I've been calling around for feedback from House of Delegates Democrats on their caucus retreat in Henrico County this weekend. A few interesting tidbits so far:*"Everybody's pissed"/"furious" at Creigh Deeds, the feeling being that if he hadn't run such a horrible campaign and gotten wiped out. The feeling seems to be pretty much unanimous that we would have been much better off with a different candidate, or at least if Deeds hadn't run such a horrible race and had only lost by 5 points or so. In those cases, we might not have gained seats, but we likely would have saved delegates like Margi Vanderhye, Bobby Mathieson, Paul Nichols, Chuck Caputo, Shannon Valentine, etc., etc.
*Another delegate said angrily that Deeds "set us back 5 years."
*A couple of delegates commented that there was no real discussion of a serious ACTION PLAN on how to move forward from this debacle and how to frame things so we can win back 51 seats at some point, hopefully in the not-so-distant future.
*McDonnell walked in with about 3-4 staffers and/or bodyguards. He spoke to the 25-30 Democratic delegates and delegates-elect for about 10-20 minutes. He spoke very generally about what his top goals are, what he wants to accomplish, how he wants to "work together." He focused mainly on his campaign themes - privatizing liquor stores, pushing charter schools, etc.
*One delegate told me that McDonnell reminded him of George W. Bush, with the same "frat boy arrogence/smugness," but "much more polished" than Bush. This delegate told me that McDonnell seems "internally conflicted," that on the one hand he would love to push his Pat Robertson/right-wing agenda, but on the other hand he wants to make himself look like a moderate for political reasons.
*One delegate hypothesized that having Ken Cuccinelli around is very useful to McDonnell, allowing him to seem moderate and sane by comparison, and that McDonnell will probably keep using Cooch in that way for the next few years.
*Tim Kaine came and gave what was pretty much a short pep talk, telling Democratic delegates that things weren't great but to "keep up hope."
*The general feeling among Democratic delegates is that there will be little chance to get things done the next 2 years (time to focus on constituent services), that Republicans have "absolute control" of the House of Delegates, that they're going to "take any good Democratic idea and make it their own," and that generally "it's gonna be pretty tough." Also, "most Democratic delegates have only worked with Democratic governors," so this will be a new - and probably not fun - experience.
UPDATE: Also, I hear that Ward Armstrong wasn't there for the McDonnell speech.
UPDATE #2: Mark Keam responds to my tweet about if the last 4 years were "great," then "I'd hate to see 4 horrible years." Keam says, "You'll see them starting Jan, '10!"
UPDATE #3: David Englin tweets, "just returned from House Dem Caucus retreat. Esprit de corps high despite our losses." That's not what I'm hearing at all, but ok...
UPDATE #4: One delegate says that if either Terry McAuliffe or Brian Moran had been the nominee, we would have done a lot better than with Creigh Deeds.
