in the governor's race we're joined by two reporters, ben pershing of the washington post and julian walker of the virginian pilot. gentlemen thank you both for joining us. julian this is a much coveted seat by both republicans and democrats. what is the state of play right now? >> right now it is very tight, two polls this week both have the governor up by two points, the other has ken cuccinelli up by six points. both campaigns would quon seed that they see this as a pretty tight race. it is one that is going to be expensive. it is one that has demonstrated so far is pretty nasty and i think we'll see a lot more of that to come in roughly four months before election day. >>suarez: ben, do you agree, the republicans are spending time and money running themselves down instead of making a positive run of themselves? >> i think the state party apparatus on both sides, trying to convince the voters that the other party is unacceptable, not worthy of voting for. i think the candidates have a way to go convincing the voter that they are worthy rather than the other one shouldn't be. >>suarez: of

for more on the brewing controversy we are joined by julian walker. he is a staff writer for the "virginian-pilot" newspaper. thank you for being with us. first of all, tell us more about johnny williams. who is he? what's his connection to the governor? >> johnny williams is a businessman. he has... he's the head and chief executive of star scientific which is a nutritional supplement maker. they used to be a tobacco company but they phased out a lot of their tobacco business. now they're making dietary supplements. he has been involved at a donor in virginia politics for a number of years. he has given to republicans over the years including the former attorney general jerry killgore who ran for governor in 2005 unsuccessfully. he's given significant funds to governor mcdonald and also to members of his family as has been disclosed in a number of press accounts here in recent months. >> woodruff: has he given these kinds of gifts for clothes for the governor's wife? a watch through the governor's wife for the governor? has he given those kinds of gi

joining us julian walker, welcome into "the war room"." >> thanks for having me. >> michael: let's start with governor mcdonnell. he's being investigated on the federal and state levels with six months left in his term. do you see the governor being forced to resign? >> well, there are several legislators in virginia who have called for his resignation. one of them democrats. a state senator actually called for impeachment proceedings against the governor. the governor has resisted calls for his resignation and insisted he has complied with the letter of the law. some question whether he has met the spirit of the law in terms of disclosing gifts and receiving things, but at this point there is a distinct likelihood he could ride it out if it we are to believe what he says, which is he is not going to resign. the general assembly which they bicamera legislation control the republicans. and it would call the governor calling a special session to call impeachment proceedings. if you believe his rejections of any calls for resignation, then it is considerable that he will ride this out. at l