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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe polling showing McAuliffe with a big lead reduced Dem voter turnout
People naturally think that there's no need to vote if their candidate has a big lead.
CatWoman
(79,293 posts)may I inquire
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)among Dems who reasoned...
oh, well McAwful got this in the bag; I'm not too enthused with him anyway. So if he's going to win, I'll just stay home...
ZRT2209
(1,357 posts)Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)The only constant is -- someone complains.
last1standing
(11,709 posts)A close election tends to pull out voters who might otherwise stay at home when neither candidate motivates them. I would guess, based on the VA election, that Cuccinelli motivated his supporters while McAuliffe did not, but even that wasn't enough to put him over.
Those who hate and love tend to hate and love strongly. Cuccinelli's appeal to hatred worked by pulling out those who want to hurt others more than they want to help themselves, while McAuliffe's only real appeal was the fact that he isn't Cuccinelli.
In the end, McAuliffe's money overcame Cuccinelli's call to hatred, but only barely. McAuliffe was able to get the word out early that Cuccinelli was a nutjob and that VA needed a rational person for governor. The real good news of that is it means there are many more sane people in VA than hate-filled inbreds and when they found out what Cuccinelli was about they ran from his campaign. The bad news is that rational people didn't like McAuliffe all that much.
Ron Green
(9,822 posts)Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)Heather MC
(8,084 posts)All the people who planned to vote all along voted. Therefore turn out was 100%
lostincalifornia
(3,639 posts)Vincardog
(20,234 posts)Heather MC
(8,084 posts)I couldn't let Coochie Nelly Win"
Vincardog
(20,234 posts)Heather MC
(8,084 posts)he was positioning himself to Run for Gov of VA.
onenote
(42,531 posts)Apparently not long enough to remember Harris Miller.
(Harris Miller was considered the choice of party activists for the 2006 US Senate nomination. He ran as an unabashed liberal. When Jim Webb jumped into the race, Miller made a point of criticizing Webb as being a former repub and too conservative. Miller lost by around 10,000 out of around 150,000 votes cast, even though he outspent Webb by a wide margin.
And then Webb went on to defeat his repub opponent.
Warner. Kaine. Webb. McAuliffe. What do they have in common? Two things: folks like to tag them as "corporate" Democrats. And they all won in Virginia.
onenote
(42,531 posts)Democrats may not have been enthusiastic about Terry, but turnout was up because a lot of folks wanted to make sure Cooch wasn't elected. In a Democratic stronghold like Fairfax, the turnout was up by more than 30,000 votes. Statewide turnout was up slightly. There is no party registration in Virginia so claiming to know about turnout by party is pretty dicey.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)How did the turnout last night compare to previous elections?
Anyone know?
onenote
(42,531 posts)Up in Democratic strongholds like Fairfax County.
City Lights
(25,171 posts)gopiscrap
(23,725 posts)light turnout to dampen hopes and expectations
onenote
(42,531 posts)In fact, turnout was up overall and it was particularly up in Northern Virginia, a stronghold for Democratic candidates and the area where the Washington Post's poll showing a 12 percent margin should have,under your assumption, had the greatest impact.
Yet, turnout was up in Fairfax by more than 2 percent over 2009 and nearly 1.5 percent over 2005. In absolute terms, the number of votes cast in Fairfax County last night was 311,288, compared to only 279,606 in 2009 and 277,471 in 2005.
Fairfax County was pretty important in securing victory for McAuliffe. His margin of victory statewide was around 57,000 votes. His margin of victory in Fairfax County was 67,000 votes.
I don't know a single person who decided not to vote because of reports that Terry had it won.