Free Republic

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...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe vowed Wednesday to push to create jobs in renewable energy fields, calling for new incentives to launch and attract companies and a mandatory renewable energy threshold for utility companies. "It's time for Virginia to be the number one renewable energy state in the country," McAuliffe said at a Richmond campaign stop. McAuliffe's energy proposals make up the first phase of his "business plan" for Virginia that he will roll out in the coming weeks. His energy plan includes proposals that have been embraced by his two rivals for the Democratic nomination, former state Del. Brian...

November 4, 2005--Heading into the final weekend of Election 2005, Democrat Tim Kaine has a narrow lead over Republican Jerry Kilgore in the race to be Virginia's next Governor. The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll shows Kaine with 49% of the vote while Kilgore attracts 46%. This is the first time all year that either candidate has reached 49% in a Rasmussen Reports poll. The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted November 2. The survey's margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points, with a 95% level of confidence. Demographic Details are available for Premium Members. State Senator...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Michael Schiavo, who was at the center of a passionate national end-of-life debate when his brain-damaged wife, Terri, died in March, endorsed Democrat Tim Kaine for governor Wednesday. "I have seen firsthand what can happen when a governor disagrees with a single citizen. In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush abused the power of his office in an attempt to replace my personal family decisions with his own opinions and political grandstanding," Schiavo wrote a six-paragraph statement distributed by a Democratic political consulting firm in Miami. Conservatives vilified Schiavo for ordering the removal of the feeding tube that...

When it comes to the death penalty, Virginia Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine is in danger of morphing into the 2005 version of Michael Dukakis. ... Indeed, few issues have defined Mr. Kaine's legal and political careers as much as his opposition to the death penalty. When running for lieutenant governor in 2001, Mr. Kaine supported a moratorium on executions. When Mr. Kaine moved to Richmond to practice law, he contacted death-penalty foes and volunteered to assist death-row inmates in appealing their cases. One of his first clients was Richard Whitley, who was executed in 1987 for the rape and murder...