Gubernatorial candidates seek out college voting bloc: Cville Registrar Predicts Low Turnout

Cavalier Daily ^ | 10/14/09 | Bethel Habte

[freespirited]

Gubernatorial candidates Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell have toured, tailgated and twittered to win an elusive, college-age voting bloc. Efforts from the campaigns, both Democrat and Republican, to improve student voter turn-out, however, may only go so far at the University, where apathy, registration confusion and pre-voting numbers seem to foreshadow a potentially low turnout.

Charlottesville General Registrar Sheri Iachetta said gubernatorial races historically bring in fewer voters than presidential elections, and that this year, absentee turnout might fall to 40 percent, lower than what it has usually been in previous years.

[freespirited]

Turnout will probably be abysmal. To me that's a good thing; it's better that the only voters be those who are actually paying attention.

[HokieMom]

http://www.bobmcdonnell.com/ for Governor

http://www.billbolling.com/ for Lieutenant Governor

http://www.cuccinelli.com/ for Attorney General

I did see some lapel stickers on tailgating students at the Virginia Tech game in Blacksburg last week that said, "I'm the NRA and I vote". There's some McDonnell youth voters right there.

[OldPossum]

I hope that this is true. The Charlottesville area is now represented by a Rat Congressman, who pushed out Rep. Virgil Goode, a far better man than he, last year, largely on the coattails of Mr. Obama. It’s quite possible that the GOP will reclaim this seat in 2010.

[DanZanRyu]

I wonder about the voter turnout at Regent and Liberty. surely, Christian students will be fired up about McDonnell wanting to provide Christian Leadership to Richmond.

[freespirited]

Does the GOP have a candidate yet to run against Perriello?

He voted for cap and trade. That alone should doom him if we get a decent candidate.

[OldPossum]

To the best of my knowledge, no, they don’t, but I’m not an insider and privy to what’s going on.

Perriello strikes me as a very vulnerable candidate, having voted for the Democrats’ program in a conservative-leaning district. The problem for the GOP in 2008 was there was a big turnout by liberal University of Virginia students and by non-ideological voters for Obama. That’s what did Virgil Goode in. That’s not likely to repeat next year as Obama will not be on the ticket.

To give you some idea of the opposition, we had one heck of a turnout for the March on Washington. The organizers who put together our two tea parties in the spring and summer originally scheduled one large bus; when all was said and done, we had four busloads to Washington.

Should be an interesting November next year.