By PHILIP ELLIOTT
Vice President Joe Biden, center, accompanied by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., left, speaks at a campaign event for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, right, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Annandale, Va. On Tuesday, Virginia voters go to the polls to choose between McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli for the next governor. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Ken Cuccinelli, Teiro Cuccinelli
Republican gubernatorial candidate, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, left, smiles along with his wife, Teiro, as she holds a puppy during a rally at Republican headquarters in Richmond, Va., Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. Cuccinelli faces Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Tuesday’s election. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Joe Biden, Terry McAuliffe, Mark Warner, Gerald Connolly
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, left, joined by, from second from left, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., and Vice President Joe Biden, speaks at a campaign event in Annandale, Va. on Monday, Nov. 4, 2013. On Tuesday, Virginia voters go to the polls to choose between McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli for the next governor. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Joe Biden, Terry McAuliffe, Gerald Connolly
Vice President Joe Biden, right, is greeted by Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., before speaking as at rally for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, left, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Annandale, Va. On Tuesday, Virginia voters go to the polls to choose between McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli for the next governor. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Joe Biden, Terry McAuliffe
Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, right, Monday, Nov. 4, 2013, in Annandale, Va. On Tuesday, Virginia voters go to the polls to choose between McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli for the next governor. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The acrimonious campaign for Virginia governor neared its end Tuesday, capping a race driven by negative ads, unrelenting accusations of dodgy behavior and a deep rancor between rivals Terry McAuliffe and Ken Cuccinelli.
McAuliffe, a Democrat, planned to vote before dawn and visit campaign offices to help sustain his lead in the polling. His Republican competitor, meanwhile, scheduled his own campaign visits as he held out hope his conservative supporters would fuel a come-from-behind win.
A third candidate, libertarian Robert Sarvis, also was on the ballot.
Turnout was expected to be low — 40 percent was the figure both sides were using — and both candidates mustered their campaign organizations to find every last supporter. The campaign’s negative tilt turned many voters off, and strategists in both parties predicted the outcome could be decided by just a few thousand votes.
Richard Powell, a 60-year-old retired IT manager who lives in Norfolk, described himself as an independent who frequently votes for members of both parties. He said he cast his ballot for McAuliffe, although not because he’s particularly enthusiastic about him. He said he was more determined not to vote for Cuccinelli, who he said overreaches on a variety of medical issues.
Voters were barraged with a series of commercials that tied Cuccinelli to restricting abortions, and while Powell said the negative advertising “got to be sickening,” abortion rights played a factor in his vote.
“I’m not in favor of abortion — let’s put it that way — but I find that restricting abortion causes far more social harm than allowing abortion, so that was an issue for me,” he said.
The negative advertising aside, both candidates got help from some big names. Both Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton made appearances for McAuliffe in the final weeks. President Barack Obama campaigned for him this weekend, Michelle Obama lent her voice to a radio advertisement and Vice President Joe Biden spoke to supporters on the eve of the election.
Cuccinelli, too, got high-profile backers to the state, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — all potential presidential contenders in 2016.
From the outset, the campaign shaped up as a barometer of voters’ moods and a test of whether a swing-voting state like Virginia could elect a tea party-style governor. As one of just two races for governor nationwide, political strategists eyed the race for clues about what would work for 2014’s midterm elections when control of Congress is up for grabs.
The winner will succeed term-limited Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, for a four-year term starting in January. Obama won the state in 2008 and 2012, but far fewer voters participate in off-year elections and that gives the GOP better odds.
Republicans bet a deeply conservative candidate would be their best shot, passing over a lieutenant governor for Cuccinelli, a crusader against the federal health care law. Democrats chose a loyal partisan who once led the Democratic National Committee and recruited the Clintons to raise millions for him and rally the party faithful.
Yet much of the race was decided on television.
Negative advertising was the norm, and McAuliffe enjoyed a 10-to-1 advantage on air in the campaign’s final weeks. He raised $35 million to Cuccinelli’s $18 million.
The lopsided financial picture continued with outside groups, too. Millions of dollars poured in to criticize the candidates on gun rights, abortion and climate change.
The 45-year-old Cuccinelli went into Election Day trying to overcome a deficit in the polls, a crush of negative ads and a lingering wariness among fellow Republicans about his conservative views. His day was set to take him from his home in northern Virginia south toward Richmond, where he planned to watch the results with supporters.
Cuccinelli pinned his hopes on voters’ frustrations with the federal health care law he attempted to foil. He tried to make the election into a referendum on the law, which McAuliffe supports.
“I’m scared to death about what Obamacare is doing to Virginians. Terry McAuliffe is scared to death what Obamacare is doing to Terry McAuliffe,” Cuccinelli said Monday, noting its rocky rollout has proved embarrassing for Democrats.
Ahead in the polls, the 56-year-old McAuliffe sought to avoid an eleventh-hour error. He planned to start Election Day before sunrise, greeting commuters in Democrat-rich northern Virginia before working his way through the state to give pep talks to his volunteers.
