Lieutenant Governor’s Race Notebook: Much ado from Wagner, Money numbers

Much ado from Wagner
“Mike Signer’s campaign broke the rules while submitting their petition signatures, and should take responsibility for doing so,” said Elisabeth Pearson, the manager of Jody Wagner’s lieutenant-governor campaign, in a statement released earlier this week when it became known that there were issues with Mike Signer’s ballot-access petitions that could have kept his name off the June 9 state primary ballot.

The error in question had the street address for the circulator of petitions that contained in the area of 4,000 signatures inadvertently left off the final filing. The person was identified as being only from Richmond.

The State Board of Elections and the Democratic Party of Virginia decided in the end to accept the petitions in spite of the error, which the Signer campaign said was a “technical error by a campaign staffer.”

“The fact is that this was an organizational error that was avoided by every other campaign in the state,” Pearson said in response. “The Democratic Party of Virginia has well-established, public rules to guide the nomination and petition process, and it’s unfortunate that the Signer campaign failed to follow them. While we disagree with the closed-door nature of this decision-making process, we fully appreciate the difficult position this error has put Chairman Cranwell and the DPVA in, and we have agreed to abide by their decision and maintain our shared focus on beating Bill Bolling in November.”

Whoever in the Wagner campaign thought it was advisable to share these thoughts publicly should be sacked. One, the alternative to agreeing to “abide by” the party’s decision was, what, a lawsuit? They would be within their rights to do that, it would seem, but at what cost there? Party unity comes to mind as a first answer.

Two, am I the only person who thinks this statement makes it look like the Wagner campaign is maybe running scared for some reason? The last poll I saw had Wagner well ahead of her rivals for the party nomination, with the understanding that more than half the primary electorate had yet to decide on one of the candidates.

Wagner is clearly the party-establishment choice. I’m not the only person in the Democratic fold, though, with concerns about how Republicans will play her role in the current state budget mess from her days as Secretary of Finance, and how Democrats will take her Republican Lite approach to important policy issues.

And then a personal note – I have given up trying to make contact with the Wagner campaign to get an interview set up or a visit to Waynesboro and Augusta County to meet with local voters to talk issues with us here. I can understand a busy schedule with appearances in vote-rich areas in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads precluding an in-person visit, even as we’ve had several visits from the equally busy gubernatorial candidates and chances to talk with Jon Bowerbank in person and two opportunities to talk by phone with Signer.

Wagner may very well be the Democratic Party nominee, if the current poll numbers are at all reflective of the mood of the primary electorate. I’m not sure I can foresee at this point a scenario where she can win in November given the current structure of her campaign.

Money numbers

The Bowerbank campaign raised $494,000 in the first quarter, outpacing the Wagner campaign by more than $100,000 and more than doubling the take of the Signer campaign.

“The numbers from this reporting period show Jon emerging as the leader in this three-way race,” Bowerbank campaign manager Jon Paul Lupo said, accurately if we narrow our definition of “three-way race” to the money race.

Wagner’s campaign raised in the area of $375,000 as of its April 15 finance report. The Wagner campaign press release touted how it had raised more in the quarter than the incumbent lieutenant governor, Republican Bill Bolling, who according to the State Board of Elections raised just shy of $293,000 in the first three months of 2009.

Signer’s take for the first quarter was a tick below $225,000. I haven’t yet received a presser from the Signer folks on campaign cash. Maybe for good reason.

- Column by Chris Graham