In Last Push, Both Parties Have Same Focus: Turnout

Four years later, his successor, Timothy M. Kaine (D), built on Warner's strategy through micro-targeting, or finding people in the outer suburbs who voted Democratic in presidential but not state races.

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"I learned early that I wasn't going to win by looks and I wasn't going to win by smarts, but I could win by a ground game and by work," said Kaine, who won by 113,615 votes.

Because of the governors' efforts, Virginia Democrats have a list of more than 1 million names to contact to support their candidates. Webb used it a year ago to help defeat Sen. George Allen (R).

Kaine is employing a similar strategy this fall as he tries to help Democrats gain the four seats needed to retake the Senate and some of the 11 needed to win control of the House.

The Virginia Democratic Party's coordinated campaign, which is responsible for turning out voters for all Democratic candidates, is headed by Alan Moore, who led the coordinated campaign in 2005.

Some Republicans fear that their party has been slow to recognize Warner's and Kaine's skill at mobilizing core Democratic voters.

Since the 1990s, when Allen and former governor James S. Gilmore III (R) oversaw efficient get-out-the-vote operations, Republicans have had a harder time tracking who they can count on to get to the polls, GOP officials said.

And even though Republicans in other states have excelled at identifying core supporters, Virginia Republicans say the national party has been slow to invest in similar strategies in Virginia because it has been considered a reliably red state in presidential years.

"I think there is definitely a recognition, we kind of got away from the emphasis on the grass roots," said party official Mike Thomas, who managed Allen's 1993 campaign for governor.

Still, Republican leaders believe they are well positioned to turn out their voters on Election Day, in part because their conservative base is galvanized about several issues, including illegal immigration.

"The campaigns have entered a new phase," Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle (R-Virginia Beach) said. "Your message is delivered. Now you have to get people to the polls."

The GOP has set up phone banks in Fairfax, Richmond and Hampton Roads and enlisted volunteers to call or visit 250,000 voters in targeted districts across the state. An additional 200,000 were encouraged to vote by absentee ballot.