Va. Republicans Hear Contrasting Messages in Election Defeat

But Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, who plans to run for governor in 2009, says his party was right to focus on immigration because it's "the issue people are most concerned about." Republicans need not tack either right or center because Tuesday's vote was not a statement about the state's GOP, he says. "Any other year, all those candidates in close races win. These losses were more a factor of perceptions on the war or President Bush or the Republican label."

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Next year, Virginia threatens to be in play in the presidential race (although President Bush won the state by eight percentage points in 2004, Democrats Gov. Tim Kaine and Sen. Jim Webb won in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties in '05 and '06, respectively.) With the highly popular Mark Warner atop the ballot running for Senate, Republicans will search for a way to reconnect with voters who believe the party is demagoguing on emotional issues rather than addressing their quality-of-life concerns.

If Republicans in Richmond find ways to ease the strains of speedy growth in Washington's outer suburbs, you'll know the party is threading a path between its moderates and its true believers.

But if the party's agenda focuses instead on abortion, guns and immigration, watch for Virginia to end 2008 with an even more Democratic face.

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