Let’s hope ‘I forgot to press send’ can fade into history
Elections are just a couple of weeks away and the two biggest races in the nation are …
You have no idea, right? OK, most of the voting is going to be about local government. But there are a couple of contests for governor, in Virginia and New Jersey.
It’s Virginia that’s obsessing the world. Or at least the world that’s already terrified about what’s going to happen in 2022 (Dems lose Congress?) or 2024 (Trump?).
The candidates are the Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former governor who left office after one term because Virginia is the only state in the union that makes governors do that. Versus Glenn Youngkin, a former business tycoon who’s chipped in at least $16 million of his own.
Virginia has evolved into a Democratic state, but what if McAuliffe loses — or just squeaks in? What if the turnout is puny? Will the nation read this as a prelude to disaster for congressional candidates next year?
Democrats can’t think of anything else, and if you’ve wound up on any party mailing lists — truly, it can happen to anyone — you may have been getting more letters about Terry McAuliffe than you got greetings on your last birthday. Certainly bigger presents are involved.
One of my all-time favorite donor requests came from Ellie Warner, McAuliffe’s finance director:
“Gail, I’m freaking out right now! I meant to send this email earlier … but I forgot to press send, and now, we’re even more behind on our fund-raising goal than before.”
That is so 2021. If, God forbid, McAuliffe somehow loses, “I forgot to press send” is going down in political history.
New Jersey’s race has also had its moments. Republicans are trying to beat Gov. Phil Murphy over the head with his 2019 remark that if you’re a person whose only concern is tax rates, New Jersey is “probably not your state.”
Murphy is expected to win handily. And the political world won’t be all that impressed. It’s Virginia that’s mobilized a national get-out-the-money campaign.
“Gail, we don’t have much time, so I’ll make this quick,” wrote the political consultant James Carville in a mass email about a “critical fund-raising deadline.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is, of course, online constantly (“Did you see my RALLY in IOWA? It was INCREDIBLE”). He is supporting Youngkin.
Youngkin is delicately dancing around the
Trump issue. It’s tricky — if you want to be a winning Republican, you have to keep his fans happy while assuring the suburban moderates that you know Joe Biden was actually elected president.
McAuliffe’s job is to make voters turn out, and one main strategy is to terrify them into action.
(“I thought folks would be fired up to get out the vote, but at this point, it seems like enthusiasm is at an all-time low.”)
Same thing for money. (“You can imagine how confused I am about why people aren’t stepping up and donating. We’re blowing this one, Gail.”)
Everybody’s jumping in. John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania who’s planning to run for the U.S. Senate next year, wrote suggesting that I split an early bird $10 donation between his campaign and McAuliffe’s. Fetterman’s website includes the picture of a dog, saying: “Hi, I’m Levi Fetterman. Boop my nose to donate $1.”
Indeed, if you poked Levi’s nose, a special donation box did pop up. Like I said, they’re everywhere.