AP - For decades Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns ignored the bedroom communities within 60 miles of the White House. A tide of new residents has changed that attitude as sharply as it’s changed northern Virginia’s demographics.
"The battle for Virginia is going to be won in the outer suburbs of Washington and, to some extent, the outer suburbs of Hampton Roads," said Stephen J. Farnsworth, who teaches political journalism at George Mason University in Fairfax.
Democrat Barack Obama will be here Saturday with his running mate, Joe Biden, the first time the two have campaigned together since the Democratic National Convention. Biden was a few miles up the road in Prince William County on Tuesday.
Republican John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, drew the largest crowd of their campaign earlier this month when more than 20,000 turned out in Fairfax County.
Two polls within the past week show Obama and McCain in a very tight race in Virginia, which last backed a Democrat for president in 1964.
The Old Dominion is the only battleground state the can claim a region like northern Virginia, Farnsworth said. Six of the nation’s 100 fastest-growing counties from 2000 to 2007 lie within this sprawling region of leafy subdivisions, trendy malls and perpetually gridlocked highways interspersed with Civil War battlefields. Read more...
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