GOP Showing Signs of Life in Virginia Governor’s Race
Well, not so fast. The Washington Post has picked up on what Republicans have been quietly saying: Virginia without Obama on the ballot is not an automatically blue state. The Post noted two unexpected GOP wins in city council races in heavily-Democratic Alexandria this week:
It was the fourth election this year in which Democrats lost — or won by uncomfortably close margins — local races where they were assumed by both parties to hold a sizable advantage. …
Republicans have demonstrated a particular strength in attracting absentee voters during this year’s local elections. … Republican Tom Davis, a former congressman from Fairfax County, said he believes that much of the Democratic surge in Virginia in recent years, particularly President Obama’s victory, was attributable to distaste for former president George W. Bush. Now, “the oxygen that got these guys up in the morning is gone,” Davis said.
Davis said he believes McDonnell has the advantage going into November because Virginia is a “countercyclical” state, meaning that, for the past 40 years, the party of the president has lost the governor’s race and control of the congressional delegation.
And there is a world of difference between a gubernatorial race focused on transportation and job development, and a once-in-a-lifetime presidential race in which young voters and African Americans turned out in record numbers to elect the first African American president who ran on a platform of “hope” and “change.”
McAuliffe is many things — but a breath of fresh air from politics as usual isn’t one of them. In fact, as his Democratic opponents are all too eager to point out, he would almost certainly bring his brand of hyper-partisan politics to a state which has generally enjoyed a less contentious brand of politics. Democrats like Tim Kaine and Mark Warner won gubernatorial races by positioning themselves as can-do problem solvers who did not represent national political interests. McAuliffe’s style and his huge war chest would, at the very least, increase the acrimony between the state legislature (which is partially controlled by Republicans) and the governor.
So the challenge for Democrats is two-fold: complete the primary without providing more ammunition to the McDonnell campaign and find a way to restore the excitement and activism which has seeped away in the six months since the election. As for Republicans, the chance to prove that a key swing state is still within their grasp is an enticing one. And their biggest asset may be Terry McAuliffe.
The Republicans need to start repeating first principles and keep repeating them. If it becomes a personality race then the Republicans will loose.
Principles like “Tax the thing you want less of and do not tax things you want more of.” “When the State collects no taxes there is no money for government but “if the state collects everything the people have there are no people to Govern.” Their is the maximum tax that can be collected before businesses start to flee with their jobs is not high. And Virgina is not California (or Michigan) and the GOP Governor will keep it from becoming so because he is not married to a Democrat.
Don’t forget. If the Dem is within a thousand they will steal it in a recount.
Looks like Meghan McCain is wrong (again). I guess that’s what happens when you watch too much TV.
Taxes will be an issue. Locally, everyone is pissed at higher property assesments and valuations and councils refusal to lower rates. All in a time of decreasing real values.
I think Virginians are ready for a fight!
Terry McAuliffe is politically tone deaf & lacks any true leadership skills aside from raising money for other people. He is a man without a platform at this point.
It seems like the gist of this article is that the GOP in Virginia is winning not because of themselves, but because of bad Dems (much like how the Dems swept in the last 2 election due to BDS broadcast daily on the airwaves). The Republicans need to start championing the Constitution and point out how far we’ve gotten from it (both parties at fault) and how much farther the Dems want to take us to government control.
I live in NJ, and the GOP here is basically Democrat Lite, and NJ is a cesspit of political corruption. There’s a really conservative ex-mayor running against the mainstream GOP candidate for the primary to go against uber-left Corzine. The GOP is basically a joke here and it will be only because people are sick of Corzine will any GOP candidate get in.
We can’t win because the other guy sucks; we have to win because we have good ideas and a good track record, and can overcome the MSM which will NEVER support the GOP over a Democrat.
And sadly, since the late ’90′s, we don’t have a good track record, except for national security and defense. That will be another major hurdle to overcome.
Here in the Commonwealth, it’s a catfight of historic proportions on the Dems’ side.
Li’l bro’ Moran, carpetbagger McAuliffe and the third wheel will have quite the fine time…
…POPCORN TIME, folks!
#1 Avitar:
Not in Virginia, not in this race.
McDonnell has roots in Virginia, grew up in Fairfax County, and has done a creditable job as AG.
McAulliffe is a stale Clinton beer-fart carpet bagger.
He might do well in the DC ‘burbs, but away from there, being a Vajanyan counts for something.
And even in the DC burbs, he’s in the primary against Moran, a name that Northern Virginians of the Alexandria variety are comfortable with, (although God alone knows why).
The only way the Dems have a chance at keeping the Mansion is if they nominate Deeds, and fund him to the hilt, and he runs far, far, far away from Obama.
Downstate is still God and Guns country, with Big Tobacco frosting.
They hate Obama’s guts.
Let’s think ahead to 2012.
