Potomac Confidential: Election Special Wrapup

Democrat Timothy M. Kaine defeated Republican Jerry W. Kilgore in Tuesday's election for governor of Virginia, riding the popularity of outgoing Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) and dissatisfaction with the Bush administration in a state that typically votes Republican in national elections.

Marc Fisher was online Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Noon ET for a wrapup of the metro area's election results.

Read Marc's Potomac Confidential Election Night Special transcript.

A transcript follows.

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washingtonpost.com: Elections 2005/Full Coverage

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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, Virginians and political junkies everywhere. Everybody tanned, rested and ready? That was quite a night last night in the Old Dominion and the pros are already deep into analysis, spin and speculation. Goodness, they're even hard into chatter about who the candidates will be in...2009! (Ok, I'll jump right into it: Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and (if his paper-thin lead holds up) Attorney General Bob McDonnell would battle for the Republican nomination for governor, but watch for northern Virginia Republicans to assert themselves too--Sean Connaughton and Tom Davis, and his wife Jeanne Devolites Davis, spring to mind--while the Democrats wake up this morning gleeful about having held the governor's house but cognizant that their bench is very thin for the next time around. Alexandria Delegate Brian Moran's name pops up, and then there's the scenario under which Mark Warner returns from an unsuccessful presidential bid in 2008 and seeks another term as governor.)Anyway, how's that for getting way, way ahead of ourselves?So, to last night and to Virginia's newly realigned reality (imagine Loudoun and Prince William counties voting for the Democrat for governor!) and your many comments and questions (yes, even after our five-hour marathon last night). Your turn starts right now....

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Washington, D.C.: Do you think that if it hadn't been for those death penalty ads, we'd be talking about Governor-elect Kilgore?

Marc Fisher: Yes.It would have been much closer, at any rate. Without those ads, perhaps there would have been a more direct conversation about why Kilgore presented no overarching theme and little positive sense of why he should be governor. But it's also true that Kaine benefited from the impression of honesty and fairness that came from his response to the Kilgore ads, so maybe Kaine wouldn't have done as well without the Kilgore spots either.

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Alexandria, Va.: It's been said that Kilgore's death penalty ads hurt him, do we have any evidence of this?

Also, do you think his anti-immigrant stance hurt him, particularly in Northern Virginia, where Kaine got nearly all his margin of victory? Someone should look into this, because it appears that social conservatives are going to make a big deal out of the immigration issue in 2008.

Marc Fisher: If I were a candidate from either party looking at the obvious emotional power of the immigration issue, I'd of course be drawn to it because it's a way of appealing to Americans' sense of fair play--hey, we came here by playing by the rules, why shouldn't today's immigrants. But there's a flip side to the illegal immigration issue that we've seen play out in both Herndon and Gaithersburg, and that is the sense many voters have that this is not a problem for local or state politicians, that it's a question of federal policy and more important, that it presents us all with a dose of our own hypocrisy, because those illegal immigrants wouldn't be out on the street seeking work unless the rest of us were also out on the street looking to hire them.

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City of Fairfax: Marc, You voiced concerns earlier about Kaine's personal positions on abortion and the death penalty. While he may have been elected for many reasons, I think a small part of it is that it shows that Virginians are comfortable with a person who has beliefs, but isn't trying to evangelize through his office.

Marc Fisher: That's a fair point, and clearly most Virginians decided that they were not overly bothered by the contradiction between Kaine's personal opposition to the death penalty and his pronouncements that he will fairly enforce Virginia law on capital punishment. I remain uneasy with the idea that any politician tells us upfront that he will not even work to persuade the people that his moral convictions have good grounds. I'd be happy if Kaine said yes, I'm going to do my duty and enforce the law, but I'm also going to work for what I believe in. That's the message that Michael Steele is putting out in Maryland as he launches his senatorial campaign, and it strikes me as the more morally honest path.

