By Axel Gerdau
Obama Campaigns for Terry McAuliffe: Ahead of Tuesday's election, President Obama campaigned in Arlington alongside Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia.
ARLINGTON, Va. — To motivate voters, Virginia’s bitter rivals for governor reached out to the same figure on the weekend before Election Day: President Obama.
The president’s motorcade ferried him five miles from the White House on Sunday to a rally for Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate, here in the Northern Virginia suburbs that are emblematic of the state’s shift from a Republican stronghold. Mr. Obama hit hard on the theme that Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Mr. McAuliffe’s Republican rival in Tuesday’s election, was an extremist who would not reach across the aisle to govern.
“You’ve seen an extreme faction of the Republican Party that has shown again and again and again that they’re willing to hijack the entire party and the country and the economy and bring progress to an absolute halt if they don’t get 100 percent of what they want,” Mr. Obama said.
At the same time, Mr. Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, sought to turn the race into a referendum on the disastrous rollout of the federal health care exchange, mockingly welcoming Mr. Obama to Virginia. “Come on in, Mr. President, we’re happy to see you,” Mr. Cuccinelli told supporters on Saturday. “You just bring everybody’s focus to Obamacare.”
Outside of a high school here where Mr. Obama spoke, a sizable band of protesters waved signs reading “You Lie!” referring to the hundreds of thousands of people whose health insurance is being canceled under the overhaul law, despite Mr. Obama’s pledge that people who liked their plans could keep them.
Strategists for Mr. McAuliffe dismissed Mr. Cuccinelli’s focus as an act of desperation with polls showing him behind. “Like a drowning man, he’s jumped onto this as his lifesaver,” said Geoff Garin, Mr. McAuliffe’s pollster.
But the fact that in a 20-minute speech Mr. Obama never directly mentioned the health care law seemed an omission reflecting some nervousness on the part of Democrats.
Instead, Mr. Obama and Mr. McAuliffe reminded voters of the 16-day government shutdown in an attempt to link Mr. Cuccinelli to congressional hard-liners.
“There aren’t a lot of states that felt more pain than folks right here in Virginia,” the president said. Citing an interview that Mr. Cuccinelli gave on Friday agreeing that the shutdown seemed to be in the rearview mirror, Mr. Obama said, “If you would embrace the very politics that led to this shutdown, then I guarantee it’s not in the rearview mirror of voters in Virginia.”
Both candidates for governor are in the last stages of turning out supporters, pleading for volunteers to knock on doors and traversing the state with political celebrities to inspire their base. Mr. McAuliffe, who appeared with Bill Clinton last week, is scheduled to campaign on Monday with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Cuccinelli will appear with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and, in an election eve rally in Richmond, with Ron Paul, a former congressman and Republican presidential candidate.
Stumping on Saturday with Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, an anti-union hero to many conservatives, Mr. Cuccinelli thanked an outdoor crowd on a lovely fall day “for coming out in this awesome door-knocking weather.”
“We don’t need to convince one more Virginian,” Mr. Cuccinelli told about 150 supporters in the Spotsylvania Courthouse. “We just have to get the ones who already agree with us to go to the polls.”
Since Day 1, the McAuliffe campaign has been acutely aware that the voters who turn out for off-year elections have historically been older, whiter and more conservative than those who vote in presidential years, a trend favoring Mr. Cuccinelli.
To increase turnout by the coalition of young people, women and minorities that put Virginia in Mr. Obama’s column a year ago, McAuliffe strategists imported the playbook and some players from his re-election race. It has used its vaunted analytics to identify potential supporters, and it has turned to social science to get them to vote. Field staff members ask supporters how they plan to get to the polls — Before or after work? By car or public transit? — because data shows that having a plan to vote increases actual voting by 9 percent, said Michael Halle, a campaign organizer.
The campaign and the state Democratic Party also asked supporters to sign a pledge card months ago and then mailed them back to voters last week. “If you say you’re going to do something, you’re more likely to actually do it,” Mr. Halle said. The McAuliffe campaign throws out big numbers about its get-out-the-vote effort: the 175,000 doors that were knocked on Saturday, the 13,500 volunteers who signed up for the final four days.
