Dem Governor’s Race Notebook
January 5, 2009 by chrisgraham
YA KNEW HE WAS RUNNING | It’s now official. Terry McAuliffe is in the race for the Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination as of Wednesday morning.
“Everywhere I go, folks are worried about jobs, dependence on foreign oil, about the value of their homes and the state of our economy. That’s why they want Virginia’s next governor to build on the great legacy of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, governors who brought business and executive experience to Richmond,” McAuliffe said in an e-mail to supporters that went out on Saturday jumping the gun on his announcement tour that will begin Wednesday.
The AFP will catch up with McAuliffe early, early Thursday morning in Harrisonburg.
(The AFP doesn’t like early, early mornings, incidentally. Memo to other candidates planning their upcoming Valley drivebys. Don’t get us out of bed before seven if you want us at all coherent.)
McAuliffe is a former Democratic National Committee chairman and Clinton confidante who has resided in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. In his announcement e-mail, which featured a sharp-looking video, McAuliffe focused his fightin’ words not on Democratic Party rivals Creigh Deeds and Brian Moran but instead on the presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee, Attorney General Bob McDonnell.
“Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee, is a good man. But after seven years of opposing the progress of the Warner and Kaine administrations, that’s not the kind of leadership we need. We can’t turn back now,” McAuliffe said.
THE TEAM | You’re thinking like we are that this has been in the works for a while, right?
“We’re proud to have assembled an all-star team that has experience winning elections in Virginia,” said McAuliffe campaign manager Mike Henry, himself fresh off the historic blowout win of Mark Warner in the 2008 U.S. Senate race.
Also on board the McAuliffe team are senior strategist Mo Elleithee, like Henry a veteran of past Warner and Tim Kaine campaigns in Virginia and the Hillary Clinton presidential-nomination campaign, Delacey Skinner, who worked as press secretary for Kaine’s ‘05 gubernatorial campaign and then served as the governor’s communications director for three years, veteran consultants David Smith, Susan DiLiddo Michels and Jim Margolis from the GMMB media-consulting firm, and pollster Pete Brodnitz.
So that’s the McAuliffe all-star assemblage. Brian Moran, you might remember, has his own share of Warner-Kaine high acolytes, including Steve Jarding, Mame Reiley and Jean Jensen. Bath County State Sen. Creigh Deeds has a quieter list of experienced Virginia pols, starting with campaign manager Joe Abbey, who served as the deputy campaign manager for Warner’s ‘08 Senate run, holdovers from his ‘05 run for attorney general including pollsters David Petts and Jill Normington and Kevin Mack, who worked on Tom Perriello’s successful Fifth District congressional campaign last year.
- Column by Chris Graham
We don’t need the Democratic Party’s resident thug infesting Virginia politics. We’ve got enough problems with two-jobs Kaine.
Brian Moran - can live with the guy. Webb - wacky but fairly elected. Warner - finally gone. Gilmour - toast.
Let’s stay sane, folks. There are too many carpetbaggers trying to screw up our politics (Caroline “the you know girl” Kennedy, for one). We don’t need another outsider (I don’t care if McAulliffe lives in Virgina. He hasn’t walked the walk, like most other candidates, and I’m tired of those who just “talk the talk” and think they can come in an take over our state, or New York, etc).
I’ll even take Burris from Illinois if the Democrats won’t let him take his seat in the Senate. He appears to be a decent politician, and that is rare in Illinois.
Remember, the latest carpetbagger to screw up American politics is that crook Al Franken and the corrupt Democratic machine in Minnesota. We don’t need that type of person and corruption in Virginia.