Decision Virginia

The intense sprint across the Commonwealth ended in Richmond Saturday night for Democratic nominee for Governor Creigh Deeds. Sen. Deeds greeted an active group of volunteers at his coordinated campaign headquarters on Broad Street, with Attorney General nominee Steve Shannon. A visibly tired Deeds, still seemed upbeat and positive and did not seem all that concerned polls show him behind.  Instead he focused on a plan that his team has had in place for sometime that he believes has the potential to push him over the top, despite what the polls have to say.

I asked Deeds about a renewed focus on the so-called “surge” voters, people who came out to vote in the historic election of Barack Obama, but that don’t seem as inclined or enthusiastic to come out to vote for him. Deeds said that they have always worked to tap into that group, but starting October 1st they began the process of specifically identifying them and finding ways to get them to the polls. He said that both volunteers and paid staff members will have their boots on the ground getting Deeds voters to the polls.

Here is my entire interview with him, uncut:

I also talked to Steve Shannon, the Democratic nominee for Attorney General, he and his campaign are pushing a story involving his opponent Ken Cuccinelli, where Cuccinelli discussed the AG’s office discrimination policy with the editorial board of the Virginian-Pilot. Their endorsement of  Shannon led to a Washington-Post called Cuccinelli’s remarks “bigotry”.  Shannon reminded me of that, but wasn’t prepared to call Cuccinelli a bigot himself.

Here is the clip:

They may not have the swagger or will bring the kind of crowds that the President of the United States can, but today Republican Gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell should get a pretty good injection of free media from GOP heavyweights Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.  The former Mayor of New York City and the former Governor of Massachusetts are both former and potential candidates for President and they have the potential to excite die-hard Republicans as we head down the homestretch.

It appears that in the waning days of the campaign, national Republicans are doing whatever they can to be a part of McDonnell’s success. Both Giuliani and Romney have stumped for McDonnell in the past and both have multiple events planned today. Giuliani, won’t even be with the candidate himself. McDonnell has appeared with at least 5 different prospective GOP presidential nominees over the course of the campaign. Yesterday he got another boost from former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who raised $75,000 at a breakfast in Newport News. (Huckabee was in town to deliver the keynote address for a Virginia conservative political action group)

The closest Giuliani will be to Richmond is Fredericksburg, Romney will make a stop with McDonnell here in the Capital City. Their full schedules can be found after the jump.

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Despite mixed signals about another visit to Virginia from President Barack Obama, for candidate Creigh Deeds, today the campaign announced that Former Vice President Al Gore would headline a fundraiser for the Democrat. Gore will join Deeds at the home of Al and Claire Dwoskin, longtime supporters of Virginia Democrats.

The fundraiser is set to take place this Friday. There will not be a companion public rally, for Deeds supporters.

While Mr. Obama has still not agreed to another visit in support of Deeds, he has made plans to stump for New Jersey Governor John Corzine, who is now locked in a race that is too close to call.

While the President hasn’t made his way South of the Potomac for Mr. Deeds, he  did visit a construction site in Northern Virginia today to highlight examples of the Federal Government’s stimulus plan at work. The visit was a White House function, not a political one and Deeds did not take part. The candidate did however release a statement calling the visit an example of ways the  “Recovery Act is making a real difference in the lives of Virginians.”

Republicans did not view the President’s photo opportunity the same way. The RPV released a statement that featured a headline that read “Obama visit highlights rift with Deeds, roads spending failure.”

You can read the statements from Deeds and the RPV on the Obama visit after the jump.

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Our NBC12 liveblog was very active tonight. More than 600 participants logged on with more than 400 comments.

You can look back on what people had to say by clicking below:

NBC12 Coverage of Gubernatorial Debate McDonnell vs. Deeds

It may not be at the point where it can be described as an outright trend, but there is certainly a pattern of Democratic Attorney General candidate Del. Steve Shannon, benefiting from advocacy groups splitting their endorsements among parties in his favor.

In general, most endorsement announcements from major advocacy groups are rarely a surprise. Pro-business groups generally get behind Republicans, pro-labor groups behind Democrats and so on and so on.  From time to time, these groups will surprise people by braking ranks, like for instance when the National Rifle Association supported Creigh Deeds in 2005 in the race for Attorney General.

However in 2009, a number of groups that can be objectively described as “pro-business” have decided to support Bob McDonnell for Governor, and then Steve Shannon for Attorney General. McDonnell has heavily touted his support from the business community and used many of these endorsements as an example of that success. In a recent release announcing the support of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, McDonnell said the endorsement was noteworthy because “This campaign is about who is best prepared to lead an economic resurgence in Virginia in the years ahead as our next governor.”

