Obama returning to southwest Va.

By ANDREW CAIN
Media General News Service
Published: September 8, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama will hold a town-hall meeting Tuesday in Southwest Virginia, the latest in a string of appearances by candidates for president and vice president that underscore Virginia’s key role as a battleground state.

Obama will discuss his plans for the economy in an event that begins at 4:30 p.m. at Lebanon High School in Lebanon in Russell County. Tuesday’s event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and tickets are mandatory. Tickets are available at Obama’s campaign offices in Big Stone Gap and Castlewood and at the Abingdon campaign office of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th.

At the event in Lebanon, Obama will “lay out his plans for turning around America’s economy, ending our dependence on foreign oil and creating millions of new, good-paying jobs,“ according to his campaign.

The Illinois senator’s visit, his fourth trip to Virginia since the end of the Democratic primaries, comes on the heels of Thursday’s campaign swing to Virginia Beach and Prince William County by his running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the running mate of Republican nominee John McCain, will campaign Sept. 18 in Virginia Beach.

In recent months polls have shown Obama and McCain, an Arizona senator, to be in a neck-and-neck battle for Virginia’s 13 electoral votes.

The trip to Southwest Virginia is another sign that Obama hopes to broaden his appeal by reaching out to rural voters. He kicked off his general election campaign in Bristol. Last month he campaigned with former Gov. Mark R. Warner in economically battered Martinsville, and with Sen. Jim Webb in Lynchburg.

Rural voters could play an important role Nov. 4 if Obama and McCain split the state’s population centers. Obama’s camp hopes to roll up a lead in the populous counties of Northern Virginia that have trended Democratic in recent statewide elections. McCain’s campaign believes the former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war will run strong in Hampton Roads, home to many service members and veterans.

Obama is using his financial edge over McCain to make the Republicans defend traditionally red states. Obama is targeting states such as Virginia, which last backed a Democrat for president in 1964, and Colorado, which last backed a Democratic nominee in 1992.

In 2004, Democratic nominee John Kerry captured 19 states and the District of Columbia, amassing 252 electoral votes, 18 short of victory. If Obama were to hold the states Kerry won and turn Virginia, he would have 265 electoral votes. He could then seek the final five in other swing states, such as Iowa, New Mexico or Nevada.