Obama Campaigns for Terry McAuliffe: Ahead of Tuesday's election, President Obama campaigned in Arlington alongside Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia.
ARLINGTON, Va. — To motivate voters, Virginia’s bitter rivals for governor reached out to the same figure on the weekend before Election Day: President Obama.
The president’s motorcade ferried him five miles from the White House on Sunday to a rally for Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate, here in the Northern Virginia suburbs that are emblematic of the state’s shift from a Republican stronghold. Mr. Obama hit hard on the theme that Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, Mr. McAuliffe’s Republican rival in Tuesday’s election, was an extremist who would not reach across the aisle to govern.
“You’ve seen an extreme faction of the Republican Party that has shown again and again and again that they’re willing to hijack the entire party and the country and the economy and bring progress to an absolute halt if they don’t get 100 percent of what they want,” Mr. Obama said.
At the same time, Mr. Cuccinelli, Virginia’s attorney general, sought to turn the race into a referendum on the disastrous rollout of the federal health care exchange, mockingly welcoming Mr. Obama to Virginia. “Come on in, Mr. President, we’re happy to see you,” Mr. Cuccinelli told supporters on Saturday. “You just bring everybody’s focus to Obamacare.”
Outside of a high school here where Mr. Obama spoke, a sizable band of protesters waved signs reading “You Lie!” referring to the hundreds of thousands of people whose health insurance is being canceled under the overhaul law, despite Mr. Obama’s pledge that people who liked their plans could keep them.
Strategists for Mr. McAuliffe dismissed Mr. Cuccinelli’s focus as an act of desperation with polls showing him behind. “Like a drowning man, he’s jumped onto this as his lifesaver,” said Geoff Garin, Mr. McAuliffe’s pollster.
But the fact that in a 20-minute speech Mr. Obama never directly mentioned the health care law seemed an omission reflecting some nervousness on the part of Democrats.
Instead, Mr. Obama and Mr. McAuliffe reminded voters of the 16-day government shutdown in an attempt to link Mr. Cuccinelli to congressional hard-liners.
“There aren’t a lot of states that felt more pain than folks right here in Virginia,” the president said. Citing an interview that Mr. Cuccinelli gave on Friday agreeing that the shutdown seemed to be in the rearview mirror, Mr. Obama said, “If you would embrace the very politics that led to this shutdown, then I guarantee it’s not in the rearview mirror of voters in Virginia.”
Both candidates for governor are in the last stages of turning out supporters, pleading for volunteers to knock on doors and traversing the state with political celebrities to inspire their base. Mr. McAuliffe, who appeared with Bill Clinton last week, is scheduled to campaign on Monday with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Cuccinelli will appear with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and, in an election eve rally in Richmond, with Ron Paul, a former congressman and Republican presidential candidate.
Stumping on Saturday with Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, an anti-union hero to many conservatives, Mr. Cuccinelli thanked an outdoor crowd on a lovely fall day “for coming out in this awesome door-knocking weather.”
“We don’t need to convince one more Virginian,” Mr. Cuccinelli told about 150 supporters in the Spotsylvania Courthouse. “We just have to get the ones who already agree with us to go to the polls.”
Since Day 1, the McAuliffe campaign has been acutely aware that the voters who turn out for off-year elections have historically been older, whiter and more conservative than those who vote in presidential years, a trend favoring Mr. Cuccinelli.
To increase turnout by the coalition of young people, women and minorities that put Virginia in Mr. Obama’s column a year ago, McAuliffe strategists imported the playbook and some players from his re-election race. It has used its vaunted analytics to identify potential supporters, and it has turned to social science to get them to vote. Field staff members ask supporters how they plan to get to the polls — Before or after work? By car or public transit? — because data shows that having a plan to vote increases actual voting by 9 percent, said Michael Halle, a campaign organizer.
The campaign and the state Democratic Party also asked supporters to sign a pledge card months ago and then mailed them back to voters last week. “If you say you’re going to do something, you’re more likely to actually do it,” Mr. Halle said. The McAuliffe campaign throws out big numbers about its get-out-the-vote effort: the 175,000 doors that were knocked on Saturday, the 13,500 volunteers who signed up for the final four days.