Polls find Wilder’s opinion means little to voters

Two polls showed yesterday that an endorsement or non-endorsement by former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder means little to Virginia's voters.

"Wait until Election Day. We'll see," Wilder replied during a brief interview in his office at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Wilder, a Democrat, last week declined to endorse either Democrat R. Creigh Deeds or Republican Bob McDonnell for governor. President Barack Obama and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, had personally urged Wilder to back Deeds.

But Wilder criticized Deeds for his willingness to raise taxes during a recession and for favoring the repeal of a law that Wilder initiated in 1991 to limit handgun sales to one a month per customer.

A survey released yesterday by Public Policy Polling found that 23 percent of voters said they were less likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Wilder. Only 8 percent said his endorsement would make them more likely to vote for the candidate. Sixty-nine percent said Wilder's opinion has no effect.

The poll found that Deeds' favorability rating among black voters -- 73 percent -- is higher than the 67 percent for Wilder, the nation's first-elected black governor.

A Rasmussen poll released yesterday found that 6 percent said Wilder's non-endorsement would make it more likely for them to vote for Deeds, while 10 percent said less likely. Eighty percent said it made no difference.

Wilder said he wasn't trying to exert influence on the Nov. 3 election but was trying to initiate a discussion of two issues that he thought needed to be discussed.

"It has caused people to think," said Wilder, who served as governor from 1990 to 1994 and as mayor of Richmond from 2004 to 2008.

"I wanted to let the voters decide themselves," Wilder said.

Wilder added: "A lot of people were upset because of it."

Obama, who placed a call to Wilder in August, had sent an emissary to meet with Wilder in Richmond in July.

Wilder said yesterday that he is even less likely to endorse Deeds now because of new information showing that the state will have to borrow over a billion dollars from the federal government because it is running out of unemployment insurance money. That makes a tax increase even more onerous, he said.

Deeds has said he would sign a tax increase to pay for transportation improvements as long as it emerged from a bipartisan consensus.

About Wilder's perceived influence, Public Policy Polling's communications director Tom Jensen concluded:

"Basically, the Wilder endorsement, or lack thereof, is something the chattering class is considerably more interested in than real voters."

The poll found that 36 percent of Virginians have a favorable opinion of Wilder, with 33 percent viewing him unfavorably.

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or .