Generally these organizations who focus on the economy don’t focus as much on the race for Attorney General, but the Shannon campaign has made an aggressive push to garner that support, particularly with organizations in Northern Virginia. The results have paid off as these groups have stuck with the top of the GOP ticket, but then have reached out to give Shannon their support instead of Sen. Ken Cuccinelli.

Here are at least 5 examples where endorsements have gone to McDonnell and Shannon:
Virginia Realtors Association
Associated Builders & Contractors
Northern Virginia Technology Council
Fairfax Chamber of Commerce
Virginia Credit Union League

In addition to these 5 endorsements, Shannon also seemed to at least be in the running for the support of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, before they ultimately endorsed Cuccinelli several weeks after they endorsed in the race for Governor and Lt. Governor.  The NFIB eventually said that Cuccinelli had their “whole-hearted” support.

Cuccinelli’s campaign disagrees that there is any sort of trend and pointed to the Senator’s lengthy list of endorsements from a wide variety of groups including the NRA, The Farm Bureau and the very important nod, (especially in an Attorney General’s race) of The Fraternal Order of Police. Furthermore, Cuccinelli’s campaign claims that Shannon is working hard to play up these endorsements as a way to hide his major support from big union interests.  Shannon does have the support of the SEIU and the AFL-CIO and has received around $150,000 in donations from union based groups.

While this at first, this seems like good news for Shannon, it does come with a caveat for Democrats. If he is the only Democrat receiving that support it could mean one of two things. 1- These groups don’t support policies that democratic voters agree with but do support him or 2-If he is the only Democrat earning this support, that means the top of the ticket has problems.

It is worth noting that when touting these endorsements Shannon comes very close to tying himself to the Republican nominee for Governor.  In the press release touting the Northern Virginia Technology Council endorsement  the Shannon campaign pointed out that “The NVTC endorsement comes just two days after the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce’s NOVABizPAC announced its formal support of Shannon’s candidacy. Both groups offered endorsements to members of both parties this year, endorsing Shannon alongside Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell.”

How do Democrats feel about Steve Shannon being lauded “alongside” the current Republican standard bearer?

Shannon and Cuccinelli of course continue to fight for headlines in a hot governor’s race, but tomorrow will meet in a high profile debate on WTOP radio. The debate starts at 10am and will be streamed live on WTOP’s web site. You can listen here.

Former Governor of Virginia and Mayor of Richmond L. Douglas Wilder told me this afternoon that he knows who he plans to endorse in the race for his old position and is set to make that announcement “tomorrow or maybe the next day.”

Wilder told me that in this week alone he has had conversations with representatives from both the White House and Governor’s office.  Wilder also said that he has met, in person, with both candidates, Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds, as well.

Last night at a forum held at Virginia Union University, which specifically dealt with issues facing the African-American community, McDonnell mentioned his work with Wilder on multiple occasions. After his remarks McDonnell told me that he is still actively courting the former Governor’s support.  ”I would be honored and delighted to get an endorsement or some sort of support from such a historic figure,” said McDonnell.

While Wilder, in his trademark fashion, has appeared to give McDonnell fainting hope that he may break party ranks, few believe that the nation’s first black governor will not stick with his fellow Democrat. Wilder has often reminded reporters that he has never endorsed a Republican in a race of this magnitude. His former close aide Paul Goldman recently told me that his former boss would not risk alienating his relationship with President Barack Obama, who has made it clear to Wilder who he would like him to support.

Wilder would not tip his hand during our conversation today, but perhaps provided some insight when I asked him if it was realistic to propose a transportation plan that does not include raising taxes.  The former Governor, who dealt with his own share of fiscal turmoil during his time in office, laughed and said, “that will be part of what I talk about when I share my endorsement.”  The transportation debate took an interesting turn today, when Senator Deeds revealed his plan in an editorial in the Washington Post and the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce endorsed McDonnell, based largely on his plan to deal with the issue.

Wilder did tell me that his announcement will not come in the form of a raucous rally or even a press conference. He said he plans to release a simple statement regarding his support. When I asked if his endorsement will include active campaigning or stumping for his chosen candidate, he simply said, “We will have to see, won’t we?”

Once again perhaps Richmond’s most prolific politician has us all waiting on the edge of our seats.

Below, find Bob McDonnell’s comments from last night’s forum at VUU.

VA Tech victims Colin Goddard and Omar Samaha just released a statement encouraging voters not to support Sen. Creigh Deeds in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial primary. The language in the e-mail and its late timing had raised suspicions that the statement was encouraged by the campaigns of one or both of Deeds’ opponents, Brian Moran or Terry McAuliffe.

I just spoke to Colin Goddard and his father Andy. Goddard told me that he and Samaha and many other Virginia Tech families had watched a recent debate and had decided that Creigh Deeds was unacceptable in their eyes. He said that the families were split between Moran and McAuliffe.

