Confounding Washington Post predictions and conventional pundit opinion, Virginia attorney-general candidate Mark Earley, strongly backed by Christian conservatives, won his election and led the Republican ticket in that state.
Being a favorite of the religious Right and focusing one's campaign on abortion is supposed to be the kiss of electoral death in Washington's northern Virginia suburbs, and a severe handicap statewide. After Earley won a June primary against two "moderate" Republicans with his anti-abortion/anti- porn message, the Post predicted: "Now Earley must scramble to soften his image to fit the game plan of the GOP candidate for governor . . . who is focusing on moderate, suburban voters." Mandy Grunwald also joined the he'll- have-to-change choir. "The true believers are not going to win it for you. There just aren't enough of them." It's true that Jim Gilmore, the candidate for governor, went for "moderate, suburban" voters and won his race handily. But Earley didn't go squishy, and he received 57 percent of the vote, outpolling Gilmore All this without the recommended slouch to the middle. Maybe Virginians are more conservative than the Post would like to think