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Deeds Campaign: We'll Win By Turning Out Obama Voters

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VA-Gov. candidate Creigh Deeds (D)

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On a conference call with reporters this afternoon, the Deeds campaign explained how they plan to beat the expectations and win the Virginia gubernatorial race.

"The name of the game is getting out the vote. And people say, 'how do you expect to win at this point?" said campaign adviser Mo Elleithee. "And the answer is simple. If we can get out a significant number of people who voted for Barack Obama and Mark Warner in 2008, then we are very much in this game, and that is to be our main objective this week."

The campaign is especially targeting what it calls "Obama-surge voters," the new voters or infrequent voters who came out to polls to help Barack Obama win the state in 2008, as the first Democratic presidential candidate to do so since 1964. Polling has consistently shown that Republican voters are more motivated than Democrats in this race, with polls often showing that the likely-voter pools this time around actually voted for McCain last year.

The campaign plans to get to about 175,000 doors across the state between now and election day, with a target of 200,000 doors on the big day itself, plus there will be over 700,000 GOTV calls. The question is, will it be enough to prove all the current polls wrong?

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October 28, 2009 5:32 PM   

Not after his lack of support for the public option. Mr. Deeds should know that we Dems don't give a damn about him or his campaign. As it is, we're all stocked up on fake ass Dems. Good riddance to this clown. Let that other guy win. He'll be able to doulbe the number of jobs in Virginia by firing all the women who, should just stay home and use their vaginas as a vessel to grow the voting population for Republicans.

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October 28, 2009 5:34 PM   

I don't really care one way or the other, but how could Virginia voters even consider McDonnell? After voting in Obama, they are now going to vote an extreme right winger for a governor???

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rwc

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October 28, 2009 6:11 PM    in reply to lousgirl84

One, most people are not ideologically coherent. Two, it certainly doesn't help when Dems don't stand up for the public, like Deeds and the PO. So many people I know who don't really pay attention to politics think "they are all the same," and often on some levels, they are.

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October 28, 2009 6:14 PM    in reply to lousgirl84

Not the same Virginia electorate. In the smaller turnout of an off-year election, enthusiasm among your base matters a lot.

The polls to date seem to indicate that a majority of those who are considered "likely voters" voted for McCain/Palin in 2008 - meaning that thousands and thousands Obama voters are not planning to vote in this year's election.

McDonnell is, somehow, also polling stronger among independent "likely voters" -- kind of surprising given his quite right wing views. (Of course McDonnell has attempted to re-package himself as a moderate, and while the thesis news threw that effort off track for a while, he managed to overcome that.)

Given his lackluster campaign so far, it is hard to imagine that the Deeds campaign can turn out enough of the Obama new/infrequent voters to turn this thing around -- but if nothing else, such an effort could help the closer races for Lt Gov, AG and House of Delegate races.

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October 28, 2009 6:38 PM   

Independents don't care about social issues or what McDonnell said 20 years ago they worry about the economy and business - McAuliffe ran on that for a reason. Folks figure the State Legislature will rein in any social wackiness McDonnell tries.

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October 28, 2009 8:24 PM   

Clever way to set up Obama as the reason why he loses...

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October 29, 2009 1:46 AM   

You can't blame a (D) loss on any exterraneous BS when that campaign is so poorly run. We, well, most of us, learned several years back that you can't win by running against someone. You have to be FOR something. Deed's lack of suppport of the public option was actually just a final nail in the coffin of a campaign based on how bad the other guy is.

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