Former President Bill Clinton stumped for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe across Fairfax County on Wednesday, striking a fiscally hawkish tone as he described his close friend and longtime adviser.
Clinton, arriving characteristically late to a rally at Herndon’s Frying Pan Park, framed McAuliffe as the man to balance spending and restraint in the governor’s mansion, and who would “tell you the truth when something can’t be done and money can’t be spent.”
It was a clear overture to independent voters who haven’t made up their minds which, if any, of the three Democratic hopefuls they will vote for. McAuliffe faces former Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria and State Sen. Creigh Deeds of Bath County in a June 9 primary.
Independents could be one of McAuliffe’s biggest obstacles. While a Public Policy Polling survey this month gave him a sizable overall lead over the two challengers, it also found him lagging Deeds and Moran with the unaffiliated voters.
Other polls have shown Moran leading the primary race, with Republican Bob McDonnell ahead of all three Democrats.
McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, served as Bill Clinton’s chief fundraiser during his presidency and was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign last year.
“Everybody knows this guy raised a lot of money for me,” Bill Clinton said. “Every nickel he raised, he has talked to me about how to be careful spending it.”
McAuliffe, while promising to increase teacher salaries, offer tax incentives for renewable energy use and pay off the college loans of nurses and educators serving “high need areas,” did not explain how he would pay for the goals. He vowed not to propose tax increases while the economy remains sour.
“I don’t believe in raising taxes in a down economy,” he told the 300-person crowd in Herndon.
McAuliffe’s detractors have alternately dismissed the Clinton connection as a vestige of his time in national politics and used it as fodder for the argument that he lacks experience in Richmond that would qualify him for executive office.
He later spoke at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale.
