UPDATE: Another big name is hitting the campaign trail for McAuliffe:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Vice President Joe Biden is hitting the campaign trail for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe on Monday.
McAuliffe's campaign announced on Tuesday that Biden would campaign for McAuliffe on Nov. 4, a day after President Barack Obama is set to appear with McAuliffe. Biden will appear at a Get Out The Vote canvass kickoff event for McAuliffe, according to his campaign. - TPM, 10/29/13
Add another big name hitting the campaign trail for Terry McAuliffe (D. VA):
http://www.politico.com/...
President Barack Obama will campaign for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe this weekend, giving a late boost to McAuliffe as he seeks to energize core Democratic voters in an off-year governor’s race, Democratic sources told POLITICO.
Obama is set to appear at a Sunday afternoon get-out-the-vote rally in Northern Virginia. It will be the president’s first campaign appearance for McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
McAuliffe’s campaign has been working to activate many of the same voters who carried Virginia for Obama in 2008 and 2012: young people, independent women and African American, Latino and Asian American voters. Some of those groups – particularly young and nonwhite voters — tend to participate at lower rates in non-presidential elections. - Politico, 10/28/13
President Obama's appearance will surely help motivate the base to turnout for McAuliffe. Former President Bill Clinton's been helping out with riling up the base on the campaign trail:
http://abcnews.go.com/...
In the campaign's waning days, former President Bill Clinton's oversized presence on the trail for Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe is about one thing: turning out voters.
"Are you absolutely sure that everybody in this crowd tonight is going to vote?" Clinton asked the crowd in a packed Northern Virginia middle school auditorium tonight. "How sick will you be knowing if something goes wrong that he was ahead in the polls and lost because you didn't show up?"
As Clinton spoke, a new Washington Post-Abt SRBI poll brought word that McAuliffe's lead over Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli had stretched to 12 points ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
The survey indicated that Democrats could potentially deal a significant blow to Republicans statewide in statewide for the first time in a quarter century. Likely voters in the survey favor the Democratic candidate for Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam over the Republican E. W. Jackson. And the Democrats' candidate for attorney general, Mark Herring, is ahead by 3 points -- within the margin of error -- in a tight race against Republican Mark Obenshain. - ABC News, 10/28/13
While McAuliffe has some big names out on the campaign trail stumping for him, this is who Ken Cuccinelli (R. VA) has stumping for him:
http://www.wjla.com/...
Tea party hero Rand Paul warned scientific advancements could lead to eugenics during a Monday visit at Liberty University, looking to boost the political fortunes of fellow Republican Ken Cuccinelli's bid for governor.
During a visit to the Christian school founded by Jerry Falwell, Paul looked to energize conservative supporters by warning that genetic tests could identify those who are predisposed to be short, overweight or less intelligent so that they could be eliminated. With one week remaining before Election Day, Cuccinelli is hoping the joint appearance with the U.S. senator from Kentucky will encourage the far-right flank of his party to abandon third-party libertarian spoiler Robert Sarvis.
"In your lifetime, much of your potential - or lack thereof - can be known simply by swabbing the inside of your cheek," Paul said to a packed sporting arena on Liberty's campus. "Are we prepared to select out the imperfect among us?" - WJLA, 10/28/13
I doubt Paul will be able to help pull off a miracle win for Cuccinelli. McAuliffe is beating him royally in terms of campaign spending:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
There are plenty of possible reasons why McAuliffe is ahead: McAuliffe has painted Cuccinelli as a radical conservative, while Cuccinelli’s messaging against the Democrat hasn’t been effective. Cuccinelli’s past positions scare off swing voters. Cuccinelli’s campaign hasn’t been error-free, to put it lightly. The gift scandal swirling around Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) is poisoning Republicans up and down the ballot. The government shutdown has allowed Democrats to paint Cuccinelli as a Ted Cruz clone.
But here’s the reason Republicans will blame for Cuccinelli’s shortcomings: He’s been massively outspent on television, still the dominant medium for conveying a campaign message.
