Countdown to game day

A sign nailed to the side of a building defines the town’s size and quaintness: WELCOME TO BUENA VISTA 6,002 HAPPY CITIZENS AND 3 OLD GROUCHES. Here in this sleepy hamlet just east of Lexington and Interstate 81 is where the run for statewide office, including governor, begins. The campaign preseason ends today.

The real action starts Monday morning at the Labor Day Festival in Buena Vista’s Glen Maury Park, where politicians happy, grumpy and in between must be if they expect to be anywhere in November.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell geared up for the moment several weeks before the holiday by airing folksy television ads with his family. The aim for the former attorney general from Virginia Beach was to cast himself as a moderate, an image shift that began when he officially announced his candidacy almost six months ago, political experts said.

Tomorrow’s campaign launch in Buena Vista represents an opportunity for McDonnell to resume that tack after having his stride broken by the unearthing of a thesis he penned 20 years ago showing his social conservative side. In the 93-page document, McDonnell, among other things, writes that working women are “detrimental” to the family. That has provided a possible opening for his Democratic foe, state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, of Bath County, who trailed in the polls all summer.

It’s a race the nation is watching not only to see whether Republicans can break a losing streak in a state they’d long dominated but as a barometer of President Barack Obama’s flagging popularity. Last fall, he became the first Democrat to carry Virginia since Lyndon B. Johnson.

“There is so much intensity and so much national attention on the gubernatorial race and so much pressure on Obama [for Deeds] to win,’’ said Christopher Newport University political scientist Quentin Kidd.

The McDonnell campaign seemed in sync until the story broke on the thesis McDonnell wrote as a graduate student at Regent University. Now, McDonnell wants to shift the conversation back to the bread-and-butter issues he has focused on, such as the economy, jobs, transportation and education, Kidd said.

He may have his chance Tuesday when Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is expected to outline cuts in state budgets to offset a $1.5-billion shortfall.

The budget cuts and how Deeds and McDonnell propose to handle them “will be crucial for both candidates,’’ said James Madison University political scientist Bob Roberts.

“They will be asked, ‘How can you get us out of this mess?’ ’’ Roberts said. “McDonnell will say you [Democrats] got us in the mess and Deeds will say ‘I can make state government more efficient.’’’

Even the thesis might not have given Deeds the bounce he needed to climb back into the race. A SurveyUSA poll conducted last week and released Friday put McDonnell up by 12 percentage points, 54 percent to 42 percent. He lost ground in Northern Virginia and among voters 50 and older but gained among voters 35 to 49.

Still, the next two months are crucial as voters begin to tighten their focus on the fall election.

“There is a different groove of life after Labor Day,’’ said Republican Attorney General nominee Ken Cuccinelli. “There is a settling into school and people are moving into their fall schedule. The attention will change, but my issues won’t change.”

The issues for the Fairfax state senator include protecting Virginia as a right-to-work state and safeguarding the state’s marriage amendment, backing Second Amendment rights and targeting illegal immigration.

Cuccinelli’s opponent, Democratic Del. Steve Shannon, also of Fairfax County, said the top-of-the-ticket race between Deeds and McDonnell is going to get more attention. But Shannon said when he meets voters and discusses gang violence, Internet child pornography and drunk driving, he has a focused audience.

“Virginians study the issues before they go to the polls and that’s the reason I’ve rolled out public safety policy proposals,’’ Shannon said.

While Shannon and Cuccinelli will debate three times in October, those debates will happen in Richmond and Northern Virginia.

Both candidates will spend a substantial amount of time visiting rural areas and going door-to-door to meet voters.

“People are seeing me as much in Norfolk as they are in the Valley,’’ Cuccinelli said

Shannon said he will practice retail politics frequently in the next couple of months. He has already visited the less populous parts of Virginia such as the Southwest, Southside and Shenandoah Valley.

“I don’t think any part of Virginia can be overlooked to become the top law enforcement officer,’’ he said.

For McDonnell, the campaign has been longer than most. He’s been eyeing the governor’s office for more than 20 months and campaigning vigorously since late March. Now he must summon the energy for a crucial stretch run against a candidate in Deeds who pulled out a Democratic primary victory with a critical late surge.

“We haven’t wasted a minute,” McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said. “In a gubernatorial campaign, you absolutely cannot afford to stand still for a second.”