Barnstorming Democrats hit VCU

Barnstorming Democratic candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general touched down on the campus at of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond this afternoon as part of a final desperate push for votes on Election Day.

And at this hour Republican Bob McDonnell will hold a rally at Richmond International Airport.

Flanked by local and state officials, R. Creigh Deeds, lieutenant governor candidate Jody Wagner and Del. Steve Shannon, the party's nominee for attorney general, were greeted by more than 200 students and party activists in a cramped multi-purpose room in the student center of the sprawling university.

"The only polls that count open at 6 a.m.," an animated Deeds told the crowd. "The work's not finished. The work goes on and on and on," he continued.

"You give us the next 30 hours, and we're going to give you four years of progress like we've never seen."

Democrats need to motivate their traditional base tomorrow to have any chance of overtaking what polls are saying is a double-digit lead by Republicans Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli in the races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

Much of the focus of the rally was an appeal to the more than 500,000 new voters who last year turned out to secure the commonwealth for President Barack Obama -- the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Virginia since 1964.

"This election is yours, and tomorrow night this victory will be yours," Shannon told the crowd.

"I know you've got to go to the grocery store and you've got to do homework," Wagner said, as part of her urgent appeal. "That can wait until Wednesday."

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, noted that Virginia Democrats had a history of going from underdog to top dog over the last four years.

He said Shannon had "a heart for the least of these" and would lend an "ear to the voiceless."

He credited Wagner with helping guide the state through fiscal turmoil and blasted her rival, Bolling, for not attending certain meetings as lieutenant governor.

"The last thing we need is a public servant who is too busy to serve the public," Kaine said.

And he said Deeds has a record of standing with him and former Gov. Mark R. Warner to make the tough decisions that have benefited the commonwealth. He suggested that McDonnell had undergone a campaign "conversion" to make his candidacy more palatable to moderate voters.

"You can tell what somebody will do by what they have done," said Kaine.

Now it all depends on what the voters will do tomorrow. In addition to the statewide offices, all 100 seats in the House of Delegates are also up for election.