And according to a breakdown of ad spending provided by a source watching the race closely, that’s a compelling point. In total, McAuliffe’s campaign spent more than $14 million on television ads between May 5 and Oct. 27, the data show. Cuccinelli has spent $8.5 million. And the outside groups backing both candidates skew in McAuliffe’s favor as well: Democratic groups like Next Generation, funded by California environmental activist and billionaire Tom Steyer, and Independence USA, a PAC funded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have poured almost $8 million into the state on McAuliffe’s behalf. Outside Republican groups have added about $5.7 million in spending on Cuccinelli’s behalf. - Washington Post, 10/28/13
You can click the link to look at the charts. The other major reason McAuliffe is destroying Cuccinelli is because Cuccinelli is a psychopath:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
Overall, however, Cuccinelli is poised to lose by a larger margin than any Republican gubernatorial candidate since 1985, and his running mate—lieutenant governor candidate E.W. Jackson—is on path for a more explosive crash. Mark Obenshain, the GOP pick for attorney general, is the only one of these men who might survive election night with a political career, but even that’s in doubt—the Post has Obenshain behind his Democratic opponent, Mark Herring, by 3 points.
Ideological extremism has a place in Cuccinelli’s abrupt collapse (his strident opposition to abortion has won him few favors in mainstream Virginia politics), as does the government shutdown and the attorney general’s failed attempt to distance himself from the Tea Party he championed just a few years ago. But the electoral salience of all of this has everything to do with the demographic changes that transformed the commonwealth in the previous two presidential elections, and—at the moment—hang over the future of the entire Republican Party, not just the one in Virginia.
You could see this is in the composition of the crowd that filled Cuccinelli’s event, and the larger one (of nearly 800 people) that filled the gym of a Herndon elementary school later that evening. As an African American reporter, I was one of the few flecks of color at Cuccinelli’s rally. Overwhelmingly, it was a crowd of older whites—the people who, four years earlier, formed the backbone of Bob McDonnell’s successful run for the governorship. If this year’s electorate looked like the one in 2009, Cuccinelli might be on his way to victory, even with his mistakes and missteps.
But the McAuliffe campaign has done an excellent job of mobilizing the Obama coalition of 2008 and 2012. His event—headlined by Senator Mark Warner and former President Bill Clinton—looked like the commonwealth of the 21st century. In addition to older and younger whites, there were African American, Asian American and Latino voters, and plenty of students. Women, in particular, dominated the crowd, and they were clear about their reasons for opposing Cuccinelli (active support for McAuliffe was more rare), “I don’t know a lot about McAuliffe,” said Mickey, a long-time resident of the area who doesn’t identify with either party, “but I do know a lot about Cuccinelli, and I don’t want him to win.” - The Daily Beast, 10/29/13
Even reliable GOP donors don't want anything to do with the Cooch:
http://blogs.wsj.com/...
On Monday night, Bill Clinton, who’s popped up all over Virginia promoting Democrat Terry McAuliffe, his longtime friend and the Democratic Party’s powerhouse fundraiser, is headlining another event for Mr. McAuliffe’s race for governor, according to Democratic sources.
The twist is that the setting will be the McLean mansion of Dwight Schar, a wealthy homebuilder who started his empire in Virginia – and a former fundraiser for the Republican National Committee.
Yes, from 2005 to 2007, Mr. Schar was the RNC’s finance chairman—he was also a George W. Bush Pioneer-level donor, and gave several hundred thousand dollars in 2012 to GOP PACs and candidates, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.
This summer, Mr. Schar announced he was endorsing Mr. McAuliffe instead of Republican Ken Cuccinelli, the state’s attorney general, and has backed up his candidate with $25,000. It surprised GOP lawmakers and donors in Washington and elsewhere, according to a half-dozen of them. The Democratic coup of getting a top GOP contributor to host an event for Mr. McAuliffe – with the former president along – shocked them.
“Bill Clinton showing up at Dwight Schar’s house for a Terry McAuliffe fundraiser is huge news, huge,” said Republican Bobbie Kilberg, president of the influential Northern Virginia Technology Council and a longtime GOP donor and activist.
Mrs. Kilberg, who is a friend of Mr. Schar, said, “Dwight does not cross party lines to support a Democrat lightly.” - Wall Street Journal, 10/28/13
The election is Tuesday, November 5th. If you would like to donate or get involved with the campaigns of any of the top ticket Democratic candidates, you can do so here:
http://terrymcauliffe.com/
http://www.herringforag.com/
http://www.northamforlg.com/