I talked to Mike Signer after his impressive 28%, second-place showing (behind Jody Wagner's 48% first-place finish) in Gerry Connolly's Fairfax County Straw Poll tonight. According to a clearly pumped-up Signer, it's becoming (or already may be) a two-person race for lieutenant governor between Jody Wagner and himself. Clearly, Mike Signer, his staffers and supporters were very happy tonight, practically ecstatic, with these results. For one thing, just about everyone had expected Jody Wagner - with almost all the Fairfax County endorsements and by far the highest name recognition - to win the straw poll by an overwhelming margin. Instead, she was held under 50% of the vote, while Mike Signer won 28%. Trailing badly were Pat Edmonson and Jon Bowerbank with 12% of the vote each.
The bottom line is that it's still far too early to tell, but Mike Signer may be on to something when he says it's rapidly becoming a two-person race for LG on the Democratic side. We'll see in a few weeks what the LG candidates' fundraising numbers look like; that will tell us a lot about the state of the race. In addition, we'll see which candidates' messages are resonating. Tonight, Mike Signer told me he believes his message is clearly resonating with Democrats, and that this is one of the main reasons why he is doing so well, having just gotten in the race a month ago and not even having formally announced yet.
