VA-2017: Herring won't run for Governor

[Oak Hills]

IMHO - a talk about Northam's  "conservatism" is at least somewhat exaggerated. He is, surely, not a person like  Harry Byrd Sr. (or Jr. for that matter), William Tuck or even David Satterfield Jr. (a dozens more names of "solid" Virginia's conservative Democrats come to mind immediately). In fact there is exactly one Democrat in present Virginia Legislature, who, IMHO, deserves the title "conservative" (and even he - rather moderate conservative): Johnny Joannou, who  lost this year Democratic primary. Virginia now isn't Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi (or, surprisingly,  Alaska), where you can still find more or less "real" Democratic conservatives in legislature. Northam is more of "centrist' type.... Even "somewhat left of center" if state legislator database of Boris Shor is to be believed. Herring is more liberal, of course, but Virginia, while slowly moving left, is, still, rather purple then blue, so Northam candidacy is not something "terrible"..

Well, yes, the Democratic Party is the liberal party.  It would be highly illogical for a conservative to affiliate with it.  What "conservative Democrat" really means in the contemporary context is that the person in question is conservative relative to the Democratic Party as a whole.  Liberal and conservative, as used in the United States are very relative terms.

[Oak Hills]

IMHO - a talk about Northam's  "conservatism" is at least somewhat exaggerated. He is, surely, not a person like  Harry Byrd Sr. (or Jr. for that matter), William Tuck or even David Satterfield Jr. (a dozens more names of "solid" Virginia's conservative Democrats come to mind immediately). In fact there is exactly one Democrat in present Virginia Legislature, who, IMHO, deserves the title "conservative" (and even he - rather moderate conservative): Johnny Joannou, who  lost this year Democratic primary. Virginia now isn't Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi (or, surprisingly,  Alaska), where you can still find more or less "real" Democratic conservatives in legislature. Northam is more of "centrist' type.... Even "somewhat left of center" if state legislator database of Boris Shor is to be believed. Herring is more liberal, of course, but Virginia, while slowly moving left, is, still, rather purple then blue, so Northam candidacy is not something "terrible"..

Well, yes, the Democratic Party is the liberal party.  It would be highly illogical for a conservative to affiliate with it.  What "conservative Democrat" really means in the contemporary context is that the person in question is conservative relative to the Democratic Party as a whole.  Liberal and conservative, as used in the United States are very relative terms.

Nevertheless, there is a substantial number of conservative (in real, not relative sense of this word) Democrats still (especially - in the South, but not only there), as well as there are moderate (and even some liberal) Republicans too. I will not even go into details and state obvious thing that even generally solid liberals may hold conservative positions on some issues (abortion, or gun rights, or gay marriage or ... whatever), and the same - for conservatives, so - general picture is substantially more complicated then that. And if we speak in relative sense of the word - then Virginia as a state votes as a "centrist" state (not far from general US numbers), hence a "centrist" Democratic candidate is nothing strange there, isn't it?

And, in addition: there are few disitricts and even fewer states, where liberals (or conservatives for that matter) represent an absolute majority of voters and can win "on their own". In most districts and states they need at least some moderates to win..)))

But what is the "real" definition of conservative?  I would argue it's almost invariably a relative term in the United States.