Personality Distinctions Define Tuesday Primary for Governor

In Fluid Race, the Three Democrats Largely Agree on Issues

By Rosalind S. Helderman, Anita Kumar

Thursday, June 4, 2009

RICHMOND — Virginians will head to the polls next week to choose a Democrat to face Republican Robert F. McDonnell in what is expected to be a fiercely contested governor's race this fall.

R. Creigh Deeds, Terry R. McAuliffe and Brian J. Moran are running to replace Timothy M. Kaine (D) in a closely watched campaign that could help test the trend that has put Democratic candidates in command of statewide elections.

Polls show that most voters have remained undecided in the days leading to Tuesday's primary, the party's first contested gubernatorial nomination battle in more than three decades.

Deeds, McAuliffe and Moran agree on most major issues, including the need for new jobs and high-speed rail and support for the death penalty, increasing teacher salaries and enforcing immigration laws.

They have clashed on a handful of issues. Moran opposes drilling for oil and gas off Virginia's coast while McAuliffe supports gas drilling and Deeds is open to both. All opposed the 2006 constitutional amendment banning contractual agreements to sanctify same-sex relationships, but only Moran has said he would work to repeal it.

With the three men agreeing on most policies, the race has turned largely into a contest centered on style and personality.

Deeds, 51, a state senator from Bath County, spent years working toward a run for governor after a failed race for attorney general in 2005. He was the first candidate to jump in the race in 2007 and has been traveling the state touting an economic plan designed to boost the number of "green" jobs x while investing substantially in transportation and higher education to create a climate designed to entice businesses to Virginia.

He has stressed his lengthy legislative record: helping create an emergency alert system for missing children, establishing a fund to help lure businesses to the state, cracking down on methamphetamine production and writing some of the country's most progressive laws on land conservation.

But his district is a mostly rural, conservative area in the central and western parts of the state. He voted to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions on the ballot and has repeatedly supported gun rights, including opposing a one-handgun-a-month limit on purchases. In recent years, though, he said he has changed his mind on some of those issues. One of his most high-profile measures was a 2001 constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to hunt and fish.

"This primary is really about who can go best head to head, who's got the best chance against Bob McDonnell, and who's going to stand up for Virginia's middle-class families, who's going to stand up for working Virginians," Deeds said.

After years of helping run the others' campaigns, including most recently chairing longtime friend Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid last year, McAuliffe surprised many in Virginia when he became a candidate.

Despite being a 17-year resident of McLean, McAuliffe, 52, is far better known on the national scene, where he was the Clintons' chief fundraiser and chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Now he's bringing his thick national Rolodex, considerable fundraising prowess and seemingly boundless energy to his campaign.

On the campaign trail, he displays a discipline to his core message learned from his high-level campaign experience. In a booming voice, he returns again and again to his core message. He says he can bring needed change to a Richmond culture mired in bickering between the political parties and use his business savvy to create new jobs.

"If you're looking for someone to go to Richmond to shake it up, think out of the box with a business background who is willing to go down and take on those tough issues, who hasn't been part of all these partisan battles and will bring a new fight down there, I will fight for you every single day as governor," he said.

McAuliffe has tried to combat claims that he is too new to Virginia politics to govern effectively, unveiling a lengthy, multi-chapter "business plan" for the state with specific proposals for ideas such as constructing wind turbine farms off the Virginia coast and forgiving the college loans of teachers willing to work at high-risk schools. For much of the campaign, he was far less specific about how he would pay for his plans, particularly during a time of falling state revenue. He has said economic growth would create the revenue necessary and asserted that Virginians want a governor who dreams big. Last week, he put out a plan providing price tags for some of his proposals and suggesting some would wait until after the economy recovers.

Although McAuliffe's foray into the race was a surprise, Moran's was anything but. After 20 years as a prosecutor in Arlington County and then a state delegate from Alexandria, Moran made it known not long after Kaine's election that he would run. He hired campaign staff members early and retired from the legislature in December so he could devote himself full time to the cause — and avoid fundraising restrictions on sitting lawmakers during the legislative session.

Moran, 49, spent years toiling as chairman of the minority caucus in the House of Delegates, a position that put him at Warner's side in 2004 in persuading lawmakers to pass a tax increase that resulted in record investment in state services and had him traveling the state on behalf of Democratic candidates. That loyalty has been rewarded with a long list of endorsements from local officials.

Moran has cast himself as the race's most progressive candidate. His leftward push could draw votes from party activists likely to show up for a June primary, but critics have suggested it could make him vulnerable against McDonnell in the fall.

He argues voters can trust him best to follow through with campaign promises because of his long record of local activism.

"I've served with four governors, worked alongside Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. And it is one thing to say you'll govern like them, but it's another to have been in the trenches moving our Democratic agenda forward," Moran said recently.

Tagged: 2009 governor's race, Bob McDonnell, Brian Moran, Creigh Deeds, Democratic Party, elections, politics, State news, Terry McAuliffe

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