He talked about his priorities when he runs for Governor and most importantly about his priorities in the State Senate.

Most importantly- the bumper stickers are coming soon!

I'm very fond of Creigh Deeds but will be supporting Moran for Governor as will many, many others across the Commonwealth (including some surprising names from Charlottesville).

When one looks at organizational ability, fundraising heft, legislative accomplishments and record of helping elect fellow Democrats, Moran is simply a far better candidate.

I very much regret that Deeds made this announcement so early and hope that he'll reconsider and decide to seek the AG's office.

Brian Moran is really good at being a politician. Good organization and fund-raising. But do you actually think that in the general election Virginia as a whole (outside of NoVa) is going to elect a guy that will look and sound to them like Ted Kennedy or John Kerry? He'd get creamed.

It would be ridiculously easy for any Republican nominee to define Moran as 'yet another Massachusetts liberal coming down here to tell us what's what.'

He's done a good job as Caucus Chair in the General Assembly.  Moran is cut out just right for House leadership positions. He's highly partisan, well-connected and will fight tooth and nail for the party's agenda.  That's great. He should eventually be rewarded with the Speaker's gavel. But he would get slaughtered as a gubernatorial nominee.  

Moran is the antithesis of the strategy that we have been winning with for the last 7 years in Virginia. We found the formula that works. Field candidates who are not major partisan figures that can attract a significant number of cross-over votes. Creigh Deeds fits that winning formula. Brian Moran does not. He would get trounced.

about Brian Moran leads off with, and extravagantly emphasizes, his Boston accent.  Yep, you say, Virginians are such rubes and so unsophistamacated that they jist ain't gonna vote fur no Yankee carpetbagger - no way, no how (you can almost hear the big gob of baccy juice hit the ground).

Then you decide to go on a "Moran's too polarizing" rant.  This sets you apart from the "Moran's in the pockets of big business and the transportation lobby" rant seen earlier in this forum from other Deeds partisans, so you guys probably need to get together and decide which it is.  Except he isn't either.  Far from being a flaming Howard Dean liberal Moran has shown exceptional pragmatism and willingness to work with those who are far to the right of him.  He is a solid and totally committed voice for Jim Webb and has been willing to  work with other Dems from across the spectrum.  He contributed almost a million dollars to Democratic campaigns across the state in a well-coordinated strategy to maximize the number of seats going to Dems in the General Assembly.  Some of those seats went to people who are to the right of him, but this doesn't seem to be a deal-breaker when it comes to giving them support.  Brian understands, just as Tim Kaine (another liberal) understands that there is only so far that his personal preferences are going to be met.  He's willing to settle for what he can get rather than hold out for the unrealistic ideal.

It may be "ridiculously easy" for a Republican to label Moran a tax and spend Massachusetts liberal, but that's what well-planned advertising campaigns and strategy are about.    Your comment makes me think of another Republican who made the mistake of slapping a label, "Hollywood mogul", on a recent candidate who went on to beat him and take his Senate seat.  The decision as to who is likely to win the governorship shouldn't be based on the assumption that a Northern accent and a little Republican name-calling pose insurmountable obstacles.    

Jackson isn't creating a caricature of rural Virginians - whether you think its valid or not, Brian really will be initially judged on his accent and will probably be seen as a big city liberal.  Whether or not he can overcome that characterization remains to be seen and its a hurdle he will have to face.  I think you're hoping for a romanticized version of the electorate wherein the candidates will be judged solely on their issue positions and legislative records, and unfortunately, that simply isn't reality.  I know a lot of people who are going to judge Brian on his accent, on where he's from (Alexandria), and his position on guns.  Maybe he can change their minds from an initial impression and maybe he can't.  You might not think those are valid things to base a decision on, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.  And that doesn't make the country folk "rubes" or "unsophisticated", we just have different priorities than you.  

but don't declare that the nomination's in the bag for Creigh because the negative factor can't be overcome.  I'm 50 years old and pretty jaded at this juncture, so please don't characterize me as some dewy-eyed romantic.  I'm just saying not to go all categorical on the issue, which is what some of the Creigh cheerleaders are doing.  If they don't want me to lampoon them then they need to back off on their premature declarations of victory and their categorical statements of what will and will not sell to the rural base.  I'm not the one characterizing country folks as rubes or unsophisticated; rather, it's the Deeds supporters who are saying that Brian Moran's negatives can't possibly be overcome because country folk think only in such terms.  The question of whether I think it's legitimate to base an election on things like accents and gun control is irrelevant in such an assessment.  

