Only one day is left until the polls close in the 2008 Election Campaign, and voters who haven’t already made up their mind or are considering changing their vote, need to decide NOW!

From both the Obama and McCain camps we have heard many arguments. One campaign has largely inspired, while the other has gone negative with personal attacks.

A neat way to look at the election is from a spiritual perspective, particularly from the “law of attraction.” The law of attraction states that we get more of what we put out. If we sent out negativity, then we get more negativity back. The reverse is also true: When we send out positive energy, we find more positivity added to it.

Whether it is in our own life or in politics, we get what we put into it. When we look at politics from this angle, then we are ultimately responsible for the direction of our nation and the world. Your vote and the vote of every person has the potential to shape the future.

We can get a feel in our gut for how negative or positive a campaign has been over the 2008 Election. For those still struggling with your vote, you can use this feeling to guide you when you vote tomorrow.

We know the US is going through difficult economic times as is most of the world. So at this time having positive energies is most important. A President who exudes a positive presence can help chart a course over unknown economic waters. Who is that candidate?

Well you already have a hunch who is negative and who is positive. So trust your hunch.

The best advice from a higher perspective might read something like this:

• Punish negative campaigning with your vote this time
• Reward a positively run campaign

Reinforcing negativity will only yield negative future results but placing your vote on the positive candidate is the best choice.

In case you’ve somehow missed the repeated posts announcing this, Mark Warner will be holding a campaign kickoff tour May 4 through May 7. The tour will include 11 events in various parts of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

* Abingdon - May 4 at 5:00 PM (E. Stanley Middle School)
* Roanoke - May 5 at 8:00 AM (New Fire Station #1)
* Norfolk - May 5 at 11:15 AM (Nauticus at USS Wisconsin)
* Richmond - May 5 at 3:00 PM (Virginia BioTech Research Park)
* Northern Virginia - May 5 at 7:00 PM (The Carlyle Club)
* Martinsville - May 6 at 8:30 AM (Main Street Restaurant)
* Lynchburg - May 6 at 11:30 AM (Monument Terrace)
* Charlottesville - May 6 at 2:15 PM (Downtown Mall)
* Harrisonburg - May 6 at 5:00 PM (Courthouse Steps)
* Hampton - May 7 at 11:00 AM (Vaness Bait and Tackle Shop)
* Chincoteague - May 7 at 2:00 PM (Eastern Shore Seafood Festival)

If you want more information about a certain event or want to RSVP, you can follow this link. I’m really glad to see that Warner is making an effort to make sure his kickoff tour touches the various parts of Virginia because it shows how he’s going to be focusing on issues that are important to all Virginians. It’s almost like a mini-50 state strategy which will not only benefit his candidacy but will help to strengthen the Democratic Party throughout Virginia.

The US Senate candidate from Oregon that I’m supporting, Jeff Merkley, will be live blogging over at EENR from 3 to 4pm Eastern time this afternoon. This is a perfect opportunity for those of you who’d like to ask him some questions to learn a little bit more about his campaign.

For those of you who don’t know, Jeff is currently the Speaker of the Oregon state House of Representatives and has done a great job of reaching across party lines to pass legislation that is truly in the public’s best interest. Here’s a little bit of what Sara Lane had to say when she announced the live blog.

Jeff Merkley has been in the Oregon legislature for the last ten years. In 2003, he was elected by his peers as House Democratic leader. In 2006, Merkley was elected as Speaker of the House, where he really shined. Merkley presided over the greenest and most labor friendly session the Oregon legislature had in the last thirty years. He pushed for domestic partnership legislation, countless environmental bills, payday lending regulation, the Employee Free Choice Act, anti-discrimination legislation, and fully funding Oregon’s public schools. Merkley is rated as the AFL-CIO’s 2nd best member of the House, and received a 95% rating from the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Merkley has been endorsed by fellow Democrats like Jon Tester to Max Cleland. He has also received the coveted endorsements from the SEIU, AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood and Council for a Livable World among many others.

As I’ve been following the campaign, I have also begun to notice that the Merkley campaign has done a great job reaching out to the netroots. In fact, there’s been a lot of discussion in Oregon’s blogosphere about how Merkley recently said he believes the blogosphere has proven to be a great way to communicate with potential voters. By heading over to EENR and asking Jeff some good questions, I think we can help provide readers from across the country get a better idea of why Merkley would make an excellent Senator.