However, when I asked Goddard directly about the involvement of either campaigns, he confirmed that he had received assistance from Terry McAuliffe’s campaign. Specifically he said the campaign provided he and Samaha with a press e-mail list to distribute their statement. He said the e-mail was supposed to go out Sunday, but an error was made in the sending process delaying it until today.

He denied that the campaign encouraged their efforts, and emphatically stated that the decision to release the statement was his and Samah’s idea, but he said the McAuliffe campaign was helpful in getting the information out.

When I asked Goddard who he would be voting for tomorrow, he said he had waited too long to register for an absentee ballot and was not going to be able to get to his home voting location in Richmond, so therefore would not be casting a ballot.

Goddard went further and told me that if Deeds were to be nominated tomorrow, that he and other VA Tech family members would have to have a serious conversation with the candidate. He said they would need specific assurances before they could give their support to Deeds in a race against Bob McDonnell.

McAuliffe Press Secretary Lis Smith confirmed their campaign’s involvement:

“Omar and Colin had a letter they wanted to send to the press about the primary. They asked us for a list of reporter emails and we provided the list.”
 
Brian Moran’s campaign said they had nothing to do with the statement. Campaign spokesperson Jesse Ferguson would only say the following:

“These folks have earned the right to have their opinion known and have their opinion stand on its own.”

**UPDATE**

I just received a statement from Creigh Deeds himself, reacting to the statement from the Colin Goddard and Omar Samaha:

“My heart has gone out to all of the victims and the families of the Virginia Tech tragedy.  There are certain events that happen in our lifetime that are above politics.  And I’m not going to comment on any campaign that would exploit this tragedy.”

We are now guaranteed a three way democratic primary in the race for Governor. State Senator Creigh Deeds filed close to 16 thousand signatures to gain access to the ballot for the June primary.

Deeds now joins former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe and former Democratic House Leader Brian Moran in what promises to be (and already has been) a competitive and spirited race. (McAuliffe and Moran have already filed)

Deeds has trailed in fund raising and independent polling, but not to the point where he shouldn’t be considered a contender. He has strong support in Southwest Virginia (he recently picked up the support of Rep. Rick Boucher) and did come within a whisker of winning statewide four years ago in the race for Attorney General.

The release announcing the filing is after the jump..

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Allow me to digress from politics for a bit to talk about College Basketball. I am a huge fan and as you can see from this photo my house roots for the Syracuse Orange. (I hope that doesn’t lose me some readers here in the heart of ACC country.) Although I did not graduate from SU (I am a proud alum of the College at Brockport), my wife Karey did and I have been a fan my entire life. Now that my loyalties have been clearly defined, allow me to make a reasonable case that, provided they beat Louisville tonight, they should receive a number one seed in the NCAA tournament.

Follow my logic: Prior to the start of the conference tournaments, based on regular season performances, pundits were predicting three possible number one seeds coming from the Big East. (Pittsburgh, UConn and Louisville). Three may have been a stretch, but I am not sure you can completely eliminate a Big East team based just on the losses in the Big East Tournament. The Big East was consistently the most competitive and deep conference in America. It is hard to say Pitt and UConn deserve number one seeds after being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the tournament and if Louisville loses tonight, you are left with Syracuse. Not to mention, that despite a few regular season losses in the rough and tumble Big East (which all of the aforementioned teams have) by winning tonight, Syracuse will have beat two of the the three potential one seeds in the conference, and they will have done so on the biggest stage.

I have much more after the jump..

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Democratic candidate for Governor Terry McAuliffe was in Richmond this morning. He announced his plan to help create and invest in business in the Commonwealth. The backbone of his plan is a comprehensive investment in energy, with a goal of reducing the need for foreign sources of power and reducing its impact on the environment.

McAuliffe, who regularly points to his business background on the campaign trail, believes that a green energy plan will lead to new cutting edge jobs, while at the same time make Virginia attractive to companies who will won’t to move their business here. As Governor, McAuliffe plans to create a mandatory renewable portfolio standard, use animal waste to create energy (he often talks about the “joys” chicken waste) and harness the wind along coast to generate 20% of the Commonwealth’s electricity.

It is an ambitious plan, as campaign pledges ought to be, but it is also shrewdly designed to dip into a territory that Brian Moran has worked hard to garner support in: The environmental community. McAuliffe has worked very hard to portray himself as the candidate best suited to manage a turnaround to the economy. It is probably the smart road to go down during the general election, but it can’t be at the cost of the primary campaign. With this proposal, McAuliffe is attempting to marry his strength on the economy with a pet issue of many democrats.

To see his entire plan click here..

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