Davis: VA still in play
Posted: Friday, October 24, 2008 8:05 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Congress, Republicans
From NBC's Abby Livingston
In an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd on MSNBC yesterday, retiring Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) said that despite gloomy GOP outlook, Virginia is still in play in the presidential race.
“In a year like this, in a dynamic like this, you know, the Republicans have to be worried about it," Davis said. "And it'll be close. It'll be -- just remember, [former Virginia governor] Doug Wilder had like a 13-point, 14-point lead the Sunday before the election, and won by one point. So we get into the over-polling in this.”
When asked if the McCain campaign made a mistake by not advertising in Northern Virginia, Davis said, “Well, of course they did. But they didn't have it. They had to spread it around. They made different decisions. But I think they're in now. So the last two weeks, I think it closes, and it'll be competitive.”
He gave a stark outlook for Republicans in the down ballot races.
“The metrics favor the Democrats,” he said. “The Republicans have a lot of retirements that Democrats don't have. You've got a bad economy, a very unpopular president. But I think the most telling feature going into the last two weeks is the fact that the Democrats have huge spending advantages and are able to penetrate a lot of races and keep the Republicans pinned down and on defense.”
One of those metrics is the Democrats’ financial advantage. He attributes Democratic-leaning labor as part of the advantage, but also noted a shift in parties for donations.
“Business abandoned the Republicans in droves," Davis said. "You even have the pharmaceuticals, Wall Street giving heavily to Democrats over Republicans. The pharmaceuticals, who Democrats have attacked for years, giving 50-50. I mean, what does that tell you? And on the small-donor base, the out party generally benefits. And they've done a great job raising money over the Internet.”
Davis also discussed the policy news of the day, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s testimony before Congress.
“It's a collective responsibility, Chuck. I think that's what we need to understand. I think everybody is going like this, pointing fingers,” Davis said, as he pointed in crossing, opposite directions. He added, “But the answer is that I think both Alan Greenspan and [SEC Chairman] Chris Cox all said in retrospect they would have done things differently, but they were hampered by the legislation itself, that didn't allow them to move into some areas, in some of these derivative areas and regulate them like they want.”