UPDATE: Looks like the previous link was just for the announcement. The actual live blog is currently taking place here.

Every election cycle there seems to be a discussion about how much endorsements really mean for a campaign. I’ve always argued that an endorsement has to be more than simply a name on a list for it to be worthwhile. Jeff Merkley’s campaign recently released a short little video which illustrates how his campaign keeps receiving the endorsements of various progressive leaders.

Of course the true value of the endorsements comes in the fact that many of these progressive leaders are out there working to get Merkley elected to the US Senate. That being said, I really like the fact that Merkley’s campaign is doing something creative while marketing their endorsements rather than just creating a list to tuck in some corner of their website.

Rasmussen just released a new poll that shows Mark Warner is leading Jim Gilmore by 16 points in the US Senate race here in Virginia. Although his lead of 55-39 is slightly down from where it was a month ago (57-37), the poll also shows him having a sizable lead among some of the crucial groups of voters. Among Independent voters, for instance, Warner has a huge lead of 65% to 21%. With all of these numbers tilting in Warner’s direction, it shouldn’t be too surprising that that more people view him favorably.

Warner is viewed favorably by 65% and unfavorably by 32%. Gilmore’s numbers are 51% favorable and 42% favorable.

For those of you who might be wondering what many Virginians claim are important to them, the results of this poll seem to suggest that the economy and the war in Iraq are two of the more important ones. What’s also worth noting is that people seem to be a lot more optimist about Iraq than they are about the economy.

The economy is the most important issue for 38% of Virginia voters. Just 17% give the economy a good or excellent rating, while 37% give it a poor rating. Seventy-percent (70%) think the economy is getting worse, while just 9% say it’s getting better.

The War in Iraq is the most important issue for 21% of voters. Forty-percent (40%) of Virginia voters say the situation in Iraq will improve in the next six months, while 31% believe it will worsen.

Overall I think these poll results are very good news for the Warner campaign. At the same time, November is a long ways off and I don’t think many Virginians have forgotten the fact that Jim Webb had only been in the 2006 Senate race for about two months at this point in time and he was still relatively unknown. Come November he pulled off one of the bigger upsets by defeating George Allen in the general election. Hopefully that will serve as a reminder that Democrats still need to go out and do some campaigning for Warner in order to make sure he’s elected.

When there are thousands of individuals contributing to a candidate, it’s a pretty good sign that the campaign is gaining some grassroots support. That is the case with Jeff Merkley who received donations from 2009 individuals on his path to raising $913,000 since August and setting a two quarter record for a challenger in the state of Oregon. As Merkley recently said in response to the record setting numbers, these funds will go a long way in battling Senator Smith and the special interests that donate to his campaign.

“I’m profoundly grateful for the support we’ve received in just four short months. These are folks who believe, as I do, that we can only change Washington by changing the people we send there,” Merkley said. “For too long, Washington has been working in favor of the politicians and corporate special interests. And, unfortunately, Gordon Smith’s view of America begins and ends in a corporate boardroom.”

“As someone who grew up in Roseburg, the son of a mill worker and the first in my family to go to college, my view of America is entirely different,” Merkley said. “In the America I see, everyday Oregonians deserve protection from unfair trade deals, military veterans deserve full health care benefits, and middle class families deserve to come first for a change.”

What makes this even more impressive is the fact that these donations came in before the primary — a time in which potential donors are sometimes hesitant to contribute to a candidate. These numbers therefore go a long ways in showing that Oregonians really believe in Merkley’s candidacy — a sentiment that’s also shared by the various organizations that have already endorsed Merkley. In other words, congrats to the Merkley team for running a campaign Oregon residents believe will end with the election of a fabulous Senator.

With the 2007 elections just days away now, I imagine many people aren’t focusing their attention on next year’s election for US Senate. If you fall into this category you might also have missed the fact that Mark Warner’s campaign has updated his website to now include a blog with it’s first post being made on October 31st. For those of you who justifiably want to remained focused on the 2007 elections, a visit to the blog would still be worth it because it talks about some of his activities to help state and local candidates throughout Virginia.

