This graph (click to "embiggen") displays scores by category (there are 10 categories plus an overall score) for the Deeds and McDonnell campaigns. Over the past two days or so, there were 17 respondents to the survey (which I sent out to many of my "political" contacts), all of whom are Democrats and Deeds supporters. I was expecting that this heavily "blue" sample might skew the results against McDonnell and towards Deeds, but that doesn't seem to have happened. Thanks to everyone for rating not based on who you like or agreed with, but solely on effectiveness in each category. Also, thanks for taking the time to fill out the survey!
With that here are the key results.
1. The McDonnell campaign was rated overall more effective than the Deeds campaign by a 6.2-5.2 margin (10 is the highest possible rating). Of the 17 respondents, 14 rated the Deeds campaign lower than the McDonnell campaign overall.
2. The Deeds campaign did the best in the "financial/fundraising" category, scoring a 7.1 and beating the McDonnell campaign's 6.4 score. The only other category where the Deeds campaign beat the McDonnell campaign was in "earned media" (6.4-5.2).
3. The McDonnell campaign did the best in "paid media" (7.0), beating the Deeds' campaign's 6.1 score in that category.
4. The Deeds campaign did the worst in "political" (4.0), "research/policy" (4.2), "campaign management" (4.6), and "strategy" (4.8). Also, the Democratic Party's broader effort only got a 4.8 score, trailing well behind the GOP's 6.8 score in that category.
5. The biggest gaps between the two campaigns in specific categories all favored McDonnell: political (+2.9 points over the Deeds campaign's political operation); campaign management (+2.1 points), broader party effort (+2.1 points), and strategy (+1.7 points).
Finally, here are many of the comments I received. There are a lot of them, so take your time and enjoy (or not). :) Also, note that - for whatever reason - the people who were most critical of the Deeds campaign also tended to have the most to say. Don't ask me why that is, something to do with human psychology I guess.
Negative towards both candidates/campaigns
*"...these are two below-average campaigns...a low-energy race with two uninspiring candidates"
*"Bob McDonnell can't decide if he agrees with his own thesis. Creigh Deeds can't explain what a Creigh Deeds Democrat is. How uninspiring are these two?"
*[McDonnell's] policy rollouts have been just as stupidly handled but he's not as bad as Deeds"
*"Not confident in either of their strategies - seeing a lot of capitalizing on opportunities but not planned out moves over time"
*"Lot of time I feel I have no idea what Abbey is doing - also, Bob's inability to get past the thesis coverage is a problem with his management imo"
Positive towards both candidates/campaigns
*"McDonnell always seems to be one step ahead of Deeds in ad placement, but Deeds has done well in ad content."
*"Both have had some pretty good tv ads and Deeds' ad with the Post endorsement contributed to his primary win"
Negative towards McDonnell campaign and/or GOP effort
*"Other than taxes, McDonnell has been unable to draw any distinctions or point to any unique policies. The campaign has also been unable to dig up any dirt or even any contradictions in Deeds' background -- and the one "scandal" of Deeds' son's drinking citation blew up in their (and Anita Kumar's) faces."
*"[McDonnell] is a wee bit too polished, too smooth. I have heard folks describe him as plastic and insincere sounding. I don't see that, but he needs to guard against it."
Positive towards McDonnell campaign and/or GOP effort
*"[McDonnell] is the best Republican candidate statewide for the GOP in Virginia since George Allen in 93, maybe even better than Allen"
*"Not sure I respect and agree with all their decisions, but [the McDonnell folks] are disciplined and on message."
*"[McDonnell] has just recently gone up in my esteem. I thought he was strategic and on one message (anti-tax, pro-jobs), but unable to adjust his tactics for the situation. The editorials ad shows me he can adjust tactics while maintaining the same message/strategy."
