1. One Question that You’d Like to Ask
The Washington Post invited a number of us to provide one question that we’d like to have the candidates answer at their upcoming debate. Here they are.
2. Bob Gets Personal
The McDonnell campaign has two new ads out featuring the candidate himself, one responding directly to “The Thesis” and another talking about jobs. The ads illustrate the difficulty the Democrats are having portraying McDonnell as a reactionary ideologue: how do you convince people that the sensible family man who looks you in the eye and tells you he wants to help the grow the economy is really a political nut? I’m reminded of the 2000 campaign when the Democrats were pounding George Allen for being anti-education and he ran an ad with his kids bouncing down the steps, running through the lawn and bounding onto the Chesterfield County Public Schools’ bus.
3. SSDD
Same Story Different Day. Governor Kaine announced further cuts this week that will be necessary to balance the budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. Given the near depletion of the state’s rainy day fund after this year, the federal stimulus dollars that have been used to plug budget holes, and the one-time monies that are employed to help balance matters this year, the next Governor is going to face some very challenging fiscal choices. A reporter from one of the paper’s covering the campaign asked me this week “aren’t both of the candidates in La-La Land when they start to talk about the new programs they’re going to fund?”
4. Deeds Attacks McDonnell on Taxes
Recent polls show McDonnell with a commanding lead over Deeds in the public’s mind over the question of who is most likely to keep taxes low. The Deeds campaign is now running ads implying that trust in McDonnell is misplaced because he has a record of supporting tax increases. The Deeds ad is correct to recognize the importance of tax and spending issues to the public this year. I think that it will be crucial for Deeds himself to address this matter head-on and let the public know exactly where he stands. But you gotta love politics- last week your opponent was a troglodyte conservative, this week he’s a closet liberal.
5. VITA Shakeup
George Coulter, VITA’s new chief, shook up his management structure a few weeks after taking office, removing three individuals who Jeff Schapiro notes had been critical of the Northrop Grumman contract. Remarkably, two legislatively-appointed members of the Board charged with overseeing VITA, publicly complained that they had not been involved in discussing the leadership changes. With a JLARC report due next month and an election in November, the VITA mess may become a far larger issue in October than it has been to date. David Rees, Jeff Schapiro and Olympia Meola of the RTD continue to own this story.
6. Republicans Don’t Want to Say It Publicly…
But they cannot believe how a changing national political climate may be altering their electoral opportunities here in Virginia. This week’s whisper- GOP members saying it is is possible that they may not only hold onto the House, but it’s possible, just possible, that they could pick up seats. It’s far too early to make good forecasts about the House and canddiate quality will make a big difference in individual races. But Democrats realize that simply looking at how Obama performed in their districts in 2008 doesn’t tell us very much about what will happen this November.
7. Closers
If you’re a baseball fan (and a Yankee supporter like me), you know that Mariano Rivera out of the bullpen is one of the great closers of all time. The Virginia Democrats like to think of themselves as the Rivera of contemporary politics- they may start off slow, but close very fast. Democrats are hoping that the magic will happen again this October. But to this they’ll have to find a way to recapture the issue of fiscal responsibility with independents and to energize a seemingly indifferent Democratic base. As we get closer to October, many Democrats believe that the potential role of Mark Warner in the campaign becomes more important every day.
Warner will not be a savior for Deeds.
Warner’s opposition to the public option, after promising not to vote against it, will cause D activist enthusiasm to diminish even lower than it already is. Deeds has done nothing to motivate NoVa D’s to work and Warner’s close connection with United Health Care hurts with the D base.
Ds could lose 10 General Assembly seats if Warner votes against the public option.
and its funny that the above poster mentions mark warner. i see him as very liberal with his votes in the Senate. he ran as a “centrist”, fooled many, & now he is irritating everyone.