When President Barack Obama takes the podium tonight in his first campaign rally for Creigh Deeds, he comes to the aid of a Virginia gubernatorial candidate afflicted by a dog-days rut that has left him dragging in polls behind his Republican opponent.
Deeds, after emerging from a stunning primary victory, is now struggling to reproduce the spikes in Democratic enthusiasm that followed both his come-from-behind nomination two months ago and Obama’s victory in Virginia last year.
Obama, who will join Deeds and Gov. Tim Kaine at the McLean Hilton, is expected to make the case for why a win in Virginia is critical to Democrats, in the hopes of rallying a base of suburban Washington Democrats who fueled the recent gains in the commonwealth.
But polls have begun to suggest a widening gulf between Deeds and Republican Bob McDonnell.
Of course, some candidates enjoy the underdog role, said Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax, a Deeds supporter.
“The wrong thing to do is get panicky or do something outside of your game plan, you just need to have confidence with yourself,” Petersen said. “There are a lot of Democrats in this state, and Creigh has shown he knows how to win elections. There’s plenty of time to recapture the momentum.”
While a SurveyUSA poll that showed McDonnell up by 15 points was dismissed as exaggerated, that survey was quickly followed up by another from Public Policy Polling showing the Republican with a 14-point lead.
Deeds was in almost the same position in the primary, in which he was written off as a distant third while the presumptive front-runners — Del. Brian Moran and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe — fought over the nomination. Deeds ended winning in June with nearly 50 percent of the vote.
Republicans have started an assault to paint Deeds as reactive, attacking him for following McDonnell on calls to reopen shuttered rest stops and to provide restitution to Arthur Whitfield, a man imprisoned for two decades in Hampton Roads for a crime he did not commit.
They also hope to turn Deeds’ White House connection into a lead sinker. McDonnell wants to turn the campaign into an indictment of Obama and a national Democratic agenda on health care, the environment and the economy he says will kill jobs.
