RandySF
RandySF's JournalCuccinelli Fundraising Hampered By 'Sense Of Entitlement,' GOP Consultant Says
WASHINGTON -- Democrat Terry McAuliffe was always going to raise a lot of money in his bid to be governor of Virginia.
But GOP candidate Ken Cuccinelli never took fundraising as seriously as he should have, despite knowing that McAuliffe's past career as a Democratic fundraiser for the Clintons would give him an automatic leg up, according to a Republican consultant.
Cuccinelli has paid the price. McAuliffe, who has a strong lead in the polls ahead of Tuesday's election, has crushed Cuccinelli in the money race, allowing the Democrat to overwhelm the Republican on the TV airwaves. McAuliffe's $35 million campaign haul is almost double Cuccinelli's nearly $18 million.
Cuccinelli, according to an operative with knowledge of the candidate and his campaign, assumed that conservative donors and the business community would automatically give to him, unlike Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, who in 2009 "went out and met with and worked hard to get the buy-in of the money crowd."
"Ken wouldn’t stoop so low. He apparently thought that they would have to come to him after he became the nominee," said the operative, who talked about internal campaign details on the condition of anonymity. "I might go so far as saying that he had a sense of entitlement about it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/cuccinelli-fundraising-entitlement_n_4215855.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Yes, Virginia, there is a vast left-wing conspiracy.
The vast left-wing conspiracy has come to Virginia.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has drawn a huge collection of allies to his side here, by far overpowering the independent spenders that have lined up on the right for Republican Ken Cuccinelli. And even more impressive than the diverse list of organizations spending on McAuliffe’s behalf – greens, abortion-rights and gun control advocates, unions and more – is the military precision with which Democrats have organized their activities in the state.
Since the start of the race, McAuliffe’s campaign has relentlessly exploited Virginia’s loose election laws, which allow for direct coordination between campaigns and outside groups and have enabled McAuliffe to leverage the resources of staunchly progressive organizations to help him win in a genuine swing state.
It’s difficult to say exactly how much other Democrats can learn from the McAuliffe campaign’s tactical success, since most candidates won’t have the benefit of Virginia’s almost-anything-goes election rules. But Democrats involved in the effort say it will have a lasting effect in Virginia, since future Democratic candidates will benefit from the data and infrastructure McAuliffe’s coalition has built up. Within the community of McAuliffe-aligned interest groups, the 2013 election has helped cement a culture of cooperation that began during the 2012 presidential campaign or even earlier.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/ken-cuccinelli-virginia-governor-2013-democrats-99255.html#ixzz2jkB8bXDI
When DiFi says "Snowden should have come to us", I think of my employer
"If there is a problem or your morale is low, us come to us".....and it gets swept under the rug.
Sixteen special legislative elections tomorrow.
Georgia SD-14 - This is an open Republican seat; the previous officeholder resigned to run for Congress full-time. There is one Democrat running, Christopher Nesmith, along with four Republicans: Nicole Ebbeskotte, Matt Laughridge, Dwight Pullen, and Bruce Thompson. A fifth Republican, Dean Sheridan, withdrew from the race but is apparently still on the ballot. This is a heavily Republican district in parts of Bartow, Cherokee, and Cobb Counties, so it's likely that it will end up in a runoff between two Republicans.
Georgia HD-100, 104, 127 - Not much to say here. Democrat Dewey McClain is the only candidate who qualified for HD-100, four Republicans qualified for HD-104, and three Democrats qualified for HD-127.
Massachusetts Senate, 2nd Hampden and Hampshire - Surprisingly enough, this was a Republican-held seat. It's located west of Springfield. The candidates are Democrat David Bartley, a member of the Holyoke City Council, and Republican Donald Humason, a State Representative. This seat was won by Barack Obama (59-39) and Elizabeth Warren (52-48) in 2012, but in the special Senate election it was carried by Gabriel Gomez (54-46).