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Philadelphia, Pa.: Does Tim Kaine's victory prove that Virginia is now a swing state? If Kilgore had won, you could say that Warner's victory was a fluke and that he won in spite of his party and not because of it. But the fact is that another Democrat won the office, and that is the strength of a political party in my view. So therefore does this mean that the Democratic Party brand can sell in Virginia?

Marc Fisher: Yes and no. Yes, in that Virginians are obviously willing to vote Democratic when it suits them, but no in that many of the policies and values that the national Democratic party seems to stand for remain anathema to most Virginians. There's a big gulf between the politics and rhetoric of Mark Warner and Tim Kaine as opposed to those of Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. The Virginia Democrats have appealed to the great middle of America and Virginia by saying that the divide in this country need not be between faithful and secular, nor between pro-tax and anti-tax. Rather, the Virginia Democrats have presented themselves as efficient, tight-fisted managers who will speak to voters as adults, steer clear of social issues, and focus on what really matters--education, housing, health care, growth.

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McLean, Va.: I'm a Democrat in NOVA, yet Kaine's victory was not my favorite from yesterday.

Can we get a big ole yay for the voters in Dover, Pa.? Each and every member of the school board who voted for the Intelligent Design hullabaloo was voted out.

Marc Fisher: Ok, but on the same day, you had the opposite result, and a much more immediate and direct impact, in Kansas, where the schools will now teach intelligent design as an alternative to evolution.

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Pentagon City, Va.: So what do you think the Kilgore war room was like last night?

"We should have played the Hitler card more."

'No, Hitler was wrong, we should have used Stalin instead'

Marc Fisher: I've not yet heard any Republicans express regrets about the death penalty ads. The recriminations so far seem more aimed at Kilgore's weakness as a candidate--his inability to speak well off-script, his lack of a strong message, his thin voice.

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Alexandria, Va.: First, I want to thank you for doing the chat last night and helping to keep us all informed of what was happening.

Second, I wanted to know what you thought about the coverage of the election on TV last night. I understand why coverage was limited on the likes of CNN but I was extremely disappointed by the lack of coverage the election got on each of the local stations. The major exception to this was Newschannel 8. Is what you saw last night normal for a statewide election? Also, I have been hearing how 'HIGH' the turnout(45 percent) was last night for an off-year election do you think the local stations decide that since less then half the people in the state voted this just isn't worth major attention and reciprocally that this lack of coverage is why people don't vote?

Marc Fisher: I didn't get to see much of the coverage as I was here chatting with you all through most of the evening. But there wasn't much coverage to see; as a number of you noted all night long, the local TV stations in the Washington area basically ignored the election til their 11 pm newscast. They had some results on their web sites, but hardly anything on the air. That's both sad and irresponsible. The rest of Virginia is much more tuned in to state politics, so there was more TV coverage in some of the other markets. And the DC-based stations will argue that their Washington and Maryland viewers don't care about Virginia. But you'll note that that doesn't lead those stations to turn down the political ads from Virginia, right?

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Washington, D.C.: I think Fairfax and maybe someother NoVa jurisdicitons had education bond matters on the ballot. Do you think that, and the education finance theme of Warner/Kaine team, may have pumped up Kaine's turnout there and helped the Dems in delegate races as well? Is this maybe something that could be repeated elsewhere, much like gay marriage initiatives seem to help drive out the Republican base?

Marc Fisher: Kaine and Potts both made the argument that education trumps everything else, and especially trumps transportation as a motivating issue for voters. They seem to have been borne out by the results. Kilgore's schools plan was vague at best, something about improving teacher pay but without a funding mechanism other than the eternal and mythic cuts of waste and fraud. Kaine will be judged by his abilty to deliver on his promise to focus on the beginning and end of education--bringing universal pre-K to Virginia schools and halting the slide in quality and offerings at the state's colleges and universities. Those are expensive ideas and it will be a big struggle for him to come through on them.

