Decision Virginia

I point you this post, from Decision Virginia:

McDonnell pledges to serve his entire term

From the Republican Governors Association…

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RGA Congratulates Bob McDonnell

The Republican Governors Association congratulated Bob McDonnell for winning the Virginia governor’s race tonight.

“Bob McDonnell’s victory gives Republicans tremendous momentum heading into 2010,” said RGA Chairman Haley Barbour. “Virginia is an important swing state that had been trending blue for twelve years.”

“Bob McDonnell proves that when Republicans campaign on solutions to the challenges on voters’ minds, we win,” Barbour continued. “His focus on ideas and pocketbook issues will serve as a model for Republicans running next year.”

Virginians last elected a Republican governor in 1997. Since that time, the state has added one million new residents, nearly half of whom reside in Northern Virginia. Between 2006 and 2008, Democrats picked up both U.S. Senate seats and control of the state senate. Their gains culminated in President Obama winning the state in last year’s presidential election – the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Virginia since 1964.

“The RGA knew winning Virginia was essential to the rebuilding of our Party,” RGA Vice Chairman Tim Pawlenty said. “That’s why we invested nearly $5.5 million in this race and made it a top priority.”

The RGA contributed $2 million directly to Bob McDonnell’s campaign last spring, allowing him to air positive television ads during May sweeps. In September, the RGA invested $1.5 million in television ads in all the media markets except Washington, D.C. that highlighted Creigh Deeds bragging about being the biggest spender in Richmond, and his plan to hike taxes. After flipping Deeds’ image by close to twenty points in all markets except D.C., the RGA began executing a $1.8 million ad campaign in October in the Washington, D.C. media market. The Washington Post called the RGA’s ads “devastating.” The RGA also contributed $100,000 for critical get-out-the-vote efforts in the campaign’s final days.

“The pressure was on the Democrats this year to hold onto Virginia, but Americans are wary of their massive lurch to the left,” Pawlenty said. “Bob McDonnell proved that a positive, idea-based, message works, and that voters in a swing state will follow someone who pledges to keep taxes low and keep the free enterprise system intact.”

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Republican Bob McDonnell elected governor
of Virginia.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-11-03-09 1957EST

It was the kind of day you would expect from the two men hoping to be Virginia’s next Governor. Both Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds put together a blistering schedule that took them to all across Virginia. Both pulled out all the stops, with the hopes of grabbing every last second vote until the polls close Tuesday at 7.

McDonnell made 7 stops across Virginia, alongside Lt. Governor Bill Bolling and Attorney General candidate Ken Cuccinelli. Team McDonnell started near his childhood home in Northern Virginia and finished in Virginia Beach, where he served in the House of Delegates. (McDonnell currently lives in Henrico county)

McDonnell’s second to last stop was here in Richmond where he played to a crowd of a few hundred supporters at a hanger at Richmond International Airport. McDonnell staffers were hoping of a crowd of as many as one thousand people, but  it didn’t get quite that big. McDonnell, who still had one more speech to give and will have a speech of some sort to give tomorrow night was starting to sound a bit hoarse. Something to be expected from the amount of speech the candidate has given over the past few weeks.

Creigh Deeds made 4 stops across the Commonwealth, starting in Roanoke and concluding in Northern Virginia, where he hopes he gets a huge turnout tomorrow.

Deeds stop in Richmond was a perfect example of the Democrat’s strategy in the final weeks of the campaign. He rallied a group of college students at VCU, along with his ticketmates Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon.  Deeds spoke specifically about how that group of voters played an important role in Tuesday’s election and that an unpredictable surge in turnout could make all the polls taken leading up to tomorrow irrelevant.  He repeated his familiar line “The only poll that matters is the one that is taken on Tuesday.”

Now that the closing arguments have been made, the get out the vote effort begins.  McDonnell bragged today on the trail that the Republicans have already made hundreds of thousands of phone calls and knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors. Deeds said that they have had a plan in place that just needs to be kicked into gear. All the effort that has been built upon over the 12 plus past months all comes down to tomorrow.

Only one more day for both Bob McDonnell, Creigh Deeds and their fellow statewide candidates to make the case to voters, before the polls open Tuesday morning.

Both the Republican and Democratic tickets will play to major rallies in Richmond on Monday, giving you one final shot to hear the pitch from both teams before you cast your ballot.

