Big finish: Deeds banks on Obama

RICHMOND — Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, trying to narrow a 8- to 9-percentage-point deficit in the Virginia governor’s race, is bringing in his biggest gun: President Barack Obama.

The first Democrat to win Virginia in a presidential race in 44 years, Obama conducts his first downstate campaign rally for Deeds at Old Dominion University in Norfolk on Oct. 27.

Coming exactly one week before Election Day, the presidential visit — and those of Bill Clinton and Al Gore over the past week — are an attempt to galvanize essential Democratic groups and like-minded independents whose response to Deeds has been tepid so far.

The visits also show a strategy to boost the Democratic vote in Hampton Roads and Richmond in addition to Northern Virginia, the base of support for Deeds last year in Virginia. The Deeds campaign’s new Obama ad is airing only in the Richmond and Hampton Roads markets for now, but will likely be expanded statewide.

Those regions also include heavy concentrations of African-American voters. A heavy black turnout is integral to any Democratic plan for victory. Deeds suffered setbacks when Black Entertainment Television network co-founder and major Democratic donor Sheila C. Johnson endorsed McDonnell and the nation’s first elected black governor, Virginia’s L. Douglas Wilder, endorsed neither candidate.

McDonnell acknowledged Wednesday that Obama’s visit and the ad will help Deeds.

“The president is an incredibly gifted communicator. I saw the ad just this morning and he’s a very passionate advocate for Creigh Deeds and I’m sure that will have some impact,” McDonnell said. “But you know what, we’re going to have plenty of surrogates in, but ... this is going to be about the candidates and the issues they’re running on.”

McDonnell campaigned in Virginia Beach on Saturday with Arizona Sen. John McCain, Obama’s GOP rival a year ago. Another 2008 Republican presidential hopeful and former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, campaigns with McDonnell on Oct. 28 in Springfield. And Republican Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Haley Barbour of Mississippi have all visited Virginia at least once for McDonnell.

Surrogates, particularly those who inspire specific voting groups the way McCain connects to military veterans and Obama energizes black voters, will be commonplace in Virginia as both campaigns close out the race with their get-out-the-vote programs.

Democrats insist they remain viable in the governor’s race, despite consistent polling showing Deeds at a disadvantage. They base that on a massive file of about 400,000 new voters the party and Obama’s campaign registered and sent to the polls last fall.

But Deeds’ Obama moment is not without a measure of awkwardness. He has distanced himself from marquee proposals Obama and a Democratic-ruled Congress support.

They include the “cap-and-trade” energy bill that was intended to reduce carbon gas emissions blamed for global warming by restricting use of fossil fuels, particularly coal.

In Tuesday’s final governor’s debate, Deeds said that if elected, he would consider opting Virginia out of Democratic-backed health care reforms now before Congress if they contain an option for publicly subsidized coverage. The so-called public option is at the heart of Obama’s health reform proposal. Labor unions, also among Deeds’ strongest supporters and donors, also demand a public option as part of any health care bill.

Later, surrounded by reporters, Deeds said his comment didn’t necessarily mean he opposes the public option. “I’m not convinced that the public option is the only way we can reduce costs,” he told a crowd of reporters. “It may be one way, but it may not be the best way.”