Saddling Up for the Start of Fall's Races

Senate Candidate, Officials Face Political Gantlet at Parade

BUENA VISTA, Va., Sept. 4 -- Virginia's politicians began a two-month sprint to Election Day with a soggy parade Monday along this town's main street, shaking hands, kissing babies and giving speeches to kick off the state's fall campaign.

U.S. Sen. George Allen (R), who is fighting to keep his seat for six more years, rode down Magnolia Avenue on a horse named Bubba, wearing a cowboy hat and western boots as he waved to thousands of people who lined up for the annual Labor Day festivities.

"Howdy," the senator said as he attempted to keep the novice parade horse headed in the right direction. "How y'all doin'?"

His Democratic opponent, former Navy secretary James Webb, skipped the event to spend time with his son, Jimmy, a Marine lance corporal who is to deploy to Iraq this week. In Webb's place, however, were Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and former governor Mark R. Warner, two Democratic veterans of the Buena Vista experience.

Kaine, at the parade for the first time as governor, told a largely Republican crowd that Webb, a Vietnam War hero, "has got a record of service . . . at a time when it was costly to him."

Virginia has statewide elections almost every year, and attending "Laborfest" in this valley town of 6,005 near Lexington has become a rite of passage for 36 years, a chance for candidates to prove their mettle by running along the two-mile parade route.

Despite a steady drizzle, people from up and down the Shenandoah Valley stood by the parade route. Buena Vista voted for Kaine last year, but many of the surrounding counties went for his Republican opponent, former attorney general Jerry W. Kilgore.

This year, many in the crowd wore Allen stickers or held Allen balloons, waving and snapping pictures of the cowboy senator.

Bernice Hamilton, 57, said she plans to vote for Allen on Nov. 7. The art gallery owner said the recent controversy over Allen's comments to a Webb aide -- in which he called the Indian American a "macaca," a genus of monkey, and welcomed him to "the real Virginia" -- were irrelevant to her.

"I know the man. I know his record. I'm going to stand with him," Hamilton said, adding that she backs Allen's support of the Iraq war. "I believe we have to protect our country."

Joe Grant, a Vietnam veteran from Roanoke, said: "I'm proud of Jim's service, but I am a conservative Republican. So until [Webb] shows me something different, I'll stick with where I am at."

And Emmett Camden, 64, a retired factory worker who lives on a fixed income, said he supports President Bush.