Attacks Grow In Va. Race, And So Does Voter Anger

"That's what more people need to see: real people," she said. "I don't like to see ads where they are bashing each other. That one was nice and sweet."

Springtime Expectations

Five months ago, before the first television ad had been aired, The Washington Post sat down with four groups of voters -- in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Southside and Hampton Roads -- to assess their expectations for the election.

They talked about wanting the candidates to address the need for better jobs for textile workers, easier commutes, less-expensive health care and better schools. They said they hoped that the candidates would confront those issues but were not optimistic that they would.

Since then, the major-party candidates have detailed dozens of programs on their Web sites. But neither has spent any significant time talking about them.

Instead, Kaine and Kilgore have spent their time, and money, creating caricatures of their opponent -- sometimes literally. A Kilgore ad titled "Everything" features a cartoonish Kaine gobbling up everything in sight, including plates full of money, as an announcer says: "Nobody chews up tax money like liberal Tim Kaine."

A Kaine ad titled "Slice" shows a cake, with frosting picturing a school, being cut up as an announcer says that "any way you slice it, Jerry Kilgore will cut education." Kaine has also run ads accusing Kilgore of being beholden to drug companies and of lobbying to increase natural-gas taxes.

Last week, The Post assembled four groups of voters in those same regions, including many people who discussed the elections in May. Most expressed disappointment with the campaign's tenor.

"The thing that bugs me is why they spend so much time on the death penalty and abortion and these types of things," said Bill Kelehar, a plant manager at Annin & Co., a flagmaker.

South Boston and Halifax County need the next governor to help kick-start their economy, Kelehar said. He said he has stopped paying attention to the campaign: "I just got bored with it."

Jessica Johnson-Clark, 20, is a psychology student at Southern Virginia Community College in Tazewell. The candidates, she said, are not talking about what matters to people who live closer to Tennessee and North Carolina than Washington: jobs.

"My husband has an art degree," she said, "and he works in the coal mines." Aren't there any jobs in the arts? she was asked. "Not around here," she said.

Springfield financial planner Alan Norris, 49, said people in Kingstowne, where he lives, are concerned about traffic, schools and health care -- not social issues and taxes.