Michigan HD-49 - This is an open Democratic seat in Genesee County. The candidates are Democrat Phil Phelps, who worked as a regional director in Jennifer Granholm's administration, Republican Don Pfeiffer, who ran for Mayor of Flint in 2011 and won a whopping 1% of the vote in the primary, and Libertarian Pat Clawson, who ran for the State Senate in 2010 and received 3% of the vote.
Mississippi HD-05, 55, 110 - These are all open Democratic seats, but due to Mississippi's special election laws, the elections are nonpartisan. Seven candidates are running in the 5th and five are running in the 55th and 110th.
New Hampshire House, Hillsborough-35 - This is an open Democratic seat in Ward 8 of Nashua. The candidates are Democrat Latha Mangipudi, a former Nashua Board of Education member, and Republican Peter Silva, who is a former Majority Leader in the House. The district went 56-42 Obama and 58-39 Hassan in 2012.
New York AD-02 - I missed this one (there's no info on it online that I can find); RBH has the scoop:
"The Republican is Anthony Palumbo, an attorney from New Suffolk
The Democrat is John McManmon, an attorney from Aquebogue.
The district is the successor of the 1st district from 1993 to 2013, which was held by Patricia Acampora (R, November 1993 to September 2005), Marc Alessi (D, September 2005 to 2011) and Daniel Losquadro (R, 2011 to 2013)."
New York AD-86 - This is an open Democratic seat in the Bronx. The candidates are Democrat Victor Pichardo, a former Schumer staffer, Republican Rene Santos, who ran for this seat in 2010 and received 3% of the vote, and Conservative Jose Marte Sr. Since it's the Bronx, Pichardo is assured the win. And since it's the Bronx, he'll probably go to jail in a few years.
Texas HD-50 - This is an open Democratic seat in Austin. There are four candidates running in the open primary: Democrats Celia Israel, a realtor, Rico Reyes, an attorney, and Jade Chang Sheppard, owner of a construction company, and Republican Mike VanDeWalle, a chiropractor.
Washington SD-07, 08 - These are two runoffs between two Republicans for two Republican seats.
Washington SD-26 - This is the seat formerly held by freshman Rep. Derek Kilmer. The candidates are Nathan Schlicher, the Democrat who was appointed to replace Kilmer, and Jan Angel, a Republican State Representative. This seat is in danger of a Republican pickup, as Angel came in ahead of Schilcher in the primary by 9%. A ton of money has been dropped in this race by outside groups.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/01/1252416/-Your-Special-State-Legislative-Election-Report-for-11-5?detail=hide
Panel Led By NV GOP Chair Questions Women's Role In Workforce
n a panel led by Nevada GOP Chairman Tom Taber, conservative publisher Len Semas questioned the role of women in the workplace, according to Ralston Reports.
Semas said that he felt that women leaving the role of nurturer may have attributed to societal problems like attention deficit disorder.
"The reality is there is a special role that women take on, biologically, as the bearers of children and the nurturers of children," Semas said Thursday morning, as quoted by Ralston. "I don't know that we haven't created problems in society by ignoring that important role. ADD and various learning disabilities, hyperactive kids, kids building bombs in their garage."
Semas argued that women have left the home in the past few decades at about the same time that some of these issues started cropping up.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/panel-led-by-nv-gop-chair-questions-women-s-role-in-workforce
Rudy Giuliani Demands Apology From Bill de Blasio
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani returned to the campaign trail this afternoon with Joe Lhota, his protégé and candidate in the mayor’s race, and proclaimed that yesterday’s decision by a federal appeals court to halt the implementation of stop-and-frisk reform would fundamentally shake things up in Mr. Lhota’s favor.
“The whole rationale for Mr. de Blasio’s campaign is phony,” declared Mr. Giuliani, speaking to reporters this afternoon in Staten Island. “This has been the whole rationale for his campaign, his stop-and-frisk … ‘The police department’s terrible. The police department’s awful. They’re stopping all these people for no reason.’”
