June 10 (Bloomberg) -- State Senator Creigh Deeds overcame Terry McAuliffe’s financial advantage and beat the former Democratic National Committee chairman to claim the party’s gubernatorial nomination in Virginia.

Deeds, 51, ran well ahead of McAuliffe, 52, and former state legislative leader Brian Moran, 49, in yesterday’s primary. Deeds won about 50 percent of the vote, McAuliffe about 26 percent and Moran about 24 percent, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections.

Deeds will face Virginia’s former attorney general, Republican Bob McDonnell, 54, in the November election. McDonnell, who was unopposed in his party’s primary, beat Deeds by a few hundred votes in 2005 in the statewide attorney general’s race. He resigned that post earlier this year to focus on his gubernatorial campaign.

McAuliffe, a prominent figure in Democratic politics who was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign, could claim national name recognition. Deeds, though, “is by far the strongest candidate for a statewide election” among the Democrats who vied for the gubernatorial nomination, said George W. Grayson, a professor of government at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

November’s Other Race

The race will be one of two gubernatorial elections in November that may serve as national political barometers following Democratic triumphs in the 2008 presidential, U.S. Senate and House elections. The other race is in New Jersey, where Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat, is seeking re-election against Republican Christopher Christie, a former federal prosecutor.

In Virginia, McAuliffe was the best-funded of the Democratic candidates and much of the campaign’s initial coverage focused on his first run for office after years as a well-known party fundraiser and operative.

Deeds, who hails from rural Bath County in the western part of Virginia, surged in the polls in recent weeks. On May 22, he won the editorial endorsement of the Washington Post, which likely helped his standing in the populous Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, where he was little known. That region is home to McAuliffe and Moran, who is the younger brother of U.S. Representative Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat.

McDonnell, the Republican nominee, is a social conservative with ties to religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, a contender for the 1988 Republican presidential nomination who is based in Virginia.

Gun Rights Supporter

Deeds, who supports gun rights, will be attempting to continue an eight-year hold on Virginia’s governorship by his party. Democrat Mark Warner, who now represents the state in the U.S. Senate, was elected governor in 2001. Barred by state law from seeking re-election, he was succeeded in 2005 by Democrat Tim Kaine, who served as lieutenant governor during Warner’s administration.

Deeds is in the mold of Kaine and Warner, said Susan Tolchin, a professor of public policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The state, which broke decades of supporting Republican presidential candidates by backing Obama in 2008, “is not New York or New Jersey,” she said. Its voters “like moderate kinds of candidates.”

Kaine issued a statement last night saying, “I know from experience that Virginia is a place where Democrats have won -- and will continue to win -- because we take a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to politics and governing, instead of an ideological one.”

Republican Preview

Republicans offered a preview last night of issues McDonnell likely will raise against Deeds. The Republican National Committee issued a release saying that as a state legislator, Deeds has voted for increases to gas and cigarette taxes.

McAuliffe, a New York native, told supporters last night the campaign was “one of the greatest experiences of my life.” Early in his career he held various party fundraising posts, and also worked as a banker and lobbyist. In 1996, he served as national finance chairman and national co-chairman of President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign.

He headed the Democratic National Committee from 2001-2005, frequently appearing on nationally televised interview programs as one of his party’s chief spokesmen. His memoir, “What A Party! My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals,” was published in early 2007, and that year he began his stint as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 White House bid. She now serves as Obama’s secretary of state.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 10, 2009 00:00 EDT