Thanks for running, Creigh.  But, isn't it a little too early to announce?  On which race should I concentrate now?

He's made his decision, and he wants people to know that.  To stop the speculation, if you will.  He let us know over that conference call that he will be trying to help in 2008 and will make sure he doesn't get in the way of any federal races.

Perhaps a list of who's paid by what campaigns should be a feature on RK

You can find every penny I've ever gotten from a campaign here.

Never gotten a cent from Creigh and I've never been paid for my opinion (in fact- I've opined a couple times against the electoral chances of a couple of my clients).

You've done work for Creigh, correct?  Like redesigning one of his websites which would be considered an in-kind contribution and should be reported.

Personally, I am totally thrilled that we have people like Creigh and Brian running for Governor. It's an amazing day in Virginia that the Democratic Party has a potential primary between two incredibly qualified and committed candidates from different parts of the commonwealth.

For what it's worth, this is a very different Virginia from the one I discovered upon my matriculation at UVA in 1993. To all who helped make these changes happen. THANK YOU.

"With regard to a rumor that Creigh might 'flip' to the Republican Party, he responded strongly that it's an 'insult' to suggest that."

WTF? What a bizarre thing for somebody to ask, or for Criegh to even bother talking about. I've never even heard such a rumor. Why not ask if he's secretly a woman? Or hiding bin Laden in his closest?

based on a rumor from a Republican blog, apparently.  I almost thought it was a joke, it was so completely implausible.

I'd love to hear more about why she asked it.

Someone's holding a grudge.

If I had to choose it would be Moran. Now check out this website. Other names are popping up as possibles names to run  for Governor and as Democrats. Former Lt. Governor Don Beyer. Former Congressman L. F. Payne. Tough Decision here for the Democrats.

http://www.politics1.com/va.htm

I have never heard any serious discussion of Boucher giving up the 9th CD for another office.  As for Beyer and Payne, they were the top of the ticket 10 years ago and didn't accomplish much then.  A decade out of the limelight wouldn't seem to be the best way for either to build popularity.  I wonder where Politics1 gets some of its names some times.

In advance of the 2005 race I really wanted to see L.F., my former Congressman, run for the Gubernatorial nomination. And in fact he was considering it, sniffing around and taking those early steps.

But even when Kaine was not looking all that strong, L.F. didn't get in. Nobody gave him permission or whatever he was looking for. Kaine was looking like he had some organization and L.F. didn't even want to make the effort at finding out if he could make a real open push. He twiddled his thumbs and kept making quiet inquiries without really doing anything and when that Richmond J&J dinner rolled around in 2004, Kaine's campaign hit that thing as if he already had the nomination and then the idea of going up against him looked impossible. Kaine's presence at that event was a sight to behold and a lesson I've never forgotten.  So L.F. never did it.

Anyway, L.F. Payne might consider such a run if he was going to be unopposed. But his track record tells me that he's not going to fight better-funded guys with more current name recognition over the nomination. Creigh's presence alone means that L.F. will not get into this.

As for Don Beyer, he's been gone for too long.  The whole face of the party has changed since his time. Mark Warner hit on this winning approach in 2001 and ever since then we have evolved into a very different party that has been winning with a very different type of candidate.  It's been  14 years (!) since he last won an election. Most Virginians who are not political junkies will only dimly remember the name of somebody who was elected Lt. Governor 14 years ago.  

Our bench right now is just too good for either of these guys. You only see guys who were Congressmen or whatever over 10 years ago and did nothing since then getting gubernatorial nominations in states where the party has a shallow bench with few strong Dems aggressively trying to move up.  If Beyer or Payne had the fighting instinct to stay in the game then they wouldn't have been gone from it for over a decade.

 

interact with Democrats and, especially, moderate independents and Republicans (including many small businessmen and -women) in Southside, I have no doubt that his potential candidacy is being be well-received by the Warner-Kaine coalition.

As for those who continue to harp on Moran's accent, I'd caution you that many of us from southern Virginia take umbrage at those who seek to characterize a person simply by the accent with which he or she speaks.  It's happened to many of us when we were in northern climes, and we didn't appreciate it.  We take a rather dim view of those who would now try the reverse or imply that those of us below the Occoquan are so dim as to base our votes on a candidate's accent.