Saturday, May 11, 2013
ABC News: About half as many Virginians vote in gubernatorial elections as in presidential years.
Anyone familiar with Terry McAuliffe knows he can tell a good story. The one he told Thursday in Arlington at George Mason's campus as he was wrapping up a five-day tour of the state, was about this past November. It was Election Day. McAuliffe, at the request of the campaigns of Barack Obama and Tim Kaine, was asked to head to a polling station in Henrico County, where voters were still waiting in a long line as darkness fell. He said he went there and handed out coffee, hot chocolate and hand warmers. And everyone got to vote. And then he asked everyone in the room to mobilize for this year's election. [McAuliffe: Reform Virginia's Standards of Learning Tests] Turnout, often, is key. But now more than ever that isn't lost on Northern …
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. …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling tells dinner guests to "save the date" for a March 14 announcement. Speculation is running high on a potential independent bid for Virginia governor.
Republican Ken Cuccinelli and Democrat Terry McAuliffe could get some company in the race for governor of Virginia. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, a Republican, told a dinner crowd Wednesday night in Richmond to save March 14 for a big announcement, the AP reports. Bolling, currently serving his second term as lieutenant governor, decided to quit the Republican race for Virginia governor after conservatives loyal to his intraparty rival, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, took a majority of seats on the state GOP's central committee and opted for a closed nominating convention instead of an open primary. "[Bolling] has been very successful in staking out positions that have gotten him a lot of attention this year," Stephen Farnsworth, a …
Monday, January 21, 2013
No rest for the weary: Democrats gear up for tough 2013 state races.
An estimated 1,100 people attended the Virginia Inaugural Ball on Sunday at the Westin Arlington Gateway to celebrate the second inauguration of President Barack Obama — and gear up for key statewide elections in 2013. "Everybody is happy. Everybody is excited. It's a feel-good moment for everyone who worked on a campaign," Arlington County Democratic Chairman Mike Lieberman told Patch before speaking to the crowd. "The president is right to feel good about this weekend. You can't help but be optimistic. There's a lot of criticism of our government out there, and some of it is deserved. But there's also a lot of reason for optimism. And coming out of the last election, we see a lot of opportunities." [See photos from the Virginia Inaugural…
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 …
Saturday, November 10, 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 …
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 …
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
The next Virginia Governor's race is two years away, and he's setting himself up for a run
It's 7 a.m. on a hot July morning and Terry McAuliffe jumps into the passenger seat of his hybrid Chevy Tahoe. On this Saturday in McLean, Va., the heat index will reach 110 degrees. The country is fired up over the debt ceiling fight in Washington, and McAuliffe, 54, wide-eyed and grinning, looks like a kid who's just been told he's going to McDonald's. He pulls a map of Virginia from the glove box. It's peppered with magic marker circles (You can see a digital version of the map on his campaign-like website). "Love the map!" McAuliffe says, almost shouts, and then sips coffee from a travel mug. "It's fun going to these tiny towns. To them I'm the former chair of the DNC, and it's fun for coal miners to get to know you, to get rid of the …
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 ›