Senate Race Already Has One Loser: Va.'s Image

"It does," he said. "Does people reading about [how] the legislature couldn't do something on transportation, is it frustrating? Does it hurt? Yep."

Virginia's reputation has always been a stately one, built on its long history as one of the nation's first colonies. It's known as the "mother of presidents," earning the nickname by producing four of the first five U.S. presidents.

That's what marketing professor Ronald Wilcox calls "perceptual association," the first thing that pops into people's heads when they hear a word or phrase.

"Say Corvette -- guy with midlife crisis, new girlfriend," explained Wilcox, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. "The brand for Virginia is history, democracy, birth of the nation. They are more regal."

That regality was nowhere in sight this week, as General Assembly members squabbled, argued, bickered and then threw up their hands.

"Going nowhere for now," screamed the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk wrote: "After nearly nine months of bickering and finger-pointing, state lawmakers called it quits for the year and headed home."

Wilcox said members of the General Assembly's inability to get along is not a problem for the state's image, despite constant headlines describing the legislative chaos. People expect no less, or more, from their representatives at home or in Congress, he said.

But the Senate race has definitely tarnished the brand, Wilcox said, if only temporarily.

"The stuff that makes you look bad is a lot funnier," he said, but "I think the political season is full of so many embarrassments. There's only a very small percentage of people three or four years from now that will remember this."

But at least for now, the state's reputation has become collateral damage in the daily barrage of news.

And not all of it is within this country.

"Race slur senator loses ground to Democrats," read the headline on the Times of London's Web site. "Senator's racial slur could hand Virginia to the Democrats," said the Financial Times of London. The French press agency wrote: "U.S. senator lambasted for remark deemed racist toward Asian man."

That kind of attention can be tough for Virginia, which is constantly trying to attract international investment. In fact, Virginia has been working -- with some success -- to attract Indian companies to rural southern Virginia, where jobs are scarce.

Kaine said his administration will continue to market the state aggressively.

"I embrace the fact that we are an internationalized, very diverse state. We want to turn that face to the world," he said. "Embracing the global economy means . . . embracing people, foreign commerce, people from different lands."

Meanwhile, the late-night comedians are not going to make it any easier. Last week, Jay Leno opened his monologue with another snarky reference to Virginia's Senate race.

"Welcome to 'The Tonight Show,' " Leno said. "You know, in the time it took me to walk out of here, Senator George Allen insulted five more ethnic groups."

Staff researchers Magda Jean-Louis and Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.