National Republicans seizing initiative in Virginia

Chairman Michael Steele of the Republican National Committee is making his second swing through Virginia in a week, this time, traveling with all three statewide office-seekers (Bob McDonnell, governor; Bill Bolling, lieutenant governor; and, Ken Cuccinelli, attorney general) as they barnstorm the commonwealth one final time to seal the deal with Virginia voters.

On Tuesday, November 3, Virginia will vote, and if polls hold up, it promises to be a very good day for conservatives who haven’t tasted victory in a top-ticket race since John Warner was re-elected for the fifth time to the U.S. Senate in 2002 and haven’t won the governor’s mansion since Jim Gilmore accomplished the feat in 1997.

And the RNC will have been a large part to making it happen, should the ticket sweep to victory.

The RNC has flushed millions of dollars and thousands of hours in time for voter outreach into the commonwealth over the course of the campaign.

Nearly $8 million has been injected into the governor’s race, both to Virginia Victory and directly to the McDonnell campaign. And, an additional $300,000 has been gifted to down-ballot candidates (Bolling, Cuccinelli, and key House of Delegates races).

Also, the RNC has surpassed the voter contacts that the McCain campaign made last year. So far they have made 1.9 million voter calls, knocked on over 400,000 doors, and expect to make 1 million more contacts before election day.

And, throughout the past week, Steele himself has invested time in the Old Dominion. He appeared last Friday in Hampton Roads, a populace that the GOP hopes to carry to balance votes trending Democrat in Northern Virginia and will make nine appearances on Thursday and Friday of this week in the western part of the state as the campaign kicks-off a 25-stop tour across the state to close-out the campaign.

Clearly the RNC is looking to prove last year’s defeat to President Barack Obama in the commonwealth was an anomaly, as it was the first time since 1964 that Virginia’s electors went to a Democrat.

And, it probably doesn’t hurt that Virginia’s current governor, Tim Kaine, is also head of the Democratic National Committee.

I’m sure it would break Steele’s heart if he defeated the incumbent governor and Obama strategist on his home turf.

Cross posted at The Washington Times Communities: The Loop.

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About the author

JR Hoeft

Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.