President Campaigns for Deeds in N.Va.

By Rosalind S. Helderman

Friday, August 7, 2009

The first Democratic president to win Virginia in more than four decades encouraged his supporters Thursday night to return to the polls in November and elect Democrat R. Creigh Deeds governor.

President Obama greeted a small group of Deeds's donors and then attended a rally with several thousand Deeds supporters in a ballroom at the McLean Hilton Tysons Corner.

It was the president's first campaign stop for the rural state senator since Deeds won his party's nomination in the June 9 primary. The two men spoke by phone the day after that, and Obama pledged that he would do what he could to help Deeds win the governor's mansion and succeed Democrats Mark Warner and Timothy M. Kaine.

Obama could prove critical in revving up Democratic voters for Deeds, sparking interest among some of the thousands of new ones who were inspired by his campaign last year. His endorsement could be particularly useful in convincing young voters and African Americans that they should support Deeds.

In the race for attorney general four years ago, Deeds lost to Republican Robert F. McDonnell by 360 votes. Deeds's vote totals in majority-black districts lagged behind Kaine's. He faces McDonnell for the state's top job, and this time he hopes to boost his support in areas that saw record turnout for Obama.

"People have been responding well to this event, and we expect to hear from a lot of Democrats who are happy to see the president endorse Creigh," said Deeds spokesman Jared Leopold.

Leopold said Deeds's speech Thursday focused on education, which is consistently ranked as the top concern among voters.

"We're proud to be with the president," Leopold said. "It will be a nice platform for Creigh to talk about issues that are important to Virginia."

Obama and Deeds were joined by Kaine, who is also chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The visit comes as McDonnell has been working to nationalize the race, confident that Virginia voters are souring on Obama and his agenda.

McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin struck a measured tone about the rally, welcoming Obama to Virginia and saying it is "always an honor" to host a president in the state.

"When the administration and Congress push initiatives that will negatively impact Virginians, Bob McDonnell will oppose them," Martin said. "When the administration and Congress propose initiatives that will be positive for Virginians, Bob McDonnell will support them."

McDonnell has made controversial federal issues an increasingly big part of his campaign, particularly targeting Obama's effort to change health care — "socialized medicine," as he has called it — and a Democratic proposal to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

At the same time, McDonnell has sought to burnish his bipartisan credentials by praising Obama's embrace of charter schools and his push to tie teacher pay to student achievement, and he has suggested that his position on education is closer to Obama's than Deeds's.

"He actually believes the Obama administration to date has been better on education than the Bush administration," Martin said recently.

The Obama administration recently announced that it was using $4.35 billion in federal grants to entice states to ease limits on the creation of charter schools, adopt common academic standards and change teacher pay rules. The changes are viewed with skepticism by teachers unions, which have traditionally supported Democratic candidates.

Deeds has said that he, too, thinks there should be more charter schools in Virginia, which has fewer than any other state.

"There's not going to be a lot of difference between my opponent and me and President Obama on this issue. There's no reason for us to be last in the country," Deeds said when he and McDonnell met last month for their first debate.

Still, the Republican Party of Virginia released an online video jabbing Deeds on the issue Thursday.

Addressing the issue with Obama at his side could help settle the question, said Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University.

"There's no better person to say 'This is a man who is like me on the issues that are important to me' than the man himself, Barack Obama," Kidd said.

Deeds has used the education issue to remind voters that as a state delegate McDonnell opposed a popular 2004 initiative by then-Gov. Warner to raise taxes and make record investments in schools.

At the same time, Kidd said, Deeds must tread carefully when linking himself with Obama, given voter anxiety over spending in Washington and health-care change advocated by the president.

"The danger is that Obama's level of support among voters who are likely to vote in November is not as strong as it was several months ago when he won Virginia," Kidd said.

Deeds has spent most of the rest of this week touring what he has dubbed "Deeds Country," a swath of rural districts in the Shenandoah Valley and the far southwest of the state that he says he thinks have been hurt by Republican economic policy. They are areas where Obama ran particularly poorly, but where Deeds says he thinks he could pick up votes because of his rural roots.

Deeds signaled Thursday that he hoped to use Obama's effort to inject new enthusiasm into his campaign. He unveiled radio ads aimed at the Hispanic and black communities and a push to use social networking tools to organize activists. It began with a text message to supporters.

"Welcome President Obama and help win Virginia!" the message began, concluding, "Yes We Can."

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