• Follow on Snapchat
  • Follow on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Follow on Instagram
  • Watch on YouTube
For all Virginians

A Tale of Two Campaigns

What They Are Saying About The Virginia Governor’s Race Going Into the Final Days

“We believe Ed Gillespie has the best chance of leading Virginia to a brighter economic future.”

“Northam isn’t so much stumbling across finish line as doing an epic belly flop.”

During the final full week of the Virginia governor’s race Ed Gillespie experienced a surge in public polling and his campaign’s momentum has been noted across the Commonwealth and the Nation.

The Charlottesville Daily Progress: “Therefore, we take the issue of economic vitality as our No. 1 guidance in making our endorsement for governor. And we believe Ed Gillespie has the best chance of leading Virginia to a brighter economic future.” (Daily Progress, 11/3/17)

Kimberley A. Strassel, The Wall Street Journal“Yet the latest polls suggest Mr. Gillespie could pull this off. He’s broadened his path to office by employing the very different strategy of attempting to navigate—and where possible, unite—the GOP’s Trump and non-Trump factions.” (Wall Street Journal, 11/2/17)

National Review: “Gillespie has run an excellent, tough but in-bounds campaign that, amazingly enough, has him within shooting distance of victory.” (National Review, 11/1/17)

Norman Leahy, The Washington Post“There are moments in a campaign when you can feel the momentum shift in the other guy’s direction. That seems to be happening in Virginia now. With a week to go before Election Day, the shift could lead to Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie snatching victory from Democratic nominee Ralph Northam.” (The Washington Post, 10/31/17)

The National Review: “The Gillespie campaign is certainly managing to give the Democrat and his supporters some last-minute heartburn.” (National Review, 11/4/17)

Patrick Gleason, Forbes: “What Northam hasn’t made clear to voters is what he would do on tax and fiscal policy if elected. This stands in stark contrast with the transparency from Ed Gillespie, who has released a detailed tax reform proposal that would help Virginia compete with the likes of Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida and other states that have enacted rate-reducing tax reform in recent years.” (Forbes, 11/4/17)

The Roanoke Times“Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam are locked in a dead heat, according to the latest Roanoke College poll released Friday. Northam, Virginia’s lieutenant governor, led all previous Roanoke College polls. But in the newest, he and Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, are tied at 47 percent.” (Roanoke Times, 11/3/17)

The Washington Times“Ralph Northam, the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, had been leading Ed Gillespie, the Republican, for months. His election was a lock. Everybody told him so. But that was then, and now he may not be leading at all. Some of the polls say the race is close, maybe dead even. The momentum has clearly swung in Mr. Gillespie’s favor.” (Washington Times, 11/2/17)

Republican Standard: “Republican Ed Gillepsie has shocked the nation at this rate with a campaign that — according to the Washington Post, pundits and academic public policy centers — should never have had a chance.” (Republican Standard, 11/3/17)

***

Meanwhile, Ralph Northam made a number of critical errors over the last couple of days and is drawing harsh criticism.

Alex Roarty, McClatchy: “Northam isn’t so much stumbling across finish line as doing an epic belly flop.” (Twitter, 11/2/17)

Carter Eskew, The Washington Post“If the Democrats’ strategy for winning the governor’s race in Virginia is to convince people that Ralph Northam can lose, they are doing a really good job.” (The Washington Post, 11/1/17)

Lauren Debellis Appell, The Hill: “One can’t help but get the feeling that the Northam campaign is playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette that may not end well for them on election day.” (The Hill, 11/1/17)

Charles P. Pierce, Esquire: “Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, who is more than a little charisma-challenged on his best day, got all tangled up in the issue of sanctuary cities, managing to inflame both sides of a volatile issue… The Virginia governor’s race can be seen as a test-run of that strategy.) The progressive group Democracy For America pulled its support of Northam over this issue. And, as a result, the race is up for grabs.” (Esquire, 11/3/17)

Michael Tomasky,  Daily Beast: “Northam has run a lame campaign. No doubt about that. His consultants have been awful. He’s running like one of those ’90s Bullworth Democrats who’s afraid he might offend two independent voters somewhere.” (The Daily Beast, 11/3/17)

The Richmond Time-Dispatch“In science, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle refers to the fact that it is impossible to know both the exact position and velocity of a subatomic particle at the same time. Based on recent events, it appears there is a Northam uncertainty principle as well: It is impossible to know exactly where he stands on this issue.” (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/3/17)

The Roanoke Times“Northam’s task is made harder by a lackluster campaign — it’s hard to enunciate exactly what he would do in office.” (The Roanoke Times, 11/1/17)

Matt Vespa, Townhall: “The Virginia Democrat surely isn’t acting like he’s in the lead. In fact, the attacks on Republican Ed Gillespie in the past few days have reeked of desperation. There must be something in the internal polling that has him and his people spooked because this has become a campaign that seems to be going off the hinges.” (Townhall, 11/3/17)

Matt Vespa, Townhall: “As the Virginia gubernatorial race comes to a close, it’s Democrat Ralph Northam’s campaign that appears to be desperate.”  (Townhall, 11/2/17)

The Free Beacon:  “Whether or not the Northam campaign still thinks it has the upper hand is unclear, but its strategy has clearly changed from a month ago when Northam was letting MS-13 attacks from even President Trump roll off his back. In the past month Democrats have reportedly grown nervous that they may blow Virginia’s election. Northam’s new ads show those nerves have crept into his own campaign.” (Free Beacon, 10/31/17)

The Hill: “Northam, who has accused Gillespie of a “fear mongering” campaign, once had a larger edge in a state that President Trump lost by 5 points in 2016. Now Democrats are worried about their prospects in what has become the only competitive statewide race of the year.” (The Hill, 11/4/17)

National Review:“But given the abysmal week Northam has had, and given that most of the latest polls suggest a very close race, the trends seem to favor Gillespie, or at least indicate that he, and not Northam, has cornered the market on positive momentum.” (National Review, 11/4/17)

Democracy For America Executive Director Charles Chamberlain:“Ralph Northam’s gutless, politically senseless, and morally debased decision yesterday to openly backtrack on his commitment to standing up for immigrant families is a picture-perfect example of why Democracy for America never endorsed him in the primary and focused the entirety of our efforts in Virginia on down-ticket races, like Justin Fairfax’s campaign for Lieutenant Governor.” (Press Release, 11/2/17)

Democracy For America Executive Director Charles Chamberlain: “The reason why we’re standing up now is because we’ve been seeing this pattern of strategy by the Northam campaign to alienate the base, while trying to go over these mythological, swing-able Republican voters,” Charles Chamberlain, DFA’s executive director, told The Hill, in a Friday interview. “We specifically spoke up because we’re worried about the outcome of this race. We are very afraid that he’s going to lose and that’s exactly why we spoke out because they have five days to course correct.” (The Hill, 11/4/17)

Democratic Arlington County Board Member Christian Dorsey: “While I feel good about everything we have collectively done to this point, I’m not comfortable, and neither can you be,” said Christian Dorsey, a member of the Arlington County board. Dorsey later told Yahoo News that he is concerned about a lack of enthusiasm for Northam, the Democratic nominee for governor.” (Yahoo, 11/3/17)

# # #