ALEXANDRIA-Although Arizona Sen. John McCain lost by nine percentage points to Texas Gov. George W. Bush in yesterday's Virginia Republican presidential primary, officials from the McCain campaign said they are claiming a moral victory.
At press time last night, Bush was leading 59 percent to 38 percent in the Washington state primary with 81 percent of precincts reporting.
Officials said Bush was expected to win all along in the Commonwealth and McCain's showing was not a surprise.
Heather Mirjahangir, deputy press secretary for the national McCain campaign, said only an extraordinarily strong showing by Bush would disappoint the McCain campaign.
"This is Bush country - this is his state," Mirjahangir said. "Bush really has an extensive campaign network in Virginia."
Bush appeals to a more conservative audience, and Virginia traditionally is a very conservative state, she said.
The relatively small margin separating McCain from Bush in the primary is impressive, McCain campaign volunteer Theresa Pugh said. Pugh said Virginia politicians including Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) effectively organized support for Bush within the Commonwealth.
Mirjahangir said McCain's campaign - both nationally and within Virgina - has been an uphill battle from the beginning. McCain's national headquarters in Alexandria employs half the number of workers as the Bush campaign does in Austin, she said.
"Message over money is going to really win the day" in the end, Mirjahangir said.
Officials said they do not expect this loss to affect McCain's momentum as he approaches Super Tuesday on March 7, when 11 states throughout the nation, including New York and California, will hold their Republican presidential primaries.
While primaries traditionally do not enjoy much voter participation, Virginia voters turned out in large numbers.
Alexandria resident Hope Cooper, a Federal Communications Commission attorney and 1986 College graduate and 1989 Law School graduate, said she voted because the Republican nomination remains undecided. "I think it's a very competitive race at this point - every vote counts," Cooper said.
Several McCain officials said they noticed a sense of passion among campaign staffers and volunteers that has been absent in politics in recent years.
Campaign volunteer Reese Turner, a Texan and Navy veteran who traveled to Virginia yesterday to help out at McCain's national headquarters, said he feels very strongly about this candidacy.
"I have not had this feeling in my gut since 1980" when President Ronald Reagan ran for his first term, Turner said.
Alexandria City Campaign Chairman Eileen Giglio said volunteers are from all parts of the political spectrum - Republicans, Democrats and Independents. This mirrors national findings - that many people who voted for McCain in primaries in both New Hampshire and Michigan were not registered Republicans.
Virginia holds an open primary because citizens do not register to vote by party affiliation in the Commonwealth.
Campaign volunteer Craig Dimitri, a Pennsylvania resident who traveled to Virginia to help the McCain effort, said he participated because McCain is the most likely candidate to defeat Vice President Al Gore, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
McCain's experiences as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam from 1967-1973 also inspires people to support him, said national headquarters staff member Judy Gamboa. Gamboa's father was McCain's roommate at the Naval Academy, where McCain graduated in 1958.
"He's a hero to me because of what he's done in his life," Gamboa said. "He knows he's here for a reason."
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