Candidates Boost Their Va. Mileage
McCain Backers Hit Springfield By the Thousands

By Michael Laris and Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 2, 2008

As the two major presidential candidates made a final, urgent push for Virginia's 13 electoral votes, Sen. John McCain appeared before an energized crowd in Springfield, and Sen. Barack Obama's campaign announced that he will hold his final event Monday at 9 p.m. at the Prince William County Fairgrounds.

With chants of "Keep Virginia Red," thousands of supporters crowded into a truck parking lot yesterday to boost McCain, who asked for help in the run-up to Tuesday's vote.

"We're a few points down, but we're coming back," McCain said to raucous applause. Many in the crowd said they rejected reports that he is trailing in a state that has been a traditional stronghold for Republican presidential candidates.

"I don't believe it's true, because most of the people I talk to are for McCain," substitute teacher Micke Stapor of Herndon said. "How could we possibly be voting for someone who is so far left? . . . It's close, but it will still go red."

But in the political physics of the campaign's frenzied last hours, the outpouring for McCain helped spur area Democrats, including Chris Kameron, who lives near the site of the rally, to accompany two neighbors to knock on 55 doors for Obama yesterday afternoon.

"That's why we got out there," said Kameron, a parent liaison for Fairfax schools.

"We're really happy Obama's ahead in the polls, but we're scared, too, that something might happen," said Kameron's neighbor, John Betz of Burke, who was joined by daughter Caitlin, 18.

At a storefront Democratic outpost in a Springfield strip mall, down from a dollar store and Nail Villa, dozens of volunteers churned through calls and organized voter lists. Out behind two green trash bins, a half-dozen high school students assembled plastic Obama-Biden signs.

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of former president John F. Kennedy, was campaigning for Obama in Fairfax yesterday, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to make an Obama campaign stop in the county today.

The thrusts into voter-rich Northern Virginia show how crucial the commonwealth remains as the nearly two-year campaign comes to a close. And the state's largest county is a big draw.

"Fairfax County is key to this election. You know that," McCain said. "You know how important it is for us to win here. You know how important it is that we put this country in the right direction. I need your help for the next three days."

A GOP win in the county of more than 1 million will be tough, if the area's recent voting history is an indication. It backed Sen. John F. Kerry four years ago, and Democrats have made further gains since. But the McCain campaign chose as the location for its rally a swath of Fairfax notable for the many voters who came out to reelect President Bush in 2004.

McCain supporters who gathered yesterday said their man has gotten a bum rap.

"I don't feel the economy is anywhere near John McCain's fault. We have a Democratic Congress," said Annandale math tutor Mary Pawlow, 64. "John McCain has been in the Senate long enough to see the economy do many strange things."

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, continued to be a figure of intense interest.

Ina Marie Davis, 36, of Springfield held a fluorescent pink sign that read "Tow Truck Lady" and screamed approval at partisan jabs from McCain and the Virginia GOP luminaries backing him. Asked what she likes best about McCain, she gave a one-word answer: "Palin."

"She's got it all," the tow-truck driver said. "She knows about life. She's a mom. She's a fighter. She's made it. She doesn't take 'no' for an answer."

George Thompson of Springfield, who is retiring this year from the drywall business he started, said he is not surprised that Virginia is now in play for the Democrats, because of Obama's youth and energy. He came to the McCain rally without his family. His daughters support Obama.

"I just hope John McCain four years from now quotes Mark Twain: 'The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,' " Thompson said, noting that, at 62, he does not appreciate what feels like the dismissal of the 72-year-old McCain by some because of age. "They're putting him in the grave -- like those people don't have grandparents, or fathers."

Virginians continued to flock to the polls yesterday to vote in person by absentee ballot. In heavily Democratic Richmond City, there was a five-hour wait. Hundreds of people, many using walkers and wheelchairs, waited in a line that snaked around City Hall.

"I wouldn't be able to come Tuesday 'cause I need assistance; I just had knee replacement," said Ella Garland, 64, who waited five hours. "It was worth it. Obama is worth it. I'd do it all again."

Although many of the people in line said they were planning to vote for Obama, Lucile Hayes, 70, cast her vote for McCain.

"It was my duty for my country to come wait in line today because I have arthritis and did not know if I could vote" Tuesday, Hayes said after her almost 4 1/2 -hour wait. "I just had surgery, so I had to sit down a lot, but I am a Christian. God made me a Republican."

Since in-person absentee voting began in Virginia two weeks ago, Gloria Nash Allen has been volunteering for a senior center to drive people to the polls. But yesterday, she waited for hours while her husband, a trucker who will be on the road Tuesday, cast his ballot.

"I've never seen it like this before," Allen said. "It is amazing just watching them coming in wheelchairs and with walkers, and I know for a fact a lot of these people showing up have never voted before."