Collegiate Times

Democrat Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine may have no doubts in his mind that he is Virginia?s next governor after defeating his Republican rival, former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, by five percentage points, but what he doesn?t know is who will be the state?s next attorney general.

In yesterday?s edition, the Collegiate Times was not able to declare a winner in the attorney general race, despite Republican Bill Bolling?s narrow lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds of less than 2,000 votes, because not all precincts were reporting. The Associated Press reported yesterday afternoon that Deeds, a senator from Bath County, still fell short by a narrow margin of less than 1 percent but intends to call for a re-count.

Despite this, Reggie Wilson of the State Board of Elections said that the election went smoothly, and that voting precincts were able to submit their results faster than in previous gubernatorial races, mostly because of improved voting and reporting technology available in more populated areas.

The election board, which has unofficial polling results on its website, did not have information for three precincts available yesterday evening because of changes in the way certain districts are counted. But Wilson said the final tally giving Kaine about 52 percent of the vote and Kilgore 46 percent was accurate and included absentee ballots submitted by students and others not able to vote in their district.

?Yes, the absentee ballots have been counted,? Wilson said.

The election will not be certified with official results for another two weeks, Wilson said.

Kaine?s gubernatorial race shows that campaign finances are not the only factors deciding the outcome after polls closed. According to reports from the Virginia Public Access Project, the Democratic governor-elect received less than $18 million in political contributions while Kilgore pulled roughly $3 million more than that for his campaign.

In Montgomery County, Kaine not only beat his Republican rival by a greater margin than the state?s total, but also garnered more financial support from local donors. According to VPAP, Kaine received about $77,000 in contributions from 105 individual donors in the area, whereas Kilgore only received about $28,000 from 37 local donors.

Only one donor in the county contributed to Russ Potts, a Republican state senator who ran as an independent and scored roughly 2 percent of the total state votes. The amount of the donation was $500.

Complete campaign finance information is only available as of Oct. 26, the most recent reporting date that political groups and campaigns are required to submit information to the State Board of Elections. David Poole, the executive director of VPAP, said final campaign information about Tuesday?s election would not be available until early December.

Representatives from the Governor?s Office, the Republican Party of Virginia and the Democratic Party of Virginia could not be reached for comment about the election results on Wednesday.