For the first time in 16 years, Virginia Democrats are holding a presidential primary, which state party officials said they anticipate will have a meaningful impact on the race for the presidential nomination.
Last year, the General Assembly approved pushing up the primary from Feb. 24 to Feb. 10 in hopes of getting Virginia more embroiled in the increasingly accelerated nomination process.
This year's Democratic primary will be the second ever held in Virginia, and state Democrats said they hope it will inaugurate a new era of "party building" in the state.
According to Laura Bland, communication director for the Democratic Party of Virginia, 2004 represents "a unique crossroads in history in the process of selecting a nominee."
New relevance for Virginia
Virginia has been relegated to the Democratic backwaters since 1988, the last year the state held a primary. State Democrats held caucuses in 1992, 1996 and 2000.
"Because of the accelerated primary calendar, we knew to actually have a say we had to be involved early," Bland said.
Virginia and other Southern contests represent a real measuring stick of the national electability of candidates, she added.
"The South is more reflective of the reality of America than a state like New Hampshire or Iowa" because of the region's ethnic and economic diversity, Bland said. "If your message does not sell in the South, how is it going to sell anywhere else?"
The intensity surrounding the tight race -- phone-banking, endorsement-wrangling and campaign spending by candidates in the Commonwealth -
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