House Races In Md., Va. Echo Quest For Change

They are referring to the fact that although Mark R. Warner lost the district by nine points when he won the governorship in 2001, fellow Democrat Timothy M. Kaine won the area by four points four years later. And the 600,000 refers to the number of dollars that Judy Feder has raised since beginning her campaign in January.

Kaine's surprise sweep of Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties in November energized Democrats, including Feder. "I believe that I've got a lot of talent and expertise, and certainly energy, and can do more to make a difference," she said. "And after the November elections, with the changes that we saw, it looked possible."

She has reassembled Kaine's media team, pollster and direct mail strategist for the campaign and recently added campaign manager Scott Arceneaux, who was directing Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan's bid for Maryland governor before Duncan withdrew for health reasons.

"This is the year for change," Arceneaux said. "And this is the district that kind of typifies the discontent with Washington."

Although Bush won the area twice with about 55 percent of the vote, Feder's poll conducted in the spring found that 58 percent of district voters now disapprove of the president's performance, 44 percent of them "strongly." And she said the poll showed that 68 percent of voters are unhappy with the direction the country is taking.

The problem for Feder is Wolf, 67, who has not received less than 60 percent of the vote since first being elected in 1980. Wolf is a conservative Republican with an independent streak. He says he has not lost touch with his district, no matter how it changes.

"I've been involved in every major transportation project in the region," Wolf said in an interview. "I saw the gang issue when no one else did. . . . I'm literally returning to my district every night, and I know what's going on there."

Wolf is known for combining meticulous constituent service -- Feder thinks that is the basis for his popularity -- with a deep interest in human rights abuses around the world. "Shouldn't we all be interested in Darfur?" he asked.

Feder, 59, is a first-time candidate but a longtime veteran of Washington policy wars. The dean of Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, she is a nationally recognized expert on health-care policy and was an architect of President Bill Clinton's health-care plan.

Her long list of contributors includes a number of former Clinton officials, think-tank executives and academics. It also shows what the longtime McLean resident describes as a lack of activism in the district: About 80 percent of her money comes from outside Virginia, and 30 percent of her contributions come through Act Blue, a national organization that directs money to Democratic candidates.

Transportation and growth are major issues in the 10th District, and Feder has relentlessly tried to tie Wolf to high gas prices. She said Wolf deserves criticism for voting for the administration's energy bill and for the number of contributions to his campaign from oil companies.

And she said the war will be an issue, as Democrats such as herself will present themselves as the only ones demanding "accountability" from the administration.

About one-third of the district's voters live in Fairfax, a third in Loudoun and the rest in the mostly rural counties that stretch to the West Virginia line. It is among those rural voters that the Harvard PhD said she still has work to do.

When she is out campaigning, Feder said, "people will say sort of quietly, 'What party?' and I've learned to stand tall and say I'm a Democrat, and after a little bit of shaking hands, it's not quite the anathema maybe it once was. Although I have to say I haven't been to very many tractor pulls."

Staff researcher Derek Willis contributed to this report.