Democrat Creigh Deeds wrongly focused on social issues and lost to Republican Robert F. McDonnell in the race for governor in part because young, African-American and other voters who supported Barack Obama a year ago stayed home, a political expert said.

Over the past 13 years, Del. Steve Landes has fought tirelessly to protect the interests of the Shenandoah Valley. Right now the Commonwealth of Virginia is at an important crossroads. We need someone in Richmond who is an experienced leader, who has consistently proved that he can get things done.

RICHMOND — President Barack Obama will appear in a new television advertisement for Creigh Deeds and plans to campaign with the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Norfolk.

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.

HARRISONBURG – Democratic gubernatorial candidate R. Creigh Deeds brought his campaign to young voters Tuesday, appealing to James Madison University’s Young Democrats to help him overcome his deficit in the polls to Republican Robert F. McDonnell.

Replicating his great awakening in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, R. Creigh Deeds has arisen from slumber in his run for Richmond against Republican Robert F. McDonnell. In so doing, he’s demonstrated that a position in which he’d once appeared only casually interested he wants at almost any price. Honesty is precious, but like an heirloom for a family in sudden financial straits, it’s among the first things to go when a politician sees within grasp the seat he covets.

This week’s opinion marketplace

Transportation funding divides hopefuls

RICHMOND — Democratic gubernatorial nominee R. Creigh Deeds outraised Republican nominee Bob McDonnell in July and August, but McDonnell entered the final two months of the campaign with a clear financial advantage, campaign reports show.

Both gubernatorial candidates appealed to Barent Parslow, a Staunton gun shop worker, until the issue of a gun-show loophole surfaced again in the state legislature earlier this year.

Tingles are racing up legs in that bristling sphere known as the left, this time over Virginia gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell’s utterance of the queen mother of dirty words. The dread term spilled from the same mouth McDonnell kisses his wife with during a radio interview last week. Fudge.

McDonnell lambastes Deeds at parade

Slightly built, tirelessly energetic and topped by a meticulously styled ’do that could belong only to a politician or an anchorman, Robert F. McDonnell looks more marathoner than statesman, and in that sense hopes to run again after a week of staggering. Platforms for re-launching a gubernatorial bid that once sailed, but now drifts, arise this week, first on Monday with the traditional Labor Day campaign kickoff and later in the week when Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is expected to announce $1.5 billion in budget cuts.

RICHMOND — Thanks to a college thesis his Republican foe wrote 20 years ago, Democrat R. Creigh Deeds has a chance to reset the governor’s race and drive home a defining campaign message.

Now, all he needs is the message.

After the Democrat spent much of the summer throwing fists at the air, Robert F. McDonnell did what R. Creigh Deeds could not, planting a hard punch on the Republican’s jaw. McDonnell’s misfortune is that he happens to be that Republican.