Democrats take Web queries in Va. governor's race

Politico
© May 23, 2009

By Michael Falcone

Beginning Friday, Virginia voters will have an opportunity to participate in a unique, multi-platform event by submitting questions online to the three Democrats running for governor.

As part of a program sponsored by ABC 7/WJLA-TV, POLITICO, Google and YouTube, the three candidates — R. Creigh Deeds, Brian Moran and Terry McAuliffe — will field questions from the web as well as from ABC 7 anchor Leon Harris and POLITICO Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris.

Voters can submit text or YouTube video questions beginning on Friday on www.wjla.com and www.politico.com/battlegroundvirginia/. They can view the questions and, using Google Moderator, vote their favorites to the top of the list.

Their responses will be broadcast June 3 at 8 p.m. during a primetime special, “Battleground Virginia” on ABC 7/WJLA-TV, an extension of the series produced throughout 2008 presidential election. The broadcast, which will also air on WSET-TV in Lynchburg and WRIC in Richmond, takes places one week before the June 9 Democratic primary.

The Democratic nominee will face former Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination.

One of only two gubernatorial contests in 2009 — the other is in New Jersey — the Virginia race is being closely watched as a harbinger of the 2010 political environment. Dating back to 1976, the party that wins the White House has lost the Virginia governor's race the following year.

According to a May 18-20 poll commissioned by the website Daily Kos, McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, leads the field with 36 percent, compared to 22 percent for former Delegate Brian Moran. Deeds, a state senator who lost the 2005 attorney general’s race to McDonnell by a razor-thin margin, ranks third with 13 percent. Twenty-nine percent were undecided.

All three Democrats trail McDonnell in head-to-head match-ups, with roughly one-quarter of the vote undecided.

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