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Sterling, Va.: I thought we had it in the bag. President George W. Bush. Senator George Allen. Karl Rove. The 72-Hour Project. Virginia State Police "drunk driving" checkpoints. Fliers demanding taxes be paid up before voting. AVS systems. KOTV. Given all that, how do we lose to Democrat Party candidate Tim Kaine? We lose to someone who's such a wimp he served as a missionary and has "qualms" about the death penalty? My God, poor Jerry Kilgore must feel abandoned and betrayed. His supposed "friends" hung him out to dry so they could play "possum" for the Democrat Party in 2006. Shameful and sinful.

Marc Fisher: Kaine's emphasis on his missionary year and his commitment to service became the defining aspect of his personality in this campaign. Obviously both sides did negative ads, but Kaine's were more than balanced by a positive message, plus he had the enormous popularity of Mark Warner to ride along with. Kilgore's camp did little on the positive side; oddly, they had some compelling positive TV spots that they didn't even use. Check out their website and look at the ads with Kilgore's kids--they're charming and effective, but they never aired.

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Arlington, Va.: What is up with the AG's race? I assume there will be a recount, but how do you recount an electronic voting machine? Are there still provisional ballots left to be counted?

Marc Fisher: Strangely, the state elections board is still showing a couple of precincts not counted in that tight race for Attorney General. The Republican margin is down to fewer than 3,000 votes and there are about 1,500 absentee ballots to be counted. In a recount, the electronic records from the ballot machines are fed into the central computer again--the results shouldn't differ and usually don't. If I were betting, I'd put my money on McDonnell's thin lead holding up.

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The K's: I typically vote Republican, and was apathetic about both of the K's, UNTIL I received a "handwritten" letter from a woman about how her policeman husband was gunned down, and the reason I should vote for Kilgore is because he would fry the perp. I have evolved to believe that the worst punishment for a capital crime is to die a natural death while incarcerated. I DEFINITELY voted AGAINST Kilgore.

Marc Fisher: That letter is as emotionally wrenching as the TV ads that accompanied it. And I heard from a great many voters all fall long, including both death penalty supporters and opponents, who found that whole appeal offensive and who turned against Kilgore because they found that ad campaign manipulative and dishonest.

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McLean, Va.: What do these results say about Senator Allen's standing in Va?

Marc Fisher: We were just debating that here this morning. Some say that Allen is more vulnerable as a result of this election, that he has spent most of his time in office catering to his base, which is the God, guns and gays social-issue red-meat Republicans outside of the major metro areas, and that Allen has neglected the issues that appeal to northern Virginians. But I don't see any real vulnerability there, because Allen is an enormously winning personality and he has made a point of breaking with the Bush administration on some major issues over the past couple of years. Watch for him to take a clear public stance against the ethical lapses of this administration; I bet he also takes a stand against Dick Cheney's moral relativism on torture--that's a clear way for Allen to appeal to Virginia's large population of military retirees, who yearn for a more moral defense policy.

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20th & Pennsylvania, NW: Marc,

Don't want to turn this into an Immigration Issue board but I think the Herndon issue goet demagogued too much. As a Town resident I can tell you that much of the opposition to the site was not based on opposition to the laborers themselves; I myself have a high degree of respect for anyone who wants to come to this country and work. Rather the opposition is focused on the location of the Town's site and the effect it would have on the neighborhood (which includes several friends of my family and me). Put the day laborer site in a more appropriate location and much of the opposition would disappear. It's not the xenophobia many would have you believe.

Great job on election coverage by the way. Very much appreciated.

Marc Fisher: Thanks, and good point--the fact is that a combination of opportunistic radio talk show hosts and Republicans eager for an easy emotional issue leaped on the Herndon spat and tried to turn it into a wedge, and it flopped. It flopped partly because of what you say--this really was an essentially local question about location and spending--and partly because northern Virginia is a region with a much higher proportion of immigrants than most of the state and the nation, and there is little interest here in making life miserable for those who have already come to this country. There is, on the other hand, lots of support, even among immigrant families, for a much more aggressive and effective border policy.

