ROANOKE, Va. – The Democratic Party of Virginia wants answers from Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie. During a three-day tour -- called the "Ed Gillespie: Swamp Creature" -- through the state, Democratic officials are asking Gillespie to release all consulting and lobbying clients and activities from the past five years.
"Do we really want to bring somebody who has had that background into the governor's office without revealing who his clients are over the last five years, and without saying 'Here's a firewall I'm going to put in place to avoid conflicts of interest?" said Sen. John Edwards, (D) 21st Senate District.
As the election nears, Gillespie and his Democratic challenger Ralph Northam are pulling out all the stops. Experts said Virginians will be seeing more television ads, with Gillespie focusing on Northam's political past and Northam focusing on Gillespie's history of working with special interest groups.
"For the last several weeks, Ed Gillespie has been painting Ralph Northam as an insider, a career politician. Clearly, those attacks have had some impact on the campaign, and this is their way of responding to it, said Ed Lynch, WSLS 10's political analyst.
Lynch said the enormity of this race means campaign tours and hard-hitting ads will continue.
"I think they will become more negative. That's not necessarily a bad thing, although they aren't always pleasant to listen to. There's an old saying that the one nice thing about negative campaigning is that it tends to be more honest than most positive campaigning," said Lynch.
The candidates will go head to head for a second debate on Sept. 19.
A spokesman for Gillespie has released a statement saying, "Ed has not lobbied since leaving his former firm for the White House more than a decade ago. Ed closed down his most recent business on December 31, 2016, and he has no clients. He went above and beyond the disclosure requirements on the statement of economic interest he filed in March of this year."
To see recent polling numbers for the gubernatorial race, click here.