Republican Resurgence Leaves Democrats in Dust
November 5, 2009 • By Matt Sutherland, Contributing Writer
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RICHMOND — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds may have lost Tuesday’s election by an 18-point margin because of national dissatisfaction with the current Obama administration, many people believe.
At Richmond’s Westin Hotel, Deeds and his ticket — Jody Wagner for lieutenant governor and Steve Shannon for attorney general — offered concession speeches before a tearful audience.
“We cannot pack up and go home,” Wagner said in front of enthusiastic voters. “This election is complete, but our tasks remain. We have got to focus on the next generation.”
Stephen Sentelle, a Virginia Commonwealth University student attending Deed’s party, believes swing voters were important in the Republican victories.
“A lot of people are worried about health care and the lack of jobs right now,” Sentelle said. “I think the next election may be different. Democrats will have had time to prove they’ve been doing a good job.”
Throughout the campaign, Deeds trailed behind Republican Bob McDonnell in the polls. The Associated Press declared McDonnell the winner close to 8 p.m.
The election marked a significantly low point in voter turnout for Virginia. With nearly 100 percent of the precincts reporting, only 39.82 percent of registered voters in Virginia showed up to the polls.
Harrisonburg’s statistics are even lower than the state average. Only 32.59 percent of Harrisonburg’s registered voters took part in the election. Harrisonburg also voted vastly different than in past elections. While the town has recently voted Democratic, McDonnell won Harrisonburg with 57.6 percent of the vote.
Bob Roberts, a political science professor at JMU, said the numbers are out of the ordinary, but not surprising.
“In a state election, the vote is usually about 10 percent lower than it would be in a presidential election,” Roberts said. “Harrisonburg is a little more liberal, but it’s not surprising that they voted [for the Republican Party], because they did it in the ’90s.”
The Republican majority vote was a drastic difference from recent elections. Since current junior Sen. Mark Warner was elected to the governor’s seat in the 2001 election, the Commonwealth has increasingly voted for the Democratic Party. Sens. Warner and Jim Webb are both Democrats, as is President Obama, who won Virginia’s electoral votes in 2008.
With Warner on stage offering his support, Deeds thanked his family and campaign staff and encouraged Democrats to not give up their effort.
“We’ve got a whole pile of work ahead of us, and just because we didn’t get the right result tonight doesn’t mean we get to go home and whine,” Deeds said. “We have to keep working and keep fighting.”
Bobby Taylor, a college friend of Deeds, believes the parties need to compromise for the well being of the state.
“This was on off-presidential-election year,” Taylor said. “The reactionary vote was probably etched in stone. It’s going to take a bipartisan effort to fix our problems.”
Contact Matt Sutherland at suthermh@jmu.edu.
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