Creigh Deeds has his troubles. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate these days has to run not only from the president but also from the Democratic governor. Yes, Gov. Tim Kaine is helping to raise money for Deeds, but it’s an uneasy partnership at best, according to the Washington Post:

But while Kaine is fully invested in helping to elect Deeds, campaign officials realize it’s not always politically beneficial for Deeds to be publicly associated with him. His popularity rating remains above 50 percent but is waning, and his position as chairman of the Democratic National Committee brings with it the burdens of a national party that voters are viewing with increasing skepticism. Some Democrats have also privately criticized the governor for oddly timed announcements that had the effect of overshadowing Deeds campaign events.

As a result, Deeds has subtly sought to limit his public connections to Kaine, a strategy the politically savvy governor has blessed. On Friday, for instance, Deeds aired his first television ad of the general election campaign. It includes a clip of Deeds walking with Sen. Mark Warner (D), but makes no mention of Kaine.

So much for the Obama-Kaine era of Democratic domination in Virginia. In fact, from Deeds’s perspective, Obama himself is even more toxic. Kaine’s poll numbers are at least at the 50 percent mark. Obama is at 42 percent. So the trick for Deeds, then, is to run a race that turns out the base (no small feat for a rural Democrat with no particular appeal to traditional Democratic constituencies) while not reminding independents, conservative Democrats, and moderate Republicans that he is from the Kaine-Obama Democratic party.

That might work if Deeds had an innovative reform agenda or a catchy slogan or two. But since his upset win in June, he’s largely become a nonentity, performing poorly in an early debate and generally receding into the background. Perhaps he’s calculated that voters aren’t yet focusing on the race. But unless he gets up to speed fast, he’s likely to be labeled as a plan-wrap Democrat at the very time it’s not so fashionable to be a Democrat in Virginia.