WhenVirginiaWasBlue.com: McAuliffe-Paybacks, and comebacks

You ask Terry McAuliffe why he lost last year’s Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination, and he has a ready answer: Republicans.

“A significant number of Republicans showed up in our primary. I was 10 points up in my polling data, but I wasn’t polling Republicans,” McAuliffe said during a visit with the Staunton Democratic Committee Tuesday.

McAuliffe had been the heavy favorite going into the three-way race with eventual winner Creigh Deeds and Northern Virginia legislator Brian Moran. In the end, Deeds emerged the big winner, taking just short of half the votes cast, though Deeds went on to a historic defeat in the November election, losing by nearly 20 percentage points to Republican Bob McDonnell, ending a long winning streak by Democrats in statewide elections in the process.

Link to column on WhenVirginiaWasBlue.com.