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Clinton, Obama Turn Focus To Area's Feb. 12 Contests
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) plans to hold a rally tomorrow in Northern Virginia. Yesterday, her campaign unveiled the names of 100 people who will serve on her Virginia steering committee.
(Elise Amendola - AP)
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Some of Clinton's top advisers are also heading up her campaign effort in Virginia, including Mike Henry, her deputy manager. Henry managed Democrat Timothy M. Kaine's 2005 successful bid for governor. Her advisers believe they will do well in Northern Virginia, where a third of the state's Democratic voters live, and among working-class voters in Hampton Roads and southern and southwestern Virginia.
"We have someone in Senator Clinton who is a steady, proven leader," said Susan Swecker, a supporter and chairman of the Democratic National Committee Southern Caucus.
Obama, who has been endorsed by Kaine and Reps. Robert C. Scott and Rick Boucher, picked up support yesterday in Richmond from 10 of the 21 Democratic members of the state Senate. They include Sen. Henry L. Marsh III (Richmond), a veteran of Virginia's civil rights movement during the 1960s and 1970s.
"I've been involved with presidential elections since 1960, with John Kennedy," Marsh said. "Something is happening this year that has never occurred before. You can see it in the size of the crowds. . . . The key word is 'change.' What this nation needs right now is change. His campaign is based on change."
Sen. L. Louise Lucas, an African American from Portsmouth, also endorsed Obama, even though she had been a Clinton supporter: "This election is too important. It is not enough to change the party in power in Washington. We've also got to change the status quo."
D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who backs Obama, planned to campaign for him today in Newark.
In Prince George's, Obama supporters celebrated the official opening of a campaign office in Largo last night, part of an effort to rev up supporters in the nation's wealthiest majority-black jurisdiction. On Saturday, County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) said he was aligning with Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) to back Clinton.
Obama's supporters, who canvassed door-to-door in the county that day, said they think the majority of Prince George's voters will reject Johnson's endorsement and turn out in potentially record numbers to support the man who could be the first black U.S. president.
African Americans account for about 29 percent of Maryland's population, and about one-third of the state's 1.6 million black residents live in Prince George's.
"Prince George's is enormously significant in Maryland politics," said Comptroller Peter Franchot, an Obama supporter who attended the campaign office opening. "It's a Democratic stronghold, and that's why we're placing a lot of emphasis on it from the Obama campaign." The campaign also has offices in Bowie and Silver Spring. Franchot said Maryland offices will be staffed with volunteers and paid workers dispatched by the national office.
Staff writer David Nakamura contributed to this report.
