Bob McDonnell
It not likely that the
Washington Examiner, a D.C. daily tabloid with a strongly conservative editorial page, means any harm to Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee for governor of Virginia and former state Attorney General.
But one line in its e-mail news alert Tuesday night on the Democratic primary for governor -- won by state Sen. Creigh Deeds -- is one that could raise some eyebrows among the paper's readers in the populous, politically crucial, and increasingly Democratic-leaning northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.
"McDonnell is a conservative with strong ties to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson," wrote the Examiner.
There is nothing at all untrue about this. McDonnell, who grew up in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., received his law degree from Regent University, located in Virginia Beach and initially founded by Robertson as an adjunct of his Christian Broadcasting Network.
McDonnell settled in Virginia Beach and launched his political career there by winning seven two-year terms in the state House of Delegates.
An article in the Regent University magazine, published after he eked out a razor-thin victory over Democrat Deeds in the 2005 race for Attorney General, emphasized the influence of his faith on his politics.
But "close ties" to Robertson is not the image that McDonnell has been projecting in his campaign to win the governor's office -- and stanch the strong surge that the Democratic Party has enjoyed of late in Virginia politics.
His TV ads, aired often in the days before the primary even though he had no Republican opposition, present a genial and soft-spoken McDonnell emphasizing his ideas for allowing the private sector to drive an economic recovery in the state.
There is no question that McDonnell will have to generate enthusiasm and heavy turnout this fall among the state's sizable constituency of Christian conservatives who might warm to the idea of a governor associated with Robertson.
But in order to win, it is virtually imperative for McDonnell to reclaim ground for the GOP in northern Virginia, where a population boom has been accompanied in recent years by a shift to the Democrats. This vital region, today more Northeast Corridor than Old South, is not a place where the name Robertson plays all that well.
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