As the Nov. 4 presidential election approaches and Virginia polls remain closer than ever, both the John McCain and Barack Obama campaigns work around the clock to secure votes in the hotly contested commonwealth.
“Since Palin was announced as the vice presidential candidate we’ve really been inundated with people wanting to help out and make sure that McCain [and] Palin get elected,” Albemarle County Republican Committee Chairman Chris Schoenewald said. “I haven’t seen as many volunteers come into our headquarters in years.”
Schoenewald explained that economic issues are at the center of the McCain campaign in Virginia.
“The key issues in the commonwealth are fiscal responsibility and limitation of government interference in people’s lives,” Schoenewald said, adding that the McCain campaign and Republican Party in the commonwealth are attempting to capitalize on these and other traditionally conservative values, especially with Palin on the ticket.
Charles Stevens, communications director for Obama’s Campaign for Change in Virginia, said the Obama campaign is focusing on economic issues in the commonwealth as well.
“There’s a lot of concern about the direction of the economy [in Virginia],” Stevens said. “We’re out there every day talking to [Virginia] voters about Senator Obama’s plan to provide three times as much tax cuts for middle-class families than McCain and to really put middle-class families here and across the country first.”
Stevens noted that the Obama campaign has opened 42 offices throughout the commonwealth in order to compete for votes in every corner of Virginia. According to the John McCain campaign Web site, the Republican candidate’s campaign has opened nine Virginia “victory offices,” three of which are in Northern Virginia.
“I think that we’re taking Virginia very seriously and we’re fighting as hard as we can here,” Stevens said of Obama’s campaign. “This is a grassroots campaign and critical to that campaign is making sure our supporters have the tools they need.”
On Grounds, student organizations Hoos for Obama and Hoos for McCain are also actively trying to secure votes for their respective candidate in the commonwealth.
“We’re just now starting to get our efforts off the ground,” Hoos for McCain President John Sweeney said. “Tomorrow we’re having a neighborhood walk around Albemarle [to] go door to door and talk to people.”
Sweeney also noted that Hoos for McCain canvassed the USC game earlier this month by handing out shirt stickers and buttons, which was, he said, a success.
Hoos for Obama has been active, meanwhile, in a recently opened Obama campaign office at 14th and Wertland Street on the Corner, explained Hoos for Obama President Sam Shirazi, a former Cavalier Daily opinion columnist.
“Basically, Hoos for Obama is working mainly out of the office, getting students to register and volunteer,” Shirazi said. “The fact that the Obama campaign has opened an office on the Corner shows that they are trying to mobilize the youth.”
Shirazi said he believes the youth vote will be among the deciding factors for Obama in the election.
“I think that the youth vote will make the difference in Virginia,” Shirazi said. “It will help Obama to win Virginia and ultimately the whole election,”
Dan Keyserling, deputy communications director for the University’s Center for Politics and former executive editor of The Cavalier Daily, however, said he believes Northern Virginia will be the deciding factor in determining whether Virginia will vote for Obama or McCain in the 2008 election.
“Virginia is certainly a toss-up state, and for Obama to win Virginia he has to extract a max turnout in Northern Virginia,” Keyserling said. “For McCain to win, all he has to do is suppress that turnout in [Northern] Virginia.”
Schoenewald said he believes Northern Virginia’s factor in the outcome of the commonwealth’s election will depend on the voter turnout in the region.
“What will make Northern Virginia a factor really depends on what the voter turnout will be in [that] heavily populated area,” Schoenewald said. “That will make a big difference.”
Keyserling expressed a similar sentiment.
“The only turnout that influences Virginia’s changing role in electoral politics is the growth of Northern Virginia because that brings an entirely new political dynamic to a state that has been predominantly Republican in presidential elections,” Keyserling said.
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