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City of Fairfax: Regarding coverage of the election, it's all part and parcel of the media coverage of Va. It seems to me that D.C. (local, not federal), Md. state govt., and the Md. suburbs have always gotten more coverage (TV, papers, radio) than Virginia, or its metro suburbs. I think this feeds into the lack of clout that Northern Virginia has in Richmond. If our eyes were turned there, instead of to D.C.'s tax, DMV, etc., problems, maybe we'd have the clout in Richmond that's commensurate with our population!

Marc Fisher: You're certainly right that news coverage in the D.C. area tends to be more District-centric than the population numbers could possibly support. That has two causes: Covering the city is easier and cheaper (count the crime and fire stories on the 11 p.m. TV news and compare that number to stories about any other part of life) and the city is all we have in common, so while everyone in the region knows who Mayor Williams is and knows where Georgetown and Adams Morgan are, Virginians and Marylanders go their own ways about the suburbs, so Doug Duncan and Gerry Connolly are known only in their own jurisdictions, and not very widely known at that.

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Annandale, Va.: I just wanted to say that after reading and reading and reading about the political candidates and their platforms, it felt really good to finally vote. It's cliche, but it is one of the few times I get to have a voice in our Republic. Maybe that feeling is what should be used as a campaign to get more voters to the pols ("Voter's High").

Marc Fisher: Absolutely--it's envigorating, inspiring and downright fun. Even when the results go against you.

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Great Falls, Va.: I am so curious to know how Mark Warner would have polled if he were able to have run again. I know many Republicans, people like my father who voted for Kilgore yesterday and against Warner four years ago, that would have voted for Warner this time around if they could. He is also popular in the rural southwest parts of the state that Kilgore carried because he's from there. I think if Warner ran for president, it goes without question that Virginia is one red state that would move to the blue column, at least temporarily.

Marc Fisher: Very good question. Kaine outpolled Warner in quite a few places, and especially in Warner's home court of northern Virginia. Warner lost Loudoun in 2001 by 53-46 and he lost Prince William by 52-47. He won Fairfax, but only by 54-45, while Kaine hit an amazing 60 percent in Fairfax.So would Virginians go for Warner for president? Depends on whom he ran against, of course, but given his huge popularity at the end of his term as governor, he'd have a strong chance to win here. And that has to be a major factor as Dems look at their chances in 2008. Of course, the people who look at such things don't pick the nominee, and the primary process remains stacked heavily in favor of the more extreme candidates in both parties. Centrists don't generally fare well in primaries.

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Bristow, Va.: Marc,

You say that Prince William is realigned after last night? While Kaine carried the county, all five Republican delegates won (one unopposed), and the down-ticket races both swung heavily to the GOP. If anything, I think that shows that Kilgore alienated a lot of the more moderate voters, rather than a full-fledged Democrat upheavel within the county.

Thanks for your coverage throughout the campaigns, by the way.

Marc Fisher: No! I don't say Prince William is realigned. Kaine was the only Democrat to win in that fast-growing suburban county. But the fact that he won, and that the Dems came close in other elections, indicates that Prince William voters include a substantial number--many of whom formerly lived in Fairfax--of people who have a more metropolitan way of thinking about issues and who are more oriented toward schools, housing and traffic than toward gun rights, religious and sexuality issues.

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Silver Spring, Md.: "I've not yet heard any Republicans express regrets about the death penalty ads."

I'm pretty sure I heard a couple of GOP bigwigs from Richmond say they thought Kilgore was hurt by the "intensity" of his negative ads.

Marc Fisher: Ah, then you're ahead of me. I'll scout around for some quotes to pass along. Thanks.

