Clinton explained that Republicans turn out at higher rates in off-year elections. Clinton to Va. Dems: Keep going

RICHMOND, Va. — Bill Clinton warned Democrats on Sunday against taking Terry McAuliffe’s lead in the polls for granted.

At the start of a four-day, nine-stop tour around Virginia ahead of the Nov. 5 gubernatorial election, the former president stressed repeatedly that Republicans turn out at higher rates in off-year elections.


“Will you care as much as they do and show up and vote?” Clinton said at a VFW Hall in the outer D.C. suburb of Dale City. “A big reason for the incredible political division in this country is that in the nonpresidential years, a whole different America shows up than in the presidential years.”

( PHOTOS: Terry McAuliffe’s career)

A few hours later, he and McAuliffe visited a high school here in the most predominantly African-American section of the commonwealth’s capital city.

One of the biggest Democratic challenges is getting black voters to show up for the Nov. 5 off-year election without President Barack Obama at the top of the ticket. Many who backed Obama in 2008 and 2012 stayed home during the last governor’s race in 2009.

“It doesn’t count if you’re for him if you don’t show,” Clinton told the overwhelmingly black crowd in attendance.

The 42nd president talked up his closeness with McAuliffe, noting that he and his family vacation together. The crowd cheered at all the mentions of his wife, Hillary Clinton, who campaigned for McAuliffe last weekend.

( PHOTOS: Bill Clinton’s life and career)

“Look, Terry McAuliffe is my friend. If he were 50 points behind, I would be here,” said Clinton. “I really do, I love the guy.”

Rep. Bobby Scott, the only African-American in Virginia’s House delegation, and Doug Wilder, the commonwealth’s first black governor, warmed up the crowd after an all-black choir finished performing. Hundreds packed into a sweltering auditorium fanned themselves with photos of McAuliffe standing beside Obama.

“Don’t pay any attention to these polls,” said Wilder. “The only poll that counts is the one that’s taken on Election Day.”

Clinton will travel to every media market from Sunday to Wednesday. He finishes Sunday on the coast in Hampton. On Monday, he will appear in Norfolk, Blacksburg and Herndon. On Tuesday, he will go to Harrisonburg. On Wednesday, he plans to wrap up his swing in Charlottesville and Roanoke.

( Also on POLITICO: Terry McAuliffe's big test)

Clinton presented McAuliffe as someone who will not govern ideologically like Republican Ken Cuccinelli, though he never cited the Republican nominee by name.

He embraced the knock on McAuliffe as a “deal maker.”

“I say: Give me one,” said Clinton. “Read the Constitution. It might as well have been subtitled ‘let’s make a deal.’”

Tim Kaine, a former governor elected to the Senate last year, also stressed that McAuliffe will not be an ideological governor but will reach across the aisle.

“He will govern in that practically progressive tradition of Gov. Wilder, Gov. [Mark] Warner and yours truly,” he said.

Clinton’s eight-car motorcade made an unannounced stop at Red Lobster on the drive from the D.C. suburbs to Richmond. The former president, now a vegan, greeted a late lunch crowd. He sat down at one table and snacked on someone’s biscuits.

“When Red Lobster opened in Little Rock, there were people who went there just to get the biscuits,” he told McAuliffe.

Then he and his entourage walked across the street to surprise patrons at a Steak ’n Shake.

McAuliffe sounded like he was back in his old job as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign as he talked about how Bill Clinton had created “22 million new jobs” as president and was “raised by a single mom in Arkansas.”

“He’s never forgotten where he came from, and he has never forgotten hardworking families,” McAuliffe said.

“Terry’s gotten so good on the stump, I don’t think he needs me anymore,” Clinton said when he took the stage.

Roland Clark, a 56-year-old defense contractor who lives about a half-hour south of Richmond, has watched Clinton on TV for decades and always wanted to watch him live.

“A lot of people just want to see President Clinton,” he said.

His wife, Brenda, said Clinton will help motivate people to get out and vote.

“President Clinton is just the extra piece to confirm you’re voting for the right guy,” she said.

Cuccinelli bracketed the Clinton visit with a half-hour conference call to attack McAuliffe for profiting off an annuities scheme that took advantage of people dying of cancer and AIDS. McAuliffe has denied wrongdoing and said he was a passive investor; the man behind the scam is now in jail.

Cuccinelli said unanswered questions remain and cited a Washington Post article published Sunday that quoted a sister of one of the terminally ill individuals saying that the investment “makes you sick to your stomach.”

“How is it possible that McAuliffe could not know what he was doing when he signed an annuity contract that shared the terminally ill individual’s name?” Cuccinelli said. “There’s nothing ‘passive’ about that.”

The McAuliffe campaign dismissed the questions as a desperate ploy, and Clinton said attacks on McAuliffe “make my blood boil.”

“He is a very, very good man,” he said. “I believe that within a year, people who didn’t vote for him will wonder what they were thinking on Election Day.”

McAuliffe directed his speech to the African-American crowd in Richmond.

“We know there is still discrimination in the commonwealth,” he said.

“Once you have served your time, you should regain your right to vote,” he added, to loud cheers.

Wilder praised McAuliffe for saying last week that he does not care about his F rating from the National Rifle Association.

Clinton recalled that he was the governor of Arkansas when Wilder, as governor of Virginia, pushed through a law allowing individuals to buy only one handgun a month

“I thought he was some kind of Svengali who could pull rabbits out of a hat,” said Clinton.

“We can do that again,” said Wilder.