This is what I feared was going to happen with the gains that we're making; Dems with high aspirations fighting each other instead of the Repubs. I understand that no one is entitled to a higher office, but I hate that the infighting and insults have already begun, and wish we could just rally around one candidate.

I hoping that the primary will eventually be civil, and that everyone would acknowledge that any of those 3 would be better than McDonnell. With the mud-slinging already beginning and the GOP not having to go through a primary, it doesn't bode well for us for the Fall.

We need someone who can win a majority in the primary; Creigh may be the best (who knows yet?), but a plurality victory could be cannon fodder for the Repubs.

Well, I'm still trying to answer the questions who is the best candidate and who can best win?  Hopefully the answers to those questions are the same.  Is Moran too liberal, too northern?  Is McAuliffe too polarizing and inexperienced?  Can Deeds resonate more than he has in the past?  And how do they differ on issues.  I'm from Arlington, so I suppose I "should" be for Moran, but I'm not decided yet.  

and I think he would make a good governor. It's also important for those of us with "Moran fatigue" to separate Brian from his disgraceful brother. I'm a Deeds supporter, but this great state could do worse than Brian Moran (see Gilmore, James).

lest they sew bad blood, but i have come around to see them as great tools for honing the final candidate, and helping him polish his message and fight off attacks.  

  One need look no further than the primaries this year, or to the primary that resulted in the Webb victory.  In both those cases the final candidates became much stronger because of the primary experience.

  Also, primaries get all of the skeletons out of the closet early, and the candidates learn how to deal with them.  This leaves GOP much less able to spring one of those surprises late in the election.  

fight each other to the point that Deeds wins the nomination, then we all win.

And either of them will be an awesome governor.

This third guy might siphon off as many votes as Gail for rails Parker.

Terry's closest to me geographically - he even goes to my Church - but for me I'm undecided between Brian and Creigh.  I'm sure Terry is a great guy, but when the office is Governor of Virginia, I trust the other two more - both to run a campaign and to govern well.

Though I would be tempted to see what would happen if we put Glenda "Gail for Rail" Parker in charge.

I think its a little early to call it for Creigh. Terry could change the race dramatically, or he could pull a Guliani and spend a lot of cash for little gain.  

upper-middle class information voters who're not tuning in but remember his name from the Clinton years and have no geographic reason to vote for Moran or Deeds as yet. When is the primary again, June?

Puckett was/is pro-life and that was probably a killer among many Dem primary voters in 2005. OTOH, he probably would've beaten Bolling in the election.

Has Leslie Byrne actually won a general election since 1992?

Finally -- I suspect a primary battle will go largely ignored unless someone goes nuclear (I suspect McAuliffe).

We must also consider the GOP crossover voters who might be 5-10% of the turnout in a odd-year primary (given the lack of a real race on the GOP side.)

Some crossover voters vote for the opposing party's worst candidate (I think they'll pick McAuliffe here so they can run against Clinton in the fall) while others vote for the candidate they think they can live with (Deeds probably gets the majority of these).

I suspect this might've been why Miller won most of downstate VA while Webb carried Northern VA in 2006. IMO, Miller would've lost by low double digits (although Macaca might've made it high single digits.)

in 1999 over then-Sen. Jane Woods (R) and independent Virginia Dobey, whose presence in the race helped Leslie win.

The biggest shame of this race is that as much as I like Leslie, had we nominated Chap to be our LG candidate, we probably have a primary race between Lt. Gov. Petersen and Attorney General Deeds. Same might be true if we had nominated Puckett. Wasted opportunity, and one that might cost us the governor's mansion in 2009.

I wonder when the fellow left the Warner Camp to go to the Mcauliffe camp if his bags were checked at the door? Seems the media, within a day or 2 after the election started getting emails from the camp. Wonder how they got media adddresses so quick?

I am sure the Republicans are sitting back soaking all this up, this with them only having one real candidate for Governor, and here we are with 3 (or can I say 2) and one just sitting back to watch to see what these 2 are going to do.

If I were a betting person, I money would be on Moran.