Virginia Democrats, you’re now stuck with him: Terry McAuliffe is now certifiable — er, certified as the Democrats’ candidate for governor of Virginia.

Undoubtedly, McAuliffe brings some advantages to the race; as perhaps the single biggest fundraiser in Democratic-party history, he will probably raise somewhere between $10 million and ∞ for his campaign this year. With the New Jersey governor’s race not looking competitive, McAuliffe is the only Democrat running statewide this year with a shot, and as a result, he’ll get plenty of support from the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, and Organizing for America. Oh, and he’s telling donors and potential supporters that helping him is “a way to get in on the ground floor of Hillary Clinton 2016.”

Pete Snyder, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, is already hitting Terry McAuliffe for his company GreenTech’s October 2009 decision to build a plant in Mississippi instead of Virginia. McAuliffe contended that the state of Virginia’s business recruitment agency wasn’t interested in helping the company. PolitiFact looked at the paperwork and rated that assertion false.

“It’s political garbage and double talk like this that made me get off the sidelines and get into the arena to change things,” Snyder says. (It says something about McAuliffe that even the GOP’s lieutenant gubernatorial candidates are citing him as the poster boy for what’s wrong with politics.)

Late last week, Politico reported that McAuliffe formally left GreenTech back in December, a comment McAuliffe didn’t mention even as he discussed the firm for the past few months, including quite recently.

Make no mistake, Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli will have a tough challenge ahead. But four months into his second bid for governor of Virginia, McAuliffe has surprisingly low name ID and a favorable rating of only 20 percent (Quinnipiac) or perhaps as low as 10 percent (Roanoke).

One good statewide ad campaign could define McAuliffe before this race even starts.

Thanksgiving is over, and announcements of candidacy for 2013 and 2014 are coming at a surprisingly fast pace.

In Virginia, Republicans have a candidate for the state’s lieutenant governor position:

Pete Snyder, a technology entrepreneur and former Fox News commentator who oversaw Republican campaigns in Virginia this year, announced Monday that he will run for lieutenant governor. Snyder, 40, began serving as a paid commentator on Fox last summer while in the thick of Virginia’s heated races for president and U.S. Senate. He recently stepped down from that TV role, as the Virginian-Pilot first reported. This is the Fairfax County resident’s first bid for elective office.

In Illinois, a familiar name wants to return to Congress:

Former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, D-Ill., announced today that she is running to replace former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. after his resignation last week.

Halvorson represented a Chicago district in Congress from 2009 until 2011 but lost her reelection bid to Republican Adam Kinzinger, who was just re-elected to a second term. Halvorson also challenged Jackson in the primary for the 2012 election in a newly redistricted seat but lost to the longtime congressman.

In Pennsylvania, Republican governor Tom Corbett has his first announced challenger, former environmental-protection chief John Hanger. The Philadelphia Inquirer predicts a crowded Democratic primary:

Millionaire Tom Knox, who ran for mayor of Philadelphia in 2007, and York businessman Tom Wolfe, who served as [Governor Ed] Rendell’s revenue secretary, have told the Associated Press they, too, might run.

Among other names mentioned in Democratic circles: former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who narrowly lost a 2010 run for the U.S. Senate; Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, who won more votes statewide than President Obama on Nov. 6; Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski; state Treasurer Rob McCord and U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz, both of whom just were reelected; and Jack Wagner, the retiring state auditor general.

And finally, Chris Christie is running for reelection as governor of New Jersey. This morning the Quinnipiac University polling center finds Christie with a 72 percent approval rating, “the highest score Quinnipiac University ever measured for a New Jersey governor.”