Sam Stein over at The Daily Beast cracks open what Democrats are privately saying about the embattled Ralph Northam campaign — and it is not at all positive:
In 2017, there are two such elections: the governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia. While the former appears to be a drama-free cakewalk for Democrats, the latter is—perhaps unexpectedly—quite close. A Washington Post poll released on Thursday had Northam up by 13 points over Gillespie. But three Democratic sources have told The Daily Beast that Northam’s internal campaign polling has the race within the margin of error, and not at the outer edges of that range.
This confirms with what The Republican Standard has been reporting for weeks, that the Northam/Gillespie race is within two points and that Democratic enthusiasm is in the gutter.
Lest it go unnoticed as well, Democratic operatives close to the Northam campaign are echoing the sentiment that the campaign is just being mismanaged and aimless at this rate.
In short, we have nothing close to the narrative of dominance (still) being peddled by the Northam communications team.
Of course, if Northam does manage to drag his dead cat of a campaign across the finish line? It won’t be because of that aforementioned communications team in the slightest, which frankly has been one of the most sophomoric, over-sensitive, and unprofessional group of human beings ever assembled for a campaign since… well… ever:
“We feel good about the state of the race and where we stand,” said Northam’s spokesman, David Turner. “We are taking nothing for granted and campaigning like we are 10 points down and will continue to bolster our GOTV operation and make it clear to voters the distinct choice they have in this election.”
Stones like that are usually seen chasing Indiana Jones in a tunnel somewhere. With progressive activists literally staring into their shoes over Northam’s failure to lead on key issues such as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline coupled with his failure to seriously take on Donald Trump’s presidency?
Jesse Ferguson brings folks back to reality:
[V]eterans of Virginia elections past are nervous that the party is too confident that things will simply fall into place. In 2014, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) appeared to be cruising to a re-election in the weeks leading up to the vote, only to have to endure a nail-biter. Warner won that race by less than 20,000 votes. His opponent was Gillespie.
“If Democrats don’t go all in on this race, they may regret it on the morning after when we wake up to Trump’s self-congratulatory tweets about his big victory,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic operative who has worked extensively in Virginia. “Winning Congress in 2018 starts with winning Virginia in 2017.”
This is very well tempered piece out of The Daily Beast. Well worth the read.
