Ex-DNC chair won’t rule out governor’s run rumor

The Associated Press
Published: August 27, 2008

RICHMOND — Was former Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe dropping a hint about a possible 2009 run for governor of Virginia or just tweaking reporters at the party’s national convention Wednesday?

When reporters at the convention in Denver asked McAuliffe about whispers that he might run for the office, he didn’t rule it out.

Within minutes, posts popped up on political and news blogs speculating on whether the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign would join an already heated Democratic nomination battle for next fall’s governor’s race.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Brian Moran of Alexandria and state Senator Creigh Deeds of Bath County are already competing for the nomination.

Online reports from the Washington Post and the Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted McAuliffe as saying he is focused on Barack Obama’s presidential race. Then he added, “But I never rule anything out.”

McAuliffe, weary but still in a joking mood after a long evening celebrating Clinton’s rousing Tuesday night convention speech, then said, “I would like to be pope if I could,” according to the Post’s Virginia politics blog.

A spokeswoman for the superdelegate from McLean told The Associated Press late Wednesday that McAuliffe would not be available for a telephone interview.

Deeds in 2005 finished just 323 votes behind Republican Bob McDonnell in the race for attorney general, the closest finish in a statewide election in modern Virginia history.

Moran, of Alexandria, has raised more cash than Deeds, but has never run for election outside his northern Virginia House of Delegates district.

McDonnell is unopposed for the 2009 GOP nomination for governor.