*"I think [McDonnell's] ads are excellent and really make him seem like a reasonable, nice, family guy...the only thing i'd say about the ads that are not good is that he doesn't really have one theme running through them all, but everything else about the ads are excellent"
*"I think McDonnell has been nearly flawless...no gaffes...very smooth operation everything steadily chugging along"
*McDonnell has had "consistently great ads"
*"[McDonnell] has done an excellent job corraling the crazy base while simultaneously going after African-Americans... wouldn't be surprised if he got close to 20% of the AA vote"
*"[Republicans] are energized, they are giving money up the wazoo, they are all united, they do not leak or snipe at each other"
Negative towards Deeds campaign and/or Dem. Party effort
*"[Democrats] are not investing enough money, especially from national...and there is so much backbiting on our side...no organized effort"
*"Deeds is the worst candidate we've had since the 70s, he's a disaster"
*"No real reaching out to electeds or constituencies [by the Deeds campaign]"
*"[The Deeds folks] obviously think they win by just hammering away at the thesis and not providing a real positive message or discussing anything else."
*"The coordinated sucks and is virtually non-existent. No signs, no volunteer recruitment. If they are actually out there ID'ing voters, no one knows it. What is the point of having a coordinated if they are not up and running and ready to go the day after the primary. They should have been staffed up and rented office space as of 6/15 and waiting to get going. I am not convinced they are really in place yet."
*"Creigh's best qualities have not been on display in this campaign. He is personable, sincere and committed to VA and to good government. Hmmm...would any voter know that? I lay the coup at his feet and the bad editorials. In either case, has he challenged his consultants about what's going on?"
*"I am surprised at how disappointed I have been by Joe Abbey's performance, but the head of the fish stinks first so ultimately it must have been Deeds' fault... He seemed to be submerged by his campaign monkeys, broke out briefly with the speech at GMU, then re-submerged, and has lately begun to appear more himself; his Wa Po op ed article was very very good----- but follow-up and utilization of its points has been extremely poor, so far as I can see. The speech to the Fairfax Chamber was lousy, and was a golden missed opportunity."
*"Deeds took way too long to get off the ground, they've had gaffe after gaffe, it's been a badly managed campaign"
*"[Deeds'] political operation has been terrible; he has not even gotten enthusiastic endorsements from his own party"
*"Research/policy [have been] absolutely horrendous for Deeds, the thesis wasn't even their own [expletive deleted] work, Amy Gardner had to dig it up on her own...and the policy has been terrible, leaving transportation off their issues page on the website...they put out that economic plan all at once back in late July when no one was paying attention"
Positive towards Deeds campaign and/or Dem. Party effort
*"Edge goes to Deeds for the transportation revenue increase rollout -- won praise with minimal damage."
Mixed towards McDonnell campaign and/or GOP efforts
*"[The] McDonnell campaign did very well pushing the 'McDonnell is a moderate' message early on, but has floundered to respond coherently to the thesis controversy"
*"McDonnell has united his base, but is that base so angry it's turning off moderates and rallying Democrats?"
*"Earned media for McDonnell was so excellent until the thesis; their response on that was stupid and slow"
*McDonnell's "policy isn’t that sound but [it] exists"
Mixed towards Deeds campaign and/or Dem. Party efforts
*"At first Deeds' general election campaign was invisible, even in broader party effort and fund raising---- everything at the beginning was about a 1.5 or 2, IMHO. It has steadily improved, partly thanks to outside factors like the WaPo article on McDonnell's thesis."
*"I think [Deeds'] ads are crappy, not very memorable, I think they've been scattered...but I think the negative ads on the thesis have been effective"
*"[The Deeds campaign] has done a good job getting coverage but they have not effectively generated a message through their earned"
*"[Earned media for Deeds] would be a 9 if they didn’t leave him hanging in the post debate scrum where he got tripped up on taxes"
*[Paid media for Deeds] would be a 9 if they had a good intro ad for him"
Positive towards Deeds campaign, negative towards McDonnell campaign
*"It seems like the visibility operation for Deeds is much better, though I think a lot of that is generated by the thesis"
Positive towards McDonnell campaign, negative towards Deeds campaign
*"If there's any one category with a crystal-clear edge, it's in McDonnell being able to rally the base while Deeds has actively refused to grab the reins of Obama's momentum."
*"Deeds has no strategy" and "I don't think McDonnell has had a clear concise strategy...but he has executed many diverse tactics very well"
*"Deeds has Obama/Kaine in his camp and I don't see him using them or other national or state figures as effectively as Bob"
