VCC Summer 2017

Capitol Connections Ad Update 06272017.pdf 1 6/27/2017 8:59:18 AM

ticket. He also took himself out of consideration for the 2020 presidential election cycle soon after the 2016 presidential election and is running for re-election to the U. S. Senate in next year’s election. This year, he has raised $2.6 million in the second quarter, ending the period with $7.3 million in his campaign coffers. Terry McAuliffe Current Virginia Governor and

businessman Terry McAuliffe is on a roll. Bringing on his experience as co-chairman of Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential re-election campaign, chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001-2005 and chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign he is considered to being laying the ground work for a presidential run of his own in 2020.

He was instrumental in his recommendation of Tim Kaine as Hillary Clinton’s VEEP choice in 2016. During his stint as Governor, McAuliffe continues to leave the country promoting Virginia businesses in various trade missions around the world. Writing for the Democratic Victory Fund, McAuliffe writes “Our future is at stake this November.With Donald Trump in theWhite House and right-wing Republicans controlling Congress, Virginia is on the front line of resistance to their extreme agenda and dangerous actions. Your support now helps build and expand winning ground games as Democrats take on radical Republicans across the Commonwealth. If Democrats don’t have what it takes to win acrossVirginia in November, we’ll be surrendering our state to the radical Trump-Gillespie agenda. Together, we can make sure Virginia stays blue this November.” If his choice for Governor, Ralph Northam, wins look for him to begin a nationwide exploratory run continuing Virginia governor’s quest for the presidency. Politics Roundtable Overview Tom Davis, III Rector, George Mason University, Former Congressman We may be the mother of President’s but we haven’t been pregnant in a long time. It may be that the formula for winning a swing state makes Virginia governors too moderate to win their respective party’s nominations for President. Cuccinelli tried the hard right and couldn’t win statewide even in a Republican year. Warner won but wasn’t liberal enough. Quentin Kidd, Ph.D. Christopher Newport University, Dean of the College of Social Science With the exception of Terry McAuliffe, there are two things that characterize the other five governors and one is that speak to their presidential ambitions and failed presidential ambitions. The first is a personal mistake or personal failings and the second is some combination of bad timing and bad preparation. The ‘Macaca Moment’ and the ‘Jonny Williams Scandal’ did George Allen and Bob McDonnell in really before they could enter any kind of presidential competition. George Allen did not have an Exploratory Committee because he was taking some criticism about already running for president before his re-election to the U. S. Senate but went speaking in Iowa and New Hampshire and did not formally organize anything. Bob McDonnell was on everybody’s list when it came to VEEP potential presidential candidates but done nothing formally in terms of entering or creating leadership PACS. The other three governors are not failures because of personal

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failings but non-successes who had bad timing and bad preparation. I think that the governor that gets the gold star for bad timing and preparation is Jim Gilmore. He is the most ambitious of what he tried to do and has always been shown cut up short because he was ill prepared or had bad timing in what he was trying to accomplish. He has run for president twice and ran unsuccessfully for the U. S. Senate once. People access his governorship so poorly that he has never been able to build anything from what people think of as a really poorly constructed foundation which is his governorship. MarkWarner and Tim Kaine are more of a function of bad timing and preparation.

See "Highest Aspirations" , continued on page 8

V irginia C apitol C onnections , S ummer 2017

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