With Tuesday’s election results clear, focus has already shifted to Virginia’s open U.S. Senate seat and what promises to be a heated, expensive campaign. Less than 24 hours after polls closed, Republican front-runner George Allen emailed supporters asking them to put 2011 behind them and prepare for the 2012 election. And by Thursday, a conservative group was on the air running attack ads against presumptive Democratic nominee Tim Kaine that critics called misleading.
This for a race that’s still 12 months from Election Day.
Allen and Kaine hold significant fundraising leads in a contest that’s sure to attract copious spending from outside influences. Crossroads GPS, a group linked to Republican strategist and George W. Bush insider Karl Rove, began airing a 35-second spot that calls Kaine a “cheerleader” for President Obama’s stimulus package and claims the former governor created a $3.7 billion deficit. A Kaine spokeswoman said the deficit charge was false. Virginia’s constitution forbids ending a fiscal year with insufficient funds.
“They’re already up on the airwaves with negative advertising, but we believe we’ve built the right grassroots network of supporters to combat that negative message,” Kaine spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said.
The tenor of the ad is likely to be a recurring theme throughout the election. Republicans will continue to link Obama to Kaine, the president’s handpicked chairman for the Democratic National Committee, as Virginians have grown increasingly disillusioned with Obama.
That was reflected in election results Tuesday in which Republicans won two state Senate seats, giving them control of both the state legislative and executive branches for the first time since 2001.
But even in the face of faltering approval ratings in the commonwealth for the country’s top Democrat, Kaine continues to poll even with Allen, also a former governor looking to win back the seat he lost to Sen. Jim Webb in 2006.
“We expect that this is going to be a tight race, wire to wire. That’s no surprise,” said Allen spokesman Bill Riggs. “The differences are going to be the policies. Virginians don’t want the same policies that have come out of tax-and-spend Washington.”
Allen and Kaine are scheduled to debate in Richmond Dec. 7, months before primary elections to select party nominees. Allen’s four Republican opponents ?– Jamie Radtke, Tim Donner, Earl Jackson Sr. and David McCormick — chastised the Associated Press for excluding them.
The Republican Party of Virginia announced Thursday it will host three debates in April and May of next year leading up to the June primary. Allen’s campaign is reviewing the invitation, but his GOP opponents are baiting him to attend.
“We can’t imagine anyone who wants the nomination from the Republican Party will skip it,” Radtke spokesman Chuck Hansen said.