It is nothing new to see one politician endorse another (that is, of course, if they’re not running for the same position). This often means that the endorsement will be used to gain some credibility among voters and perhaps even bring a few donations into the campaign. When the mayor of Portland, Oregon — Tom Potter — endorsed Jeff Merkley for US Senate, however, he added in a little extra twist.

In an email sent out to Merkley supporters Mayor Potter asked that people “invite at least five [their] friends to join the Jeff Merkley for US Senate campaign.” He named this the “Growing the Grassroots Challenge” and set a goal of having 1,000 new people join up. While there obviously needs to be a lot more work done than hoping to add 1,000 people to an email list, I like seeing that the Merkley campaign is attempting to put together an efficient grassroots organization and is using this endorsement as a great opportunity to start growing their campaign.

The questions I now ask of my readers; Do you like this move by the Merkley campaign and what are some other interesting ways you think fellow politicians can help a candidate out while giving an endorsement?

As a resident of Virginia, a lot of my posts either focus on issues related to Virginia or discuss the reaction a politician from Virginia has to national issues. Nonetheless, I do receive updates from various campaigns/organizations from throughout the country that I believe are worth watching. It is as a result of these updates coming in and the fact that I have already covered the reaction of several Virginians to debate surrounding SCHIP that I wanted to point out what someone from another part of the country has to say about President Bush’s decision to veto the legislation.

In addition to calling upon Congress to come together in a bipartisan manner to override the veto, Jeff Merkley, who is the Oregon House Speaker and is a Democratic candidate for US Senate, issued a statement which stated that Bush put the special interests before millions of American children.

“Expanding CHIP would move America forward. It would guarantee that low-income kids get the preventive care they need to grow up healthy. And it would begin to address the problems of a broken health care system built on making profit and denying claims. With his swipe of the veto pen, President Bush has shown the American people that he fundamentally does not understand the health care crisis our country is facing.

I continue to be amazed at just how disconnected from reality President Bush actually is. The fact that he believes covering more kids will move health care in the wrong direction is tragic.”

Of course I could probably go on about how Merkley’s statement shows that people from all across the country are frustrated with the way the Bush Administration is running our country, but I believe there is another issue at hand here. One that members of both parties can probably agree upon. Our health care system needs improvement because there are far too many people suffering as a result of the enormous costs of health care. While I am pleased to see that many of the presidential candidates have come up with various health care plans, we cannot wait until 2009 to begin addressing this issue.

Like Merkley said, Congress should come together in a bipartisan manner to tell President Bush that he cannot put his own politican agenda and his favorite special interest groups before the needs of American children. Once that is accomplished, I believe that Congress should continue working together in order to address the problems in the entire health care system. If that is done now, then a more productive solution will be formed once our next president takes office in January of 2009.

In case Virginians didn’t already know it, Rep. Tom Davis released a statement yesterday in an attempt to remind the public that “There are no coronations in Virginia politics.” Obviously this is Davis’s attempt to attack Gov. Mark Warner for…. wait for it …. being a popular politician who “want[s] what is best for the Commonwealth.”

On a serious note, Davis has clearly gone of the offensive with his statement, which shows that he is still considering a Senate bid. Nonetheless, there is no escaping the fact that Warner is the clear frontrunner at the moment and there will likely be pressure on Davis from his own party not to run for Senate. (Why the pressure from the GOP? Because if Davis were to abandon his seat in the House of Representatives, it would very likely result in a Democratic pick-up.)

So while Davis isn’t expected to announce his plans until after the November elections, it will be interesting to see if any other little hints come out of his camp before then.

Today’s discussion in Virginia’s blogosphere (as well as in the MSM and around the watercooler) most definitely has focused on Mark Warner’s announcement that he will be running for US Senate. It is in that spirit that I thought I’d post the response of two of Virginia’s leading Democrats, beginning with Gov. Tim Kaine.

“I am excited and pleased that Mark Warner has decided to seek election as Virginia’s next United States Senator.

“As a friend, colleague, and as a Virginian, I am confident that there is no better leader to help move our nation forward at a time when we face real challenges. Mark’s experience, record of bipartisan accomplishment, and results-oriented focus will make a real difference in Washington at a time when our country needs it most.”

