Many of the most generous donors to past Virginia Republican campaigns are holding back in the heated race for governor, underscoring Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II’s challenge as he tries to keep financial pace with opponent Terry McAuliffe.
Cuccinelli (R) is specifically having trouble luring many of the key contributors who backed the 2009 bid of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R), according to an analysis of the most recent campaign-finance records. For months, Cuccinelli has lagged in fundraising behind McAuliffe (D), a businessman with a long history of raising millions for the Democratic National Committee and Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Through May, Cuccinelli has raised nearly $4 million less than McAuliffe and $3.3 million less than McDonnell had at the same point in the 2009 gubernatorial contest. Although Cuccinelli has prevailed in races in which he was outspent by opponents, his fundraising deficit is a significant obstacle in what is likely to be a prohibitively expensive campaign.
McAuliffe has promoted the narrative that some Republicans, particularly in the business community, are gravitating to the Democrat because they are leery of Cuccinelli’s opposition to the new state transportation funding plan and such social issues as abortion and same-sex marriage. Democrats contend that his views in those areas could prevent the state from attracting companies and skilled workers.
Although several Republicans agree that Cuccinelli’s positions have contributed to his campaign’s financial shortfall, especially in Northern Virginia, only a handful of high-profile GOP contributors have defected to McAuliffe. Many more donors have simply chosen to sit on the sidelines. For now, at least.
Maybe they want to sneak their money over to McAuliffe. I know that there are GOP paybacks if you are seen getting too cozy with Democrats. All kidding aside, the race is on and Cuccinelli’s extremist position on the social issues are hurting him. The McAuliffee Campaign is well-oiled machine. I get called several times a week. McAuliffe will be walking in the Dale City Parade on July 4 and he has invited anyone who wants to walk with him.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if Cuccinelli will ba able to make a comeback. He seems way too exteme to be Governor of Virginia.
As an aside, Ken Cuccinelli has promised to try to make voters register to vote by party. Wait, I don’t want to belong to a political party. Been there, done that. I am an Independent. How would the Cuccinelli register to vote by party thing work?
It will be interesting to see which major Republicans come to VA to support this team.
The registration by party thing is something I have long favored, and it’s been worked for a long time in many other states. If Virginia were to follow suit, you would most likely be able to register as “Independent”. The impact on the voter wouldn’t be all that great in the general election. What it would do is provide better voter ID data to the campaigns. Campaigns wouldn’t have to try to guess at what a particular voter’s affliation is, based on voting history.
Before anyone freaks and thinks that somehow the campaigns know how you voted previously, let me say without equivocation that they do not. They guess, based on what primaries you have voted in previously. As someone who has had to knock a lot of doors, it’s helpful to not waste time knocking on a committed Democrats door.
Where voter registration by party comes into play is during the nomination process. States that have it also hold closed primaries, and closed conventions. The big drawback for Independents is in order to vote in a primary, they’d have to change their party affiliation. Conventions, on the other hand, are a function of the party holding them, and are not subject to state voting laws. If the GOP wants to open its conventions to “Registered Republicans and Independents” then it is free to do so. If they want to limit it to “Registered Republicans”, they can as well.
Predictably, I have long been an opponent of registering by party. Virginians tend to see party registrtion as ‘yankee.’ its right up there with commercial liquor stores.
I oppose them because I don’t want to be knocked out of voting in primaries. I would have to, as you said, change my registration to be able to vote in primaries.
I agree with Moon – I’m opposed to party registration. As an independent I prefer the present state. Both parties desperately need us and can’t win without us so we should have a say if their method of nomination allows us. Their job is to convince us that they have the best candidate – otherwise we’ll see that they’ll be represented by Elmer Fudd.
Yes, I like being sought after and it is we who really carry a candidate to victory, not the party faithful. The Party Faithful would vote for Adolph Hitler if he were a D or R.
It is another indicator of the prevailing death wish that floats around RPV to try to close primaries to the general voter in favor of registered Republicans. There is a folk story that goes around in RPV inner circles that Dems swarm GOP primaries to nominate ideologically impure candidates. Of course, there is no numerical evidence of that, and, what’s more, if Dems were that calculating, they would do their best to turn out primary votes for the Cuccinelli wing of the GOP, in order to enhance Democratic chances in the general elections.
Primaries, properly presented and organized, offer each party a chance to hone their best candidates and give them exposure to the general electorate. That there is such a strong cluster of Rs in Virginia who want to insulate the primaries from the political process is indicative of the continuing decline of the Republican Party as a party of responsible governance.
Standing ovation for Scout.
I vote in Republican primaries because I think it is important to have a voice in who gets elected. I try to vote for the person I think best represents me. For example, about 6-7 years ago I came out for an R primary to vote for Harry Parrish. There was some upstart named Chapman who was lying and making all sorts of false allegations about Mr. Parrish. Now…Mr. Parrish was far too conservative for me but he didn’t deserve to be overthrown by some lying puppy.
No, it wasn’t just about Republicans and the party faithful. The primary was about all of us. As I recall, Mr. Parrish ran unopposed in the general election. I could be wrong but I don’t think so.
I wouldn’t have supported Mr. Parrish in the general election had a decent Democrat been running but I don’t think one was.
I can also think of times when I didn’t automatically support the Democratic candidate. For those of us who can occassionally be bi-partisan, a closed primary is really a problem and keeps the Independents out of the political process.
@Moon-howler
“No, it wasn’t just about Republicans and the party faithful. The primary was about all of us. As I recall, Mr. Parrish ran unopposed in the general election. I could be wrong but I don’t think so.”
Moon, Harry Parrish faced Donald Shoemaker (D) in the General Election.
I stand corrected. I certainly don’t recall anything about him. I certainly can’t tell you who I voted for in the general. I think the point is, those of us who were not Johnny Come Latelies highly resented some young pup coming along and lying about our state delegate. I really don’t like what that dude did. Thats what gets the Independents out in force–it obviously isn’t party loyalty. It was fairness. Even though Harry Parrish didn’t represent me on several issues very near and dear to my heart, he did serve the Manassas area well. His office was always available if you needed something. Once he even saw to it that Long Beach, Washington got one of the Capital flags to use on their float for the 4th of July because of the significance of the Lewis and Clark expedition and Virginia. I had requested the flag be sent.