Neal Osborne, a College Democrat, a former member of Jim Webb's "ragtag army," and a blogger from Southwest Virginia, has announced that he is switching his support from Brian Moran to Terry McAuliffe. Here's the gist of his argument as to why he switched away from Moran after supporting him since mid-2008. Not long after McAuliffe's entrance into the race, Moran's campaign began taking a nose dive. While he continued to rack up endorsements and roll out policy plans, Moran's campaign slowly became more and more negative. I was invited by Jesse Ferguson, the Moran communications director, to be a member of a "Bloggers4Brian" e-mail group. I was able to witness firsthand the vitriol and anger that Terry McAuliffe and anything concerning his campaign stirred in some of Moran's most verbose supporters, from Todd Smyth and Bob Brigham to Jesse Ferguson and others. I knew that all these people believed in Brian's message, but I strongly disapproved of the way they personally attacked anyone who disagreed with them. This type of campaigning reflected poorly on not only them, but on their candidate.I find what Neal has to say particularly interesting because it publicly confirms what I've been hearing privately from a lot of people who have PUBLICLY endorsed Brian Moran but are not happy with his campaign at all. Many of these people have expressed fears that if they go public against Brian, they will be hurt professionally or personally in some way. One young Democrat expressed it that if he switched to McAuliffe, "the Moran campaign would knife me." Nice, huh? Of course, I've personally been the subject of vicious attacks against me by numerous Moran supporters. The core of their "argument," to use the term extremely loosely, is that anyone who supports Terry MUST be "bought and paid for," lacking in integrity, a "sellout," a "hypocrite," not a "real progressive," etc., etc.
By mid-March, I had mostly quit even reading the emails that filled my inbox up on a daily basis. I overlooked their vicious attacks because I still supported Brian. I even allowed my name to be printed in a news release as a public endorser in the time leading up to the Young Democrats convention. I'll admit that living in far Southwest Virginia kept me somewhat removed from the real battling between campaigns, so I was shocked on April 29 when I attended Ben Tribbett's netroots debate in Blacksburg. Brian Moran was not only negative, he was downright mean. He blindly lobbed attacks at McAuliffe, hoping something would stick. At one point, McAuliffe called him out, but otherwise he stuck to his "jobs, jobs, jobs" message. While McAuliffe and Deeds both used their closing statements to offer ideas for Virginia and reasons why they should be the Democratic nominee, Moran devoted the great majority of his closing statement to angrily attacking McAuliffe. Brian Moran's campaign is no longer about why he would be a good governor. It's about why Terry would be a bad governor. It is readily apparent that Brian's attacks aren't just political. They're personal. And that isn't what this campaign should be about.
That anyone in their right mind would believe any of this seems impossible (yeah, right, the League of Conservation Voters, the Arlington Coalition of Police Union, the Virginia Professional Firefighters, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, and great grassroots folks ranging from Defenders of Wildlife Staff Attorney Jason Rylander to superb grassroots Democrat Mary Lee Cerillo to Blue Commonwealth blogger "Kathy in Blacksburg" to Loudoun County Young Democrats President Robert Latham to Draft James Webb co-founder Josh Chernila to Regent University Young Democrats President Heather Carr to many, many more, are ALL "bought and paid" for...), but I suppose their theory is that if you tell a lie often enough, it will stick with at least a few people. What I find particularly fascinating is that you never see Deeds or McAuliffe supporters personally attacking Moran supporters (at least that I've seen). For instance, Kip Malinosky and Charley Conrad both of whom continue to support Brian Moran for Governor, and both consider to be friends of mine. I have urged them to reconsider their choice, but I certainly respect their decision to stick with Brian Moran and certainly do not accuse them of being "sellouts" or whatever. Why on earth would I do that?!?
Anyway, all of the personal nastiness from the Moran camp is why Neal Osborne is courageous to do what he's just done. I commend him for stating publicly what so many people are whispering privately about the Moran campaign. Now, let's conclude with what Neal has to say regarding his reasons for switching to Terry McAuliffe.
Terry will be a happy warrior going into the fall campaign against Bob McDonnell and that is what we need. He can convey his plans to the voters in an enthusiastic way that will guarantee him independent (and yes, even Republican) votes. Some belittle Terry by saying he'll be a "cheerleader." Well, in these grave economic times, Virginia could use a cheerleader, especially one with progressive plans and ideas to fix Virginia's economy and get people back to work. Mark Warner brought fresh ideas to the governor's mansion. So did Tim Kaine. Now it's time to do it again and send Terry McAuliffe to Richmond.I couldn't agree more. Go Terry!
