Terry McAuliffe chaired Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign during the 2008 race, and he spent his time doing Terry McAuliffe things: raising untold millions of dollars, jousting loudly on TV with Republicans and, by all appearances, never sleeping.
With Clinton coming to Northern Virginia Friday to headline an event for the state party, McAuliffe is helping her again for 2016, but in a strikingly different role: as the governor of a vital swing state—and a relatively popular one at that—who is more than happy to dispense advice to Clinton and any other Democrats who care to ask.
"In 2007 and '8, I spent 500 days on the road. "¦ I can't do anything like that," McAuliffe said. What he can do, though, is lay the groundwork for next year—he hopes—by winning the Virginia state Senate back this year. Then he can take that political organization, which already overlaps significantly with Clinton's, and put it at her disposal.
"The work we do on the ground for the Senate will immediately flip, become presidential," he told National Journal in an interview earlier this year. "So we're going to do a lot of work this year."
The other way he can help Clinton, McAuliffe argued, is "for me to continue to create jobs. Here is a very pro-business governor who is popular—[that] is a great message. I think if I continue doing what I'm doing and keep people happy and they're happy, that helps her a lot. That really does help her win the state."