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Statewide Gubernatorial Campaigning and Fundraising Visualized

VPAP [1] does an excellent job not only reporting contributions to Virginia campaigns but also whipping up some nice visuals to help see where the money is coming from.  Of note are the maps of Virginia showing where each gubernatorial candidate has received contributions.  Of the four candidates, only two, Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell, show truly statewide support while Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran are more regional in their fundraising to date.

Terry McAuliffe
Terry McAuliffe

Brian Moran
Brian Moran

Creigh Deeds
Creigh Deeds

Bob McDonnell
Bob McDonnell

Looking at the top donors by zip code, Brian Moran’s [2] top ten are all Virginia, while Creigh Deeds [3] is all Virginia but Washington DC in 7th and Bob McDonnell [4] has DC first but all Virginia for the rest of the top ten.

Terry McAuliffe [5], on the other hand, has only FOUR Virginia zip codes not just in his top ten (three of which are McLean) but these same four are the ONLY four in his top TWENTY FIVE localities.

So from the numbers and the maps, it’s not hard to assume that Bob McDonnell and Creigh Deeds are running statewide campaigns while Brian Moran is running a regional one and Terry McAuliffe is running at national campaign that happens to want Virginia.

What does this mean?

Long term, Bob McDonnell is not asleep at the wheel and certainly not content to just let the Democrats beat each other up while developing their own statewide operations.  His fundraising from throughout the state shows the statewide support and operations he’s pulling and should enable him to set up early and campaign well, even in Northern Virginia.

In the immediate future this will have the greatest impact on the Democratic primary this June.  While Terry McAuliffe’s money is vast and will buy him a lot of coverage throughout the state he’s not showing the broad support in Virginia that he’ll need to not only win the primary but beat off Bob McDonnell in November.  Creigh Deeds has a strong showing of support financially across the state, which could be a sign of how his grassroots operations may develop over the next six weeks.  Brian Moran seems to be investing heavily in Northern and Southeastern Virginia, areas that are giving an awful lot to all three Democratic candidates.  He’ll need the rest of the state to drag him across the finish line.

Of the three, Creigh Deeds appears to be best positioned to transition from primary to statewide in terms of widespread support while Terry McAuliffe’s deep pockets could buy most of that kind of operations and  Brian Moran is just in trouble.

UPDATE: The Times Dispatch covered the Democratic debate at William and Mary [6] where fundraising was a hot topic.