Here's my lists; Top 5 (In order) for each office.
Governor:
L.F. Payne
Phillip Puckett
Bobby Scott
Don Beyer
Roscoe Reynolds
There are two big question marks in the 2009 Governor's race - Creigh Deeds and Mark Warner. Warner has said he would like to be Governor again, and if 2008 doesn't work out (but I think it will), then 2009 could be a comeback year. Deeds, if elected Attorney General, would shoot to number one on the list.
Lt. Governor:
Don Beyer
Chap Petersen
Brian Moran
L.F. Payne
John Marshall would knock Viola Baskerville right off the list - if he was running.
Attorney General:
Onzlee Ware
Creigh Deeds
Bud Phillips
John Edwards
Brian Moran
Notice that all but one - and the top four - on this list are Southwest/Western Virginia candidates, and for a simple reason; A candidate for Attorney General can't win without rural votes. And if you're from the area, especially in Southwest Virginia, you get a "good ole boy" turnout, which really, really helps.
As for the Republicans, I'd be fine if they just didn't field any candidates...but we're not that lucky. So here's who I think the GOP might turn to. These are in alphabetical order, since I don't have any top five list for them, for obvious reasons.
Governor:
Bill Bolling
Jim Gilmore
John Hager
Jay Katzen
Bob McDonnell
I know Jay Katzen. Jay is a family friend of ours. I know he's a good person, and if he ran as a moderate, my party would really have to impress me to stay on my side of the aisle for this race.
Lt. Governor:
Steve Baril
Bill Bolling
Sean Connaughton
Joe May
William Wampler
A person I know who knows what she's talking about says that Wampler is interested in running for statewide office in 2009. Since he's not a lawyer, and not high-profile enough to run for Governor, process of elimination.
Attorney General:
Ken Cuccinelli
Chad Dotson
Jerry Kilgore
Terry Kilgore
Bob McDonnell
I only listed the Kilgore brothers because, well, I couldn't come up with any others.
So there you go. I may have one or two on any given list that will actually run, and I'm getting the cart before the horse quite a bit, but heck-o, it's fun.
I'll talk about the 2006 Senate race against George Allen pretty soon.
-Neal
5 comments:
Bud Phillips for AG? Hmm... I had never thought about that one.
It would be funny, though, if Chad does run for AG in 2009, and Bud did too.
The problem Southwest Virginia Dems have in statewide races is the primary (i.e., Puckett).
We know they would win statewide if they could just get the nomination.
I think just about all of our Southwest Va officials could win statewide, but like you say, the primary is the big hurdle.
Puckett got a huge margin of victory here in the primary, but it couldnt carry over. I wish now he would have won it; We would have a Democratic LG if he did
I don't consider abortion the hallmark issue in Virginia state races (at least it shouldn't be, although many people on both sides make it so). If we only play to the base, we can't win races in Virginia. Tim Kaine didn't win by connecting himself to Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, and John Kerry (although I believe all three are great people and great leaders for our party).
We need to talk about kitchentable issues-taxes, healthcare, education-and candidates from SWVA can talk about labor unions (Stump was a member of the UMWA) and teaching standards (Puckett and his brother were school principals).
Sure, Rick Boucher can win races. He's re-elected her every two years by big margin not because he discusses his support for abortion rights, but because he discusses jobs, unions, technology-issues we can come together and get people from across the aisle to agree on.
Neal, I volunteered for David Englin during his primary race and the November race, so, as much as it would be awesome if David ran for Lt. Governor- he doesn't want to.
ALso, there has been some major talk behind David's back amongst some of the Dems who orignally didn't support him in the primary- they think he's only using the House of Delegates as a stepping stone to get into Congress- or other position. I know I talked to a lot of people who were leery of voting for David because of that.
He's not. Let me say this right now clearly. David Englin will not be running at all for Lt. Governor. I'm not trying to be rude to you, if it's coming off that way, but it's kind of important to make sure everyone knows, just because of some of the back talk in the 45th. It'd be awesome to see him as Lt. Governor or whatever office he wants to take, but he'll be in the HoD for a few more election seasons! :D
Sounds like you know what you're talking about, so I scratched him off.
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