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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.

A LEGACY of sound policies, coupled with the proximity of the federal government, has partially protected Virginia from the harsh retrenchments that the recession has forced on many states. Yet the commonwealth faces a daunting crisis in the form of a drastic shortfall in transportation funding, measured in the tens of billions of dollars, that threatens future prosperity. If the current campaign for governor has clarified anything, it is that state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee, has the good sense and political courage to maintain the forward-looking policies of the past while addressing the looming challenge of fixing...

Creigh Deeds, Virginia's Democratic candidate for governor, is pledging that President Obama will campaign for him again before Election Day. The President has scheduled a rally next week with Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey, but the White House has been quiet on whether Obama will do the same favor for Deeds, who is trailing Republican Bob McDonnell in the polls. Obama last appeared with Deeds at a rally in August. When asked for an update on the situation by NBC12 News in Richmond, Deeds didn't hesitate. "President Obama will be back in Virginia, yes," he said. "He will be...

The President's coming to Virginia for Democrat Creigh Deeds. Former President Bill Clinton, that is. Clinton will hold a rally with Deeds somewhere inside the Beltway in Northern Virginia on Tuesday, the Deeds campaign confirms. Also in attendance will be Clinton buddy and Deeds's rival during the primary campaign, Terry McAuliffe. Clinton did several appearances for McAuliffe before the June 9 primary. His work for Deeds comes as national Democrats swing into action to try to rev up a party base that polls have shown is unenthusiastic about Deeds's candidacy. This evening, Deeds holds a fundraiser with former vice president...

In preparation for last night’s call — great fun, by the way, and if you’re not calling in, you ought to — I called around to my Virginia sources, and what was interesting was how little they had to say about the governor’s race. The conventional wisdom, it seems, is that the drama is waning, and even liberal bloggers are starting to write as if the race is over. Not Larry Sabato wrote that Creigh Deeds “is clearly completely lost with zero vision for what needs to happen to win this election” and predicted a Republican sweep of all statewide...

Former Vice President Al Gore will be coming to Virginia on Friday to give a last-minute boost to the Democratic candidate for governor, Creigh Deeds, a party source said. Gore will headline a private fundraiser in McLean at the home of longtime Democratic supporters Al and Claire Dwoskin. The visit will provide positive publicity for Deeds in the days before the Nov. 3 election, when Deeds will face Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee.

Republican Robert F. McDonnell still holds a seven-point lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in the race for Virginia governor. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state shows McDonnell ahead of Deeds 50% to 43%. Six percent (6%) of Virginia voters remain undecided. The survey was taken Monday night as the two candidates clashed in their next-to-last debate of the contest. McDonnell’s lead is roughly the same as two weeks ago when he was ahead of Deeds 51% to 42%. After closing to essentially a toss-up in mid-September, the previous survey found the contest back to where it...

Two new polls -- one conducted for the Washington Post and one for the Richmond Times-Dispatch -- show former state attorney general Bob McDonnell (R) opening up a high single digit lead over state Sen. Creigh Deeds (D) with less than a month remaining in the Virginia governor's race. The polling reflects Democrats' increasingly negative view of their chances of pulling off a third straight victory in the Commonwealth and Republicans' optimism that a state that has swung heavily against them in recent years is moving back in their direction. But, since no race is ever over until all the...

The debate is being streamed live at the link above.

Democrat Creigh Deeds is not backing off negative campaign ads against Republican Bob McDonnell, at least in the Northern Virginia area. The campaign this morning releases a new spot already airing in the Washington area, which attacks McDonnell's claim, featured on many campaign signs, that he is "Fairfax's Own" because of his Northern Virginia childhood. "Bob McDonnell says he's from Fairfax County," the narrator says. "But that was before he attended Pat Robertson's law school. And served on its board." Before, the narrator continues, he wrote that working women are detrimental to the family, he introduced 35 bills on abortion...

Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, which like the Post does live interviews and not automated robocalls, is out with a poll in the Virginia governor's race. And it shows a similar spread to the Post poll last week--Republican Robert F. McDonnell over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds by eight percentage points. Like the Post, Mason-Dixon, which was funded by the Richmond Times Dispatch and other Virginia press outlets, has McDonnell way up with independents, which will be encouraging to his campaign. The new poll shows him ahead by 15 with that group--a striking lead though not quite the 21 point gap the...

Creigh Deeds, the Democrat running for governor of Virginia, may not be much of a candidate, but he has a future as a political commentator. During a recent interview, Deeds explained his trouble gaining political traction: "Frankly, a lot of what's going on in Washington has made it very tough. We had a very tough August because people were just uncomfortable with the spending; they were uncomfortable with a lot of what was going on, a lot of the noise that was coming out of Washington, D.C." Some of this is blame-shifting. Deeds has made plenty of mistake...But Deeds is...

Republican Bob McDonnell has emerged with a commanding lead in the Virginia gubernatorial race over Democrat Creigh Deeds, according to a newly-released Washington Post poll. With less than a month until the election, the poll shows McDonnell leading Deeds by nine points, 53 to 44 percent – and contains a wealth of encouraging developments for the Republican nominee. By double-digit margins, voters said that McDonnell would handle nearly every major issue – transportation, taxes, education, the economy – more effectively than Deeds. Despite running a campaign defined by his attacks on McDonnell’s record towards working women, Deeds holds only a...

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds said in an interview that he was lagging in the polls entering the final weeks of the campaign in part because of voter concerns over his national party’s agenda. “Frankly, a lot of what’s going on in Washington has made it very tough,” Deeds said in a “Battleground Virginia” interview sponsored by ABC 7/WJLA-TV, POLITICO, Google and YouTube. “We had a very tough August because people were just uncomfortable with the spending; they were uncomfortable with a lot of what was going on, a lot of the noise that was coming out of Washington,...

RICHMOND, Va. - The billionaire co-founder of the Black Entertainment Television mocked Democrat Creigh Deeds' occasional stuttering at a fundraiser she held for Deeds' Republican opponent in the governor's race, Bob McDonnell. In a YouTube video, Sheila Johnson says Virginia needs a governor "who can really communicate, and Bob McDonnell can communicate." Then she tells a small crowd of wealthy donors, "The other people I talk to, especially his op-op-op-o-opponent, di-di-did this all through my interview with him." After muted laughter among the guests, she adds, "He could not articulate what needed to be done."

I've been seeing a new commercial for Creigh Deeds recently. It's been getting a lot of airtime in the Northern Virginia market. Although I'm glad to see the Deeds campaign try to return to a discussion about the issues, I think I'm more impressed that they could make this one with a straight face. (Notice that Senator Warner's voice is cracking a bit. Must be from all the spit-takes that they probably had to run through to get this commercial done). Video, after the jump.

The mocking of Creigh Deeds' occasional stuttering by the co-founder of the Black Entertainment Network is a "cheap shot and a new low" in the gubernatorial race, a spokesman for the Democratic candidate told FOXNews.com.

Why is a race for Governor in Virginia important? A crushing defeat by Bob McDonnell would help send shock waves down the line of every moderate Democrat thinking about voting for Health Care Reform, what happens in this race (and in New Jersey) will have a huge impact.

The Arab American Institute is hosting Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds at its candidates night. Deeds will speak Sunday night as will former Rep. Tom Davis, who's attending on Bob McDonnell's behalf. The institute says it's hosting the event so Arab Americans can speak with candidates and hear from Deeds and others about issues important to their community.

As Virginia’s odd-year election approaches, Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds has unleashed a frenzy of promises to spend money on everyone he can think of. On Saturday Deeds campaigned in Southwest Virginia at a rally sponsored by the United Mine Workers union, whose leaders say the time has come to “take from the upper one per cent that portion of the wealth they’ve been stealing for the past 35 years and return it to the workers.” Dumb, but — if possible — getting dumber.