The Virginia gubernatorial election in 2017 promises to be a perfect illustration of the fractured Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party was heavily divided during the 2016 election, thanks largely in part to a rift between the progressive left who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders and the establishment who supported Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. That divide promises to continue through 2017 with the Virginia gubernatorial election.
Several major fundraising shifts and personnel changes within the past week show the Democratic establishment, long thought to be a centrally controlled power, is uncertain which of the two candidates to support: former Rep. Tom Perriello or current Lieutenant Gov. Ralph Northam.
Staffers formerly from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign have joined both candidates so far, and the fundraising between the two candidates is roughly equal, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
“Northam already has overwhelming backing from the party establishment in Virginia,” media relations manager with the University of Virginia Center For Politics, Geoff Skelley, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Therefore, if you want to make a comparison to the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, it would be Northam as the establishment candidate and Perriello as the insurgent candidate.”
Skelley also notes that two Clinton staffers recently joined the Perriello campaign, indicating that there wasn’t full establishment support behind Northam’s campaign. Additionally, neither candidate has a true advantage in early polling. Nearly a third of all Democrats in Virginia couldn’t identify Northam, despite the fact that he served as the state’s lieutenant governor for the last three years.
“Perriello may have decided to run in part because Northam is not all that well known as lieutenant governor,” Skelley added.
Perriello is even less known in the state than Northam, only 50 percent of registered Democrats could identify the former represtative, and an additional 25 percent indicated they hadn’t heard much — either positive or negative — about the candidate.
In addition to the staffing changes, Democratic veterans group VoteVets formally endorsed Northam in the race, citing his time in a military academy and his work as a doctor in the army during Operation Desert Storm.
Perhaps due to the “overwhelming” party establishment support per Skelley, Northam’s fundraising currently outstretches Perriello’s. The Virginia Public Access Project reports the Democratic candidate currently has $3,006,443 across three different campaign spending committees, although the lion’s share of the cash on hand sits firmly in his campaign’s direct control.
Those numbers should come with a caveat though, Northam’s been fundraising since early June of 2016, perhaps benefiting from a glut of campaign dollars eager to fight Republicans under President Donald Trump. Periello only announced his candidacy for governor in January, and has already launched a massive fundraising campaign, citing several high-dollar fundraisers as proof that the Democratic contender can dominate in the upcoming primary.
Republican contender and former chair of the Republican National Committee Ed Gillespie raised nearly the same amount as Northam in roughly the same period, and Perriello’s newest numbers don’t come out until next month.
Perriello does have an extensive fundraising background to reach back on. During his race for the House in 2008, he raised and spent nearly $4 million, one of the most expensive Congressional races in a year that showed overwhelming gains for the Democratic Party.
“Given what happened in November, I believe we need bold, new-generation leadership at the top of the ticket to energize, unite, and inspire voters at a time when so much of what we fought for stands at risk,” Perriello wrote to the influential “Blue Virginia” organization on Jan. 11.
The group recently published a poll comparing Northam to the two highest Republicans in the race that showed Northam led either Republican candidate by five to seven points, indicating the group didn’t feel Periello could defeat Northam in the primary.
Top fundraiser for the Clinton campaign Jesse Ferguson also entered the Virginia gubernatorial race, but chose to instead act as a fundraiser for the state Democratic Party. Ferguson was responsible for placing nearly $60 million in campaign ads for Clinton, and he hopes to ensure that the Governor’s race is an expensive affair.
“The election of Virginia’s governor is the first chance the voters of this country will get to speak up about the Trump administration,” Ferguson wrote Sunday. “The resistance will start in Richmond.
“Many people have said that the 2018 midterm elections are our version of Star Wars’ “New Hope” where we fight back against the Death Star. If that analogy is to hold true in 2018, then 2017 in Virginia is going to be our “Rogue One,” where the seeds of the resistance are sown.”
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