Virginia

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Virginia's Message for Mitt Romney

March 7, 2012 | 12:23 AM

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Virginia's role on Super Tuesday was largely ignored on the basis that there was no real contest there - Mitt Romney faced neither his biggest rival for the nomination, Rick Santorum, nor his Southern regional nemesis, Newt Gingrich. Weak organization kept both Santorum and Gingrich from qualifying for the ballot.

But the exit polls for Virginia are more revealing than the lopsided win for Romney indicates. They show Romney being forced to share roughly 40 percent of the Republican primary vote with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the fourth candidate in the race who has virtually no chance of winning the nomination.

McDonnell the Converted Feminist

By Jackie Koszczuk

February 13, 2012 | 1:32 PM

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As one father to another, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has some advice for Rick Santorum: Drop the naysaying about women in combat roles, because if the voters don't tell you that you're out of step with the times, your daughter just might.

McDonnell, an up-and-comer in the GOP, told CNN this morning that Santorum was off base when he said recently that women may fail in their missions in combat because of the "emotions that are involved." The first-term governor has a daughter who was a platoon leader in Iraq, with 25 men serving under her command. When daughter Jeanine McDonnell would call home and relay some of her harrowing experiences in a war zone, he said, "I did get a little bit emotional. But she didn't. She got the job done."

Reiterating comments he made at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee meeting over the weekend, McDonnell said, "She did a great job. She was in some very risky situations. And yet she endured and led and I'm proud of her."

In Ballot Fiasco, Virginia Loses Chance to be Relevant

By Jill Lawrence

December 24, 2011 | 11:20 AM

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The Republican nomination fight might be all but over by March 6, or Super Tuesday, when Virginia holds its primary. But if there is still a contest, the state's chance to be relevant has vanished with the fiasco over its primary ballot.

Barring any successful appeals, the only two names on it will be Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Their success confirms that they have the best organized campaigns, and not just in Iowa and New Hampshire. At the same time, the failures of five other major candidates to get on the ballot, including McLean, Va., resident Newt Gingrich - the frontrunner in at least one poll of his state -- suggest the Virginia rules are out of line.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, tweeted that Virginia has "most restrictive ballot in USA." That even extends to no provision for write-ins.

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mitt romney, newt gingrich, ron paul, virginia

Tightly Balanced in a Tipping Point State

By Ronald Brownstein

December 21, 2011 | 9:54 AM

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The new Quinnipiac University survey out this morning in Virginia spotlights the delicate tightrope President Obama must walk to retain many of the fast-growing, new battleground states that he captured in 2008 - and why Mitt Romney may be better positioned than Newt Gingrich to snatch those prizes from the president.

In 2008, Obama became the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to carry Virginia, attracting nearly 53 percent of its vote. In that election, Virginia was a luxury for the president because he also swept the table of Rust Belt swing states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota that have often decided presidential elections. But given his difficulties with blue-collar white workers, it will be difficult for Obama to repeat that performance in the Heartland. That could make it a necessity for him in 2012 to carry many of the emerging Sun Belt swing states defined by rapid growth, increasing racial diversity and (generally) high levels of white education - a list that includes Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico in the Southwest and North Carolina, Florida and Virginia in the Southeast. Of all those places, Virginia may be the closest to a tipping point state most likely to decide a close race.

Demography should help the president in these new Sun Belt battlegrounds: given the steady growth of the minority community in those places, the non-white share of the vote in them should be slightly higher in 2012 than 2008. That will likely reduce the share of whites he needs to win those states, even if economic discontent slightly erodes the preponderant share of the minority vote he captured in all of them three years ago. His problem is the share of the white vote he can attract may be declining even faster than the share that he needs - especially in the white working class.