VIRGINIA 13 Electoral Votes
Obama/Allies   |   McCain/Allies   |   Nader  
Virginia has been trending bluer in recent years.  Mark Warner took the governor's office in 2001 and Tim Kaine held it for the Democrats in 2005.  In 2006 Jim Webb narrowly won the U.S. Senate seat, defeating Sen. George Allen (R).  These races helped pave the way for 2008, when not only did Obama win, but Democrats picked up the second U.S. Senate seat and three U.S. House seats. 

The Obama-Biden ticket earned its 6.29 percentage point win in Virginia by out-working, out-organizing and out-spending the McCain campaign.  "We competed everywhere," Obama for America state director Mitch Stewart stated after the campaign.  The Democratic candidates did more than twice as many events as McCain and Palin and opened an unprecedented 75 offices around the state.  The Obama campaign also outspent McCain and the Republicans in TV advertising.  According to TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG data with analysis by the Wisconsin Advertising Project, from Sept. 28-Oct. 4 the Obama campaign spent $2.057 million on TV advertising in Virginia compared to $547,000 in McCain/coordinated ad spending.  From Oct. 21-28, the Obama campaign spent $2.45 million on TV advertising in Virginia, third most after Florida and Pennsylvania.  Meanwhile McCain/coordinated ad spending totalled $637,000.  The RNC somewhat equalized the imbalance with $1,208,000 in independent expenditure ads from Oct. 21-28.  (See ad sample).

Obama's showing also helped the Democrats pick up two U.S. House seats; in the 2nd CD (Virginia Beach) Glenn Nye (D) defeated Rep. Thelma Drake (R), and in the 5th CD (Charlottesville south to Danville) Tom Perriello (D) defeated Rep. Virgil Goode (R) in one of the closest races in the country.  The lopsided U.S. Senate race, in which former Gov. Mark Warner (D) defeated former Gov. Jim Gilmore (R) by a margin of 65.0% to 33.7%, did not help McCain.

A couple of lawsuits were filed late in the campaign.  On October 28 the Virginia NAACP filed suit in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia (Norfolk) charging that in view of the expected high turnout "the Commonwealth and its jurisdictions are inadequately prepared." [Virginia NAACP v. Kaine et al.]  The suit singled out Richmond, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach.  "The allocation of polling place resources is plainly irrational, nonuniform, and likely discriminatory," the lawsuit stated.  In addition to seeking a more equitable distribution of voting machines, the NAACP sought an extension of voting hours beyond the 7:00 p.m. deadline to 9:00 p.m..  This suit was dismissed after the election.  On November 3 the McCain-Palin campaign filed suit in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia (Richmond) seeking to compel the Virginia State Board of Elections to count late-arriving overseas military ballots. [McCain-Palin 2008 v. Cunningham]  Some of these ballots were mailed out less than 30 days before Election Day allowing inadequate time to fill them out and return them.  The Justice Department intervened and took over as plaintiff.  The number of votes involved was relatively small and would not have affected the outcome.  The judge did not order that the ballots be counted, but did require that a solution be found. 

Additionally, after the election, several free speech groups filed suit in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia (Richmond) challenging the State Board of Elections policy on the wearing of apparel with political messages in polling places on Election Day.

Travel  compare...
Five Months (June 1-Nov. 4, 2008)
OBAMA-BIDEN McCAIN-PALIN
Barack Obama - 13 visits (15 days)
Joe Biden - 7 visits (8 days)
Michelle Obama (solo) - 2 visits (2 days)
Jill Biden (solo) - no visits found		 John McCain - 5 visits (5 days)
Sarah Palin - 4 visits (4 days)
Cindy McCain (solo) - no visits found
Todd Palin - no visits found

Newspaper Endorsements (Source: Editor & Publisher)
OBAMA
Staunton News Leader  (Oct. 26)


weeklies
C-Ville Weekly [Charlottesville]
Falls Church News-Press
The Virginia Gazette [Williamsburg]
 McCAIN
Bristol Herald Courier  (Oct. 19)
Culpeper Star-Exponent
Danville Register & Bee  (Oct. 29)
Daily News-Record [Harrisonburg]
The Daily Progress [Charlottesville]
Lynchburg News & Advance  (Oct. 26)
Newport News Daily Press  (Oct. 19)
The News-Virginian [Waynesboro]  (Oct. 25)
Richmond Times-Dispatch  (Oct. 26)   175,265 (57)
Winchester Star  (Oct. 19)


weeklies
The Culpeper Times
The Fauquier Times-Democrat
Rappahannock News

NO ENDORSEMENT
The Fairfax County Times
Loudoun Times Mirror
The Roanoke Times
The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk)
Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star

More
Results by congressional district.
CD
 Obama/Biden
 %
 McCain/Palin
 %
 Others
 Total
1
 179,442
 47.67%
 193,273
 51.35%
 3,652
 376,367
2
142,257
 50.45%
 136,725
 48.48%
 2,991
 281,973
3
 229,822
 75.52%
 72,249
 23.74%
 2,223
 304,294
4
 178,795
 50.33%
 173,358
 48.80%
 3,087
 355,240
5
 157,362
 48.29%
 164,874
 50.59%
 2,671
 324,907
6
 134,212
 41.85%
 182,573
 56.93%
 3,869
 320,654
7
 177,789
 45.89%
 205,949
 53.16%
 3,048
 386,786
8
 234,208
 69.28%
 100,234
 29.65%
 3,594
 338,036
9
 108,220
 39.60%
 160,430
 58.71%
 4,596
 273,246
10
 205,964
 52.90%
 179,337
 46.06%
 3,125
 388,426
11
 211,466
 57.01%
 156,003
 42.06%
 3,417
 370,886
Note that incumbent Rep. Randy Forbes (R) won in the 4th CD, carried by Obama while Rep. Virgil Goode (R) lost the 5th CD, carried by McCain.




The Washington, DC suburbs are quite Democratic.  For example the Obama/Biden ticket won 60.11% of the vote in DC-adjacent Fairfax County (Webb won 58.90% and Kaine 60.15%).  There were interesting results in exurban counties.  For example, Prince William and Loundon are the next counties over (separated from Washington, DC by Fairfax County).  Obama did surprisingly well in Prince William County:

Prince William County (July 1, 2008 pop. est. 364,734)
2005

2006

2008

Kaine (D)
 33,364
 49.95
 Webb (D)
 44,503
 50.51
 Obama (D)
   93,435
 57.51
Kilgore (R)
 32,178
 48.17
 Allen (R)
 42,409
 48.13
 McCain (R)
   67,621
 41.62
Potts (I)
   1,220
   1.83
 Parker (IG)
   1,123
   1.27
 others
     1,390
   0.86

66,797

88,111

162,446

Loudon County (July 1, 2008 pop. est. 289,995; fifth fastest growing county in the country from 2000 to 2008)
2005

2006

2008

Kaine (D)
 31,074
 51.64
 Webb (D)
 40,381
 50.07
 Obama (D)
   74,845
 53.66
Kilgore (R)
 27,539
 45.76
 Allen (R)
 39,249
 48.67
 McCain (R)
   63,336
 45.41
Potts (I)
   1,501
   2.49
 Parker (IG)
      904
   1.12
 others
     1,278
   0.92

60,179

80,649

139,459

Copyright © 2008  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action