Sen. Creigh Deeds stops at Starbucks in Waynesboro

Sen. Creigh Deeds said Saturday he anticipates Terry McAuliffe will officially join the race for the Democratic nomination for governor.

“I fully expect Terry McAuliffe to run,” Deeds said during a Waynesboro stop before traveling to Northern Virginia. “It’s what democracy is about, it’s about the competition of ideas.”

McAuliffe would join Deeds and former Del. Brian Moran in the race for the nomination, which will be determined in a June primary. McAuliffe plans to announce his decision Jan. 7.

The Democratic winner will face Republican Bob McDonnell in the November general election.

A Rasmussen Reports poll earlier this month declared the race a virtual dead heat among the four candidates, with only Moran defeating McDonnell among Democrats. Deeds was even with McDonnell in the Rasmussen poll.

Deeds got a boost this past week when 9th District Rep. Rick Boucher, a veteran of Washington, heartily endorsed his candidacy.

The Bath County senator is happy with the influential congressman’s support.

But he says the race for the Democratic nomination and governor is about a vision, one that includes a plan for transportation, a better trained workforce through Virginia’s community colleges and an energy project involving the state’s universities.

“We need to build our transportation, cutting edge job creation and an energy-based research triangle,” he said.

Virginia’s community colleges are one of the centerpieces of the Deeds strategy. He said no matter where you live in Virginia, you are within an hour of a community college.

“We can build a smart workforce through the community colleges,” said Deeds, adding that displaced workers can emerge from a community college with new skills and higher paying jobs.

And the workers may not need the full two-year associate degree to find a better job, he said.

“We’re talking about certificate programs that might be accomplished in 90 days,” Deeds said.

Getting to those jobs will be made easier by an improved Virginia transportation system.

Deeds said better transportation means unclogging congested traffic arteries in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia and the rest of the state.

“We must have prosperity in all parts of the state,” said Deeds, who said Southside and Southwest Virginia need economic stimulus as well.

Another piece of the equation is an energy research effort involving Virginia’s universities.

“If we can bring research here, that’s a big piece,” Deeds said. He spoke of the North Carolina model that started modestly in 1960 and grew to today’s Research Triangle in Raleigh and Durham.

Deeds sounds somewhat more conservative when he said “state government can’t do it all.”

But he said with the proper investments in infrastructure and education, state government can lay the groundwork for the private sector economy to thrive.

And while McDonnell can focus on the fall election, Deeds said a three-way competition for the Democratic nomination will force him and the other candidates “to hone the message.”

He pointed to 2006, when Democrat Jim Webb emerged from a primary battle and defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. George Allen in the fall election.