Thanks Jane.

Thanks indeed
As a side note, I can’t see any title for this post.

It was a great debate. Refreshing. I hope you can do more.

sorry to go all TradMed on ya, but was there “a definite winner” last night ?

Note on Smithfield Foods: Smithfield may have its corporate origins in Va. and be chartered as a Va corporation but it is on real sense a Va. company. It is a multinational corporation with operations in a number of different countries and US states (including Va). It’s headquarters are in New York City.

I don’t think so; they all had their good and bad moments. From what I’ve seen of online comments at a few sites, most people who had opinions about the candidates felt they were confirmed. For an interesting case study, compare the impressions of Terry McAuliffe on the thread here (where he was seen as slimy and awful) vs. the McAuliffe supporters on Blue Commonwealth talking about how great! he was.

Unfortunately, Virginia people who are both active online and are undecided are few and far between. <g> Aside from McAuliffe, who everyone has an opinion of, I’d be interested in neutral observers’ impressions of Moran and Deeds.

Yes — Ms. Redshift thought she remembered that Smithfield largely moved out of Virginia in response to their EPA troubles, and that’s one of the reasons they moved more to less regulated countries like the flu-source corporate farm in Mexico, but I’m not sure if the connection is that direct.

One candidate last night mentioned that Smithfield had destroyed the Pagan River and that George Allen had taken lots of Smithfield money when he was governor. Seems like Bob McDonnell is on track to be in their pocket as well.

I wasn’t impartial going into the debate, but I did think Creigh Deeds is too hot for television; he seemed demagogic at times. Terry is just, well, Terry. If you like him, I’m sure you thought he was Terrific! last night. Brian Moran strikes me as a plodder sometimes, but he did get impassioned about populist and LGBT rights issues, which made me happy. But I’m a supporter, so like many others who watched last night, my views were confirmed.

Were minds changed? I think the politicos are probably more disposed to netroots-sponsored debates, thanks to the excellent questions, strict format and online action during the debate. It was great when someone said, “We’ve gotten 75 tweets since you three started answering this question.”

Thanks to Jane for doing FDL proud, as usual.

On a brighter note Smithfield just unionized after probably 25 years of trying.

I know Deeds-good man-but not tough enough imho to take on the rethugs in our House AND if he would win we lose the Senate here. Deeds lost the AG race here 4 years ago by 300 votes.

I don’t know Moran at all however, when our rethug House refused to accept 125B for unemployment from the stimulous, both Terry and Moran answered my emails-Deeds did not and I know him and he knows me.

That says it all for me personally. I will vote for Terry-I think he is the only one who is big and bad enough to stand up against the rethugs and old Bobby boy in the race.

Jane Hamsher said: “Two weeks ago marked the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, and he wanted to know what the candidates intended to do about closing the gun show loophole. I hope that whoever wins, they take seriously their promise to him to work hard and close it.”

Jane, Do you really think closing the gun show loophole will end shootings? You can have as many laws on the books that you can possibly think of and it will not end shootings. A person that would kill innocent people are human garbage and closing the loop hole will not do a damn thing. People who are capable of killing will do so regardless. Do you really think they give a damn about some law? It’s amazing how delusional you liberals thinking is. Is it possible for you to have one clear thought? Your thinking is based on how you “feel” and not on any objectivity.

Smithfield Farms has a rather complex relationship with labor unions.

Yes, they agreed to the unionization of one of their plants in North Carolina last year. The United Food & Commercial Workers union fought for 10 years to get this, and it was a tremendous success.

Smithfield operate numerous plants in the US, some are unionized and some are not. Labor relations at some of the plants seem to be relatively good, while others are not. I don’t have info on labor relations at their production facilities in Mexico, Poland, Romania, or China.

All of this has been extensively researched by staff at UFCW but it seems unlikely we will hear from them. The unionization of the NC plant came as part of legal settlement between the union and Smithfield. Part of the settlement appears to have been agreement that UFCW end its educational campaign highlighting Smithfield’s labor, environmental, and corporate abuses.

From what I’ve heard (don’t know how true it is), Brian Moran has been deliberately toning himself down during public appearances because he has a tendency to get too impassioned.

I think Creigh Deeds is a pretty good guy who I disagree with politically more than Moran, so I’m not going to support him. (I had more to say, but it turned into way more, so I made it an Oxdown Diary — comments welcome!)

And as with the YouTube Presidential debates, bloggers and the public ask better, more interesting questions than journalists. I’d wager it’s because we’re actually interested in the answers more than in our own performance. Go Jane!

Do they have a collective bargaing contract yet do you know?

Hi there VADEM.

No, no agreement has been announced on a contract for the recently unionized plant in North Carolina. Should be announced soon, though.

BTW – The company is called Smithfield Foods, not Farms as a erroneously wrote earlier.