Johnson Sorry for Mocking Deeds

Shelia Johnson, I'm Sorry

BET founder Sheila Johnson, a top Bob McDonnell campaign surrogate in the Virginia governor's race, apologized on Monday for making fun of Democratic rival Creigh Deeds’s stutter at a recent rally.

“Two weeks ago I made reference to Creigh Deeds’s inability to clearly communicate effective solutions to the serious problems facing Virginia,” Johnson said in a statement e-mailed to POLITICO. “I shouldn’t have done it in the manner in which I did and for that I apologize for any offense he, or others, may have taken.”

Johnson’s comments were captured on video by a tracker from the Deeds campaign, which then distributed the video through a number of left-leaning state and national blogs. Once it video went viral, the video quickly became cable fodder for hosts questioning if the governor’s race had seen its own “macaca” moment, referring to the derogatory epitheth that torpedoed the 2006 re-election campaign of Sen. George Allen (R-Va.).

The video got prime placement on the Huffington Post and other leading liberal blogs and was the focus of one of the opening segments of MSNBC’s “Hardball.”

Johnson is seen on the video trying to distinguish the differences between Deeds, a Democratic state senator, and McDonnell, the former state attorney general who is the Republican gubernatorial candidate.

“We need someone who can really communicate,” Johnson says on the video. “Bob McDonnell can communicate. The other people that I talk to, especially his o-o-o-opponent could not articulate what needed to be done.”

After spreading the video, Deeds’ campaign seized on the remarks, arguing in a conference call with reporters that Johnson’s comment was “offensive to many people.”

“Our comment on this is pretty simple. It’s disappointing. It’s disappointing when one campaign resorts to these petty personal attacks,” said Deeds adviser Mo Elleithee. “If you’re looking for someone who is polished, Creigh is probably not the first person to come to mind…whether or not Creigh has a speaking issue is less important than their blanket indictment about people who have speech impediments.”

McDonnell communications director Tucker Martin shot back that Deeds “has never had a problem voicing his false attacks about Bob McDonnell.”

“What he has had difficulty expressing is any positive vision for Virginia’s future. Democratic businesswoman Sheila Johnson was noting that fact,” Martin said. “Why the Deeds campaign wants to attack a prominent supporter of both Governor Tim Kaine and President Barack Obama, while reminding voters that she strongly supports Bob McDonnell for governor, is beyond us.”