Election ‘08: It’s So Nice to Be Wanted

The News & Advance
Published: September 11, 2008

Lyndon Johnson was the last Democrat to put Virginia in his column in the presidential election of 1964. Since then, the Old Dominion has been a consistent supporter of whoever ran for the White House under the Republican banner.

Not this time around, though.

Virginians have backed several Democrats over the years for one post or another: Chuck Robb, Gerald Baliles, Doug Wilder, Rick Boucher, Jim Olin and L.F. Payne Jr. come to mind, right off the bat.

Something different, though, has been going on in the state since the 2001 gubernatorial election, when Democrat Mark Warner bested Republican Mark Earley for governor by carrying portions of the state where no Democrat had dared venture before. Southwest Virginia, Southside, the Shenandoah Valley ... all areas replete with voters who, in the past, would normally have gone for the Republican candidate.

The inroads Warner made for his party in segments of the electorate not normally friendly to Democrats have helped make Virginia a toss-up in this election.

That explains why Democrat Barack Obama has been to Virginia so many times in the last several weeks, and not just to the liberal bastions of Northern Virginia. Places like Martinsville, Lebanon, Lynchburg and Chesapeake ... small-town, rural, predominantly conservative Virginia.

McCain and Palin, along with their campaign stand-ins, have been making the rounds of the vote-rich sections of the state, as well.

The national campaigns of Obama and John McCain have identified Virginia as a key electoral battleground for November, and are pouring resources into the area. Still, with less than two months to go until the election, the most recent polls show Virginia is beginning to solidify for the Republican ticket.

CNN released the latest of such polls Monday, showing McCain to be the choice of 49 percent of likely voters compared to the 43 percent who favor Obama. Even with the poll’s margin of error of 3 percentage points, that still puts McCain ahead ever so slightly.

So will the Democrats pull off the miracle and put Virginia in their column for 2008?

Who knows, but it’s good for democracy in the state. Whenever it’s practically etched in stone which party will carry any particular state, voter participation rates, more often than not, stagnate and drop over time. That’s what has happened in Virginia over the last few decades.

Now that the state is in play, perhaps the excitement of seeing a presidential campaign in our own front yard will revive the electorate, getting more people registered to vote and, then, actually showing up on Election Day to cast their ballots.

No matter the final outcome on Nov. 4, we’ll all the winners if that’s the case.