VA Gov. Race...

**R13** · September 21st, 2009, 04:25 PM

Stuck his foot in his mouth in the debate, plain and simple.

**R13** · September 26th, 2009, 07:19 PM

WASHINGTON (CNN) ? Hoping to advance the narrative that Democrat Creigh Deeds is the "negative" candidate in the Virginia governor's race, Republican Bob McDonnell unveiled two new television ads Friday pushing back against the onslaught of attacks about McDonnell's conservative voting record and his 1989 master's thesis that criticized working women.

One ad ticks through a series of Virginia newspaper columns accusing Deeds of concoting "disingenuous and deceitful ads" about McDonnell's positions on abortion rights and contraception. "Creigh Deeds: No positive ideas, just dishonest attacks," a narrator says.

The second ad is called "Working Woman" and puts McDonnell's daughter Jeanine ? who served as an Army lieutenant in Iraq ? in front of the camera to tell viewers that McDonnell encouraged his three daughters "to be independent and achieve our goals."

The ads suggest that the McDonnell campaign is playing a bit of defense, as their substantial lead in the polls evaporated after the Deeds campaign started running ads in northern Virginia calling attention to the controversial thesis. Deeds now trails McDonnell by just five points, according to the most recent Washington Post poll of the race.

But McDonnell campaign adviser Ed Gillespie said the Virginia race has "really begun to chrystallize" in McDonnell's favor as a choice between one candidate with ideas and another running "a non-stop negative campaign."

"When you get tagged as the negative candidate this late in the campian, that solidifies and it's hard to come back from that," Gillespie said in a conference call with reporters shortly after the ads were announced.

Gillespie also pounced on Deeds for failing to secure the endorsement of former Virginia governor Doug Wilder, who said Thursday he won't support Deeds because of his support for gun rights and his willingness to raise taxes to fund transportation.

"The last Democratic candidate to run for governor to not get the endorsement of Doug Wilder was Don Beyer, and you remember the outcome of that race," Gillespie said, referring to Beyer's unsuccessful 1997 bid against Republican Jim Gilmore.

Gillespie denied the Virginia race is a referendum on the White House ? "This election is not about President Obama," he said ? but he also noted that national Democratic legislation on health care and energy will have a harmful effect on the commonwealth's economy.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - McDonnell fights back in new TV ads - Blogs from CNN.com

**R13** · September 28th, 2009, 09:32 PM

WASHINGTON (CNN) ? Bob McDonnell is having a good day.

The Republican candidate for governor in Virginia will rake in $350,000 on Monday thanks to a pair of fundraisers headlined by GOP stars Newt Gingrich and Bobby Jindal, a campaign aide told CNN.

A Monday morning breakfast reception with the former House Speaker in Falls Church netted McDonnell $100,000 from 125 guests. McDonnell will also take in a healthy $250,000 this evening at a fundraising reception with Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, to be held at the Great Falls home of Washington Redskins co-owner Dwight Schar.

Today's cash haul comes one week after another GOP star, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, helped McDonnell raise $100,000 at a reception on Capitol Hill.

The Democratic National Committee responded to the appearances by calling McDonnell, Gingrich and Jindal "right wing ideologues" who share "extreme positions on women's issues."

Meanwhile, the campaign of Democrat Creigh Deeds is hyping a "major campaign endorsement" from a statewide elected official to be announced Tuesday morning in northern Virginia.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Gingrich, Jindal raise $350,000 for McDonnell - Blogs from CNN.com

**R13** · September 29th, 2009, 08:03 PM

WASHINGTON (CNN) ? With just over a month to go until election day in Virginia, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds is deploying the state's most popular elected politician in a big way.

The Deeds campaign debuted a new television ad featuring Sen. Mark Warner ? also the state's governor from 2002 to 2006 ? vouching for the Democratic nominee and talking about the economy. The ad is airing throughout the commonwealth, according to a campaign aide, but is not yet running in the pricey Washington, D.C. media market.

"The choice in this election for Governor is really pretty simple," Warner says, speaking directly into the camera. "Do we move Virginia forward by continuing the pro-business economic policies that I helped put in place? Or do we go backwards with the failed economic approach that ruined our economy?"

