At dinner last night with some good friends from my days at the Republican National Committee, we got to talking about the current campaigns for governor in my home state of Virginia and my seemingly adopted state of New Jersey.
Creigh Deeds ((Getty Images/Win McNamee)
I opined that while it was clear that the Republican candidates for governor in both states were running ahead right now, Republicans couldn't afford to take anything for granted -- that Virginia's political demographics had changed significantly over the last decade, and that New Jersey is, well, New Jersey, where Republicans have had a tough go of it these last, oh, 38 years or so.
Then this morning I read my Washington Post, and I did a double-take -- GOP gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell yesterday announced the endorsement of Sheila Johnson, the co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, the nation's (world's?) first black female billionaire, and -- wait for it -- a major Democratic donor to both current governor, Tim Kaine, and former Gov. Mark Warner.
Score a big one for McDonnell, I thought to myself.
Under Virginia's campaign finance regime, a candidate can accept any amount of money from anyone he wishes -- corporate, individual, union, PAC. So having a billionaire back you can be far more lucrative in Virginia than it would be in, say, New Jersey, where there's a strict and small limit on the maximum allowable contribution.
And, given that Democratic gubernatorial nominee Creigh Deeds is doing his best to position himself as the non-ideological, pro-business New Democrat heir to both Warner and Kaine, this is big news, indeed.
But then, reading on, I did an even bigger double-take, because buried deep at the very bottom of the piece was another stunning political news nugget: Not only is Sheila Johnson endorsing McDonnell, but Randall J. Kirk of Radford says he hasn't yet made up his mind.
As the Washington Post put it, "Kaine's top individual donor, Radford businessman Randal J. Kirk, said Monday that he is undecided. 'I'm thinking about the matter, but at the current moment, I have not found any significant reason to get involved -- I think either of them would be fine,' said Kirk, a billionaire who supported former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe over Deeds in the primary.'"
Ummm.
I think the Washington Post missed the boat on this one.
Randal Kirk isn't just Tim Kaine's top individual donor.
He is Creigh Deeds' biggest individual donor.
Kirk gave more money ($120,000) to Creigh Deeds' 2005 campaign for Attorney General of Virginia (yes, that's the one he lost to Bob McDonnell) than any other individual donor.
If McDonnell can keep Kirk on the sidelines, even as he scores a potentially major fundraising haul from Johnson, he could be well on his way to recapturing the Governor's Mansion in Richmond.
Follow me on Twitter!
![[RSS]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/rss_icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[ARCHIVES]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/archives_icon.png){kind=icon}
Post A Comment