Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, said rather than acting out of fear, Warner is capitalizing on the fact that voters are still unfamiliar with Gillespie even with Election Day closing in. His center’s latest poll, from early October, found that 53 percent of likely voters hadn’t heard enough about Gillespie, who has never run for office before, to have favorable or unfavorable opinions. The number was 13 percent for Warner.

“If you don’t define yourself in politics, you’re going to be defined by others,” Farnsworth said. “Even in October most voters don’t know all that much about Ed Gillespie. That lack of knowledge about Gillespie represents an opportunity for the Mark Warner campaign to advertise critical comments about Gillespie to frame the way voters think about the Republican.”

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