Virginia has become one of the new battleground states for the 2008 Presidential Election. Though it may vote for Democratic Presidential Candidate for the first time since 1964, it has voted Democratic in various state elections.
Virginia can be viewed as two regions, northern Virginia and southern Virginia. Northern Virginia is mainly located between Maryland, Washington DC, and West Virginia. The region is influenced by its Democratic-prone neighbors (West Virginia is not as influential), a bit blue but not entirely. The North is also the home of the CIA, the Pentagon, and other military industries. The region has a high amount of military civilians compared to other states, having a focus of national security issues. Then, there is Southern Virginia. Southern Virginia has its ties with its southern border states, Tennessee and North Carolina. The region is much more socially conservative and has some people still rooted with the former Confederate States of America. There are less dense cities in the south, with the exception of Richmond.
In recent years, Virginia has become increasingly Democratic. Mark Warner was elected to be Governor in 2002, and became increasingly popular ever since. His Lieutenant Governor, Tim Kaine, was elected as Governor in 2006. Jim Webb, former military personal, was elected to the United States Senate in 2006. What’s the common factor? All of these officials had the support of rural Virginia. They were relatively conservative Democrats that attracted the much of the voters.
Now in 2008, Virginia has come into play on the national scene. Tim Kaine became the first state executive to support Barack Obama. After the presumptive victory of Obama, all 3 Virginia Democrats listed above were vetted as a possible vice-president candidate. Speculation of Kaine being on Obama’s “short list” increased the media’s attention of the U.S. Commonwealth. In addition, Mark Warner’s senate race increased the popularity of the state’s Democratic Party. Only a week after Mark Warner began airing television ads, news networks placed Virginia as a “lean-Obama” state. Surely, Virginia is one state to stay up for election night.
[...] at 9:49 pm “I No Politics” has a pretty good post about the importance of Virginia here. But he fails to touch on many important points and the article is superficial at [...]
[...] No Politics” has a pretty good post about the importance of Virginia here. But he fails to touch on many important points and the article is superficial at [...]
One last thing.
“Tim Kaine became the first state executive to support Barack Obama”
Tim Kaine was the first Governor outside of Illinois to back Obama, not necessarily the first.