“The court of appeals has just basically said to him: that is a bunch of malarkey,” he later declared. “I hope it had a dramatic effect on the race.”
Mr. Giuliani, who hired Mr. Lhota as his budget director and later promoted him to become his “right-hand” man, went on to charge Democratic mayoral nominee Bill de Blasio misled the public and demanded an apology.
http://politicker.com/2013/11/rudy-giuliani-demands-apology-from-bill-de-blasio/
I can't stand T-Mac, but I got to give him credit.
Terry McAuliffe is a corporate and he always will be, but I have to give him credit where it is due. He took the lessons of 2008 and 2012 and applied them to 2013 by investing heavily and early into voter contact and other GOTV-related activities. He took the lesson from the election of 2006 and defined his opponement early before Cooch even knew what hit him. Finally, and to my greatest surprise, he ran on a liberal agenda and even refused to shy away from marriage equality in a state where it might have not been helpful. Sure, he had a bad opponent, but he still ran a textbook campaign.
PPP: VA Republicans still think it was better to nominate Cuccinelli than Bolling
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 1h
Our final Virginia Governor poll: McAuliffe 50, Cuccinelli 43, Sarvis 4
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 1h
Our final Virginia Attorney General Poll: Herring (D) 47, Obenshain (R) 45
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 1h
Our final Virginia Lieutenant Governor Poll: Ralph Northam 52, E.W. Jackson 39
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 50m
McAuliffe (36/52 favorabilty rating) and Cuccinelli (39/52) are both deeply unpopular
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 49m
Terry McAuliffe has a 42 point lead over Cuccinelli with moderate voters at 66/24
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 47m
Despite likely outcome VA Republicans still think it was better to nominate Cuccinelli than Bolling 40/36
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 48m
Overall Virginians think GOP would have been better off with Bolling, 49/22. But base still prefers Cuccinelli
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 46m
McAuliffe leads by 8 points with indys and has more unified party, getting 82% of Dems to Cuccinelli's 79% of GOP
https://twitter.com/ppppolls
PPP Polling tweets about Virginia poll in progress
PublicPolicyPolling ?@ppppolls 2 Nov
Not seeing anything to suggest an upset on our final Virginia poll. It will be out tomorrow night
https://twitter.com/ppppolls/status/396688771359707136
Larry Sabato predicts bigger Virginia turnout, comments on Dem GOTV.
Larry Sabato ?@LarrySabato 2 Nov
I keep reading predictions of VA GOV turnout in 30s. No, I'll bet it exceeds 2009's 40%. Maybe closer to 2005's 45%.
Larry Sabato ?@LarrySabato 2 Nov
Off-off year turnout never much to brag about. But VA GOV'13 has 3 candidates & intensity--even if negative.
Larry Sabato ?@LarrySabato 2 Nov
Maybe most important, Ds have invested heavily in registration, GOTV, & early voting--much of it under the radar. Visible only Nov. 5.
Larry Sabato ?@LarrySabato 3h
Good source tells me so far 114,000 in VA have voted early. Final total may be few thou higher. That's 18-20% more than '09.
Larry Sabato ?@LarrySabato 3h
Partly, it's much better D campaign. But again, I believe turnout will be higher than some estimate. NOT in 30s & above 2009's 40%.
Larry Sabato ?@LarrySabato 2h
VA turnout likely to exceed 2 million. Passions running high + big GOTV/voter contact + 3 GOV candidates.
Larry Sabato ?@LarrySabato 2h
Both sides aggressively contacting voters but big improvement on D side: Ds claim 175,000 just on 11/2, 50% of ENTIRE 2009 total in 1 day.
Larry Sabato ?@LarrySabato 2h
I can't personally verify but D model of early votes/absentees shows clear McAuliffe edge among early & absentee votes.
https://twitter.com/LarrySabato
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