Va. Candidates Eager but Unheeded

The lawns on Chartered Creek Place are lush and green. There are toys in the driveways and flip-flops tossed casually on front stoops. Some of the houses have been occupied almost forever, by neighborhood standards: six full months.

The new neighbors in this Loudoun County community had a get-to-know-you block party Labor Day weekend on the smooth asphalt of their newly paved road. People brought dishes, introduced their children and chatted about their jobs and about hosting a first-ever Halloween party.

They haven't been talking much about politics.

"Between unpacking, piano, baseball and school, it's not really a high priority," said Beth Elrefai, a mother of three and a Realtor who lives at the end of Chartered Creek Place.

But politicians are talking about them this fall. These newcomers in the fast-growing outer suburbs of Washington represent one of the biggest opportunities and one of the biggest challenges in Virginia's 2005 election campaign.

For the gubernatorial candidates, the opportunity lies in the number of potential new voters. About 111,700 registered voters were in Loudoun in 2001, the year Mark R. Warner (D) was elected governor. Now there are more than 144,400.

To Jerry W. Kilgore and other Republicans, the thousands of new residents moving into these traditionally conservative areas promise lasting electoral power. Kilgore, the former attorney general and public safety secretary, presents himself as tough on crime and illegal immigration and strong on protecting families, things he believes touch the newcomers directly.

Democrat Timothy M. Kaine, the lieutenant governor, said the growth will favor him because the families flooding into these outer suburbs care about education above all else and will decide he has been a better champion for schools. The centerpiece of his education platform is a proposal to provide access to pre-kindergarten education for all Virginia children.

The challenge for both is that they must introduce themselves to communities with little political history, where it's possible to drive for miles without seeing a single campaign sign or bumper sticker.

Interviews with many residents suggested that the candidates face a daunting task in helping newcomers see the connections between daily concerns about congestion, gangs and education and the choices for governor Nov. 8.

Many say roads are too congested and taxes too high, but they have little familiarity with Virginia's political landscape and are hardly eager to get drawn into what they see as campaign-season brawling. There is too much to do in their new communities -- starting clubs, ferrying children to school and soccer -- to take much interest in what they see as a distant and nasty political process.

Among the new arrivals to Chartered Creek Place is Danica Hu, who emigrated from China to another Loudoun development in 1997. A U.S. citizen, Hu could vote this year but said that is unlikely. She has trouble distinguishing between U.S. politicians, she said. Their speeches are written by others, and short ads are confusing. She cannot tell the parties apart.