McDonnell Making Comeback in Polls

Virginia's Republican candidate for governor appears to be bouncing back in the polls nearly a month after a graduate paper he wrote shed a harsh light on his views on women, birth control and homosexuals.

Both Republican Bob McDonnell and Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds were back out on the campaign trail Monday as only a few weeks remain before the next governor is chosen.

There are less than 30 days left in this campaign, but 30 days ago, McDonnell was fighting for his political life. He was put on the defensive over a thesis paper that the Deeds campaign hammered him on in countless TV ads. It now appears that McDonnell may have weathered that storm, and Creigh Deeds is once again playing catch up.

Mark Warner, former governor and U.S. senator, provided political star power into the campaign of his democrat heir, Deeds. Deeds is trying to keep up a Democratic winning streak in Virginia. Voters here went for the Democrat in the last presidential race, and the last two senate and gubernatorial races.

"I'm going to be the governor that's going to restore confidence in this economy," Deeds told the crowd. "I'm going to be the governor who creates jobs in one corner of Virginia to the next."

The last Democrat to lose a statewide race was Deeds himself, in 2005's attorney general's race, where he lost to Republican Bob McDonnell.

Campaigning in Charlottesville, McDonnell again focused on the economy after a month of defending his controversial college paper which criticized working women and birth control.

"We don't need more mandates from the federal government," McDonnell said. "What we need is a little help to allow us to be entrepreneurs."

McDonnell may have weathered the storm. The website RealClearPolitics.com, which had his lead at 12 points when the college paper controversy began and then sunk to a dead heat, now has him up seven points over Deeds. The site now has McDonnell leading the race 50 percent to Deeds' 43 percent.

Anne Khademian of Virginia Tech's public administration center says Deeds gamble to focus so much attention on the college paper may have backfired.

"You have to do more than just throw the paper out there, you have to respond to it and the campaign has to build on it and I don't think we've seen that," said Khademian.

With four weeks left in the campaign, one thing is clear for both sides-- time is running down until voters go to the polls.

On Tuesday morning, both Deeds and McDonnell will face off in Northern Virginia for a breakfast forum. Deeds is from Bath County in southwestern Virginia, but the key to success for Democrats in recent statewide races has been locking up Northern Virginia's votes. It's a trend Deeds will have to repeat if he hopes to keep the governor's mansion in Democratic hands.