Deeds prepares for the primary campaign home stretch
Democratic candidate for governor, Creigh Deeds, started Friday morning with the news that he had earned the endorsement of the Washington Post. He finished the marathon day after events across the commonwealth at NBC12, where we had a wide ranging interview about the state of the race and what it will take for him to win.
Deeds, as you might imagine, was very happy with the Post endorsement for many reasons, but most importantly because of the opportunity it provides him to reach out to Northern Virginia voters. Voters whom he can’t afford to reach with television. Deeds said that for the price of one day’s worth of television advertising in Washington, D.C., he can run ads for seven days in every other part of the state.
He seemed energetic and did everything he could to convince me that despite the fact that time was running out, he will be able to close the gap that polls show are between him and Terry McAuliffe. He also reiterated his claim that his past performance against Bob McDonnell makes him the candidate most prepared to take the Republican in November.
I pushed the candidate a bit on the negativity of the campaign. He claims his campaign is not being negative and he does not have a negative thing to say about either of the other candidates, but he felt it was important to set the record straight as to what McAuliffe was saying about pay-day lending in Virginia. He claims setting the record straight was a necessity and not an example of a negative turn his campaign might be taking.
It is no secret that Deeds’ biggest problem is his lack of resources in the closing days of the campaign. He basically agreed that if money is the deciding factor, he won’t be able to win. Here is his quote:
“There is another candidate out there that has the ability to buy the election, and if Virginia is for sale and if this nomination is for sale, he will make that purchase. There is no doubt about that.”
Extended clips from my interview with Senator Deeds can be found after the jump.
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