The Apathetic Middle: How Virginia Dems Will Lose the Governor's Mansion

The word on the street is that Democrats are being encouraged not to challenge other Dems in primaries.  While I'm not in favor of strong arming good candidates into "waiting their turn," I understand why the Dems are doing this. It seems that they've finally figured out that nasty Democratic primaries just help the Republicans in the general election. 

Take for example what's happened here in Virginia.  A Democrat, albeit a conservative Dem, has held the Governor's mansion for the last two election.  This year, there was no clear cut Democratic successor, even though the Republicans managed to narrow it down to Bob McDonnell and only Bob McDonnell.  We had three contenders in the Democratic primary: Creigh Deeds, Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran. 

From the beginning, the consensus was that Creigh Deeds didn't have much of a chance.  Terry McAuliffe would get the out-of-state big money, Brian Moran would get the more liberal backing of Northern Virginia and the grass roots activists.  Creigh Deeds?  He's a nice guy, but conventional wisdom said he was too conservative and couldn't be aggressive enough to win the primary. 

But here's what happened: Terry and Brian spent the entire primary ripping each other to shreds. (Full disclosure: I was a vocal supporter of Brian Moran, but disgusted by some of the tactics that emerged from his campaign.) Creigh?  Got a sweet endorsement from the Washington Post and then just sat back, popped some popcorn and reveled in all the votes during the primary election.  And now Creigh Deeds is the Democratic candidate for the Virginia governor's mansion.

Make no mistake, Virginia, despite turning blue in the last presidential election, is pretty conservative.  Even though many who don't know what the hell they're talking believe that only "Real Virginia" (aka The Part that Voted for McCain) is conservative, down in the Southeast portion of "Fake Virginia" people are pretty conservative as well.  Hell, I live just a hop skip and a jump away from Regent University, the creation of televangelist Pat Robertson.

In Virginia Democrats are hampered a bit more because a governor can only serve one 4 year term.  There are no back to back terms here. Consequently, every 4 years each party ramps up for a primary and then a general election.  To make it even more difficult, state elections in Virginia are held on off years.  Meaning, there are no elections for the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives or President to help bring people out to the polls.  And, unfortunately, Republicans tend to vote more frequently in off years.

That's where grassroots volunteers come in.  These are the people who help get out the vote and help Democrats get elected in Virginia.  I'll go out on a limb and say that in my part of Virginia, the grassroots volunteers are one of the major reasons Democrats ever get elected.

But the grassroots volunteers?  The people who were excited about Brian Moran and Terry McAuliffe?  Are looking at Creigh Deeds, shrugging their shoulders and saying, "meh."

During the primary both the Moran and McAuliffe campaigns reached out to me. To little old me, a blogger blogging about politics maybe 50% of the time and not for a "Virginia" political blog.  I tend to spend more time on National politics than state politics, as do most of the MOMocrats.  Unless I am passionate about a state issue, I don't write about it.  So even if the Deeds campaign had reached out to me, I'm not sure I'd be any more involved than I am now.  Because frankly, I'm not passionate about Creigh Deeds yet.*

I like Creigh.  I think he's a good guy and a man of personal integrity.  But I know that he's a lot more conservative than I am and I don't perceive him as a guy who will shake things up and change the status quo.  And business as usual in this state?  Is simply not acceptable.

Don't get me wrong, there is no way. in. hell. that I will vote for Bob McDonnell.  I will vote for Creigh Deeds and I give his campaign money every month.  But I, like much of the grassroots community, am not inspired enough by the middle of the road to put my energy into getting Creigh elected.  I get the Deeds campaign press releases, and sometimes I even read them, but that's about it.

Creigh, we want you to inspire us.  We want you to lead the Virginia Democrats.  We want you to win.  But you have to give us some hope for future change.  You need to show some passion.  If you don't, you're going to lose this election.

Stephanie also blogs about the political and the personal at Lawyer Mama. Cross posted at VB Dems.

* Just before publishing this post, I decided to contact the new media firm working for the Deeds campaign. I thought I should see what I can do to help instead of just poking from the sidelines. I've heard back from them already, so maybe there is hope.

Comments

[Eileen]

Oh, the wise woman speaks the truth! Crosspost at VB Dems if you please! ;)

[Lawyer Mama]

Eileen - I'll get right on it!

[Gunfighter]

I was a vocal Moran supporter, too. There isn't much I wouldn't have done to deny Terry McAuliffe the nomination.

As for Deeds... I think he'll do just fine as long as he can make the folks in my neck of the Woods comfortable.