Many pre/post mortems have demonized Creigh Deeds, and rightfully so. His campaign was a comedy of errors nearly from start to finish and with the brief exception of two weeks in September, we never had a close race. While much has been said about his disastrous campaign, I’d like to point out the one, very simple way, that Creigh Deeds could have won the Governor’s Mansion three weeks ago:
Education.
There are three points to my thesis (and please consider this objective and devil’s advocacy, believe me I am thankful everyday that Bob McDonnell is now our Governor-elect, haha). One, Creigh Deeds lost because he provided no alternative to Bob McDonnell, besides having the ‘ – D’ next to his name. His few policies were poorly articulated, written or explained, largely due to Creigh Deeds’ speaking inadequacies. Two, Creigh Deeds had no central message or theme for his campaign, despite numerous ‘resets’ that failed. Three, Creigh Deeds’ legislative record provided little or no boost in the campaign.
If Creigh Deeds has prepared a landmark education package by July 1st and framed his entire campaign around that message, there is a legitimate chance that he would be preparing for inauguration at this very moment. While the economy was clearly THE message and most important issue during the campaign, an issue Deeds failed to capitalize on in any way, a valid argument can be made that which matters more, the economy or education, because which comes first? As in the chicken and the egg analogy, does the economy grow and improve by creating jobs, or does education improvement stimulate the economy by providing qualified workforce and growing technology sectors to create jobs to supply growing demand from interested businesses and companies?
Creigh Deeds was a horrendous speaker, we all know that. He had poor communication skills. But where he shined most, in those rare moments, were on the issues he truly cared about. Education has been a Deeds hallmark for years and his rare great answers in the debates were on education questions. He was in his wheelhouse because he is truly passionate about education, especially given his own background with the four $20 dollar bills he was given heading off to college. Creating a message that plays to his biggest strength, in doing so would minimize his weaknesses on other topics, particularly social issues, Deeds could craft a positive yet easy central theme for his campaign.
Take a look at Deeds legislative record and you’ll see his devotion to education. Hell, Bob McDonnell hammered him for it repeatedly, Deeds crafted legislation that would increase teacher pay, in turn raising our taxes. Had education been Creigh Deeds focus, that argument turns back on McDonnell. ‘Yes Bob, I voted to increase teacher pay; teachers are our most important asset in the education system, they’re the frontlines and I’m going to give them every resource they need to teach our children the right and best way, because I know that improving education is the best way to improve Virginia’s economy.’ Also, by framing his economic message around education, Deeds could point and contrast his legislative record with Bob McDonnell’s. This would given far more added weight to Deeds repeated statements of: ‘Bob McDonnell has never written a bill to create a job’ when contrasted with Deeds’ education policies that would create jobs, according to Deeds.
Give Deeds a central focus to his campaign, and consider how different things would be. The thesis nonsense would have given Deeds an additional advantage in the race, not a central theme. Deeds ranting about $540 million coming from the General Fund, in turn taking it from education would have been far more magnified and personal to Deeds, given education as the central thesis to his campaign. You don’t think that would resonate? ‘I want to fix and improve our education system because it’s the best way to get Virginia back on track; Bob you want to take money from education for a transportation plan that will not work!’ Of course, this would have required Creigh Deeds to have a legitimate transportation plan, not the hollow bullet-points he tried passing as a ‘plan’.
You may disagree, but as the race progressed, there were fewer and fewer avenues to victory for Creigh Deeds. In early October, listening to him speak at the debates, it struck me how passionate he was about education; his speak improved, he articulated far better, he connected with that issue. Yet there he was, dancing around it, hammering on social issues, on the thesis, on economic policies, being the negative candidate. The potential winning ticket may have been there all along, yet none of the vastly overpaid staffers and consultants from his campaign saw it.
And better safe than sorry, there’s a reason until I waited until mid-November to write this!
