Deeds Down by Double Digits

President Obama certainly has his work cut out for him when he touches down in Norfolk, VA tomorrow afternoon to rally the Democratic troops with gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds. My colleague David Chalian has more: The Washington Post is out with its final pre-election poll showing Republican Bob McDonnell with a commanding 11-point lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds, 55% to 44%, as the battle for the Virginia governorship enters its final week. The poll shows 70% of Virginia voters say President Obama will not be a factor in their vote which may complicate Republican attempts to paint a McDonnell victory as a referendum on the president and congressional Democrats or as a larger sign of good things to come for the bruised GOP in next year’s midterm elections. The poll arrives on the eve of President Obama’s home stretch visit to the state to help excite the Democratic base about Deeds’ candidacy.  In fact, the poll finds a large enthusiasm gap between the candidates. “About a quarter of Deeds's voters say they are supporting him "not too" or "not at all" enthusiastically. More than nine in 10 of those who back McDonnell are "very" or "fairly" enthusiastic about the Republican,” write Jon Cohen and Rosalind Helderman of the Post. The McDonnell and Deeds campaigns also released their most recent fundraising figures covering the first three weeks of October.  Sen. Deeds appears to be doing no better in the money race than he is in the polls.  As of October 21, Deeds had $937,772.61.  Former AG McDonnell reported nearly double that in his bank account with $1.8 million for the final two weeks of the campaign.