2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBolling to drop bid for Virginia governorship
Bolling to drop bid for Virginia governorship
Washington (CNN) Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling will drop his bid for the Virginia governorship, CNN has confirmed, a move that clears a path to the Republican nomination for his primary opponent Ken Cuccinelli.
Bolling's decision sets the table for a titanic 2013 clash between Cuccinelli, the state's Attorney General and a fierce social conservative with a national grassroots following, and likely Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe, the irrepressible former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Bolling, first elected to his post in 2005, was backed by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and served as Mitt Romneys campaign chairman in the commonwealth during the Republicans failed presidential bid.
But even with that blue-chip political resume, Bolling faced long odds against Cuccinelli, especially after state GOP officials decided earlier this year to hold a nominating convention instead of a statewide primary - a process thought to favor Cuccinelli, the candidate with a closer connection to the partys conservative, tea-party friendly base.
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The decision is a blow to Democrats who had hoped a primary battle between Bolling Cuccinelli would sap each candidates resources and expose yet another rift between the GOPs establishment and insurgent factions.
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Full article here: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/28/bolling-to-drop-bid-for-virginia-governorship/
elleng
(131,202 posts)ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)and Cuccinelli, I'll take McAuliffe any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
elleng
(131,202 posts)dontchathink?
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)but decided against it. Who would you suggest?
I have no problem with McAullife.
elleng
(131,202 posts)I see McAuliffe as a political opportunist with no management experience.
Warner as SENATOR Warner?
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)He seriously considered running again and backed out.
McAuliffe has as good a chance as anybody I think. Lots of people are sick of the right wing agenda of the present governor and attorney general.
elleng
(131,202 posts)What about Webb?
Glad Warner re-thought, as we need every D in Senate + House we can get.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)wasn't for him. He said he wanted to work in the private sector.
elleng
(131,202 posts)democrattotheend
(11,607 posts)I am not so sure this is such a blow to the Democrats. We are better off running against Cucinelli, IMO. But VA was crazy enough to elect him as AG in 2009, so I could be wrong.
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)Cuccinelli would had to have spent some of his money running against Bolling - and they would have been fighting each (radio, TV, mailers, etc.)
Now the Democrat has to go up against Cuccinelli without him having spent time, energy, and money in a republican primary.
gravity
(4,157 posts)In 2009, he campaigned as a moderate, but is now exposed as a Tea Party radical.
This should be the Democrats election to lose.
SunSeeker
(51,745 posts)Cha
(297,808 posts)more slithery "mr moderate" proclaimations.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)hopefully Bill Clinton will do some campaigning for him. That couldn't hurt.
RandySF
(59,414 posts)DFW
(54,448 posts)He has not been a dynamic politician in the past, and Cuccinelli would have the current administration's machine pulling for him. Something many will overlook: Cuccinelli will also have a huge ally in Manassas-based Richard Viguerie, whose fund-raising skills and right-wing enthusiasm are formidable adversaries. Richard LOVES Cuccinelli, too. He'll go to bat for him like no one since Reagan, and Richard practically put Reagan over the top with his (then-) revolutionary direct-mail fundraising tactics. This would have been a tough battle even if we had run Mark Warner again. Cuccinelli will be no pushover. We will need the whole coalition of voters that put Obama over the top in 2008 and 2012, and that is never easy to muster in a non-presidential year.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)(with the sole exception of Clinton's basically meaningless personal victory in 1996) why would anyone think it was a good idea to actually nominate the guy for an elected office himself?
Couldn't the Dems find anybody in VA who's actually capable of winning?
Obviously I'd work for him if he was nominated and I lived there...but it's hard to see any case at all for letting him win the damn primary.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I hope he gets beaten badly.
Arkana
(24,347 posts)Please, VA Dems--you NEED to find a better candidate than Terry fucking McAuliffe.
WI_DEM
(33,497 posts)in an election. Why not try and get Jim Webb? I don't see us winning with Terry, sorry.
mgcgulfcoast
(1,127 posts)in virginia they have a habit of voting for the party opposite the sitting president in gov races.