to providing with ap credit, 10,000 degrees with some s.t.e.m. programs. and using online teaching. the biggest university in virginia is liberty university because of their 92,000 online students. it is not 100% of the classroom experience, but it is cost- effective. our public universities need to catch up with that. it is a way to share resources

effectively across virginia. you mentioned the semiprivate approach. the washington post people -- wrote two articles about my opponent when he got donations about rich out-of-state uva alumni who wanted to go the semi private approach. two days later, his website changed and the plan changed. when the washington post got the e-mails, they saw the two were related. >> state funding is obviously the most important thing we can do. i want to promote more state funding for our higher education institutions. it is important that our children have that opportunity and it is not so expensive and prohibitive that they cannot go. i talked about more that we can do on financial aid. it is important that so many of our virginia students be able to

send their students to higher education. i met with the state council on higher education. they told me i would have to put $50 million more in the budget just -- $ 15 million more dollars in the budget -- $15 million more dollars into the budget. we talked about efficiencies. we can bring some more inefficiencies to save money. it is important that we do that. that is what we need to do to provide for all of our children. when my opponent proposes a $1.4 billion tax cut, it will come out of education. he soon the university of virginia, costing them nearly $600,000. >> time. your thoughts on semi private or

financially independent state universities. >> i am sorry. i am not understanding your question. >> clarify your view on making virginia's diversities more financially independent. >> i understand. i do not support that. we want to see better financial support. from the state government, that would come from a growing economy. kerry keeps using the word efficiently -- efficiency. you have to know how something works before you can make it efficient. i am the only candidate with on- the-job training. i have been a state senator and read the bills that came to me in my committees.

i have done my homework as attorney general. at the beginning of this year when my opponent was asked about who was in the cabinet, he did not know. the virginia pilot ran that on the front page. you have to know the basics before you can make things more efficient. i also support grants to virginia citizens to go to private virginia universities so they can stay here in virginia. we can make college more affordable for every family. >> ain't you, mr. cuccinelli -- thank you, mr. cuccinelli. >> some colleges have increased school security. what is your opinion of arming teachers and administrators who have been trained in hiring firearms? how can you effectively deal

with the mental health issues that underlie these problems? >> this is a serious issue. the commonwealth should help. there is also federal money. i do not believe we should be arming our teachers and our professors. there are programs we can take advantage of that would allow us to put security officers in our schools. it is critical. we are here at virginia tech and the horrific tragedy that occurred. i went out and visited a memorial today. i looked at a headstone of a young man and it said happy birthday. this would have been your 30th birthday. we need to do everything we possibly can to make sure our communities are safe. my phone it like to say i got an f from the nra. i do not care what grade i got from the nra.

i do not want to see another new town, aurora, virginia tech. there are things we can do. mental illness. investing more in that. there is a big piece of the medicaid expansion money that will help with until illness. someone who has a mental illness probably should not going -- should not be going to jail. there are people who should not buy weapons. you do not know that unless you have universal background checks. >> time. >> thank you for the question. there are a lot of issues wrapped up in your question. i cochaired the task force after the connecticut tragedy. none of us want to see this again. i agree with terry on that point.

how do we make them as unlikely as possible. the most important thing we can do is be much more aggressive in addressing mental health needs across our society. it is nearly impossible to find the problem before it happens. we can find people suffering from mental illness and help them. we have a lot of work we need to do with children and adults. i have proposed where that money can come from to expand the resources. as attorney general, when we got the largest health care fraud resolution in the history of the state, the first place we put the money we obtained from that case was in training law enforcement to be prepared to deal with people suffering from mental illness. it keeps officers safer.

