Meet The Backbenchers

Creigh Deeds for Governor

Jody Wagner for Lt. Governor

Steve Shannon for Attorney General

This has to be the weakest Democratic campaign since Beyer-Payne-Dolan and the weakest triumvirate in Virginia since the GOP's 1985 trio of Wyatt Durrette, John Chichester, and Buster O'Brien.  Its weak, uninspiring, and among the three nearly totally void of any real political leadership and/or accomplishment.

Creigh Deeds, at his heart, is a throwback old-school courthouse politician who's figured out the modern game.  His time in the General Assembly has been marked by nothing of consequence, moving upward in the party merely by incumbency rather than astonishing leadership.  When you compare him to Bob McDonnell, perhaps the GOP's best delegate in his days in the House and an outstanding Attorney General who has fought crime, internet predators, and taken leadership and made hard political choices over and over while Deeds has largely stayed on the sidelines.  

As for Jody Wagner, she's the best of the bunch.  Her entire run in Tim Kaine's cabinet should disqualify her from holding any office as she was constantly either wrong or clueless about the states finances over and over, with rosy predictions being thrown out the window over and over.  

As for Steve Shannon, none of this trio fits the term "backbencher" better than Shannon, who's spent four years in the House of Delegates just smiling away, not doing much, but being young and raising money and convincing people that he's electable.  Its the kind of guy that always emerges when one party starts to really prosper - young pols who get elected on coattails and seem to convince everyone they are the future based on nothing but fluff.

That being said, I caution everyone not the underestimate the Democrats.  They may be weak, but so was Jim Webb, so was Tim Kaine.  Yet they won, and they continue to win.  That last sentence I wrote about Shannon easily applies to the leader of the free world.  This trio can win because of the past history in the state, and we must run like we are ten points down at all times.  No more of this Earley/Kilgore "were-fifteen-points-ahead-in-August-we-have-won-already mentality that has crippled us in the last two elections.  I am confident that McDonnell gets it, I know Bolling gets it, and I really know Cuccinelli gets it.  I feel that McDonnell has really found his voice since the convention, hitting the right themes and the right issues.  

The point of this post is that this is our chance.  Our chance to get this commonwealth back on the right track, to rebuild ourselves, and to give our party a much-needed win.  This election will be on its own merits, its clear from T-Mac's colossal failure that whatever the Obama election was, it won't be translated to state elections.  This is our chance, we've nominated our best against their weakest and now all we have to do is, for the first time in a long time, run a smart and levelheaded race based on issues, principle, and energy.  

Comments

[Todd]

Its one thing to support a candidate, but your blatant McDonnell butt kissing is nauseating...and you have the nerve to deride Obama supporters as being too overzealous in their support of him? What a hypocrite. Deeds, Wagner, and Shannon have records and are very accomplished, as are McDonnell, Bolling, and Cuccinelli. There's no need to act as though the Dems were picked out of a homeless shelter and thrown onto the state electorate with no credentials.

[BDM]

The point begin made Todd is not so much that they are nobodys, rather the Dems are running an the coattails of last year, believing that they can win because in their eyes it is cool to be a Democrat. Deeds and his two predecessors ran on platforms of not raising taxes and then went and did it anyway. If McDonnell runs one ad consistently on that issue alone and shows a picture or clip of Mark Warner promising not to raise taxes and Tim Kaine promising to raise taxes, then shows the next tax number, i think even you can see the ad play out.

[novamiddleman]

Chris I don't like the negative tone coming from RPV. Question as a base person does this motivate you. Thats the only purpose I see. And to me the base people are already here and the people we need to go after IMHO get turned off by all the negative stuff.

I agree with you that all three know what issue mix to run on. I think we need to stay positive and provide clear alternatives and plans to move forward. My fear is the RPV is still running the slash and burn campaigns they are used to and this strategy doesn't work and hasn't worked for several cycles.

[200 Grande]

The Party apparatus, e.g., RPV, is supposed to be the more "negative" prong of the campaign with "negative" being defined by calling the Democrats out on their record.

The Democrat Party does the same thing.

Both Parties do this so that they can draw a definitive contrast making their respective candidates' "positive" message the more attractive.

Voters tend to get alienated when candidates start getting involved with the attack aspect of their respective campaigns.

[novamiddleman]

Whats the point. The only people that care and read about RPV and DPV are partisans. They already have their minds made up. To me its all just a giant waste of time. Just like all the millions coming in form out of state groups. Imagine if that money was actually put towards something productive like say economic and job growth

[Bruce]

Except it is Democratic party organizations that ran negative ads against McDonnell during the Democratic primary season - that everyone saw in prime time local news - that set the tone. Dems didn't want McDonnell to slide while they slugged it out. So they had a surrogate swing at him. They should not be upset if, now that they have picked a candidate, the GOP swings back.

[AG is Iffy to me.]

The only candidate I do not like of the six is Cuccinelli. I vote R most of the time. Not this time. I narrowly choose McD over Deeds. I definitely choose Bolling over Wagner. I narrowly favor Shannon over Cuccinelli. From his stump speech at the convention in Richmond, I think Cuccinelli is good at stirring up zeal, but he doesn't seem clear on what an AG does. Shannon seems to have more relevant experience. Cuccinelli would convince me he was good for the job if he would talk about the job and not about things that are outside the scope of the AG job.