Democratic Governors Thrive in Red State Territory? In Virginia Recent Success is Due to Deceit.

CQ Politics has an article up that discusses the apparent success of Democratic gubernatorial candidates in red states. While Virginia is probably less red than many of the states discussed in the article, it is an interesting phenomenon that we have certainly witnessed first-hand.

The 2000 and 2004 presidential elections were defined by the television networks’ map that colored the states either red for Republican or blue for Democratic. But many politics watchers have observed that most states are more “purple” — a combination of red and blue — than one primary political color.

An examination of this year’s contests for governor featuring Democratic incumbents appears to provide some corroborating evidence for this argument.

The ranks of Democratic governors who have the highest job approval ratings in polls — and who are strongly favored to win re-election this November — includes several who lead states that are among the “reddest,” meaning they favored President Bush for re-election in 2004 and often by wide margins.

Paradoxically, the incumbent Democratic governors with the most lackluster approval ratings, including some who face serious challenges in their re-election contests, govern “blue” states that favored Democratic challenger John Kerry over Bush.

The article also discusses how the Democratic candidates have been successful in avoiding being identified as a liberal- the kiss of death in a true red state.

I think with Virginia’s constitutional ban on consecutive terms as Governor we’re only likely to see the Democrat shun the liberal label through November and then, without re-election concerns, we see what they are truly made of. Case-in-point is Tim Kaine saying the following 5 days before Election Day:

"I’m not going to be in for tax increases because we did it in 2004 and we’re going to have to live within our means”

Only to then turn around and immediately push for a billion dollar tax-hike. Or one could point out Kaine’s recent attacks on the Marriage Amendment despite filling out a Family Foundation survey indicating he would support the amendment (and the argument that he wasn’t aware of the final language is absurd since it had already passed the General Assembly once.)

Bottom line is that in Virginia we’ve seen recent Democratic gubernatorial candidates succeed at the ballot box, but only because they have been successful in pulling the wool over the eyes of Virginia voters and hiding their true agenda until they were elected.