Would McAuliffe Had Done Better?

If I remember correctly, the Netroots was pushing for Creigh Deeds in the VA governor's primary, rather than Terry McAuliffe or the third candidate. Well, Deeds won the primary, but went down in flames in the general. I hate to say that the Netroots were wrong about someone, but do you guys think that McAuliffe, with all of his Clintonite/DLC ties, would have done better in Virginia?

At least he wouldn't have gone down without putting up much more of a fight than Deeds.

McUseless is a proven failure.

But yes, maybe he would have performed better than Deeds. My hunch is that McAuliffes unfavorables would have been too hard to overcome.

Just on name recognition alone...

but nothing like enough to close an 18-point gap.

I think McAuliffe would have put more (and smarter) efforts into turnout. His name alone would have produced more turn out. Enough to win? No. But it wouldn't be the stomp we got there.

Maybe he loses by a little less than CD, but he still loses my a solid margin.

maybe the margin would've been less, although that's hard to say. The fact is that McAuliffe didn't prove himself to be that adept a campaigner in the primary and its likely that a number of Deeds supporters would've sat on their hands or supported McDonnell rather than support McAuliffe, particularly outside NoVA.

The whole theory behind Deeds was (a) he had run even with McDonnell in their head to head for attorney general four years ago; (b) McAuliffe and Moran would be considered damaged goods by independent voters (McAuliffe because of the Clinton connection/carpetbagger characterization, Moran because his brother has a reputation of being a bit of a loose cannon). What folks didn't figure is (a) Deeds was carried along four years ago by Kaine's coattails and (b) no one expected Deeds to run a campaign that largely failed to connect him to Warner/Webb/Kaine/Obama -- Democrats that had won in the state in recent years.

He should've come right out of the box with ads linking him to the Warner/Webb/Kaine tradition and, separately, to the Obama movement. But he never gave the voters any sense of who he was and how we tied back to what the voters had supported in the past.

Virginians seem to want their politicians to seem less political per se. That's not Terry McAulliffe. He's not who you think of when you think "Who will bring this state together?" But he would have put a smarter effort into turn-out, which would make at least some positive difference.

And a good grassroots operation?

would have done better.