Republicans, including Kilgore, have spent much of the summer denying that the president would have any trouble winning in this conservative state. Bush won 52 percent to 44 percent over Al Gore in 2000.
Ken Hutcheson, the state director for the Bush-Cheney campaign, noted that there have been indications in the past week that Kerry is backing out of Virginia. A $45 million television advertisement campaign announced by Kerry strategists last week does not include Virginia.
"You will see a totally different letter the next time we drop a letter," Hutcheson said. "It will reflect the status of those two campaigns here in Virginia at that time."
Sabato said he is not surprised at the fundraising letter, which exhorts Republican supporters with heated rhetoric.
At one point in the letter, Kilgore writes that Republicans "face a ruthless, bitter, hate-filled, liberal Democrat machine that is ready, willing and able to do whatever it takes to 'avenge' Al Gore's 2000 loss to President Bush."
Also in the letter, he decries a "small army of radical, truth-deprived leftists" who took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July.
Sabato said that kind of language is par for the course, especially during this year's campaign.
"It's classic politics," he said. "Direct mail is built on exaggeration. Anybody who believes anything in a direct mail letter should come to me for some wonderful swampland that I have available."
