Virginia Governor: A Favorite Emerges
Larry Sabato:
As the calendar turns to September, the nations marquee race in 2013 is coming into focus: Terry McAuliffe (D) now has an edge over Ken Cuccinelli (R) in the Virginia gubernatorial race, and were changing our rating in the contest from toss-up to LEANS DEMOCRATIC.
The decision is based on several factors, all of which seem to suggest that the former Democratic National Committee chairman is leading the state attorney general.
McAuliffe has managed to make the prospect of a Governor Cuccinelli seem scary, while Cuccinelli has only succeeded in making McAuliffe look like a run-of-the-mill, self-interested wealthy political hack. In this wholly negative race, that sad distinction matters.
Whats kept Cuccinelli from painting McAuliffe in even less favorable colors? The Bob McDonnell scandal (to which Cuccinelli is connected by the GOP party label and gifts from the same supplicant), his substantially lesser fundraising, E.W. Jacksons nomination for lieutenant governor, and the defection of a sizable number of moderate Republicans led by the lieutenant governor he left as road kill, Bill Bolling.