CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
– POLITICS
April 6, 2009 – 12:09 a.m.
Rivals for Governor Hope to Sow Support in Northern Virginia
By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff
The populous Washington, D.C., suburbs in northern Virginia have a major say this year in the election that will determine the successor to Democrat Tim Kaine , the state’s term-limited governor.
The region’s increasing Democratic strength — which has fueled the party’s major statewide gains in recent elections — could give northern Virginia a decisive role in the June 9 Democratic primary between former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, state Sen. Creigh Deeds and former state Rep. Brian Moran.
And state Republicans, who already have tapped former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell as their candidate for governor, have vowed to compete heavily in northern Virginia during the campaign for the Nov. 3 general election.
A look at the vote breakdown in Virginia’s 2008 elections shows why the sprawling suburban sector at the top of the state is considered a crucial battleground by both parties.
Barack Obama took 60 percent of the vote in Fairfax County, the state’s most populous jurisdiction, as he became the first Democratic presidential nominee in 44 years to carry Virginia. The northern Virginia vote also was vital to victories for governor by Mark Warner in 2001 and Kaine in 2005 and for U.S. Senate by Jim Webb in 2006 and Warner in 2008.
The area’s influence is magnified by its rapid population growth over the past couple of decades. Fairfax County alone accounted for nearly one in seven votes cast for president in Virginia last year. If you include the entire metropolitan area, northern Virginia accounted for about 30 percent of all statewide votes.
An even more disproportionate share of the statewide vote in the June Democratic primary will come from northern Virginia.
Moran, the brother of 8th District Democratic Rep. James P. Moran , is from the region. So is McAuliffe — a businessman, high-profile Democratic insider and longtime ally of former President Bill Clinton — who is making his first run for elected office.
Moran and McAuliffe almost certainly will receive more northern Virginia votes than Deeds, the third Democratic candidate, who resides in rural Bath County on the West Virginia border. But Deeds can’t ignore the punch that northern Virginia packs in statewide elections.
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The same will apply this fall to Republican McDonnell, a former state legislator from Virginia Beach in the southeastern Tidewater region who presently lives in the state capital of Richmond. McDonnell, though, regularly points out to northern Virginia audiences that he grew up in Fairfax County.
So it was fitting that the candidates of both parties staged their first joint appearance Friday in northern Virginia. Their forum on business issues (watch our video report of the forum here), organized by the Northern Virginia Technology Council, was held at Microsoft’s technology center in Reston, a Fairfax County community about 20 miles west of the nation’s capital.
The forum, which resembled a town hall meeting, allowed the candidates to make individual pitches to members of the business community about why their proposals would boost a region that is the economic engine of the state. All of them outlined proposals on education and transportation, two “quality of life” issues of high importance to local business boosters.
Deeds promoted an economic plan that includes investing in the state community college system to build “the smartest workforce in the world.” He said that other Southern states had succeeded in retooling their community college systems to help laid-off textile workers land higher-paying jobs in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.
“I think that government, just like business, has to be in a constant state of reinvention,” Deeds said.
Moran, who was a member of the Democratic leadership in the state House, linked himself to Warner, who became wealthy as a telecommunications entrepreneur before his election as governor in 2001, and to Kaine, who served as Warner’s lieutenant governor and then succeeded him in the top job.
Moran said he had met with business executives in India, which he said has an education infrastructure that is producing 350,000 engineers per year. “We are competing on the global stage with India and China, and our education system must reflect that,” Moran said.
He promoted a tax credit for small businesses and said that “no one has worked harder in the House of Delegates to come up with a comprehensive transportation system for Virginia.” Moran said that one of his top priorities is establishing a high-speed rail system between Washington and Richmond, about 100 miles to the south.
McAuliffe focused heavily on a theme of creating jobs. He said that he would essentially “leave the tax structure alone,” saying that it would be unwise to raise or cut state taxes when the economy is in recession. But he did propose using tax incentives to attract new business to the state.
“I will grow the economy. As governor, I promise you, I will create more jobs than any other governor in the United States of America,” said McAuliffe, who gave the most animated presentation of the quartet. “I will make us a model for education, transportation, energy, alternative energy. You put up a wall, I will knock that wall down.”
McAuliffe is known in the Washington political community as a top political strategist and fundraiser. To Virginia voters, though, he is touting his experiences in business as excellent preparation for the governor’s job.
“I have started dozens of companies. I’ve hired thousands of people. I know that it takes to create jobs,” McAuliffe said.
Comments
Another article about how important NOVA is. As a resident of Southside VA, I have to say I'm really frustrated by how few articles discuss issues in the Southside. True, statewide candidates need to win votes in NOVA. But Warner won his election, not on northern votes alone, but by competing furiously downstate. The focus on NOVA only reinforces the perceptions that Southside is a monolithic conservative swamp, or that it doesn't have as many issues as northern VA. Of course NOVA will play a large role. It has a large number of voters. That's not news. Unfortunately, it would be news to say the same thing about southern VA.
Also, Deeds isn't taking support in NoVa for granted (he's been competing there a lot). His support is much higher in the Southside because his name recognition is highest there. And McAuliffe and Moran aren't writing off the Southside - each of them has regions where they're beating Deeds, and they've both been campaigning statewide. It's a battle down there as much as anywhere else.
McAuliffe is a buffoon. Virginia can certainly do much better than him!!!!!
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