Virginia Is Up For Grabs In Fall

Obama's efforts in Virginia will probably be headed by Kaine, who proved his political skill last year by helping the Democrats retake the state Senate.

"It's a very powerful and persuasive ticket," U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) said of Obama, Warner and Kaine. "We will have a Democratic team in Virginia that is as strong as any ticket that any state can put together."

Sensing the threat, McCain opened his Virginia headquarters in Pentagon City on Monday, giving him an early advantage over Obama, who is still battling Clinton (D-N.Y.) but has a majority of the pledged delegates needed to secure the nomination.

John H. Hager, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, said the GOP is trying to learn from its recent losses by trying to blunt what has become a polished Democratic get-out-the vote effort.

"We are serious about taking advantage of the time we have now before the Democrats finalize a candidate by reactivating and re-energizing the Republican base in Virginia," said Hager, who met with senior McCain staffers last month in New Mexico to begin planning strategy for the fall campaign.

Hager said state GOP officials, who partnered with McCain to open the Pentagon City headquarters, plan to double the number of Republican volunteers and raise at least $2 million by November. The party also plans to begin an aggressive phone bank operation.

Del. Christopher B. Saxman (R-Staunton), McCain's Virginia chairman, predicts McCain will do well enough in the state to boost the entire GOP ticket, including U.S. Reps. Frank R. Wolf, Thelma Drake and Virgil H. Goode Jr., all of whom are facing well-funded Democratic challengers.

"We understand the trend in Virginia, but issues at the national level are very different than issues on a state level," said Saxman, who added that McCain will campaign in the state June 9.

Obama hasn't campaigned in Virginia since February, but Democrats say if he gets the nomination, he should be able to quickly merge his grass-roots network of supporters with Kaine and Warner's political operations, which the Virginia politicians have been building since 2001.

Led by Mike Henry, Warner's campaign manager, Democrats have hired regional field coordinators for every part of the state. The coordinators, other paid staffers and volunteers plan to start knocking on doors in mid-June to identify potential Democratic voters, adding them to the list of nearly 1 million voters who turned out to vote in the Democratic primary.

Henry and Elisabeth Pearson, director of the Democratic coordinated campaign, will focus considerable resources on suburban Richmond and Washington's fast growing outer suburbs, two areas they think have hidden pockets of potential Democratic voters.

Political analysts say Obama will need to win over suburban voters as well turn out record numbers of African Americans to defeat McCain, who will likely rack up big margins in rural Virginia and parts of Hampton Roads.