Democrats Banking on a Bush vs. Kaine Turnout
Thursday, May 24, 2007(Washington Post)
By Tim Craig
RICHMOND
Virginia
Democrats are hoping two men will become the
face of the party's efforts to make substantial
inroads in the General Assembly this
year.
The first is a popular Democratic
governor who has just completed a remarkable
series of high-profile events.
The
second is a Republican president who Democrats
think is so unpopular he could help drive
voters to the polls Nov. 6, although no federal
candidates are on the ballot.
Let's just
say, in a matchup between President Bush and
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), Democrats like their
odds.
On Friday, Bush traveled to
heavily Republican Goochland County, outside
Richmond, to raise several hundred thousand
dollars for the Virginia Republican
Party.
Republicans needed Bush's help.
In the first quarter of 2007, the state
Republican Party raised $766,000, compared with
the $1.75 million raised by the Virginia
Democratic Party.
Even before Air Force
One landed in Richmond, Democrats were trying
to tie Republican candidates in this year's
legislative races to Bush. All 140 General
Assembly seats are up for election.
The
state Democratic Party sent out a flurry of
news releases asking Republican delegates and
candidates "to stand with Virginia, not
President Bush."
One was targeted at
Del. Timothy D. Hugo (R-Fairfax), who is
expecting an aggressive Democratic challenge
this fall.
"The question must be asked,
will Delegate Hugo stand by President Bush and
his failed policies on education, on health
care and on the war in Iraq?" the statement
says.
"Or will he reject the Bush money
and stand up for the Virginia tradition of
sound management that has led our Commonwealth
to be named the best managed state in the
nation?"
Mark Bergman, spokesman for the
Virginia House Democratic Caucus, said,
"Virginians deserve to know whether Tim Hugo is
just another Washington yes-man."
Hugo
responded that Democrats are
stretching.
"We all run our own
individual races," he said. "We are running on
the bipartisan transportation deal. We are not
running on the war in Iraq."
In another
political stunt, the Democratic Party sent a
questionnaire to all Republican candidates
asking whether they plan to accept money from
Bush. As of Tuesday, no one had
responded.
Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter
(R-Prince William) said the Democrats' efforts
last week to link him to Bush show they have
"no solutions to the problems people care
about."
"For Democrats to try to make
Bush a litmus test in a state election is a
little silly," Lingamfelter said. "They ought
to be articulating a vision of reform, but they
don't have one."
Kaine this week renewed
his effort to help Democrats pick up the four
Virginia Senate seats needed to regain control.
Kaine and House Democrats are also hoping to
pick up some of the 11 seats they need to take
back that chamber.
"We are proud of the
team that we are fielding this year. They are
strong, common-sense people that are dedicated
to serving for the right reasons," Kaine says
in a video message this week on new Web site
promoting his political action committee,
Moving Virginia Forward.
Kaine goes on
to say he and former governor Mark R. Warner
(D) should be commended for keeping
unemployment low, boosting the state's business
climate and improving education.
"These
things don't happen by accident," Kaine says on
http://www.movingvirginiaforward.com/. "They
happened because we had great Democratic
leadership that has left the divisive
ideological issues aside and instead focused on
getting results for all
Virginians."
Kaine is hitting the
campaign trail amid signs his popularity has
been enhanced after his response to the
Virginia Tech massacre and Queen Elizabeth II's
well-publicized visit.
As he travels the
state, Kaine is being warmly greeted by people
wanting to shake his hand or snap his picture,
as was the case two weeks ago at a NASCAR race
at Richmond International
Speedway.
Historically, Virginia
governors have found it can be hard to
translate their popularity into votes for
candidates for the General
Assembly.
With the fight over
transportation funding no longer an issue,
Democrats are trying to figure out how they
will galvanize voters to the polls. Will Bush
be that issue?
It does seem to be a
stretch to tie Republican candidates running in
local races to Iraq. And, as Lingamfelter
noted, immigration reform -- not the war in
Iraq -- could just as easily become the
national issue that bleeds into state races
this year. On that issue, Virginia Republicans
think they have the upper hand because many GOP
legislators have been pushing for tough state
laws to deal with illegal
immigration.
Even so, given the current
political climate, Republicans might want to
try to avoid having this fall's campaign turn
into a referendum between Bush and
Kaine.
You might hear a lot of
Republicans embracing former U.S. House speaker
Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill's "all politics is
local" maxim this year.