Election 2005: Virginia
Well, I went out and voted today. Turnout was steady, but nothing like it was for last year's presidental election. I feel quite good about today. I know the polls are close but I have my predictions listed below:
Governor
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Kilgore - 49%
Kaine - 47%
Potts - 4%
Lt. Governor
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Bolling - 52%
Byrne - 48%
Attorney General
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McDonnell - 54%
Deeds - 46%
Update: Kaine Wins, but Republicans win LG and AG, and still dominate the House of Delegates.
Analysis: Well, It appears Jerry Kilgore lost. Kilgore ran a horrible campaign. He was up by over 10 points only a few months ago. Quite sad to see. Though, this should not be a referrendum on Bush. Remember, Mark Warner (D), our current governor, is somehow still quite popular (with approval ratings in the 70s). This helped Kaine a lot! The other helpful thing was that so many conservatives were quite unhappy with Kilgore and many skipped voting in the Governor's race. Keep in mind that the LG got 70,000 more votes than Kilgore. That would have been more than enough to win.
Luckily for the Republicans, Tim Kaine will now have absolutely no allies when he becomes Governor. So Virginia will not be tilting to the left, but maintaining the status quo until we get a better candidate in 2009. Hopefully the next time the candidate's campaign manager will have a brain and run a decent campaign.