Recent polls suggest that nearly two-thirds of Virginia voters have a favorable opinion of Warner, and he enjoyed sky-high approval ratings by the time he left the governor's office in January 2006 ? thanks largely to his success at creating jobs and his efforts to fix the state's budget. Warner ushered through a bipartisan budget package in 2004 that included a tax increase. an effort that rescued the budget and maintained the state's precious AAA-bond rating.

In the ad, Warner goes on to tell tells viewers that Deeds supports "keeping taxes low and controlling spending" ? a point that Republican Bob McDonnell's campaign took issue with.

"Unfortunately it appears the Deeds campaign has given the senator some bad information regarding Creigh's position on taxes," McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said in an e-mail. "Creigh has made clear he will raise taxes on Virginians by one billion a year if elected. With this in mind, the Deeds campaign should think about re-shooting this spot in order to help clear up the confusion it creates."

Deeds has said he is open to increasing taxes to pay for transportation reform if necessary, but he has not guaranteed a tax hike.

Along with the ad, Warner has promised to campaign for Deeds "almost every weekend" until election day in November, according to the Deeds campaign.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Warner appears in new ad for Creigh Deeds - Blogs from CNN.com

**R13** · September 30th, 2009, 05:18 PM

WASHINGTON (CNN) ? President Barack Obama wears the fundraiser-in-chief hat Thursday, as he headlines an event for the Democratic Governors Association.

The fundraiser at the St. Regis hotel in Washington is expected to rake in around a half a million dollars, according to a source at the DGA.

The event will be Obama's first for the DGA since his inauguration. Because the president refuses contributions from political action committees and registered lobbyists, those donations will not be accepted for the event.

Thirty-nine states will hold contests for governor between now and November 2010. Democrats will be defending 21 of those seats, starting with elections in five weeks in New Jersey and Virginia. While the campaigns in both of those states concentrate on local issues and the candidates themselves, they're also partially viewed as an early referendum on the Obama presidency. Obama has traveled to both states to campaign personally with the candidates, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and Creigh Deeds, a state senator from Virginia.

The DGA raised a record-breaking $11.6 million in the first half of the year. But their GOP counterpart, the Republican Governors Association, outraised them by around $600,000 during that same time period.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Obama to help DGA rake in half million bucks - Blogs from CNN.com

**R13** · September 30th, 2009, 05:23 PM

WASHINGTON (CNN) ? President Barack Obama wears the fundraiser-in-chief hat Thursday, as he headlines an event for the Democratic Governors Association.

The fundraiser at the St. Regis hotel in Washington is expected to rake in around a half a million dollars, according to a source at the DGA.

The event will be Obama's first for the DGA since his inauguration. Because the president refuses contributions from political action committees and registered lobbyists, those donations will not be accepted for the event.

Thirty-nine states will hold contests for governor between now and November 2010. Democrats will be defending 21 of those seats, starting with elections in five weeks in New Jersey and Virginia. While the campaigns in both of those states concentrate on local issues and the candidates themselves, they're also partially viewed as an early referendum on the Obama presidency. Obama has traveled to both states to campaign personally with the candidates, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and Creigh Deeds, a state senator from Virginia.

The DGA raised a record-breaking $11.6 million in the first half of the year. But their GOP counterpart, the Republican Governors Association, outraised them by around $600,000 during that same time period.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Obama to help DGA rake in half million bucks - Blogs from CNN.com

**Biggin** · September 30th, 2009, 08:35 PM

I will vote Deeds.
Not only because of the thesis, although it does play a part in it.
I feel McDonnell will continute to establish very fundamental, Christian slant to Virginia.
Whereas Deeds will still hold very Christian values, he doesn't seem to be as focused on religious-based issues(abortion, birth control, homosexuals, war on drugs, etc..) as McDonnell.

Deeds is very pro-education, which is something I support whole-heartedly. That is one of biggest thing I look for in a candidate, along with views on morals and religious-based issues, and marijuana legislation.

**Counts** · October 1st, 2009, 09:34 AM

Deeds is Pro Cap and trade IMHO for our area at least that trumpts EVERYTHING else

**R13** · October 5th, 2009, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by Counts

Deeds is Pro Cap and trade IMHO for our area at least that trumpts EVERYTHING else

It's not been passed though, I mean is that really something to base the whole election on? Not knocking your reasoning, just wondering.

