Creigh Deeds makes George W. Bush sound like Barack Obama. In a speech Friday streamed on his Web site, Deeds, the Democratic nominee for governor, sought to reboot his struggling candidacy and recast Republican Bob McDonnell as he really is: a very conservative guy on taxes, social issues and equal rights, who—because of his Ron Burgundy-TV anchorman style—doesn’t come across that way.

Referendum on Warner. Columnist Jeff Schapiro says Mark Warner isn’t running for anything, but his legacy on VITA may swing votes in the gubernatorial election.

Absent from the Bob McDonnell-for-governor narrative: Republicans can do a better job than Democrats—on the budget, revenue, government nuts and bolts. Could this missing piece expose a vulnerability on what would seem a gimme as a talking point?: the state’s problem-plagued hiring of Northrop Grumman for computer services. Promising a look-see, Creigh Deeds struggles to finesse an issue that speaks to the supposed competence of the fellow D’s he hopes to succeed, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. But McDonnell is nearly silent.

The Democratic candidate for governor is pummeled by Republicans for playing coy on new taxes for roads. The Democrat squirms; somehow, still manages to win and promptly calls a special session of the legislature to, you guessed it, raise taxes. A scenario for 2009? Maybe. This is how events unfolded 24 years ago in the run-up to the last big, tax-fattened investment in transportation under Jerry Baliles, a governor invoked by the frenetic fellow Democrat who mimics him without saying so: Creigh Deeds.

As Virginia deals with the headaches—financial, political and administrative—of turning over its info-tech system to deep-pocketed defense giant Northrop Grumman, a voice from the past may offer guidance for the future of privatization in a state that seems more corporate subsidiary than commonwealth. Paul R. Verkuil, former president of the College of William and Mary, is a free-market advocate who worries that relinquishing government responsibilities to the private sector only drives up profits at the expense of public capital.

Political columnist Jeff Schapiro says the Republican running for governor of Virginia is once again running against the Democrats in Washington.

Jeff E. Schapiro’s column on Virginia government and politics will resume next week.

Mike Moore, former head computer guy for San Diego County, knows that doing business with Northrop Grumman requires giving the giant company the business. Moore, now in the private sector as a peacemaker on info-tech management deals gone sour, says the county was nervous in 2005 about paying Northrop Grumman nearly $700 million over seven years for computer services.

Virginia Republicans are bashing Tim Kaine as an occasional governor more interested in his other gig, the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. But a funny thing happened on the way to the next GOP-orchestrated pile-on: Sarah Palin provided cover for Kaine. Palin, defeated for the vice presidency last year, is quitting as Alaska governor. In doing so—1½ years before the end of her first term and for reasons not fully determined—Palin supplied Kaine, who intends to complete his term, with talking points that could make Republicans wince.

For Virginia Republicans, being out of power quite literally has a cost—about $150,000. That, insiders say, is the deficit the GOP faces after a May nominating convention that generated fewer bucks than expected, a pullback by deep-pocketed donors and an underwhelming response to a multiple appeals for money. And things were supposed to get better at Republican headquarters on Grace Street after Del. Jeff Frederick of Prince William was run off as chairman for insurance man Pat Mullins of Louisa?

As head of the Virginia Association of Counties, a group that lobbies at the state Capitol for local government, Jim Campbell meets a lot of people. One person he may not have expected to encounter: Jim Melia, a new member of the public-corruption squad of the FBI’s Richmond office. “He told me his boss told him to get to know lobbyists and probe a little bit,“ said Campbell, who met with Melia for about an hour June 9, primary day. “I hope he doesn’t find anything.“

Virginia’s $2.3 billion smooch with Northrop Grumman for computer services is behind schedule and another $6 million in the red. More than a year late and $8.5 million over budget, Motorola Corp. has yet to deliver a $340 million radio system to state police. And what does Bob McDonnell do about all this? He issues a press release criticizing cap and trade.

Giant tax increase for cops, kids and welfare notwithstanding, could Mark Warner’s legacy as governor be summed up with a four-letter word: VITA? There’s something rotten in Chesterfield—at the headquarters of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, created by Warner as a Price Club for the state to buy and maintain computers and software.

In his “Brady Bunch” ad, Bob McDonnell, sitting on the front stoop of his house in the Henrico suburbs, is typecast. The message—as the Republican gubernatorial nominee and unflappable pater familias of a vast, bubbly clan is, among other things, fleeced for car keys by his twin sons—is that McDonnell is the friendly, sort of dull everyguy.

And then there were two? Three names for governor appear on the Democratic primary ballot: Creigh Deeds, Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran. Beyond the curiosity of polls that show Deeds gaining on early front-runner McAuliffe, why does it seem, with nine days to go, that only they stand out? This is not to suggest that Moran is dead in the water. Nothing would please him more than serving doubters steaming helpings of crow.