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Fairfax, Va.: Marc,

I'm very excited by Tim Kaine's win and what it might mean nationally. However, my thoughts are tempered by echoes of former DNC chair Tery McAuliffe proclaiming, in 2001, that governor wins by Warner and McGreevey would naturally lead to gains by Democrats in Congress. Yes, Sept. 11 and terrorism played a huge role in 2002, but I can't help but believe that Kaine and Corzine victories mean very little other than a bunch of political pundits trying to connect the dots ... dots that may not even exist. Thoughts?

Marc Fisher: All the talk you will hear in the coming days about what the Kaine victory means for the Bush administration is a large bucket of hooey mixed with a few grains of truth. Virginia has a long history of voting for the party that's not in the White House in its gubernatorial elections, which always come one year after the presidential vote. So yes, there's probably an element of sending a message to the guys in Washington, but if so, that message is hardly unique to or finely tuned about the Bush administration. And in the past two elections, the Virginian support for Dems for governor has had much to do with irresponsible fiscal policy on the part of Republicans who have given up their claim to be the party of tight spending and clear-headed financial management.

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Arlington, Va.: I'm another person who got that "handwritten letter". That plus all the TV ads really heightened my dislike of Kilgore. Kaine may have been a weak candidate. But I felt he spoke about other issues such as schools and taxes. Kilgore seemed not to have a platform, only bashing Kaine. Do you think the Republicans will look for a more qualified candidate next time?

Marc Fisher: Yes, and while the system is stacked toward candidates holding statewide office--potentially Bolling and McDonnell, both hardline social conservatives from old Virginia--the Republicans will also look toward northern Virginia for a Warner-like candidate who can speak in more modern terms to the Fairfax/Loudoun/Prince Willy electorate. Can you spell Sean Connaughton?

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Politics and Immigration: You wrote:

" If I were a candidate from either party looking at the obvious emotional power of the immigration issue, I'd of course be drawn to it because it's a way of appealing to Americans' sense of fair play -- hey, we came here by playing by the rules, why shouldn't today's immigrants."

You're very generous. You're, no doubt, partly right, but this issue also calls forth our basest impulses -- hostility based on fear and resentment -- and politicians play on those fears.

Marc Fisher: Yes, but that play failed, in race after race--see Kilgore, Jerry; Craddock, Chris; Black, Dick.

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Alexandria/Mt. Vernon, Va.: Marc -

I posted this message in Mark Rozell's chat but wanted to get your take:

Annoying Phone Calls!: Can I vent about those annoying "vote for me" phone messages? On election day I had 6 (SIX) messages! 1 was from Kaine, 1 was for some race other than the gov., and 4 were for Kilgore! 4 messages from one guy?!-?!?

I wasn't going to vote for Kilgore anyway, but if I were, I'd change my mind after all those calls. Also, I voted at 7am and didn't hear those messsages until 5 p.m.

Marc Fisher: Is this another way in which the vaunted Republican campaign machinery failed? Messages and tactics that may work in much of the state and much of the country run the risk of failure in a very media-savvy and highly educated and affluent area like northern Virginia.

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Dunn Loring, Va.: Although the Washington Post broke the story about how an aide to Gov. Ehrlich was involved in rumor mongering, the Post has seemed much less inclined to try and determine who the source of the e-mails were, much less reporting the fact that Baltimore TV station WBAL has found out that the source was someone with a Maryland Democratic party address. Why the double standard, that is, it's newsworthy for a Republican to trade in rumors, but not when it's a Democrat? Any chance you'll do a story on the alleged source and the cushy high-paying that Mayor O'Malley created just for him?

Marc Fisher: As I understand it, our reporter on that story, Matt Mosk, has no idea who the source was--the material came to him anonymously. Would the Post report it to readers if we could determine who the source was? Certainly now that the identity of the source is the subject of official inquiries, we'd want to report that, and obviously there's no issue of our reporter having promised any confidentiality because the reporter never knew who the source was!

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Santa Barbara, Calif.: Do you think President Bush missed a golden opportunity by not coming out publicly against the Howell negative ads that ran against governor-elect Kaine? I think such a move would have put him above the partisan fray and shown his mettle as a statesman. He may have offended the Kilgore party, but he may have energized the Republican base and swayded the independents, if not for the Virginia race, then for his agenda overall, and allowed him to claim higher moral ground.

