McAuliffe Churning Up Money Machine For Governor Bid

Former DNC Chair and high-profile Democrat Terry McAuliffe is ramping up his fundraising efforts, the most explicit indication yet that he will run for governor of Virginia.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that former Congressman Tony Coelho and Democratic fundraiser Michael Fraioli were telling contacts that McAuliffe "is running for governor" and that they were helping him raise money before the Dec. 31 reporting deadline.

"Please excuse us for the mass email," the two write. "As the subject line of this email indicates, and we suspect you already know, our friend Terry McAuliffe is running for governor of Virginia....forward this email with your own message encouraging your friends to make a contribution to Terry's campaign. Please make your contribution before December 31."

Officials close to McAuliffe downplayed the report, saying that the longtime Clinton confidante and Northern Virginia native has not made up his mind and will let his plans be known only after the New Year.

"He's exploring," said Tracy Sefl, a McAuliffe aide in an email. "He's previously said he'll announce his intentions on January 7 (www.terrymcauliffe.com!)."

Others in the state, however, seem convinced that McAuliffe is going to be a candidate. One source close to the race, not with team McAuliffe, said he expects Macker to raise as much as $10 million by the end of the December finance period. That total would be downright extraordinary and incredibly unlikely in this political and economic climate -- many donors tapped out for the presidential race, stock prices have plummeted, and the Democratic primary in Virginia isn't usually a big draw.

But McAuliffe has the connections to big Democratic pockets, and his time at the DNC turned him into a a prodigious fundraiser. His opponents, Rep. Brian Moran and State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, are already preparing to be massively outraised and outspent. If he runs, McAuliffe will use his money advantage as a means to overcome his lack of deep ties to Virginia.

More important than expenditures, however, could be endorsements. And the big ones to watch for will be Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner, the latter of whom is close to Moran.

UPDATE: The source suggesting McAuliffe could raise $10 million before the filing deadline was not with his team. A few readers were confused about this line, so we updated it in the piece and added this alert.

Comments

[YeahDonkey]

Good luck Terry, your gonna need it.

[DaphnesDad]

McAullife is nothing but an over-hyped, over-paid pompous ass. He prob has much more in common with the Repubs that I"ve wondered why he isn't one.

Unfortunately, legions of young politico types (the likes of whom I encountered at the GSPM at GW University) aspire to be him.

Maybe I am wrong, but he seems ot be all about power, influence, access and money, not using those things for the great public good.

[sector1463]

Ya know, if you read the article you would see that so far in Virginia, we have Brian Moran, who is from Massachuttes and is the brother of Jim Moran, the Representive for Virginia's 8th district, and who has been a bit of an embarrassment at times to the 8th district. Then we have Criegh Deeds. Mr. Deeds considers himself a "conservative" Democrat!.

So we have a native Northern Virginian who ran the DNC. A Massachusettes native who will not win in any area other than Northern Virginia maybe, and that will be a huge loss. And an NRA endorsed Commonwealth Senator who ran fro Attorney General in 2005 and lost. Unless we get some others running, it looks like Mr. McAuliffe is the winner!

[SCVADem]

Mr. McAuliffe isn't a native Virginian as he grew up in New York. He moved to VA for college (in D.C.) and stayed due to working on a presidential campaign.

Mr. Deeds is the native Virginian, born in Richmond and raised in rural Virginia.

While Virginia has taken tremendous steps to become blue, they still seem to prefer a centrist Democrat for governor.

[sector1463]

I was quoting the article above.

"Officials close to McAuliffe downplayed the report, saying that the longtime Clinton confidante and Northern Virginia native has not made up his mind and will let his plans be known only after the New Year."

George Allen and Gilmore were not centrists. Warner maybe. Kaine is a little left of central. We have been all over the board in the past twenty years.

[sector1463]

OK, so we have a guy from Massachuttes who sounds like he's from Massachuttes, a New Yorkier who I don't remember if he has a stong NY accent and a Virginian who calls himself a conservitive Democrat who has also said he is pro-choice running for the Democratic nomination. Yikes!

[middleoftheroad]

This will be such a case study of money and connections buying an election (kennedy in NY as well).

[sector1463]

And the past presidential election didn't show just that. Obama raised somewhere in the neighborhood of 750 million dollars! McCAin raise 370 Million! Who won! OK.

[gtt]

We need fewer DLC democrats in office and more real democrats in office. Terry go home, where ever that is !

[Dustee]

That's what I'm saying too!

[WVUCavalier]

As a liberal Democrat and a lifelong Virginia resident I am deeply offended by McAuliffe's arrogance. He thinks he can just parachute in here and get the benefits of what Democrats in Virginia have worked hard to accomplish. If he gets the Democratic nomination for governor, I will probably end up voting Republican, possibly even the right-winger McDonnell.

[ScandalousCandice7]

Someone needs to k-ill his prospects now. I despise him almost as badly as I despise C-linton. I find it r-epulsive that someone bore five kids with him. Ewwww.

[macbabe]

is he off the bottle?? ... we don't need another GW!
this guy = DRAMA -BIG TIME.

[Marlyn]

Terry McAuliffe is weird, the way he appeared on TV supporting Hillary. He is NOT reality based. I would never trust his judgement. He is a political animal that will say anything, do anything. NOT GOOD for the Democratic Party.

[GeorgeP922]

In defense of Terry's "performances" he was Paid to do those, he worked as a high ranking advisor for her campaign.

So when you saw him arguing with the reality of the delegate counts, or when he announced Hillary as "The next POTUS" right before she announced she lost the primary.

He may have been rediculous, but he was doing his job.

And his spin ALWAYS made me smile and laugh, it was hard to hate him.
Like remember when Hillary tried to win Puerto Rico, eveyrone was like "Why is Hillary STILL at this, she lost weeks ago" instead of a stammering spin session on morning joe, Terry wore a hawain shirt and was sporting a bottle of Puerto Rican rum.

Anyways, much better than Penn and Wolfson, the twisted logic and drearyness they spewed was enough to drive any true-blue Democrats to suicide.

[Dustee]

Whether Terry was paid or not, I think the American people are tired of 'say anything politics'.

[GeorgeP922]

Just get Howard Wolfson off the streets and people like you 10,000 miles away from any DNC office and you can do whatever you want Terry.

[tedbear]

We need BOTH Wolfson and Terry off the street. These two guys give the DNC a bad name.

[roshni]

Both of these and Mark Penn too.

[MargaretO]

I just cannot see McAuliffe running for any office.

[GeorgeP922]

Maybe he could run for President of the DLC, and get rid of the two losers that currently run it.

What Terry could do is keep the organization, but get the organization to drop all of it's vitriolic attacks on progressives, and cut all the backroom deals with Republicans, CEO's, and Lobbyists.

There is room for "Conservatives" in our party, just not when they are trying to subvert the party.

They need to realize their power reign over the Democratic Party is over, but we still need their voices.

[motoGpifupleez]

Surely Virginia can do better.

[honeydiva]

go home mr. mcauliffe.

[VirginiaMom]

"go home?" But where's that? McAuliff also considered running for governor of Florida and NY, I understand.

[westbrooks01]

I think he's wasting his time and money and ego.

Once Terry gets around to getting his name on a ballot, maybe we'll have moved further past the days of loud-mouth politics being the norm, replaced by some good governing.

What has he done for anyone besides himself?

[MrHumidty]

People like McAuliffe are a cancer to the Democratic party. I can't wait for Terry to earn another loss.

[hempster]

Totally agree. Way to partisan - brittlly so. Go away Terry.