McCain Forced to Fight for Virginia

"We're very happy with where we are organizationally," he said, calling McCain's efforts larger than any recent statewide campaign. "Our daily goal is to knock on thousands of doors a day across the commonwealth. We continue to exceed that."

The McCain campaign says that Virginia is its third-best state when it comes to meeting its goals for phone-calling and door-knocking. The number of voters volunteers contacted in a single week -- 130,000 -- exceeded all but one of McCain's battleground operations, a senior campaign strategist said.

And the volunteers on the campaign's front lines for McCain insist that they are succeeding, pointing to what they call "collateral," the signs and bumper stickers that used to languish on the shelves.

In Virginia Beach, Ken Golden said the 1,500 McCain yard signs he had in late September are gone. "He makes the announcement of Sarah Palin and, my God, the stuff is leaping out of the headquarters and the victory center."

At the Mecklenburg County Republican committee meeting in September, McCain chairman Tucker Watkins marveled at the 40 people who showed up to volunteer. A year ago, he said, six people attended the regular meeting.

Herbert H. Bateman Jr., a Republican on the Newport News City Council whose late father was a congressman, conceded that Democrats are working harder than ever in his community. But he said the mood feels no different from that of past years on the Republican side.

"I've received phone calls, I've seen signs in yards, and I've seen plenty of advertising by McCain-Palin," Bateman said. "I haven't seen them give quarter to anyone."

But some of Virginia's longtime operatives said they do not think McCain's turnout operation is strong enough. They say his campaign is being run by young people who have little experience with statewide campaigns in the Old Dominion. The state director for McCain's campaign was a junior staff member on Jerry Kilgore's gubernatorial campaign in 2005, tracking Democrat Timothy M. Kaine around the state with a camera.

A senior Virginia Republican called the McCain operations in the two most populous areas of the state -- Northern Virginia and Tidewater -- "lackluster" and said it makes him nervous. He said the veterans of past campaign have vanished.

"They're not there. They've not been active. They've not been encouraged to be part of the campaign," said the Republican, who is supporting McCain and does not want to be identified as critical of the effort.

Asked about the campaign's lack of longtime Virginia operatives, a top McCain strategist noted the string of losing Republican campaigns in the state recently, including Kilgore in 2005 and U.S. Sen. George Allen in 2006.

"It's probably a very positive thing in Virginia to have some new blood," the strategist said.