With the Virginia governor’s race looming as one of the most important in 2009 — and one that many pundits are touting as a precursor to the 2010 midterm elections — both parties are pouring money and surrogates into the Old Dominion.
President Obama is the highest-profile political figure to cross the Potomac and enter the campaign, stumping for state Sen. Creigh Deeds at a rally and fundraiser last month. Deeds has also enjoyed the support of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who is also the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Kaine has pledged to pour in $5 million to help Deeds in the race, and would certainly like to keep a Democrat in the governor’s mansion in Richmond.
Bob McDonnell, Virginia’s former attorney general, has also received sizable help from his national party, as the Republican National Committee has pledged $7 million to help the former attorney general’s cause. He’s also campaigned with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who is also chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and, this week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
But help from national figures comes with its caveats. Though Deeds welcomed Obama into his camp at the rally, he was careful not to mention any of the president’s high-profile national legislative battles on issues such as health care and cap and trade. Though Deeds has said he wants to continue governing in the styles of popular former Gov. Mark Warner and Kaine, talk of the current governor — who rolled out another $1.35 billion in state cuts on Tuesday — have waned in recent weeks.
Warner is the one Virginian politician who’s become a “closer relative” to Deeds during the campaign, in terms of political family, said Bob Holsworth, the founder and president of Virginia Tomorrow, a company that examines trends in politics, society, and business.
Deeds is running on the 2004-2005 Mark Warner platform, but he seems to have forgotten that one of Warner’s major pledges was to bring fiscal conservatism to government, Holsworth said.
“When Warner came to announce it was necessary to raise taxes,” he had spent two years laying the groundwork by touting fiscal responsibility, Holsworth said. “Deeds, simply, has almost forgotten about that.”
