Bad news from the Washington Post:Republican Robert F. McDonnell has taken a commanding lead over R. Creigh Deeds in the race for governor of Virginia, as momentum the Democrat had built with an attack on his opponent's conservative social views has dissipated, according to a new Washington Post poll.Wonderful...
McDonnell leads 53 to 44 percent among likely voters, expanding on the four-point lead he held in mid-September. Deeds's advantage with female voters has all but disappeared and McDonnell has grown his already wide margin among independents. Deeds, a state senator from western Virginia, is widely seen by voters as running a negative campaign, a finding that might indicate his aggressive efforts to exploit McDonnell's 20-year-old graduate thesis are turning voters away.
P.S. As if that's not bad enough, "Republicans are also well positioned to sweep the other two statewide races, with Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli each holding identical 49 to 40 percent leads over Democrats Jody Wagner and Steve Shannon for lieutenant governor and attorney general."
P.P.S. Also very interesting is that voters are perceiving Deeds as too "negative," and that this "is a reversal from the last two elections, when Democratic candidates Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine were perceived by voters to be running more positive campaigns than their Republican opponents." So much for the theory that you can't be - or be perceived as, fairly or unfairly - too negative. Oh yes you can, and oh yes it can hurt you! (Of course, it also helps to have established a strong personal and political narrative by this point in the race, which Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, and Jim Webb certainly all did in their successful races for governor and U.S. Senate, and which Creigh Deeds has manifestly not done in this race.)
