Salon.com Mobilenuff said.
McAuliffe was cynically all about money. VA voters are fairly independent (you don't register by party here) and do not fall for people like McAuliffe.
Although Deeds is more conservative than I, esp in the area of guns, he shows thoughtful independence in his positions and actually had the guts to propose a small increase in the gas tax (which is one of the smallest in the nation). Our General Assembly has been deadlocked on this and refuses to raise any money to fund transportation. As a result, the state is only doing maintenance on the roads, not doing any construction unless they can get private interests to pay for it and then charge astronomical tolls (don't get me started on that one). Northern VA is choking on traffic.
The Washington Post wrote a very positive and accurate endorsement of Deeds and that helped turn the tide.
I am glad for how this turned out.
To steal from whoever said this first about Donald Trump: Terry McAuliffe is a gaping anus. Thank goodness he lost.
In Deeds case, he ran for statewide office in 2005, so, at a bare minimum, his name was known to primary voters coming into this election cycle -- especially the kind of people who turn out in a low-turnout primary for state-wide office in June.
McAuliffe biggest challenge was that his two opponents were both known and generally liked by state activists, so in order to win McAuliffe had to expand the primary voting base substantially and win over loyalists supporting his opponents. He did make some inroads, but in 8 months he presented himself with a huge challenge. McAuliffe had a huge cash advantage and he did an admirable job becoming conversant on issues of concern to voters. His campaign was also tireless. However, his reputation was something of a liability that he had to overcome, rather than a net asset -- even in a Democratic primary. And losing the Washington Post endorsement to Creigh Deeds -- a relative outsider compared to Moran and McAuliffe -- opened the door wide for Deeds victory.
Terry McAuliffe is toast and hopefully will now disappear...unless CNN decides to bring him back from the dead as a pundit. Terry has been an embarassment to Democrats for too long and needs to find something to do he is actually good at. Not politics!
Terry McAuliffe will probably go back to what he's best at -- helping other Democrats lose elections they'd otherwise win if they didn't listen to him.
... but that's never stopped me before.
I don't know the first thing about Creigh Deeds--he may have two heads, one of which eats babies for breakfast, for all I know--but he's a better choice than McAuliffe.
It means that Democrats are starting to get it: stop running candidates who don't know the first thing about winning elections.
I've been tired of McAuliffe for years and years. The 'New Democrats' of the DLC were at best 'Republican-lite'. These are the folks who ran every time Republicans put up the least amount of opposition. These are the folks who wouldn't stand up to President Bush. These are the folks who now try to block any investigations into war crimes. FFS DLC, please crawl back under the rocks - your time is over.
But anyone who'd listening to the DBT's, Neil Young and Gram Parsons can't be all bad.
I'm from northern Virginia (specifically, Prince William County), and ideologically I probably would have been better served by Moran. But my overriding fear was that McAuliffe would simply overpower his way to the nomination (I must have received four mailings from him a week over the past month, including several that were made to look "nonpartisan"), where McDonnell would have beaten this "Clinton cpartbagger" easily. If McAuliffe thought he could get black voters by painting himself as an ersatz Obama, he was deluding himself.
Over the past few weeks, the anti-McAuliffe camp more or less decided on Deeds as the better alternative. I can live with some of his more conservative views on issues such as guns if the only realistic alternative is GOP rule. And Deeds does seem to realize that northern Virginia is the state's economic engine, thus his emphasis on improving transportation. What benefits Reston and Woodbridge ultimately benefits Roanoke and Waynesboro.
True, McDonnell barely beat Deeds for attorney general in 2005, but Virginia has become somewhat bluer in those four years -- and even though McDonnell is from northern Virginia, his ties to Pat Robertson won't help him there. (I regularly see Internet ads for McDonnell opposing EFCA, even though that's a federal issue that has nothing to do with the gubernatorial race.)
Come November, I would not at all be surprised to see newspaper headlines evoking the title of a Frank Capra movie..."Nr. Deeds Goes To Richmond."
Despite Alex's apparent obsession with T.M., anyone who was actually watching this race up close would have known that this was not about him.
Creigh (pronounced Cree) Deeds is an experienced legislator who's accomplished a lot in his many years in Richmond. And, as a rural Virginian, he can woo a good number of more conservative voters within areas of the Commonwealth that the Republican, McDonnell, will have to now defend. Also, Deeds is pro-gun, which will innoculate him from NRA money flowing into the race.
And, as Alex pointed out, he's run against McDonnell before, in 2005 for Attorney General, and lost by a mere 323 votes - so he knows his opponent well. And now, four years later, Virgina is more blue, and coming off consecutive popular Democratic governors, and less inclined to elect a hard core social conservative like McDonnell as governor. Good for them.
I kept imagining the GOP salivating at the ways they would have painted McAuliffe as a Clinton bag man and a carpetbagger. That's why I as a northern Virginian couldn't bring myself to back him.
Creigh Deeds may not be ideal, but for the GOP he is the guy they wanted least. I'm sure the Rethuglicans are pining for a McDonnell victory, so they can work the media for the party "comeback" angle. Let's watch as McDonnell tries to win with a vague, specifics-free campaign based on amorphous "values."
