Obama Clinches Bid for Virginia

By Tim Craig, Anita Kumar

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama beat Sen. John McCain in the presidential race in Virginia late today, capping a hard-fought contest that broke the Republicans' 44-year grip on the state's electoral votes.

After a day in which huge crowds turned out at polls across Virginia, Obama performed far better in the traditionally conservative state than any recent Democratic candidate. With about 91 percent of the precincts reporting, Obama led by 51 percent to 49 percent.

If the tight lead holds up, Obama would be the first Democrat since 1964 to carry the state.

Four years ago, President Bush won Virginia by eight percentage points, but Obama showed surprising strength in many suburban communities. Although Bush won Prince William and Loudoun counties four years ago, Obama was way ahead in those suburbs tonight.

Bush carried Chesterfield County in suburban Richmond, a traditionally Republican area, with 64 percent of the vote. McCain carried it today with 54 percent. Another county in suburban Richmond, Henrico, went to Obama, even though Bush easily carried it four years ago.

McCain did slightly better than Bush did in southwestern Virginia, but Obama made gains in rural areas in the eastern part of the state with larger African American populations. Obama also racked up huge margins in many of Virginia's cities, but McCain had the edge in Virginia Beach, where there are large concentrations of active-duty and retired service members.

Many voters across the state endured hours-long lines to vote in the historic presidential race in which the nation would elect either its first black president or its first female vice president.

"McCain is my choice," said Lynn Johnson, 58, a strategic systems architect who voted at Marshall High School in Falls Church. "It's an easy choice. It would have been nice to have an African American in office," she said, but she thinks Obama's associations are "radical."

Steve Carpenter, 44, who volunteered with the Republican Party handing out sample ballots at the high school, agreed. He said he prefers McCain in part because he is the "most experienced by far of the two candidates" and said the mainstream media has given Barack Obama "a free pass."

But Nick Longworth, 27, of Herndon, a Republican, said he voted for Obama because McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, is too far to the right and inexperienced.

"If you're going to talk about someone's experience, choosing as a vice presidential candidate someone who has comparable experience to your opponent doesn't seem like a wise decision," said Longworth, a sociology major at Northern Virginia Community College. "Also, being elderly as John McCain is, the chances of Sarah Palin becoming president did not appeal to me. I may be a Republican, but I am not a right-wing Republican."

Steve Goldstein, 58, a self-employed pet sitter from Herndon, said he cast his ballot for Obama for a simple reason: "After the last eight years, is all I can say."

Virginia voters, like those nationwide, had deep apprehension about the economy when they cast their ballots, according to exit polls. Nearly nine out of 10 Virginia voters said they are worried about the direction of the nation's economy, and more than half of all voters cited it as the central factor in their vote. Those voters appear to have favored Obama, according to exit polls.

African Americans, young voters and those making less than $100,000 a year favored Obama. White men and women and senior citizens favored McCain, according to exit polls. Self-described Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly sided with their respective party's nominee, and independents split their votes between the two candidates.

Obama and McCain fiercely courted Virginia's 13 electoral votes, so the state had a front-row seat to a presidential election for the first time in decades. Both candidates, as well as their surrogates, made repeated visits to the state and flooded the airwaves and mailboxes with advertisements.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, one of Obama's earliest supporters, said the Illinois senator decided shortly after the Feb. 12 primary to seriously compete for the traditionally red state.

With the support of large numbers of African American and well-educated voters, Obama racked up a 30-point primary victory over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), one of his largest margins of the primary season.

In May, even before Clinton abandoned her campaign for the Democratic nomination, Obama began quietly deploying staff and field organizers to Virginia.

On June 5, two days after he clinched the nomination, Obama kicked off his general election campaign with stops in southwestern Virginia and Prince William County.

Obama's choice of initial campaign stops sent a clear signal that he planned to focus his efforts on voters in rural, conservative communities as well as fast-growing, outer-suburban communities -- both of which typically vote Republican in presidential campaigns.

In July, Obama announced he was opening 20 offices in Virginia, including one in every medium-sized city in the state and also a few in sparsely populated regions that have never hosted a presidential campaign office before. Obama would eventually open nearly 50 offices in Virginia.

Obama, along with outside groups, also launched an ambitious effort to register new voters. From Jan. 1 to Oct. 6, the deadline to register, Virginia added nearly a half million voters.

But many parts of Virginia remain heavily Republican, and there were signs during the final week of the campaign that McCain remained well-positioned to withstand Obama's efforts.

The Republican National Committee and other groups released a flood of television and radio ads in markets downstate hammering Obama for his views on defense spending and has association with 1960s radical William Ayers. The National Rifle Association and Christian conservative groups also made a push last weekend to keep their supporters lined up behind McCain.

In June, when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis released a PowerPoint presentation of battleground states, Virginia was listed as one of 17 "solidly Republican" states. Even though opinion polls during the summer showed a close race, Virginia and national Republicans were often quoted as saying they were confident that the state would revert to its GOP leanings after Labor Day.

But Obama continued to heavily invest resources in Virginia. After both parties' national nominating conventions ended in early September, Obama released a barrage of television ads across the state, outspending McCain nearly 4 to 1 on local network ads.

The polls continued to show a close race, forcing McCain officials to increase the number of field offices and staff deployed in the state. McCain and Palin began making campaign appearances in Virginia.

Whenever Palin or McCain appeared in Virginia, Obama or his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden, was not far behind. The two Democrats visited the state 17 times since June, about twice as many times as McCain and Palin.

Obama also continued to refine his organization, composed of tens of thousands of volunteers from across the country. A Washington Post poll in late October found that staff and volunteers had made staggering gains in reaching out to Virginia's 5 million registered voters. More than half of all voters surveyed said they had been contacted in person, on the phone or by e-mail or text message by the Obama campaign.

In addition, McCain's Virginia campaign had to deflect several well-publicized comments made by its surrogates. McCain's brother, Joe, made a joke in Loudoun County that Democratic-leaning Arlington and Alexandria are "communist country."

Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick (Prince William), chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, also made national news after he compared Obama to Osama bin Laden.

Click here for an interactive map of congressional and presidential race results.

Tagged: Barack Obama, elections, November 2008 Elections

Your Thoughts...

Are you happy that the school year is over?