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This is really reaching from McDonnell, trying to fire back some how after that paper, but there has to be something better than using this lmao.

(CNN) – After weeks of Democratic attacks on Republican Bob McDonnell's 20-year-old comments on women in the workplace, the GOP is going on the offensive in the Virginia governor's race, hitting Creigh Deeds over a public comment to a female reporter.

The Republican Governor's Association is launching a 30-second TV spot that points to the Democratic gubernatorial candidate's post-debate press conference last month, where he referred to a female reporter as "young lady."

"Did you catch that?" the ad asks, after showing the back-and-forth exchange. "It gets worse."

The commercial, which will air heavily across the state this week, comes after a major Democratic push to focus the race on views in McDonnell's thesis two decades ago. The Republican's recently-reported comments on working women and other social issues have become a lightning rod issue in the campaign, and are credited with helping Deeds close the gap with his GOP opponent over the closing months of the race.

McDonnell is also out with a positive ad promoting his plans to improve the state's transit system.

"Better roads mean better jobs," McDonnell says in the 30-second spot, set to run in Northern Virginia.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...male-reporter/

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Few Virginians would describe Creigh Deeds as a great speaker. The Democratic candidate for governor frequently fumbles his words in press conferences and on debate stages. The Washington Post has described him as "stammering."

Now a top surrogate for Republican candidate Bob McDonnell is drawing some unwanted attention for outright mocking the Democrat's halting manner of speech.

Sheila Johnson, the co-founder of BET and one of the McDonnell campaign's most high-profile African-American backers, made fun of Deeds during a campaign event in Hampton Roads two weeks ago. The video of Johnson's remark was captured by the Democratic blog NotLarrySabato and posted online Monday.

"We need people who can communicate," Johnson said at the event, as McDonnell stood by in the audience. "And Bob McDonnell can communicate."

Johnson then said other politicians she talks to can't communicate, "especially his op-op-op-op-opponent."

The Deeds camp called it a "personal attack."

"Creigh's the first person to admit that he's not the smoothest talker and that he sometimes stumbles over his words," said Deeds spokesman Mo Elleithee. "But at least you know that what's he's saying is authentic, honest and true. That's what voters will respond to, not petty personal attacks."

The McDonnell campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UPDATE: The McDonnell campaign claimed Johnson was simply accusing Deeds of straddling the fence on campaign issues.

“Creigh Deeds has been unable to express any vision for Virginia’s future, and he regularly takes two positions on important issues," said McDonnell spokeswoman Crystal Cameron. "Democratic businesswoman Sheila Johnson was noting that fact. Why the Deeds campaign wants to attack a prominent supporter of both Governor Tim Kaine and President Barack Obama, while reminding voters that she strongly supports Bob McDonnell for governor, is beyond us."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...king-problems/

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(CNN) – The competitive gubernatorial race in Virginia is set to be showered with $1 million cash at the behest of Democratic National Committee Chairman and current Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, CNN has confirmed.

The DNC, which for months has heavily focused on this off year gubernatorial race as well as that in New Jersey, has already pumped $5 million into the contest that appears to be getting tighter as Election Day looms.

A Democratic loss in either the Virginia race or that in New Jersey, where Republican challenger Chris Christie appears to have a slight edge over incumbent Jon Corzine, is likely to be seen as a referendum on President Barack Obama's polices a year after he was elected. A victory in either state could also give the GOP instant momentum heading into the 2010 midterm election season.

Republicans have equally showered the Commonwealth with campaign cash over the last several months, sending nearly $7 million to GOP candidate Bob McDonnell's bid in part to fend off attacks over his 20 year-old masters thesis that partially criticized working women.

McDonnell was also the beneficiary of a $350,000 cash haul last Monday thanks to a pair of fundraisers headlined by GOP stars Newt Gingrich and Bobby Jindal.

The DNC is also set to dispatch staffers across the state to beef-up grass roots and turn out efforts the party utilized so effectively in the state on Election Day last year. Turnout is expected to be considerably less than last year, when Obama was on the ballot, a fact that could favor McDonnell's effort.

A recent Washington Post poll suggests McDonnell maintains a 4 point edge of Deeds, 51 to 57 percent. That poll was conducted September 15-17 and carries a sampling error of plus or mine 3 three percentage points.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...n-in-virginia/