Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate McDonnell On The Defensive Over A Thesis He Wrote 20-Years-Ago

RICHMOND, Va. (WUSA) -- Virginia's Republican Gubernatorial candidate, Bob McDonnell, is on the defensive, repudiating parts of a thesis he wrote 20-years ago, but his opponent's campaign hopes it is a moment that will turn the race around.

McDonnell wrote the paper for his masters-degree thesis at conservative Regent University in 1989.

In the paper, he describes working women and feminists as detrimental to the family.

McDonnell said he's also changed his views that government should favor married couples over "cohabitators and homosexuals" and that contraception shouldn't be available to unmarried couples.

But Democrat Creigh Deeds' campaign says the document is proof McDonnell's views are not mainstream.

McDonnell dismissed the paper as "an academic exercise" from long ago, and he said he no longer believes much of what he wrote then.