Democrat Terry McAuliffe won the Virginia governor’s race Tuesday, squeaking by Republican Ken Cuccinelli with the help of voters in the predominantly blue Washington suburbs.
McAuliffe’s victory in the key swing state was an affirmation of his strategy to portray Cuccinelli, the state attorney general, as a tea party champion who is too extreme for Virginia.
McAuliffe, a former national chairman of the Democratic Party, succeeds GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell, who was prevented by state law from running for a consecutive term.
“This has been one unbelievably relentless, low-road, negative campaign,” said Mark Rozell, a political scientist at George Mason University. “Each candidate has tried to convince voters that the other is the more horrible alternative of the two.”
McAuliffe, known best as a fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton, portrayed his GOP rival as a hard-line conservative in the mold of Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who helped lead the partial government shutdown that hit hard in a state dependent on federal jobs and the military.
McAuliffe and his allies used the Democrat’s financial advantage in the race to flood the airwaves with negative ads saying Cuccinelli, the state attorney general, would restrict abortion and take away women’s access to health care.
Cuccinelli countered by hammering on McAuliffe’s questionable business ventures and ties to Obama and the Clintons. As headlines blared news of the health care law’s malfunctioning website, Cuccinelli tried to make the election a referendum on the law known as Obamacare and tap into voter concerns about the law’s impact on their choices and pocketbooks.
The race also included Libertarian Robert Sarvis, who was receiving nearly 7 percent of the vote. Pre-election polls consistently showed Sarvis was drawing support away from Cuccinelli.
Surveys of voters as they left their polling places showed the economy was the top issue for Virginia voters, followed by health care. One in five called abortion the top issue, according to the exit poll conducted for the Associated Press and TV networks.
Democrat Ralph Northam was elected lieutenant governor, and the party was also hoping to win the attorney general’s race and sweep the statewide offices. McAuliffe’s victory also bucks a historical trend, as he becomes the first candidate of the sitting president’s party in decades to win the Virginia governor’s race.
Virginia’s election could also hold clues for tactics that might work in the 2014 election, especially in U.S. Senate races in Kentucky, Georgia and West Virginia where Tea Party candidates are challenging mainstream Republicans in primaries and Democrats are eager to take on weakened opponents.
The race also had implications for 2016. Obama won Virginia in both 2008 and 2012, and a win by McAuliffe would seem to position Democrats to continue the trend in a state that was once a Republican stronghold.
In the final stretch, both candidates brought in their party’s stars to stress the election’s importance. McAuliffe campaigned with Obama, Vice President Biden and his longtime friends, the Clintons. Cuccinelli stumped with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, both Tea Party favorites, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker – all potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates.
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