it keeps people suffering from mental illness safer. it gets them out of the criminal justice system and into the care they need. that is where we need to go as a society. >> i will go back to my earlier point. this is a real difference in the race. i support universal background checks. my opponent does not. this is a fundamental difference in this race. 90% of americans today support universal background checks. the idea that an individual can go to a gun show without any back round check to check if there is a mental illness, has this individual been charged with domestic abuse? this is a simple process. i have gone through it and read it takes 5-10 minutes to go through a background -- i have gone through it and it takes 5- 10 minutes to go through a background check. i am standing on the stage at virginia tech where we

experienced one of the most terrific events with a gun in american history. it is time we stand up. >> time. thank you to both of you. we go to chris. this question comes from one of you in the audience today. chris, your question. this goes to mr. cuccinelli first. >> this comes from jenny and our audience. she says, as a recent graduate with a high gpa, i am still struggling to find a career. what will you do to help recent graduates? >> the most important thing we can do is to get the economy going faster. when you asked me earlier what is my number one priority, this is it. the people hit the hardest is are those -- are those coming into the labor market.

when companies are not hiring, they keep what they have got and they do not add more. i would also point out that obamacare has been terrible for hiring. it is destroying the opportunities for millions of americans because small businesses, medium-sized businesses do not know how much your next employee is going to cost them. my opponent did not think obamacare went far enough. he wanted to go to the full- blown single-payer. this is what obamacare is doing to the economy. small businesses are having to lay people off or throw them off of their health insurance. you do not have the new people coming into the labor market. >> mr. mcauliffe, what would you do to help recent graduates? >> i have called for doubling their research and development

tax credit. he needs to do a better job of taking our great research from our universities and taking them out to market. it is an to do that. we cannot do that unless we have an effective transportation system. we should become the global leader in cybersecurity. lots of investment and loss of jobs can be the aided. nanotechnology -- lots of investment and lots of jobs can be created. we have to bring folks together. you cannot do that unless virginia is viewed as being open and welcoming. women will not move here when can could tonelli -- when ken cuccinelli want to make the pill it legal and they are attacking gay virginians. >> we are coming up on the and of the hour and we will go to a

one minute posing statement from each of our candidates. we began with mr. cuccinelli. you are first. >> you heard my vision for virginia and terry's divisive attacks. terry fought for his hardest and pals, like supporting obamacare. he did not think it went far enough. can you imagine? now he wants to expand obamacare right here in virginia. if you want to reject obamacare and terry mcauliffe's failed big government approach, you have your chance on november 5. kerry also wants to raise your taxes $1700 to pay -- terry also wants to raise your taxes $1700 to pay for his promises. with your support on november 5, i will keep fighting for you. terry never told us his plans

for virginia, just his platitudes. without mentioning me, tell us one detailed land and how you will pay for it. >> i want to thank everyone for being here tonight. i want to thank virginia tech for hosting us. i would like to thank my wife for being here tonight. virginia had another candidate for governor who came form -- came from a business background. he was attacked for not having richmond experience. he went on to save our aaa bond rating. he brought people together both democrats and republicans, and build a strong record of forking for virginia. his name is mark warner. mark warner is out campaigning for me every day.

we face huge challenges in virginia with sequestration. we need that same kind of governor again, someone who will bring people together and focus on the economy and not on a diverse is -- divisive ideological virginia. i want to move virginia forward and i would appreciate your vote on virginia five. -- on november 5. >> it is hard to believe that our has already passed. he got to a lot of good topics. we want to thank both of you for taking time and for being here. [applause] my thanks as well to the live audience. we also want to thank virginia tech for cohosting and cosponsoring this debate and allowing it to be brought to

you. thank you for being here and all of the viewers who tweeted on facebook and wrote. we hope you had some of your questions answered tonight. good night. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] weeklook ahead at the coming up on capitol hill, the farm bill, and testimony by secretary said bill yes. --secretary sublists followed by the government's efforts to fix the health care website. then, the earned income tax per -- tax credit. how it works and who is eligible. our guest is william mcbride.

"washington journal" live every morning at >> up next, newsmakers. about the health care law implementation and its committee role in oversight. after that, american profile with the two lawmakers begin with joe manchin and washington congresswoman. later, remarks from former secretary of state hillary clinton. celebrating the 10th and refers to read -- 10th anniversary. >> we want to welcome back to "newsmakers" congressman fred upton, chairman of the energy and commerce committee. jake sherman of politico and siobhan hughes of "the wall street journal." siobhan, go ahead. >> what was your take away from the hearing yesterday? where will you go from here? will you issue subpoenas?