By Bob Stuart
The News Virginian
March 16, 2008
STAUNTON - A long history of local Republican domination dating back to the Eisenhower administration makes their job daunting, but Augusta County Democrats filled a room Saturday morning at Mrs. Rowe’s Restaurant to listen to the likely 2009 Democratic candidate for governor, Sen. Creigh Deeds.
“I’m very optimistic,” Augusta County Democratic Chairman Tom Long said about the party’s momentum across the commonwealth after Democrats won a U.S. Senate election in 2006 and the gubernatorial race in 2005.
Former Gov. Mark Warner is heavily favored to win the open Virginia U.S. Senate seat in the fall.
Long said the political tide could be turning, even in Augusta County.
It’s a combination of “people winning and performing well in office,” and a changing demographic in Augusta County that includes more transplants from Charlottesville and Northern Virginia, Long said.
And Deeds, fresh from a Thursday night finish of the General Assembly, did not disappoint Saturday morning.
He spoke with passion about the challenges in Virginia government, including transportation, which must be dealt with in a special session later this spring.
“Do we as a commonwealth have the political will to move forward?” Deeds asked about the transportation question. He said Virginia faces a $450 million deficit on its maintenance of roads, and 40 percent of the state’s bridges and tunnels are structurally deficient.
“We desperately need to figure out transportation,” said Deeds, who promised that, if elected governor, he will bring the best minds to the table to come up with a transportation master plan and then ask the General Assembly to find a way to fund it.
Deeds also expects that the final touches will soon be put on a higher education bond package that will help Virginia train more scientists and mathematicians.
“We are no longer the world’s leader in technology,” said Deeds, who noted the wide disparity in engineers educated in India and in the United States.
As part of the bond package, Deeds also anticipates there will be funding toward the construction of a new Western State Hospital and a renovated Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton.
Deeds must work hard between now and 2009 to become both the Democratic nominee and governor.
“I’m a guy from Bath County. I don’t have a big population base,” he said.
