Earlier this week we told you about a swanky Terry McAuliffe fundraiser in New York City that was headlined by Bill Clinton and brought in a staggering $350,000 in campaign cash in a matter of hours.
It's exactly those sort of affairs that have pumped new urgency into the Democratic gubernatorial race, ratcheting up the excitment and the intrigue.
But just a few days later we started to get a glimpse of the potential for blowback on McAuliffe. A beefy national profile and high-placed friends can help you gather attention, money and voters. But that same profile and those same friends also come complete with a personal bull's eye. On Wednesday, bloggers at the prominent Democratic site - Daily Kos - posted McAuliffe's first Virginia campaign commercial - the one that features Hampton Roads - along with some not so flattering words.
The blogger seized on McAuliffe's attempts to run as a Richmond outsider - specifically his line in the new ad that says "the best ideas don't always come out of Richmond."
Let the mocking begin:
"Yeah, those damn elitists downstate in Richmond don't know nothing! Well, at least not as much as the Floridian New Yorker who has been the embodiment of the DC establishment as the Clintons' chief money guy for over a decade (and a big-money party operative for nearly three decades). So crash that Richmond gate, Terry, because what Virginia needs is just a little more D.C.
Just make sure you know where the heck Richmond is. It's that place directly south from your usual hangout."
Wow.
But you've got to believe that McAuliffe knew that this was part of the delicate balance in this race. Brian Moran and Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, have both been officially running for governor for more than a year, with reputations and groundwork in state politics that stretch back more than a decade. So in that way McAuliffe is primed to be the outside voice. But McAuliffe's carrying his own background and baggage.
Plus with the attention that going to fall on the Virginia gubernatorial election for the rest of the year, McAuliffe has to know that he's going to make good fodder for Democratic and Republican sideline snipers from around the country. Every twist and turn in the race is going to be watched - and maybe that bodes well for McAuliffe because he has weathered plenty of political storms and come out smiling on the other side.
Meanwhile, Moran and Deeds are accustomed to the slings and arrows in Richmond but the probably aren't primed for the kind of overwhelming attention at McAuliffe has worked through.
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