The Virginia governor’s race is headed into the hinterlands.
Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds are both launching forays into rural Virginia, into regions that generally tilt for the GOP but which fueled Democrat Mark Warner’s ascension to the governor’s mansion in 2001.
Deeds, a state senator who hails from the sparsely populated Bath County, is banking on a strong showing in the traditionally conservative working class enclaves. The plan, said Deeds campaign manager Joe Abbey, goes beyond undercutting McDonnell’s margins in areas like Southwest Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. He believes the Democratic campaign has a real chance of taking those areas.
“We have a unique opportunity here with Creigh to go after that vote,” said Abbey. “This isn’t about offsetting damage, this is about winning.”
Much of the appeal is personal, with Deeds looking to convey to rural constituencies that he understands them and their issues, and hoping that his moderate stances — especially on gun rights — peel off what would normally be reliable “R” voters.
Warner’s 2001 campaign is widely seen as the model for Democratic success in rural regions, while Tim Kaine, his successor, relied more heavily on the increasingly Democratic D.C. suburbs to carry him to victory.
And D.C. is central to the Republican strategy this year. McDonnell is pushing to tie Deeds with the Obama White House and initiatives he says will stall economic recovery and cost jobs, in the hopes of turning voters away from the Democrat.
“It’s doesn’t matter where you’re from, it’s what you believe,” said Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, whose twin brother, Jerry, ran unsuccessfully against Kaine in the 2005 governor’s race.
Cap-and-trade, an issue on which Deeds has stayed silent but which McDonnell has aggressively opposed, is going to hurt coal-operating areas in southwest Virginia, Kilgore said.
Deeds plans this week to launch a “Deeds Country” tour, touching down in areas like Nelson County, Appomattox and Bedford. McDonnell was scheduled to visit fairs in Louisa, Albemarle and Greene Counties on Saturday. Both candidates participated in an agriculture and forestry forum on Friday at the Virginia Farm Bureau headquarters outside Richmond.
