McAuliffe Makes Stop in Del Ray

One-time and potentially future Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe made a stop at Del. David Englin’s holiday party Wednesday night at the Del Ray home of supporter Liz Chadderdon.

McAuliffe spoke in his trademark enthusiasm of creating jobs in Virginia and galvanizing the Democratic party ahead of next year’s elections.

“I am sick and tired of playing defense. We need to be on offense,” McAuliffe told a room full of Democratic supporters of the recently re-elected Englin. “We have a great opportunity in front of us. Obama carried the state in 2008. We gotta do that again. We gotta get [Tim] Kaine in the U.S. Senate. We gotta set the stage for the next couple years. … We can’t tread along. We gotta shake it up and raise some hell.”

McAuliffe is keeping a busy schedule these days, traveling around the state drumming up support for the party and keeping track of his myriad business ventures.

He spoke Wednesday night of helping reopen a shuttered wood pellet factory in Franklin, Va., to create jobs and of starting a new Virginia-based electric-hybrid car company called GreenTech Auto.

“[Bill] Clinton likes to say ‘Terry has the perfect job for him—car salesman,’” McAuliffe said in his best Bubba-fied accent.

“I do these things because I care,” he added. “We need to move Virginia forward. … We gotta create jobs. We gotta create products and sell products.”

McAuliffe said he enjoyed running for governor in 2009 and bringing “big ideas” to the race. He was runner-up for Democratic nomination behind Creigh Deeds but finished ahead of Brian Moran.

Though he lost, he said the way he was able to bring his ideas into the race made him feel as though he won.  

“What’s important about Terry is that it’s easy to talk about big ideas, but people don’t always have the vision to change things. Not everyone follows through on that. No one loses [an election] and still follows through on that,” Englin said, adding that he’d like to see McAuliffe make another run at governor.