Democrat Creigh Deeds has launched his first television advertisement of the fall campaign for governor, a message focused on the economy.
In the 30-second spot — which will air in every media market in Virginia except the pricey NoVa region — Deeds touts his plan for job growth.
He also ties himself once more to Mark Warner’s economic work and criticizes of former President George W. Bush, whose economic policies are embraced by Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell.
The ad is here.
One interesting point: there’s no mention of Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine. Until now, Deeds has typically mentioned Warner and Kaine together in the context of Virginia’s business climate.
The question is whether this decision reflects the governor’s lower-than-average poll numbers…or just the simple fact that the Deeds camp had to trim their message to fit into the constraints of a 30-second ad.
Kaine has taken some heat from Republicans and Independents this year, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Deeds’ people wanted to omit the governor’s name from a commercial. Though — if that happened to be the case — it will be impossible to get anyone to admit it publicly.
UPDATE, 1:25 p.m. — Deeds spokesman Jared Leopold calls-in to say that Kaine is a “very vocal cheerleader” for the campaign. He said Deeds and Kaine will stump together on Labor Day.
Leopold said the commercial focuses on Warner because Deeds “wanted to focus on the ’04 budget as the key moment of bipartisanship.”
The Richmond Report 