May 29--Virginians' mailboxes and TVs are becoming free-fire zones for gubernatorial candidates.

In a mass-mailing to vote-rich Northern Virginia, Terry McAuliffe pelts his two foes in the June 9 Democratic primary and Republican Bob McDonnell.

Meanwhile, a Democratic group, set up solely to attack McDonnell, began airing another television commercial depicting him as insensitive to the jobless.

The McAuliffe mailer draws a contrast between himself and the others on renewable energy, proposed bans on payday lending and gifts from lobbyists and contributions from electric utilities.

McAuliffe, in Richmond yesterday, denied breaking his promise not to attack R. Creigh Deeds and Brian J. Moran, whose aides claimed otherwise.

"I've always said we have serious differences on issues," McAuliffe said. "If they think it's negative . . . maybe they shouldn't have voted the way they did or take the money they did."

Deeds again depicted McAuliffe as a hypocrite for refusing donations from Dominion Resources Inc. because it resists renewable-energy mandates, but taking checks from its former and current executives.

Deeds spokeswoman Brooke Borkenhagen said McAuliffe's mailer is aimed at slowing Deeds, who got a boost in Northern Virginia with the editorial endorsement of The Washington Post.

"That's why Terry is trying to hustle Virginia voters with this deceptive mail piece," she said.

Moran, whose campaign has shifted to an all-out assault on McAuliffe, replied by renewing questions about the overlap of his business and political activities.

"For months, Terry McAuliffe has stretched the truth and tried to reinvent his record," campaign manager Andrew Roos said.

Deeds, too, is pumping mail into Northern Virginia. Two pieces spotlight the Post endorsement, while another highlights his support for public education.

In the primary, mail -- rather than advertising on expensive Washington television stations -- is a more cost-efficient way to reach Northern Virginia voters because relatively few are likely to cast ballots.

Price is no object for the anti-McDonnell political-action committee, Common Sense Virginia.

The PAC, financed with nearly $3 million from the Democratic Governors Association, is running a fresh TV ad tying McDonnell's opposition last month to expanded jobless benefits to, among other things, his resistance in 2000 to state-backed health care for laid-off textile workers. At the time, McDonnell was a delegate.

The commercial, carried statewide, is part of a continuing effort by Democrats -- until they complete their ticket -- to block McDonnell from positioning himself as a moderate, and to force him to spend cash on rebuttal ads.

McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin dismissed the latest Democratic spot: "The organization funding these ads would run them in any state, about any Republican; it's what they do."

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