May I humbly suggest that Sheila Bair, head of FDIC, would make a worthy Republican candidate for president in 2012. Her views are fact-based, her stage-presence is superior to that of President Obama, her intellectual achievements and personal history are available to public view, she has run for office as a Republican in the past, her values are mainstream, and she has a grasp of economic issues that is so advanced that she leaves Mr. Obama in the HEPA-filter dust. She can win, becoming America’s first female American president.
Please start a campaign committee for Sheila Bair. If you cannot, then kindly include the above-paragraph in every one of your emails and posts. Chances are someone will ultimately decide to look into her as a real alternative to President Obama.
We can’t win because the other guy sucks; we have to win because we have good ideas and a good track record, and can overcome the MSM which will NEVER support the GOP over a Democrat.
Hear, hear. The GOP can either try to be Dem-lite (which is what has screwed them); they can sit passively and wait for the Dems to screw up so badly the populace will vote for anybody else out of desperation, or they can step up to the plate, return to first principles and do some damage control.
One really frustrating feeling I have as a conservative is watching the GOP fiddle while the country burns and our rights are assaulted. Yes, I think Americans will wake up. I’d really prefer that America not go to complete hell in a handbasket before they do.
Republicans should still be able to win in Virginia, as long as Obama hasn’t added a couple of hundred thousand federal employees by November.
As a former Jersey resident, I say to Republicans “abandon hope all ye who enter here”. Fuggedaboutit. Too many people on the dole. Too many liberals.
The Governor’s seat has been blue in VA for the past 2 elections. 5 of the last 7. I wouldn’t count on that “world of difference” or “obama’s not on the ballot” ridiculousness in light of that. The fact is, VA isn’t afraid to vote democrat for governor (including electing the nation’s first black governor), so you can’t take anything for granted. Obama didn’t need to be on the ballot to get Kaine, Warner (as governor), or Webb elected in the first place.
You want a real dose of history? VA has elected only 5 republican governors in the past 100 years. 23 DEMOCRATS.
But outside of that, I actually agree with this assessment. This is a great place for the GOP to look to pick up a seat. Tim Kaine’s popularity is shrinking (and really he rode Warner’s record to office in the first place) and the dem candidate isn’t a strong one. But like NY-20 it’s the type of pickup that you can’t afford to miss. It’s another seat that says “if you can’t win this, then maybe you should give up.”
And @ 9
Downstate is Hampton Roads and Richmond
Donna V wrote: “One really frustrating feeling I have as a conservative is watching the GOP fiddle while the country burns and our rights are assaulted.”
Donna, it sounds like you are ripe for getting involved. Why don’t you start a committee to support Shelia Bair, head of the FDIC, for president? She is able to out-charisma Obama and has the best chance of winning of any other of the commonly mentioned potential candidates.
#13 Derek:
“Downstate is Hampton Roads and Richmond”
Nope…Norfolk is Tidewater, Richmond is more in the Downstate.
But don’t forget Danville, Roanoke, Bristol, Petersburg and even Charlottesville, (which is an island of Blue in an ocean of Red).
“You want a real dose of history? VA has elected only 5 republican governors in the past 100 years. 23 DEMOCRATS.”
A Virginia Democrat prior to 1985 or so was about the most conservative breed of political critter imaginable…Klansman Robert Byrd, for example,(while from West-by-Gawd, the scion of the Byrd Dynasty), who the hell does he think he’s fooling?
And Kaine, Warner and Webb don’t “fit” well with the Alleged Hawaiian and his O-bots.
THEY won their elections before Obama was even thought of…and they did it by running and governing as moderates. I don’t think Old Dominion Democrat candidates are going to be happy with Obama hanging around their necks.
You?
Wake up, Virginians. Would you seriously vote in a political opportunist like Clinton retread McAuliffe? This is a sheer out-and-out power grab. Don’t we have enough of them littered througout Obama’s administration? Change like that we don’t need. I could barely stomach Webb’s opportunism (since he couldn’t butt his way onto the Republican ticket, he switched sympathies, ala Specter, and ran on the Democratic ticket – so much for his thanks to Reagan). Warner was a competent Blue Dog Gov but I’m worrying about him, too, now.
#13 Derek, Don’t forget that Virginians in the recent past have been “informed contrarians.”
Let the rest of F#in’ America continue to drool over Obama at an unnamed burger joint in Arlington.
We tend to look at “checks and balances” (the bright side of the “gridlock” coin) keenly.
The canary is singing Republican here.
Depends on the “Chicago” spending here in the next months….
Not Virginia. Not this year.
Why? Two words: Northern VA. Too darned liberal. Too populated – especially with too many liberals from the Northeast and CA. As a result, it is too Democrat. And too filled to the brim with bureaucrats, from head to toe.
Who wants to give up the government gravy train there, really?
#18 newton – that’s what ALL the other Virginians think of “us”…HEH.
WRONG!
You guys sure are right about Jersey, which is why my dad works there, but he lives in PA.