The line between national and state politics is looking increasingly blurred in Virginia: The governor is going to become the next Democratic National Committee chairman, and a former DNC chairman wants to become Virginia’s next governor.
Virginia voters will choose in November the successor to Gov. Tim Kaine, who will enter into a full-time role as his party’s top partisan at the end of his term next year. Among the three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination is Terry McAuliffe, a prolific fundraiser and political strategist who led the national party from 2001 to 2005.
The situation means Virginia, which holds its gubernatorial elections a year after the nation elects a president, will “be the eye of the political storm” in 2009, said political analyst Robert Holsworth.
“We maintained the off-year election cycle primarily because we wanted to be inoculated from the national environment, and now, because we have the off-year election cycle, we’re going to be right in the center of it,” Holsworth said.
He expects the election will be not only be a referendum on President-elect Barack Obama’s and Kaine’s performances, but also on Virginia’s Republican Party and Attorney General Robert McDonnell, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination.
The McAuliffe campaign on Monday called Kaine’s appointment a “reaffirmation of the power of the Virginia Democratic brand,” referencing the dramatic political takeover Democrats have orchestrated since Mark Warner’s election to governor in 2001.
“I’m also proud of Virginia for producing two of the last three DNC chairs,” McAuliffe said.
