Disability Politics
Standing with a group of disabled supporters, Tim Kaine today accused his Republican opponent in the race for governor of being "insensitive" to disabled people in the state.
His charge: That Kilgore, as attorney general, formally opposed a lawsuit that would have allowed people to sue states for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. At the time, Kilgore claimed he was protecting the state's right of "soveriegn immunity" against frivolous lawsuits. Gov. Mark Warner opposed Kilgore's intervention in the California case, saying the state had "nothing to fear" from the ADA.
Apparently, though, Kaine thinks Kilgore might have something to fear. He told reporters today that "this was clearly a free-lance effort" by Kilgore to oppose the lawsuit. "It demonstrates a severe insensitivity to the equality principle."
Kilgore press secretary Tim Murtaugh called the charge baloney. He said the former attorney general was moved by what he said were frivolous ADA lawsuits filed by prisoners who wanted to change cells. If the state lost sovereign immunity, it would open up a whole can of worms, he said.
"He's only playing politics with this," Murtaugh said.
Murtaugh then launched his own broadside, accusing Kaine of ignoring the issue of making schools more accessible to the disabled while he was mayor of Richmond.
He cited a federal lawsuit, filed this month, which accuses the city of failing to make 57 of its schools fully compliant with the ADA standards. That's the same number of schools that failed to meet the ADA standards when the law was enacted in the early 1990s, the suit alleges.
"We have school children and teachers in the City of Richmond who still to this day cannot have access to the public schools because Tim Kaine didn't lift a finger," Murtaugh said.
The back and forth continued with Murtaugh's counterpart, Delacey Skinner, who dismissed the lawsuit as indicative of nothing. She said the school system's ADA problem was "not a problem that was ever brought to the attention of the city council or the mayor." And she said Kaine pushed for money to build new schools that meet all the disability standards.
"The only reason there are schools that became compliant was because of the new schools that Tim Kaine helped to build," she said.
By Michael Shear |
June 28, 2005; 4:42 PM ET
| Category:
Jerry Kilgore
, Tim Kaine
Previous: Don't Forget the Delegates |
Next: Kilgore Hoping to Win Support From Blacks
Posted by: Jiah Grey | June 28, 2005 07:47 PM
This lawsuit is being brought by Richmond families against Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, Richmond City Council and the Richmond School Board.
Mayor Wilder and the Richmond City Council are named as respondents because of specific actions they took which have prevented the School Board from complying with ADA, namely "taking" the entire $9.25 million fund balance (monies accumulated during past years for construction projects that the school system intended to use to bring our buildings into compliance) and slashing our capital improvements budget from $7 million to $2 million.
When Tim Kaine was mayor he was responsible for bringing about the construction of the ONLY FOUR SCHOOLS IN THIS CITY THAT ARE ADA COMPLIANT. Kaine has consistently championed the rights of children and adults with disabilities in this city and Commonwealth.
For Wilder to take the fund balance monies and slash our construction budget as he has -- and for Jerry Kilgore to attempt to blame this lawsuit on Kaine -- instead of Wilder -- demonstrates a new low for both Wilder and Kilgore.
How dare they attempt to score political points on the backs of children with disabilities? Shame on them. How dare they attempt to blame their lack of action on the one man who fought to build the only schools in Richmond that are ADA compliant?
Shame on them.
Posted by: Carol A.O. Wolf | June 28, 2005 07:50 PM
This lawsuit is being brought by Richmond families against Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, Richmond City Council and the Richmond School Board.
Mayor Wilder and the Richmond City Council are named as respondents because of specific actions they took which have prevented this School Board (also named) from complying with ADA, namely "taking" the entire $9.25 million fund balance (including monies accumulated during past years for construction projects that the school system intended to use to bring our buildings into compliance) and slashing our capital improvements budget from $7 million to $2 million -- the very next day after our School Board embraced a three-year plan to bring our schools into ADA compliance.
When Tim Kaine was mayor he was responsible for bringing about the construction of the ONLY FOUR SCHOOLS IN THIS CITY THAT ARE ADA COMPLIANT. Kaine has consistently championed the rights of children and adults with disabilities in this city and Commonwealth.
For Wilder to take the fund balance monies and slash our construction budget -- and for Jerry Kilgore to attempt to blame this lawsuit on Kaine -- instead of Wilder -- demonstrates a new low for both Wilder and Kilgore.
How dare they attempt to score political points on the backs of children with disabilities? Shame on them. How dare they attempt to blame their lack of action on the one man who fought to build the only schools in Richmond that are ADA compliant?
Shame on them.
Posted by: Carol A.O. Wolf, Third District Member, Richmond School Board | June 28, 2005 08:06 PM
Note to Jiah Grey: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),landmark Civil Rights legislation signed into law by George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990 required all governmental localities to perform an audit of their facilities and to submit a plan of action by July 26, 1992. In response to that, the former Mayor and past Richmond City Councils allocated monies to bring schools into compliance and it was under Tim Kaine's leadership that the only four schools in our city that are currently ADA compliant were built. I consider that an action of a most responsive Mayor and City Council.
Note to Delacey Skinner: This lawsuit is far from indicative of "nothing." This lawsuit is about the actions of Richmond's CURRENT Mayor, L. Douglas Wilder.
Posted by: Carol A.O. Wolf, Third District Member, Richmond School Board | June 28, 2005 08:32 PM
Well, then that's at odds with Kaine's claims that he was unaware of it, isn't it?
Posted by: Albemarle | June 28, 2005 10:37 PM
Jerry Kilgore has a history of attempting to disable the rights granted by the landmark civil rights legislation that was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
Someone needs to ask him why he thinks people with disabilities are not entitled to the rights that other people in our society enjoy.
Posted by: Carol A.O. Wolf, Third District Member, Richmond School Board | June 29, 2005 09:15 AM
Jerry Kilgore has a history of attempting to disable the rights granted by the landmark civil rights legislation that was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
Someone needs to ask him why he thinks people with disabilities are not entitled to the rights that other people in our society enjoy.
Posted by: Carol A.O. Wolf, Third District Member, Richmond School Board | June 29, 2005 09:15 AM
Post a Comment
We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions.
This quote by Kaine's spokesperson: She said the school system's ADA problem was "not a problem that was ever brought to the attention of the city council or the mayor." The lawsuit states that the City had a 1992 survey which illuminated that 57 of the City's schools were not compliant with the ADA. Therefore, her statement is an absolute falsity.