campaigning for VIRGINIA GOVERNOR

yesterday the "jobsthatareLEFT" list (a listserve for democratic/liberal jobs - isn't the pun great?) sent out opportunities to intern for the terry mcauliffe virginia governor campaign. i didn't even know there was going to be a campaign this year :(

nevertheless, since i had heard good things about campaigning from my friends who worked for the obama and clinton campaigns, i thought it might be interesting to work, or at least volunteer for one.

general stuff
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-it is supposed to be a "hotly contested" race (three contenders!)
-virginia has historically been a very republican state, but is now more democratic (interesting crossroads!)
-the state is very diverse (metropolitan/rich north and a rural and agrarian south). also interesting.


the contenders:

creigh deeds - current state representative from bath. [virginia has a town named bath? i only know the bath in england (signs you've spent too much time abroad?)]

pros: has a facebook page. not that this would make him a great legislator, but at least he has advisors that are 'with the program.' lots of other grassroots/social media stuff. also, my acquantence from high school who was pretty smart supports him.

cons: he doesn't even have transportation as one of his 'issues' for the state. how can you possibly be governor of virginia and not pay attention to a nationally infamous gridlock situation? this is an automatic dealbreaker. NEXT...

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terry mcauliffe - the "national guy." he's lived in virginia for 20 years, but he's lived in northern virginia participating in national level democratic politics. so he's really a dc guy that happens to live in virginia.

pros: lots of money (could win?) and i like his priorities: jobs, the environment, and transportation. i guess if he lives in northern virginia then he really knows what a nightmare it is (the area is nationally known for the transportation mess we have).

cons: those are the ONLY issues he thinks are important (at least have SOMETHING for other issues because they might come up?), part of the clinton machine (even though i think he supported barry-o), no facebook (or anything)*, plus he's just a political celebrity who wants a governor position. at least the other two seem genuine enough (as genuine as a politician can be...)

*but he does have a cool feature where you can forward the 'volunteer' email to contacts in your gmail address book (as in, importing them automatically). and when you sign up for something you are automatically 'logged in' to the website (don't have to put in your contact info again if you want to order a bumper sticker after you sign up to volunteer, for example).

winnability - nobody really knows. hillary clinton won the new york senate seat without ever living there. i read somewhere (but lost the link) that a bunch of northern va government people don't like him. i mean, if nova people don't even like him...

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brian moran - brother of jim moran, who is the in the us congress.

pros: seems to have done a lot of work with governor tim kaine, who i don't know but seems like an ok guy; has lots of endorsements ; the first thing you see on his website is how he doesn't want a coal plant to be built in surrey (wherever that is - lol i'm a nova snob); lots of social media stuff; facebook page for indian americans (reaching out?); easy to find out about events/volunteer opportunities bc they're right there on the website.

cons: money?

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right now i've signed up to be a volunteer for all three campaigns - i'll see who gets back to me and how (and report it here :)). for right now, im leaning toward moran though...