Thursday, March 28, 2013
The latest Quinnipiac University poll shows residents are divided and still learning about Terry McAuliffe, Ken Cuccinelli.
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe hand-delivered 35,746 signatures Wednesday to the Virginia State Board of Elections in Richmond to help secure his place on the ballot in the governor's race. McAuliffe may face Republican Virginia State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on the ballot come November. A new Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday showed Cuccinelli is viewed as "having better experience, while voters see Terry McAuliffe as slightly less ideological, but neither is well-known to voters who are divided on who should be the next governor, with 40 percent for Republican Cuccinelli and 38 percent for Democrat McAuliffe," according to a news release about the new Quinnipiac University poll. The most …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Does the commonwealth need another name on the ballot?
Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling took himself out of Virginia's race for governor last week, leaving, at least for now, what's shaping up to be a two-person race. The choice for the Old Dominion's next governor, seven months before Election Day, seems to have boiled down to presumptive Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli, the state's socially conservative attorney general, against likely Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a McLean businessman. The Republican Party of Virginia will hold its convention on May 17 and 18 in Richmond to formally select its nominee. Democrats go to the polls on June 11 to cast their ballots in several races, including governor and lieutenant governor. …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
There was speculation that Bolling planned to run as independent.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) announced Tuesday in an email to supporters that he has decided not to run for governor. Speculation had grown recently that Bolling might run as an independent in the race. That would have made it a three-way race between Bolling, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe. Bolling decided not to go head to head with Cuccinelli after the Virginia Republican party decided it would choose its nominee in a state party convention rather than a primary. Cuccinelli, a social conservative, is popular among Virginia's conservative activists who are likely to attend the convention, the New York Times pointed out last fall when Bolling initially bowed out of the race. Bolling …
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
News reports say fundraiser for McAuliffe, Democrat running for governor in Virginia, is set for March 13.
Former President Bill Clinton will headline a fundraiser March 13 in New York for Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chair and electric car entrepreneur who is making a second run for governor of Virginia, according to a recent report by the New York Daily News. McAuliffe, 56, a resident of McLean, was defeated by state Sen. Creigh Deeds in the Democratic primary in 2009 in a previous run for the governor's seat. So far, McAuliffe faces Republican Ken Cuccinelli, 44, Virginia Attorney General, in the governor's race. There's a possibility that Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, 55, could still get into the race as an independent; he's told supporters to expect some sort of an announcement March 14. The election is in Nov. 5. …
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Warner says he wants to continue his work in the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., announced Tuesday that he will not run for governor in 2013, saying that he wants to continue the work he was sent to do in Washington. Warner, in a statement issued shortly after 3 p.m., said Virginians of all political stripes have approached him over the past year to make the bid — which he said he would consider and then make a decision after the November election. "I’ve talked to a lot of Virginians I respect, and I’ve talked about it with my family," Warner said in a statement. "But when I asked Virginians to hire me as their Senator, I made a promise to come to Washington to try to be a problem solver. I have to admit, it’s been tougher than I expected. But I’ve tried to keep at it." Warner's decision…
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Senator tells Associated Press he'll announce decision before Thanksgiving.
Sen. Mark Warner plans to announce before Thanksgiving whether he'll run for governor again, according to the Associated Press. The former governor, a Democrat, served as the Commonwealth's chief executive from 2002 to 2006. Virginia is the only state in the country where a governor cannot succeed himself. Former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe has already thrown his hat in the ring and will face Republicans Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. If Warner walks away from another run for governor, he'll be teaming up in the Senate with the state's soon to be junior senator, Senator-elect Tim Kaine, who served as Warner's lieutenant governor and is himself a former governor of Virginia. In a poll conducted Nov. 8-12 by …
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Politico reports that McAuliffe announced his intentions to his supporters in an email Thursday.
Just days after the presidential campaign season ended, another campaign is about to gear up. McLean resident Terry McAuliffe announced Thursday he intends to run for governor of Virginia in 2013, when Gov. Bob McDonnell's term ends, Politico reports. McAuliffe, the former DNC chairman and co-chair of Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, wrote in an email to supporters on Thursday: "I realize that after any election some people’s immediate question is about the next campaign. I want to be straightforward with you: I plan on running for Governor of Virginia in 2013. Over the past four years, I’ve traveled to every corner of Virginia for over 2,400 meetings and events. It is absolutely clear to me that Virginians want their next …
Monday, September 3, 2012
Senate candidate Tim Kaine a speaker and part of Virginia's swing state delegation.
A group of 124 delegates will represent Virginia in Charlotte, NC, as the 2012 Democratic National Convention gets underway on Tuesday. Virginia - along with Ohio, North Carolina and Florida - is considered a key swing state. Virginia, once a reliable Republican stronghold, went to President Barack Obama in 2008 - the first time the Old Dominion helped elect a Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. But this isn't 2008, and political pundits say Virginia's 13 electoral votes are a tossup for 2012. "It really does come down to 18 electoral votes in Ohio and 13 in Virginia, at least according to my calculations," Larry Sabato, head of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Sabato …
Sunday, June 3, 2012
State party convention drew more than 2,000 to the city of Fairfax this weekend.
FAIRFAX — Perhaps U.S. Sen. Mark Warner put it best: "In 2008, we changed the guard. In 2012, we need to guard the change." More than 2,000 Democrats from across the commonwealth descended on George Mason University this weekend for the Democratic Party of Virginia's State Convention. The gathering served as part pep rally, part organizational meeting as activists mobilize for November. Party leaders had similar messages, previewing what they will try to hammer home while Virginia is in the national spotlight as a battleground state for the U.S. presidency. That message, they say, is that the right-wing takeover of the Republican Party has made this country, and this state, unrecognizable and infringes on the rights of gays, women and …
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Campaign opened Arlington field office Sunday.
President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign opened field offices in Falls Church, Suffolk and Arlington this weekend, ratcheting up its presence in the critical swing state of Virginia. The campaign is gearing up its supporters for a bare-knuckle brawl to keep the commonwealth blue. “Guys, it’s game time. They’ve picked their guy. We’ve got a better guy. We just have to make sure everybody knows that,” Yohannes Abraham, the campaign’s deputy national political director, told nearly 200 people Sunday at the opening of the Arlington office. The office is located at 2408 Columbia Pike, immediately next door to Rappahannock Coffee. “We know (Republican Mitt) Romney’s playbook. We saw it during the primary. Him and his allies are going to …
Bob Bruhns
2:33 pm on Monday, April 1, 2013
As far as I can tell, Mr. McAuliffe had to deliver these signatures because his party chose to operate their candidate selection process the way they did. Congratulations to him, because it must have been a lot of work. Now people should look at the policies advocated by the Gubernatorial candidates, and the track records that they have. I think it's pretty clear that Mr. Cuccinelli will win the … more ›