McAuliffe For Governor

McAuliffe Visits Eateries, Talking About Jobs

The Free Lance-Star
June 4, 2009
By Chelyen Davis

Terry McAuliffe may be the first candidate for governor to ask Grady Spades to lift his shirt.

Spades, who works at Jack Brown's Tattoo Revival and has a number of tattoos, was at the bar in Sammy T's downtown restaurant yesterday when McAuliffe came in to do some campaigning.

"Did that hurt?" McAuliffe asked, pointing to the tattoos on Spades' arms. "You got the back, too? Stomach?"

Within a minute, McAuliffe had Spades raising his shirt to show off the tattoos.

He ended by pressing stickers and brochures into Spades' hands, arguing that even though Spades lives in Maryland, he could be a billboard for McAuliffe.

"I'm running for governor. I need your help, brother," McAuliffe said. "Jobs!"

McAuliffe, one of the three Democrats running for that party's nomination for governor in next week's primary, was in town to do some campaigning among the lunch crowds in Caroline Street restaurants.

He shook hands, sat down briefly with diners, questioned a banker about the solvency of his bank (just fine, the banker said), petted a dog, cajoled a potato chip off a 3-year-old, pressed leaflets and stickers into hands, and extracted promises of support.

For most people in restaurants or on the street or, in the case of one couple, passing by in a horse-drawn carriage, McAuliffe kept it simple.

"I need your help, brother," he kept saying. "June 9th." "Jobs."

McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and fundraiser, has made jobs his top issue, promising that he will do everything in his power, if elected, to bring more jobs and bigger companies to Virginia.

It was a promise that had particular relevance at the GM plant later in the afternoon, where McAuliffe met with employees who just this week learned they'll be losing their jobs when the plant closes in 18 months.

"I'm sorry about what's happened," McAuliffe told workers there. "I'll create some opportunities, I promise you You don't know what you're going to be doing, you don't know what your retirement's going to be. That's no the way we should be treating people. My heart goes out to everybody in this room."

McAuliffe should be the dark horse in this race, the outsider--he has never run for office in the state before--running against two longtime state legislators for the nomination.

Former Del. Brian Moran and state Sen. Creigh Deeds were campaigning for months, years really, before McAuliffe jumped in the race.

But McAuliffe says voters are responding to the idea of a candidate who's an outsider in Richmond. He has raised more money than either one of them. Polls show the three of them running very close, and in a tight primary--where turnout is expected to be very low--every vote really could count.

"I've been out every day," McAuliffe said. "The key is identifying your voters and getting them out."

McAuliffe said he's "not paying attention to any of the polls."

"What I am paying attention to is building the greatest grassroots organization," he said. "Only one poll matters, on June 9."

So McAuliffe left virtually no hand unshaken along a block of Caroline Street, rattling through the important issues--a mandatory energy policy in the state, renewable energy sources and standards, and jobs, jobs, jobs.

He didn't bore potential voters with the details, telling them he has a six-part, 135-page detailed plan online. Then he'd hand them a brochure with his Web site listed and be off to the next handshake.

Tags: economy, jobs, macker, mcauliffe, t-mac, terry, terry mcauliffe, va-gov, virginia