Used to be that the external events — read: national news — rarely intruded on a Virginia gubernatorial campaign. That was by design.
Virginia’s tradition of electing its governor when neither the president nor Congress is on the ballot ensured that, since the practice was established in the mid-19th century, the office was largely decided in a vacuum. That’s because the decision was the purview of a smaller, more uniform off-year electorate — read: white, male, conservative.
But in the 21st century, external events — and not just the Trump presidency and its many weird manifestations — are constantly intruding on the gubernatorial campaign.
One of those events, potentially unfolding just about a month before the election, could be a real doozy: a shutdown of the federal government, whose beneficence accounts for more than one dollar of every four flowing through the Virginia economy. . . .
That’s because another sequestration is possible in September should Trump and Congress not do their job.
And that might do a job on Gillespie.
Click to read the full article BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO Richmond Times-Dispatch. Posted Aug 6, 2017.