While it was starting to seem like Terry McAulife to take the clear lead in the Virginia governor’s race with Creigh Deeds as the runner up, Politico’s current top headline notes that Brian Moran came out of a Wednesday night interview sponsored by Politico, Youtube, Google and local ABC affiliate out of Virginia “swinging”. Brian Moran certainly poised himself as the more liberal candidate over national party establishment candidate Terry McAulife and the more moderate Creigh Deeds.
As stated previously, recent polls make the initial lead of Terry McAulife seem a lot less certain. The Washington Examiner reported on June 2 that three polls released in the last two days at that point all showed Terry McAulife not in the lead and one showed former state Delegate Brian Moran ahead by 16 points in the liberal Northern Virginia region, a heavily populated region in the state. The Washington Post endorsement of Creigh Deeds has also made the race a lot less certain by propelling his approval ratings in the DC suburbs and helping him take leads in some polls.
Politico’s Scorecard blog reported on a Public Policy Polling survey that showed Deeds leading McAulife 27 to 24% with Moran close behind at 22%. So, it is hard to tell what could happen in this primary that is just 5 days away on June 9. Creigh Deeds is poising himself as the reasonable Democratic moderate similar to Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. He is considered the underdog who comes from the more rural region of Virginia and may be appealing to Democratic voters outside of the DC region. Terry McAulife is the well connected national candidate who will be aided by his benefit from Bill Clinton and other kingpins within the Democratic Party. Moran has the support of a lot of mayors and is considered a “consensus building” candidate but also, as Politico noted, is currently trying to place himself as the more liberal candidate with Deeds to the right of the race and McAulife somewhere in the middle. We’ll be be watching this race closely as the primary draws very near.
