With Trippi involved, Va. gov. race gets personal
By: Jeff Dufour and Kiki Ryan
Washington Examiner
04/20/09 6:29 PM EDT
The gloves are off in the Democratic primary for Virginia governor, thanks to some lingering bad blood between candidate Terry McAuliffe, Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, an adviser to McAuliffe’s opponent, Brian Moran.
To begin with, McAuliffe is a longtime consigliere of the Clintons, while Trippi worked against Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.
Then there’s the matter of McAuliffe referring to Trippi as Moran’s “ass” at February’s Virginia Capitol Correspondents Dinner. McAuliffe later implored Trippi to do what he “did for President Dean and President Edwards,” referring to two of Trippi’s clients who ran unsuccessfully for the White House.
This weekend, as the Democratic candidates were having their first debate, Trippi got in a few shots of his own, via Twitter.
On the eve of the debate, he wrote: “Strategy is to keep the Macker [McAuliffe, that is] guessing. Will Brian Moran’s A$$ show up? Its a 4 hour drive - yeah I am going.”
Then later: “The Macker & I shook hands & said hello but he didn’t apologize To me for his joke gone bad. I thought he was bigger than that.”
And during the debate: “No one has sense of humor right now. But Terry McAuliffe says he created 100,000 jobs. That’s funny.”
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