The lottery at the State Board of Elections swung to the Republicans this week, when the GOP won top billing on the November ballots.
During a Thursday meeting in Richmond the Republican ticket was pulled out of the bowl first - which gives GOP hopefuls running for the House of Delegates top billing too.
In the grand scheme of things, name placement probably doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot in the campaign for the governor's office - because the race between Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds is going to get downright silly - so most folks are going to be forced toget to know both candidates. If you're watching TV or just driving down the street this fall - you are going to be bombarded with McDonnell and Deeds' names and faces.
The place where the ballot placement could make a difference is the lower ticket races - like the contest between Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling who is running for re-election against Democrat Jody Wagner or Republican Ken Cuccinelli who is running for attorney general against Steve Shannon.
Or the intriguing House of Delegates race - including a bunch on the Peninsula between Republican Del. Glenn Oder and Democrat Gary West, Republican Del. Phil Hamilton and Democrat Robin Abbott and Republican Del. Tom Gear versus Democrat Sam Eure and independent candidate Gordon Helsel.
The three local Republicans not only enjoy the power and name recognition of being an incumbent, they now will appear first on the ballot. And it could make a difference.
The reality is that some folks only come out to vote in November for governor - much in the same way that another pool of voters only get to the ballot box when a presidential race is getting decided. So when these folks have made the decision that drove them to the polls sometimes they just skip down the ballot looking for familiar names - or at the very least partisan identification.
That's where top billing could end up playing a role - perhaps a small role - but you just can't expect every single voter to make a deeply informed vote in every single race. Many people have neither the time nor the inclination to get that politically engaged for better or worse.
And just think about Deeds and McDonnell's race from 2005 when nearly 2 million Virginian's went to the ballot box - and Deeds lost by fewer then 400 votes. It certainly doesn't seem like a huge stretch to suggest that you could find 400 people scattered across the state who voted in that race despite not knowing a lick of specifics about either candidate.
But hey - it's June - so maybe we're just trying to make sure every tiny turn of the partisan screw is important.
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