Winning with the Middle
Norfolk Win Brings Holiday Cheer to Democrats
Take notes, Dems ... I suspect Warner's ability to grow the party during his tenure as Guv will be a major point of his 2008 bid for the White House.
Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates were all smiles as they gathered Saturday morning with Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) to celebrate their latest campaign victory -- a 97-vote margin that elected former television reporter Paula Miller over Republican activist Michael Ball in a Norfolk special election.To call them giddy would be an understatement. Not long ago, there were 34 House Democrats, barely enough to register on anyone's radar screen. Now, with Miller's win and three victories in 2003, they number 38. Still a long way from a majority in the 100-seat House, but growing.
...
Grover Norquist, the leader of Americans for Tax Reform, said that Ball lost because he wasn't anti-tax enough.
After the race, Norquist issued a news release accusing Ball of having run as a pro-tax Republican. "Ball refused to make the race a referendum on taxes by signing the Taxpayers Protection Pledge," Norquist said.
Democrats, meanwhile, say that Miller won because she seized the center of the political spectrum, much as Warner has been doing successfully for three years.
"We definitely got a chunk of those moderate voters," Doug Dodson, who helped run Miller's campaign, told Democrats at their caucus Saturday.
"There's a new math there," he predicted. "We can peel off moderate Republican voters if we have the right message. There's some math that works for us."
Comments
Watch the Democratic Party here in Virginia for a test case of whether Democrats can learn to compete in Red States. Mark Warner won his gubernatorial race, obviously. We will now see if Lt Governor Tim Kaine can emulate Warner's successful strategy for appealing to more conservative voters in Red regions outside Northern Virginia. Kaine will be carrying the Democratic banner in the upcoming gubernatorial race to replace Warner. Warner himself recently raised $2 million at his 50th birthday bash. We will see if Mark Warner can take on Senator George Allen in 2006. Alternatively, as some speculate, perhaps Warner will run for President in 2008. I am sure that we all probably read George Will's recent column on Warner. Could the road to the White House really run through Richmond?
Posted by: Scoop Jackson Democrat | December 26, 2004 08:58 PM
Commented on the Will column a while back. About as glowing as any Dem could have hoped to have written. While Warner has my full attention for 2008, the upcoming Governor's race seems to be taking shape. It'll be interesting to see how Kaine builds on Warner's success in the rural counties despite his opposition to the death penalty. Although I think it's a flaw of Virginia's constitution that there's a one-term limit, if Kaine is elected as his replacement, that's a sure sign of support for Warner's legacy and a decent boost to whatever office he runs for in 2006 ... or 2008.
Posted by: Greg Wythe | December 27, 2004 03:44 AM
You are right on the money. Remember, however, that Kaine was mayor of Richmond. His father-in-law is a former Republican governor and Kaine has ties to southwest Virginia through his father-in-law. Moreover, Mark Warner needs for Kaine to win and will be pushing Kaine's candidacy, presumably.
Posted by: Bruce W Davis | December 27, 2004 02:41 PM