Also sharing Tim Kaine’s excitement is C. Richard Cranwell, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia.

“It’s great news that Mark Warner plans to run for the U.S. Senate. Governor Warner’s commonsense, mainstream values match the vast majority of Virginians. He has proven himself to be an effective leader who will work across party lines - putting partisan politics aside for the good of Virginians and all of America. Under his leadership, we managed to save Virginia’s AAA bond rating by turning $6 billion in budget shortfalls into a surplus, we invested more in education, gave teachers and other state employees raises, cut back on waste and bureaucracy while providing more responsive government, and became known as the best-managed state in country.

I can’t think of a better candidate - on either side of the political aisle - for this seat. Mark Warner is just the kind of leader who can help bring much-needed change to the U.S. Senate for the good of America just like he brought much-needed change to the Commonwealth. I look forward to calling our former Governor Mark Warner Senator Mark Warner.”

Also, if you haven’t already noticed, Mark Warner’s campaign website is www.markwarner08.com. I highly recommend heading over and signing up to receive updates from the campaign.

Following Senator John Warner’s announcement that he will not be seeking another term in the US Senate, there has been a lot of analysts who argue that the race for the Republican nomination will be a battle between a conservative and moderate candidate — former Governor Jim Gilmore (conservative) and Rep. Tom Davis (moderate). The only problem with this analysis, however, is the plain and simple fact that Tom Davis has voted in support of President Bush almost 90% of the time and is no moderate.

In an attempt to ensure that Tom Davis isn’t able to mislead the voters into thinking he’s actually a moderate, the Democratic Party of Virginia issued a statement with the subject line “Tom Davis is no John Warner.” After praising Sen. Warner for working across party lines in order to pass legislation that is the best interest of his constituents, the DPVA continues to point out how Rep. Davis continuously “chose to tow the party line and vote in lock-step with Washington Republicans.”

A great example of Davis’s partisan tactics was provided by comparing how the two lawmakers voted in regards to raising the minimum wage.

Senator Warner Supports Raising the Minimum Wage. Sen. John Warner voted for the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, which will give Virginia workers a $2.10 pay raise over the next two years. (Vote 42, H.R.2, 2/1/07; Vote 181, H.R. 2206, 5/24/07)

Representative Davis Rejects a Raise for Hardworking Virginians. Tom Davis voted against raising the minimum wage. (Vote 18, H.R. 2, 1/10/07; Vote 424, H.R. 2206, 5/24/07)

Now it should also be noted that not only did Davis decide to vote against providing a fair minimum wage, but he has also voted on several different occasions to give Congress (and, as a result, himself) a pay raise. In other words, he often felt he needed more money, but voted against giving a fair wage to hard working families who are just barely (if at all) covering the bills. That doesn’t seem like the type of votes a person would cast if they were truly a moderate looking out for the best interests of his/her constituents.

In a recent post, Ben Tribbett pointed out that the Democratic Party of Virginia had put together this little clip, but I thought it was worth taking another look at this weekend. Interesting how it’s likely that Davis will be the so called “moderate” Republican candidate for Senate in 2008.

I received the following statement from the DPVA this afternoon. I think this goes to show that Senator John Warner has earned a reputation as someone who has served the Commonwealth of Virginia very honorably throughout his career and has earned the respect of members of both parties.

Richmond- Democratic Party of Virginia Chairman C. Richard Cranwell released the following statement upon Sen. John Warner’s retirement announcement:

“I have known John Warner for most of my political career. During that time he has served Virginia and the country with honor, bipartisanship and respect for the traditions of office. It will be incumbent on whoever replaces him to demonstrate many of these same qualities.

“Whether standing up to the President on Iraq or supporting Governor Warner’s budget reform in 2004, John Warner often put principle before party - a quality sadly lacking in too many Virginia Republican leaders today. His election, like the elections of Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and Jim Webb, demonstrates that Virginians want leaders who will reach across party lines and work together to get things done.

“As we look to 2008, Virginia Democrats are energized and excited about this race. We have any number of strong candidates who, like both John Warner and Jim Webb, recognize that we need to change this administration’s disastrous Iraq policies and work together on a host of issues to keep moving Virginia and America forward.”