In Key Suburbs, Anger, Apathy On Senate Race

"The whole macaca thing didn't help," Gonzalez said. "It definitely was racist. He's part of the good-old-boy network."

Many voters also were troubled by Webb's writings on women in combat -- most notably a 1979 Washingtonian article titled "Women Can't Fight."

"Allen wasn't able to defend some of the things he said earlier in his life," said Jim K. Watson, 40, a sales manager from Ashburn running errands after work last week. "But the same is true for Webb."

Like many voters interviewed in Ashburn, the eastern Loudoun County community dominated until recently by Republican wins, Watson describes himself as a fiscal conservative and a moderate on social issues who tends to vote Republican. Although he voted for Allen in 2000, he said he is undecided this year.

That makes him a potential bellwether in a precinct (Stone Bridge) just a few miles northwest of Dulles International Airport that went overwhelmingly for President Bush in 2004 but chose Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last year.

Watson said he is troubled by the polarization in national politics. He is unhappy with Republican leadership, particularly on the war in Iraq. But he is equally pessimistic that a Democratic takeover would yield anything but more gridlock in Washington.

"If the House turns over, nothing's going to happen in the next two years, and that really bums me out," he said. "There's no independent voices out there. There's no one in the middle."

A few miles to the east, in the Sully district of western Fairfax County, voters have turned more regularly to Democrats in recent elections after years of Republican domination. There, the dissatisfaction with Republicans was more pervasive than in Loudoun.

Courson, the marketing consultant sipping a coffee at Starbucks in the Stone precinct of western Fairfax, was virulent in his disdain for Republicans, Bush and their policies regarding Iraq.

Courson has lived in Centreville for 21 years, and he remembers a time when signs for Democratic candidates were unheard of in an area that until recently was viewed as a Republican enclave. Now, an informal survey of such neighborhoods as Xanadu Estates and Belle Pond Farm reveal at least as many signs for Webb as for Allen. Courson has always voted Democratic, he said, but his anger is deeper than usual this year, and so is that of many of his neighbors.

"I think Webb's chances are really good," Courson said. "If you would have asked me that two months ago, I would have said, 'Well, Allen will just keep going with his smooth commercials and base of support.' But he's fighting for dear life just to hang in there."

And Webb is fighting the indifference. His challenge in these final few days of the campaign: Give voters a reason to venture out.

"What I want to know is, where are the great hearts?" asked John R. Maulella, 39, a U.S. Customs employee from the Franklin Farm neighborhood of western Fairfax who tends to vote Republican. Maulella is not compelled by either candidate. Although he said he will probably vote, he is still not sure whom he will support.

"We have bureaucrats," Maulella said. "We have frontmen. We have publicity people. We have faces. But I don't know if we have a whole lot of leadership."