Here is where they will be:

DEEDS TO RALLY SUPPORTERS TO GET-OUT-THE-VOTE

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009

2:30 PM IN RICHMOND – STUDENT GET OUT THE VOTE RALLY. Sen. Deeds will join Governor Tim Kaine, candidate for Lieutenant Governor Jody Wagner, candidate for Attorney General Steve Shannon and students for a campaign event on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. Sen. Deeds will speak to students about the youth vote that will be key to victory on Tuesday, November 3rd.

When: 2:30 PM

Where: VCU Student Commons
907 Floyd Avenue
Richmond, VA

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McDonnell Campaign’s Final Day of “New Jobs, More Opportunities: It Starts Now!” Statewide Tour

With just one day to go before Virginians head to the polls, Bob McDonnell, Republican gubernatorial nominee and former Attorney General of Virginia, will spend tomorrow, Monday, November 2nd, the final day of his 2009 gubernatorial campaigning, sprinting across the Commonwealth, visiting seven major regions of the state in one day alone. McDonnell will begin the day just miles from his childhood home in the Mount Vernon section of Fairfax County with a rally in Alexandria and later that morning will visit Prince William County for a rally in Bristow. He will then head southwest for rallies in Charlottesville, Roanoke and Abingdon. In the evening McDonnell will hold a rally in Richmond where he has lived the last three and a half years while serving as Virginia’s Attorney General.

McDonnell will formally conclude his 2009 campaign with a 7:00 p.m. rally in Virginia Beach, where he lived and raised his family for 21 years.

All seven events will feature Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, and State Senator Ken Cuccinelli, Republican candidate for Attorney General.

5:30pm           Rally at the Richmond Airport

The Hanger at MartinAir

5733 Huntsman Road

Richmond

Tonight Democratic consultant Adam Sharp tweeted that he received an automated call at home from someone claiming to be Sarah Palin asking him to vote for Bob McDonnell.  Sharp asked his fellow Democrats to spread the word about Palin’s 11th hour support for the Republican.

Sharp spoke to the liberal blog Blue Virginia about the call, but then stopped taking phone calls on the topic.

Sharp, wasn’t the only voter to get a similar call tonight. NBC12 producer Michelle Jackson talked a Republican voter in Fauquier County who received call from someone who claimed to be Sarah Palin, but this voter told us, that it “Didn’t really sound like her.”  She hung up when she realized that the call was a series of many automated calls that she had received during the campaign, so she didn’t learn who paid for the call, or for that matter who “Palin” was asking her to vote for.

What she did do was notice was that the number that the phone call came from was saved in her caller id. The number came from a phone registered to Paul Rohrer, from Chesterfield. A search of the number, finds people complaining about similar calls coming to their phones. I tried to call the number tonight, there was no answer and the voice mail said the inbox was full.

Both the Republican Party of Virginia and the Bob McDonnell campaign said they had nothing to do with the call. I have also put a press inquiry in to SarahPAC, Governor Palin’s current political arm for a comment.

There are any number of scenarios, that could’ve led to these calls going out, very few of which could be connected to Sarah Palin or Bob McDonnell. Aside from the fact that the McDonnell campaign has worked very hard to distance himself from the controversial former Governor, Palin herself has been a vocal critic of Robo-Call politics. At one point during the presidential election Palin called on her own campaign to stop the practice. Lending her voice to this type of effort, would be a direct about-face from her prior statements.

I am continuing to look into this situation and am hoping to learn more in the morning. If you received the call, and happened to record it, please e-mail me at rnobles@nbc12.com

***UPDATE***

I have now received a full recording of the phone call that is going out across the Commonwealth tonight from someone claiming to be Sarah Palin. Now that I have heard the full call, some of the questions surrounding it have been answered.

First- The call is not in support of Bob McDonnell or any of the Republican candidates for statewide office. The voice on the phone just asks you to “Vote for Sarah Principles” on Tuesday. No specific candidate is mentioned.

Second- The call is paid for by the “Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition”, which may be is connected to this group that has a website that espouses Conservative beliefs and features pictures of the organization’s members with Bob McDonnell.

What we still don’t know for sure is if the person on the phone is actually Sarah Palin. The caller displays a distinct accent, which Palin and/or Tina Fey have made famous, but to say the individual is unequivocally Sarah Palin is impossible.

Judge for yourself:

Here is the transcript:

Woman’s voice: “Virginia! Hello, this is Sarah Palin, calling to urge you to go to the polls Tuesday to vote for Sarah principles. The eyes of America will be on Virginia and make no mistake about it, every vote counts. Don’t take anything for granted, Vote your values on Tuesday and urge your friends and family to vote too. (inaudible)

Man’s voice: “Paid for by the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition”

The call was provided to me by Gary Reinhardt, an independent candidate for Delegate in the 65th District. He told me that when he first heard the call, he had no doubt that it was Palin, but after listening back a few times, he was now starting to question the call’s validity.

