Creigh Deeds surrounded by everyone who voted in the Virginia primary.
RICHMOND, Va. -- Terry McAuliffe had the star power. He had the cash. But even with all the sparkle and pizazz, he still couldn't beat an underdog state senator.
Creigh Deeds pounded Clinton confidante McAuliffe Tuesday in Virginia's Democratic primary for governor.
McAuliffe was a former Clinton White House insider and former Democratic National Committee chairman who hoped to benefit from campaigning by former President Bill Clinton and music star will.i.am. But Deeds, who picked up a crucial Washington Post endorsement in northern Virginia, was too much for McAuliffe and former state Democratic legislative leader Brian Moran to handle.
On Wednesday morning, Deeds had to end a planned unity news conference to take a congratulatory call from President Barack Obama. Before the call Deeds, appeared with Gov. Tim Kaine and the two men he defeated.
Deeds Gets It Done
State Sen. Creigh Deeds defeated Clinton confidante Terry McAuliffe in Virginia's Democratic primary for governor. (Published Wednesday, June 10, 2009)
Deeds' victory sets up a Deeds rematch with Republican Bob McDonnell, who beat him in the 2005 attorney general election by 323 votes.
McDonnell is a conservative with strong ties to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. He was unopposed for the GOP nomination.
Deeds was the only Democrat in the race not from the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Primary rivals criticized him for legislative votes supporting Virginia's broad, pro-gun laws, actions popular in rural areas that don't play well in cities and affluent suburbs.
Former state Finance Secretary Jody Wagner defeated Democratic campaign strategist A. Michael Signer to become the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. Wagner will take on Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who is seeking a second term.
Wagner served as state treasurer under former Gov. Mark Warner and as finance secretary for Gov. Tim Kaine. Signer was a deputy counselor to Warner and a senior strategist for U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello's upset of six-term congressman Virgil Goode Jr. last year.
Voter turnout was relatively light Tuesday, as expected.
The primary marked the first bid for elective office for McAuliffe, who also led Hillary Clinton's 2008 White House run.
Local election officials, professionals in the three campaigns and political scientists said the turnout was likely to be 5 percent or less of the state's 5 million registered voters.
Officials said turnout was heavier in some parts of the Washington, D.C., suburbs. In Arlington, for instance, about 10 percent of voters cast ballots, drawn by a House of Delegates race. State Board of Elections Secretary Nancy Rodrigues said other turnout ranged from 4 percent in Richmond to 2 percent in the rural southwest.
McAuliffe's political connections from his days working for Bill Clinton helped him dominate press coverage and amass a hefty amount of cash. He seized on the down economy by promising to bring jobs to Virginia, touring the state with his confidante Bill Clinton. However, that left the venture capitalist open to attacks over his involvement in a telecommunications firm that made him millions before the company went bust, leaving 10,000 people jobless and costing investors $54 billion.
Moran, from Alexandria, went further to the left than his rivals in appealing to liberal activists. He pledged to oppose new coal-fired power initiatives and reverse the state's same-sex marriage ban.
Deeds hewed toward the middle. He drew fire late from primary rivals for legislative votes supporting Virginia's broad, pro-gun laws, actions popular in rural areas that don't play well in cities and affluent suburbs.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the new Democratic National Committee chairman, is barred by the state Constitution from seeking re-election.
Copyright Associated Press
File:Creigh Deeds.jpg|Creigh Deeds
File:McAuliffe Herndon.jpg|Terry McAuliffe
File:Brian Moran Rally.jpg|Brian Moran

Creigh Deeds has defeated Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran to win the 2009 Democratic Party gubernatorial primary election in Virginia, United States, according to unofficial results from the state's board of elections.

Deeds won by a nearly two-to-one margin against his opponents, 50% for Deeds versus 26% for McAuliffe and 24% for Moran, on a low turnout with just six and a half per cent of registered voters taking part.

Jody Wagner easily won the Democratic primary to be candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.

Flag of the Commonwealth of VirginiaCreigh Deeds was the first to enter the governors' race, in early January 2008. A sitting senator in the Virginia legislature, Deeds' campaign was hampered by restrictions on his ability to fundraise and the amount of time he spent on the Senate floor. A veteran of state politics who ran as a centrist in Virginia, whose northern counties are increasingly dominated by Democratic voters but whose western and southern areas still tend to support Republicans, Deeds benefited from several high-profile endorsements including that of the Washington Post. What may have clinched Deeds' victory, though, was a strategy of saturating online media sources with campaign advertisements, finished with a "google blast" of particularly intense advertising on Election Day itself.

Terry McAuliffe, an early favorite to win the race, was formerly the chair of the Democratic National committee and later chair of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential bid, and entered the Virginia race just days after Election Day 2008. A New Yorker by birth with much experience in the Democratic party, McAuliffe's best skill was seen as his ability to raise funds in what analysts say will be an early test of whether Democrats, who won control of the White House and solidified control of both houses of Congress in 2008, can consolidate their gains in light of a contracting economy and an ongoing financial crisis.

Brian Moran, a former public prosecutor and former member of the Virginia State House, entered the race shortly after Deeds. His brother, Jim Moran, currently represents the part of Virginia closest to Washington, DC in the United States House of Representatives.

Polling before the vote showed Deeds pulling ahead from a statistical tie in May, but the likelihood of low turnout made the race hard to predict.

Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell ran unopposed for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. McDonnell, who defeated Deeds by a fraction of a percent in the 2005 Virginia Attorney General race, currently holds a strong advantage over him in the fall general election, according to a recent poll conducted by the political blog ''DailyKos''.

Voters will elect a new governor to replace outgoing governor and rising Democratic star Tim Kaine on November 3.