Cynthia Andrews, widow of the imperious and wickedly clever former Virginia Senate Democratic majority leader, Hunter Andrews, keeps an eye on politics from her house overlooking Hampton Roads.

And she likes what she sees in Creigh Deeds, a state senator from rural Bath County who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in the primary Tuesday.

The 88-year-old Andrews, an environmentalist before the environment was cool, said from her Hampton home this morning that she’s backing Deeds because of his record on clean air and water, land preservation and energy.

But Andrews, twice chairwoman of the Virginia Nature Conservancy and a former trustee of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and the Virginia Living Museum, says Deeds also knows the ropes of state government.

Deeds is a former member of the House of Delegates, serving there nearly a decade before his election to the Senate eight years ago. Deeds lost a squeaker for attorney general in 2005 to the Republican he wants to take on for governor this year, Bob McDonnell.

“He’s a good ol’ country boy from Bath County,“ Andrews says of Deeds.

Andrews, who has known every Virginia governors since Jim Price, in office from 1938 to 1942, and is the daughter of a former delegate from Newport News, says, “I don’t know, but I feel, that if Hunter were alive—and I may be wrong—that he would be supporting Creigh, rather than the other two. He has more experience in state government than the other two combined.“

Brian Moran of Alexandria quit the House after 12 years to run for governor. Terry McAuliffe of McLean, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is a newcomer to state politics.

“I think I know the type of governor that the state of Virginia deserves,“ says Andrews. “And I just would like to show the flag for Creigh.“