In the morning, I plan to reach out to the Virginia Faith and Freedom Coalition and I hope to learn something definitive from the Palin camp as well.

**UPDATE #2**

It is indeed Sarah Palin. Her spokesperson, Meg Stapelton confirmed as much to the Washington Post and CNN.

Republican candidate for Governor, Bob McDonnell and his GOP ticketmates drew a crowd of more than 300 people at an event in Chesterfield County today (Saturday).

The event was part of the Republican “New Jobs, More Opportunities: It Starts Now!” Statewide Tour. McDonnell and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling and Sen. Ken Cuccinelli all addressed the crowd, encouraging them to continue to keep up their efforts through election day and to not rest on the confidence of polls that show the ticket up by wide margins.

Later tonight, Sen. Creigh Deeds the Democratic nominee will host a similar rally with Attorney General nominee, Steve Shannon at the Democratic Coordinated Campaign office in Richmond.

The crowd was excited to greet McDonnell as his “New Jobs, New Opportunities” RV rolled into the parking lot and remained enthusiastic throughout all the speeches given by the candidates. McDonnell’s speech didn’t reveal much new information, instead just sticking to his traditional campaign talking points, as well as dishing up some key red state rhetoric, for the clearly Republican crowd.

Here is an example of what McDonnell talked about to get the crowd fired up:

Note the excitement McDonnell created when he hammered the federal government and proposed the idea of drilling offshore for oil.

McDonnell will stump in a number of different corners of the state tomorrow and won’t return to the Richmond area until Monday, where his team is promising the biggest rally of the campaign that is expected to be held at an airport hanger at Richmond International Airport.

It is a classic line from a politician, and like clockwork, Lt. Governor Bill Bolling found the perfect opportunity to deliver it, as reports emerge that of the three statewide races in Virgina, his might be the most competitive.

During an event today in Richmond with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his Republican ticketmates, Bolling told our Tara Morgan that the only poll he is concerned about is the “final poll” that will take place on Election Day.

With more and more evidence that the chances that Creigh Deeds will pull off an amazing 11th hour comeback are unlikely, frisky Democrats are looking at their down ballot races hoping that Jody Wagner or Steve Shannon might be able to benefit from Virginia’s history of splitting tickets in statewide races.  Their hunger has left them pointing to a little read private poll from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that shows the race for Lt. Governor between Wagner and Bolling within a couple of points of each other.

Despite that fact that virtually every public poll has shown Bolling with as close to a comfortable lead as McDonnell has at the top of the ticket, many on the left are holding on to hope that voters have not taken the time to closely look at the LG’s race and that perhaps, in an effort to balance the ticket they will choose Wagner. Democrats took heart in a recent transfer of $25,000 from the McDonnell to the Bolling campaign as evidence that Republicans were getting nervous.  (McDonnell has since transferred another $10,000 and Bolling has also received more than $130,000 from the RPV and another $54,000 from the Republican Leadership Committee) Bolling told us today that, he is working hard up until the last day, but hasn’t seen this mysterious poll and he wouldn’t put much stock in it anyway.

Here are his remarks:

As for the Democrats, Wagner stated to me emphatically last week that she is not distancing herself from the Deeds campaign, despite the fact that she reached out to a liberal blogger, looking to clarify where she stands on the public option portion of the proposed health care reform plan. (A stance that even now still seems a bit murky) She continues to be advertising heavily on television and spoke at the rally on Tuesday featuring President Obama.

The  Wilder School of Government at Virginia Commonwealth University just released a poll that gives Republican Bob McDonnell an 18 point lead in the race for Governor, with less than a week to go.

Here is the breakdown:

McDonnell- 54%

Deeds- 36%

The numbers include so called “leaners”, who have yet to say they are definitely voting for a candidate, but are leaning in on direction.

One nugget from the poll that I found interesting: “Nearly seven in 10 (68 percent) likely voters see McDonnell as conservative or very conservative, while 16 percent call him moderate.” Yet, despite McDonnell’s clear conservative leanings, independent voters, according to this poll, are breaking for the Republican 56-29. It is perhaps even more evidence that the Deeds camp attack of McDonnell’s controversial masters thesis, never stuck.

The full release from the poll can be found after the jump..

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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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