Marc Fisher: Lovely scenario, and very appealing too, but about as realistic as Bush addressing the nation about how his own zeal to beat the terrorists led him to condone the Plame outing and to mislead the public about weapons of mass destruction.

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Wilmington, N.C.: If the Kilgore death penalty ads were such a big factor, why was the race polling a dead heat until last week, long after the ads?

Marc Fisher: Not sure that's right--my sense from reading polls from around the state is that Kaine began to edge upward right after those ads appeared and produced the big backlash in the news coverage and political reaction.

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Saint Paul, Minn.: President Bush's anti-coat tails in Minnesota

In Saint Paul, Mayor Randy Kelly lost his reelection bid to Chris Coleman by the largest vote margin in city history. (Kelly 30 percent, Coleman 69 percent). It is widely agreed that the only issue was Mayor Kelly's active endorsement and support of the president last year.

Mayor Kelly, a moderate to slightly conservative candidate, lost to a former city council person (moderate to slightly progressive candidate). Talking to voters the overriding issue in their vote was the almost intense anger with Kelly over his support. The condition of the city is fine, mayor Kelly had several initiatives in the area of housing and arts that were commendable. In a normal year he would have been a strong favorite for re-election.

John Shermanformer 4th Congressional District DFL chair

Marc Fisher: A political party spurned can still demonstrate considerable wrath, even in an era in which voters tend to align more with individual candidates than with party. This is why Russ Potts is likely not relishing his return to the Virginia Senate.

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Fairfax, Va.: You mentioned Chris Craddock a couple times last night; I thought I'd mention a phone poll I received a week or so ago, where the following three questions surfaced:

--Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: Chris Craddock is too extreme?

--Would it make you more or less likely to vote for Democrat Chuck Caputo if you knew that outgoing Republican Delegate Gary Reese has endorsed the Caputo campaign?

--Would it make you more or less likely to vote for Republican Chris Craddock if you knew that on the day he won the Republican nomination, someone in his camp was arrested or convicted of something, I can't remember details?

Then the kicker at the end: "This poll has been commissioned by the Virginia Republican Party"!

So it looks like the Republicans were throwing their guy under the bus long ago, or at least wanted to have reasons ready for him if/when he lost.

I gotta say, though, as a Republican who couldn't STAND Craddock, I had to laugh at the Post's editorial endorsing Caputo, with the line of "if only so we don't have to listen to any more of Craddock's inanities."

Marc Fisher: I'd bet lunch that that survey wasn't really sponsored by the Virginia Republican Party. First of all, if it were, the polltaker wouldn't say that it was. He wouldn't even know that it was in most instances. That sounds like a classic push poll, which is a survey designed not to find out what you're thinking, but to deliver negative information about a candidate to move votes away from that person or to suppress turnout.

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Alexandria, Va.: Last night you said that if Leslie Byrne runs against Rep. Jim Moran in the 2006 8th District primary she will be tarnished from her loss.

Compared to the rusted and corroded Jim Moran, wouldn't a tarnished candidate look good?

Marc Fisher: So you'd think, and Jim Moran will only be defeated by a challenger from within his own party, not by any Republican. But his victory last year probably cemented his hold on his congressional seat; last year was the chance for a strong Democrat to oust Moran and Kate Hanley or Leslie Byrne would have had a very good chance--look at how decently a no-name challenger did. Next time would be much tougher.

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P.S. from Annandale: Marc,

Your D.C. schools are still a joke compared to Fairfax -- I have a co-worker next to me living in Tenleytown, scared about sending his kid to middle-school. We need Republicans to keep out the waste and discipline the riff-raff in Virginia, not tax and give-away Dems in charge of the purse strings. We will get a better Republican candidate next time.

