Sunday, April 19, 2009
Candidates for governor air positions
Virginia's one GOP and three Democratic contenders are reaching out to the public and drawing lines that define their differences.
Related
From today's paper
Watch live video from the General Assembly
Who's your legislator?
More resources
A gaudy display of campaign signs lined the country road leading to Wakefield's annual Shad Planking on Wednesday, an eye-opening reminder that Virginians will elect a new governor this year.
Three of the four major-party candidates for governor pressed the flesh while staffers and volunteers distributed beer and campaign paraphernalia to the crowds in the soggy eastern Virginia pine grove. The candidates poked fun at one another during the festival's speaking program, competing for laughs and cheers from their rain-chilled supporters.
But beneath the stagecraft and the one-liners were signs of battle lines being drawn in a high-stakes election that already is attracting national attention. The Virginia race likely will be viewed as an early test of Democratic strength and Republican revival after the election of President Obama, the first Democrat to carry the state in 44 years.
Democrats hope to win a third consecutive governor's race, and Obama's decision to tap outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine as head of the Democratic National Committee has added even more intrigue to the Virginia contest.
Three Democrats are fighting for their party's nomination, which will be decided in a June 9 primary. State Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath County is making another run for statewide office after losing his 2005 bid for attorney general by a mere 360 votes. Former state Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria is running his first statewide campaign after 13 years in the General Assembly. And former DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe of McLean has made a loud entrance onto the Virginia political stage and served notice that money will be no object in his pursuit of the governor's mansion.
The primary winner will take on Republican Bob McDonnell, who edged Deeds in the 2005 attorney general's race and stepped down this year to focus on his gubernatorial campaign. McDonnell has no competition from within his party, allowing him to make an early play for centrist voters who may have abandoned the GOP in recent elections.
But McDonnell already is under attack by a Democrat-funded group called Common Sense Virginia that has created a Web site and an online advertising campaign that criticizes his record on issues such as education, health care and abortion rights. And Virginia Democrats are blasting McDonnell and other Republicans for opposing Kaine's plan to expand eligibility for unemployment benefits, which would have allowed the state to receive $125 million in federal recovery funds.
"It's very clear that national Democratic groups are worried about Bob's candidacy," said McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin. "It's incredibly tone deaf, given the economic environment, to come out guns blazing on every issue they can think of."
A poll released Thursday by Rasmussen Reports shows McDonnell with leads in hypothetical contests with each of the Democratic candidates. The poll also indicates that a large percentage of Democratic voters remain undecided less than two months before the primary.
The Democratic hopefuls will get a chance to sharpen their differences today, when they meet at the College of William and Mary for the first of five pre-primary debates.
"The contrasts are significant," Moran said Wednesday at the Shad Planking. "I'm looking forward to highlighting those contrasts with my Democratic opponents."
The three Democrats have taken distinct approaches to their primary campaigns, and the contrasts became more evident when the candidates filed their campaign finance reports last week.
McAuliffe already has raised more than $5 million, partly by tapping a roster of wealthy donors he cultivated as DNC chairman and close ally of President Clinton.
In the first three months of this year, McAuliffe received 34 contributions of $25,000 or more, including $25,000 from Donald Trump, $100,000 from Radford billionaire R.J. Kirk and at least $250,000 each from film and media magnates Stephen Bing and Haim Saban, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Clinton also kicked in $10,000. More than two-thirds of McAuliffe's campaign cash has come from outside of Virginia.
And McAuliffe has not been shy about flaunting his resources. He dispatched 60 paid staffers and 40 volunteers to the Shad Planking and had 25,000 campaign signs planted in the muddy ground. An airplane circled overhead, pulling a banner promoting his campaign. A staffer wearing a chicken suit and a diaper paraded around with a sign that read: "Ask Me About Terry's Energy Plan," a reference to McAuliffe's fascination with turning chicken waste into energy.
But McAuliffe insists his campaign is more than flash. He has put out voluminous policy proposals for education, economic development, energy and health care.
"We've been out there with details," he said. "It's about big ideas."
He told reporters Wednesday that his campaign has built a "massive grass-roots organization" around the state.
"This is what a campaign should be about," he said.
Moran made no attempt to compete with McAuliffe in the sign war. At his campaign booth, the Beatles' song "Can't Buy Me Love" played continuously, a not-so-subtle dig at his big-spending rival.
"I don't think moderation is in his vocabulary," Moran said.
Moran has focused on economic, health care and environmental issues and made a mark by opposing a planned coal-fired power plant in Surry County. And his campaign has made much of the endorsements he has compiled from Democratic officials around the state and argued that such support blunts the effect of McAuliffe's money.
Deeds decided to skip Wednesday's Shad Planking and instead made a campaign swing through Southwest Virginia with U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, discussing Deeds' education and jobs plans. Deeds said he wanted to take advantage of an opening in Boucher's schedule to campaign with the congressman, who endorsed Deeds in December.
"It was a real return to roots for me," said Deeds, who told of "heartbreaking" stories of laid-off workers he has heard on the campaign trail in parts of Southwest and Southside Virginia.
Deeds chose to remain in the General Assembly this winter, even though state law prohibits legislators from raising campaign funds during the session. He still managed to collect more than $640,000 during the first quarter of this year. He finished March with $1.2 million in the bank, almost $400,000 more than Moran.
Deeds said he has been "dismayed" by the attention given to campaign fundraising and conceded that he could not win a cash contest in this primary.
"What I'm banking on is the I've got the best plan," Deeds said. "I enjoy being underestimated."
Deeds said he hopes to build on the support he gained in his 2005 race, when he came up in the short end of the closest statewide election in modern Virginia history.
"I think the more people I get myself in front of, the better my chances are," he said.
Coming tomorrow: Setting the stage for the battle for control of the House of Delegates.
