Deeds wins primary for Democratic Va. governor

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By Sarah Abruzzese, Michael Drost and Melissa Giaimo THE WASHINGTON TIMES

State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds scored a remarkable come-from-behind victory Tuesday to win the Democratic nomination for Virginia governor, handing a stinging defeat to former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe and the once-mighty Clinton political machine that backed him.

Mr. Deeds, outspent heavily and trailing in third place in polls just a few weeks ago, won the right to face Republican former state Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell in a fall election that will be closely watched nationwide as a bellwether for the 2010 fortunes of both parties.

The race is a rematch of a 2005 contest in which Mr. McDonnell narrowly beat the Democrat for state attorney general.

"No one could have imagined what we accomplished," Mr. Deeds told a crowd of ecstatic supporters at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel after news of his primary victory.

He also referred to the severe weather many voters faced Tuesday as they hoped to head to the polls: "I mean think of this - all the rain, all the hail, all the wind - that didn't stop you from coming out to vote for me."

Voter turnout was light across the state as Democrats chose their slate of fall candidates, hoping not only to retain the governor's mansion they have held for eight years under Mark Warner and Tim Kaine but also wrest Republican control of the House of Delegates.

Mr. McAuliffe, once the most prolific fundraiser on the national Democratic scene, summoned his friend and former boss Bill Clinton to campaign alongside him. But he lost a once substantial lead in the polls during a race that inflicted heavy TV advertising on voters and saw significant amounts of out-of-state money flow to the Democratic Party operative.

In a sign that Mr. McAuliffe's well-organized campaign may have worked against him, Northern Virginia voter Stanley Blouin, 79, said he voted for Mr. Deeds instead of Mr. McAuliffe.

"I was going to vote for McAuliffe, but I just got the impression after being called two or three times a day by 'friends of Terry,' and I began to feel that maybe he was trying to buy the election and that annoyed me," he told The Washington Times at the precinct polling station at Haycock Elementary School in Falls Church.

With 99.8 percent of 2,504 precincts reporting at about 10:30 p.m., Mr. Deeds had won 50 percent of the vote. Mr. McAuliffe - who served as chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton's failed presidential bid last year and raised nearly $7 million for his own election - had earned 26 percent, while former state Delegate Brian J. Moran earned 24 percent.