In the Ballot Booths, No Fixation on Immigration

Fairfax Board Chairman Gerald E. Connolly, who easily defeated Republican Gary H. Baise to win a second term, said the Democratic effort in his county was "unprecedented," punctuated yesterday morning by the effort of hundreds of volunteers who worked across the county hanging signs, making calls and knocking on doors.

"That's a culmination of a coordinated campaign effort that's been going on since the spring," he said. "We had 12 full-time staffers working in Fairfax County. We had a trailer at the back of our headquarters with 20 or 30 computers. We made 10,700 phone calls yesterday alone."

One advantage for Democrats was the poor approval ratings of President Bush and the unpopularity of the war in Iraq. Another was the growing tide of Democratic-leaning voters moving into fast-growing Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

Robert D. Holsworth, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, called it the "decline of the Republican brand" and credited it with rallying Democratic activists, bringing forward credible Democratic candidates and attracting hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to Democratic campaigns.

Democratic supporters of J. Chapman Petersen, who beat state Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, the Republican incumbent, in Fairfax, said they had long hoped that a candidate would come along who could match her on the issues. "Chap's a good Democrat," said voter John C. Wasley IV, a librarian who has lived in the area most of his life. "Transportation and the environment were the big issues for me, and Chap's on the right side of both of them."

Republicans were noticeably less organized in the final weeks of the campaign, with fewer and smaller rallies across the state and with their top leaders, including party chairman John H. Hager, Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, barely in public view in the final days.

What is still unknown is the effect of yesterday's results on 2008, another tumultuous election year when Virginians will choose a replacement for retiring U.S. Sen. John W. Warner (R) and when the state might even be in play in the presidential contest. A Democratic presidential candidate hasn't gained a majority of Virginians' votes since 1964.