Marc Fisher: Virginians seem pretty pleased with Warner's fiscal discipline, and except for the really hard-core true believers, many Republicans would agree that Warner was more tight-fisted with tax dollars than Jim Gilmore proved to be. But you're right that Virginia is elementally different from the District or Maryland, and it will remain a Republican state in its basic beliefs and priorities. The question is whether the Republican party will field candidates who match that old definition of the GOP or candidates who seek instead to bank on social issues while mortgaging the state's financial future.

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Response to Sterling, Va.: A person is a "wimp" because they serve their conscience and try to aid less fortunate folks through missionary work? A person is a "wimp" because they have qualms about putting people to death (even though your guy's preach "culture of life")?

To you, these admirable qualities show weakness. Perhaps this is why you lost.

Marc Fisher: Ah, a nice bit of lingering campaign enthusiasm.

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Stone Ridge, Va.: You know, if Clinton helped Gore in 2000 even half as much as Warner helped Kaine, we wouldn't have Bush now (nor have any idea who the junior senator from Mass. is).

Marc Fisher: That's a nice thought, but I don't buy it. Just as Kilgore lost because he lacked a clear and convincing message, so did Gore. I couldn't figure out what he stood for, whereas Bush's candidacy was a model of clarity.

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Springfield, Va.: I never thought I would witness the surreal spectacle of a Republican candidate like Kilgore attacking his Democratic opponent based on issues related to Kaine's Christian religous faith, specifically Kaine's stand on the death penalty. Kilgore conveniently ignored that Kaine's faith also requires him to be pro-life. Talk about picking and choosing your hypocracy.

Marc Fisher: I think a lot of Republicans shared those misgivings.

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Springfield, Va.: Kaine's win gives me hope that there may be a place in the political landscape for someone like me, after all. That is, someone who identifies with most Democratic causes and votes Democratic, but who is also a faithful churchgoer and has a pretty traditional view on moral issues. Since the fringes of both parties tend to get most of the attention, it has been hard to know how many voters like me are out there. I wonder if this will affect the polarized, either/or flavor of the national conversation?

Marc Fisher: There is a vast middle of people like you who are utterly alienated by the polarized political conversation of this country. The pols are too intelligent not to realize that, yet they are trapped in the structures of American politics and the reality that the primary system generates candidates who play primarily to the poles, thereby further alienating the center.

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Annandale, Va.: Well, Kilgore was a non-entity of a candidate and Kaine was a teflon-coated, smooth talking Democrat. He proably will try and tax us more like Warner did. He will do nothing to stop the tide of immigrant day laborers or at least to organize them -- and simply blame the Federal Govt for not stopping them when it is Fairfax County Cadillac social services that draws them (the Post's own editorial said this last year). Sure, I don't mind cheap labor, I live next to the Annandale day-laborer site, -- what I don't like is tax them Democrats who blame the Feds for problems they do nothing about.

Marc Fisher: Here are two issues that neither party will do anything about: illegal immigration and traffic. Are there differences in the parties' rhetoric over these issues? Sure. But do they have any meaning? Not that I can discern.

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Minutemen: The article yesterday about the Minutemen filming the day laborers in Herndon was very disturbing. Will the IRS really review the film? Is there anything that can be done to stop the Minutement from harassing people?

Marc Fisher: I don't know what the IRS will do with the film, but I have no problem with the Minutemen being out there. Their point is exactly right--this issue will come down to just how wedded Americans are to the cheap labor that illegal immigrants provide. The Minutemen are betting that Americans are angrier about illegal immigration than they are craving of cheap labor. I think they're wrong, and here's my evidence: Wal-Mart.

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Marc Fisher: Thanks very much for coming along today. Back tomorrow with the regular Potomac Confidential show--we'll focus on the Virginia elections and look ahead to a whiz-bang year of politics in Maryland and the District, and of course take your questions and comments on a world full of other topics. Thanks for joining in and apologies to the many I couldn't get to. Go pick out some pretty leaves.

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