Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Alexandria residents have until May 20 to register to participate in June 11 Democratic primary.
Residents of Alexandria must register to vote by May 20, 5 p.m. to participate in the June 11 Democratic primary for Virginia lieutenant governor and attorney general. Democrats Ralph Northam and Aneesh Chopra are seeking the nomination for lieutenant governor. Democrats Mark Herring and Justin Fairfax are seeking the nomination for attorney general. The primary ballot does not include the office of governor—Terry McAuliffe was the only Democratic candidate who filed, so he will be the Democratic Party nominee. Voter registration applications submitted by mail must be postmarked on or before May 20. The same deadline is in effect for Virginia voters who are registered, but have moved within the City of Alexandria, or within Virginia. Voter…
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Democratic gubernatorial candidate laid out platform at George Mason's Arlington campus.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe said on Thursday he would push to reform the state's Standards of Learning, or SOL, tests if he is elected in November. "The current, once-a-year, high-stakes, multiple-choice testing isn't working for students, parents or teachers," he told a crowd of more than 300 people at George Mason University's Arlington campus, to rousing applause. Under the current system, a fifth-grade teacher who raises a child from a first-grade reading level to a fourth-grade reading level is considered a failure, he said. Teachers who want to break up the test into smaller portions, or test at different levels based on student achievement should be encouraged, he said. McAuliffe also said he would establish a…
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Terry McAuliffe leads with registered voters, but Cuccinelli leads with likely voters, according to a new poll from Marist.
The race between Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and businessman Terry McAuliffe is neck-to-neck, according to a new poll released Wednesday. The NBC News/Marist poll shows McAuliffe, a Democrat, getting 43 percent support from registered voters, slightly ahead of Republican Cuccinelli’s 41 percent. But McAuliffe, who will make a campaign stop Thursday in Arlington, trailed Cuccinelli among likely voters 42 percent to 45 percent. The NBC/Marist poll follows a Washington Post poll, published Saturday, that showed Cuccinelli with a slender 46 to 41 percent edge over McAuliffe among all Virginia voters and a significant 51 to 41 percent lead among those who say they’re certain to cast ballots in November. Together, the polls show an …
Thursday, March 28, 2013
The latest Quinnipiac University poll shows residents are divided and still learning about Terry McAuliffe, Ken Cuccinelli.
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe hand-delivered 35,746 signatures Wednesday to the Virginia State Board of Elections in Richmond to help secure his place on the ballot in the governor's race. McAuliffe may face Republican Virginia State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli on the ballot come November. A new Quinnipiac University poll out Wednesday showed Cuccinelli is viewed as "having better experience, while voters see Terry McAuliffe as slightly less ideological, but neither is well-known to voters who are divided on who should be the next governor, with 40 percent for Republican Cuccinelli and 38 percent for Democrat McAuliffe," according to a news release about the new Quinnipiac University poll. The most …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Does the commonwealth need another name on the ballot?
Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling took himself out of Virginia's race for governor last week, leaving, at least for now, what's shaping up to be a two-person race. The choice for the Old Dominion's next governor, seven months before Election Day, seems to have boiled down to presumptive Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli, the state's socially conservative attorney general, against likely Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a McLean businessman. The Republican Party of Virginia will hold its convention on May 17 and 18 in Richmond to formally select its nominee. Democrats go to the polls on June 11 to cast their ballots in several races, including governor and lieutenant governor. …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling appeared to be considering a run as an independent.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling announced Tuesday in an email to supporters that he has decided not to run for governor as an independent. Speculation had grown recently that Bolling, a Republican, might run as an independent in the race. That would have made it a three-way race between Bolling, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe. Bolling decided not to go head to head with Cuccinelli after the Virginia Republican party decided it would choose its nominee in a state party convention rather than a primary. Cuccinelli, a social conservative, is popular among Virginia's conservative activists who are likely to attend the convention, the New York Times pointed out last fall when Bolling initially bowed…
Monday, January 21, 2013
No rest for the weary: Democrats gear up for tough 2013 state races.
An estimated 1,100 people attended the Virginia Inaugural Ball on Sunday at the Westin Arlington Gateway to celebrate the second inauguration of President Barack Obama — and gear up for key statewide elections in 2013. "Everybody is happy. Everybody is excited. It's a feel-good moment for everyone who worked on a campaign," Arlington County Democratic Chairman Mike Lieberman told Patch before speaking to the crowd. "The president is right to feel good about this weekend. You can't help but be optimistic. There's a lot of criticism of our government out there, and some of it is deserved. But there's also a lot of reason for optimism. And coming out of the last election, we see a lot of opportunities." [See photos from the Virginia Inaugural…
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Quinnipiac University poll shows the race has gotten closer as one-fifth of voters remain undecided.
A new poll shows Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli are virtually tied in the race for governor Virginia. The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday morning shows McAuliffe with 40 percent and Cuccinelli with 39 percent. One in five voters say they are undecided, according to the poll. In November, a similar poll showed McAuliffe with 41 percent to Cuccinelli's 37 percent. "While all three candidates for governor have run statewide previously, voter memories are short and they are little-known to Virginia voters," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a news release. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling dropped out of the race in late 2012, citing a change in the nomination …
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Warner says he wants to continue his work in the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., announced Tuesday that he will not run for governor in 2013, saying that he wants to continue the work he was sent to do in Washington. Warner, in a statement issued shortly after 3 p.m., said Virginians of all political stripes have approached him over the past year to make the bid — which he said he would consider and then make a decision after the November election. "I’ve talked to a lot of Virginians I respect, and I’ve talked about it with my family," Warner said in a statement. "But when I asked Virginians to hire me as their Senator, I made a promise to come to Washington to try to be a problem solver. I have to admit, it’s been tougher than I expected. But I’ve tried to keep at it." Warner's decision…
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Senator tells Associated Press he'll announce decision before Thanksgiving.
Sen. Mark Warner plans to announce before Thanksgiving whether he'll run for governor again, according to the Associated Press. The former governor, a Democrat, served as the Commonwealth's chief executive from 2002 to 2006. Virginia is the only state in the country where a governor cannot succeed himself. Former DNC chair Terry McAuliffe has already thrown his hat in the ring and will face Republicans Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. If Warner walks away from another run for governor, he'll be teaming up in the Senate with the state's soon to be junior senator, Senator-elect Tim Kaine, who served as Warner's lieutenant governor and is himself a former governor of Virginia. In a poll conducted Nov. 8-12 by …
Bob Bruhns
2:33 pm on Monday, April 1, 2013
As far as I can tell, Mr. McAuliffe had to deliver these signatures because his party chose to operate their candidate selection process the way they did. Congratulations to him, because it must have been a lot of work. Now people should look at the policies advocated by the Gubernatorial candidates, and the track records that they have. I think it's pretty clear that Mr. Cuccinelli will win the … more ›