Collegiate Times

While Hokie football fans saw their team face off against University of North Carolina on Thursday night, state and national Republican leaders tailgating on German Club grounds hoped for their own victories on Election Day.

With polls showing Republican Bob McDonnell consistently leading by double-digits over Democrat Creigh Deeds, many are left wondering if the state that elected Barack Obama last year will have a Republican governor in November.

A Washington Post poll released Tuesday showed McDonnell with an 11-point lead over Deeds among likely voters. And in a Rasmussen poll released Wednesday, McDonnell was listed as having a 13-point lead over his opponent.

McDonnell, running mates Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli and Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele all made appearances Thursday night as they tailgated with the College Republicans and the German Club.

Steele said that the state elections would reflect on national issues.

“I think the people of Virginia are concerned and they’re interested in what the leadership’s going to do,” he said.

McDonnell spoke specifically about his experiences with Virginia Tech when he was attorney general of Virginia.

“I love this school,” McDonnell said. “I want to see young people going out and living the American dream.”

The young vote will be essential on Election Day. Compared to other demographics, 18 to 24-year-olds generally vote the least, and in a race where one million fewer people are estimated to vote than voted in the 2008 presidential election, every ballot will count.

Associate professor and associate chair of political science Craig Brians said McDonnell is currently leading because “Deeds is fundamentally a weak statewide candidate.”

Deeds has fallen short in part because of the negative advertising that has characterized both sides of the campaign, Brians said.

While both McDonnell and Deeds have indulged in negative advertising, Brians said that Deeds has run a poor attack strategy against McDonnell’s 1989 graduate school thesis that promoted extremely conservative social values.

According to Brians, however, Deeds utilized this document in the wrong way.

“Deeds is a Southern Democrat, so he knows that a lot of stuff in the thesis is going to find a sympathetic voice in a lot of the state,” Brians said. “Many people think yeah, going back to the way things used to be before integration might not be so bad.

“So if you’re Creigh Deeds, do you want to say here’s something you wrote, defend it,” Brians said, “or do you want to say Bob McDonnell has supporters that don’t know what he thinks, (so) I’m going to write an ad that says, ‘McDonnell’s a flip-flopper’?”

Brians said that if Deeds had merely assumed the position of being consistent in relation to McDonnell’s “flip-flopping,” he could have more effectively used the graduate thesis against McDonnell.

When the Washington Post asked registered voters who would be a more effective leader, McDonnell beat out Deed by 21 points. The Republican was also voted more trustworthy and honest than his opponent by 14 points. Finally, voters thought that McDonnell “understood the problems of people like them” by 11 points.

McDonnell also won the majority in all categories when voters were asked who they trusted to do a better job on handling issues like women’s interests, economy, jobs, transportation issues and taxes.

In mid September, the candidates were roughly tied in all three categories, with differences no larger than five points.

Because of Deeds’s recent mistakes, Brians said, it has been very easy for McDonnell to come out on top in the polls.

“Creigh Deeds has made it very easy for (McDonnell),” Brians said. “He’s done everything in his power to help McDonnell become governor by not exploiting the many things he could have exploited.”

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