President e-stumps for Deeds

President Barack Obama is going to bat for Democratic Party gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds.
“I know a thing or two about tough primaries, and I know a thing or two about running tough races in Virginia. Creigh Deeds’ victory once again shows the power of people at the grassroots to win elections and bring about lasting change – and he will be a better candidate this fall because of his hard work to win the nomination,” Obama wrote in an e-mail that went out to people on the Virginia e-mail lists of the Democratic National Committee and the Organizing for America project.

The blessing should have some significant value for Deeds. Obama won Virginia in November with 52 percent of the vote, and carried the ’08 Democratic Party primary with 63 percent of the nearly 1 million votes cast.

Deeds won last week’s Democratic Party gubernatorial primary in what had been to the final days a tough three-way race with former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe and former Northern Virginia lawmaker Brian Moran receiving just short of 50 percent of the vote overall.

“Creigh has an ability to bring people together, build consensus and deliver results. He will bring the same bipartisan, pragmatic approach to politics that former Governor and now Senator Mark Warner and my friend Governor Tim Kaine used to help Virginia move forward over the past eight years,” Obama wrote in his e-mail.

“I know that approach works because I’ve spent some time in your great Commonwealth. In my experience, Democratic candidates with a pragmatic approach to solving problems can be successful. That’s the approach my campaign took last November to put Virginia in the Democratic column for the first time since 1964. And that’s how Creigh Deeds will win this fall,” Obama wrote.

– Story by Chris Graham