RICHMOND--After months and millions of dollars spent campaigning, the statewide candidates are in their final sprint.
With Election Day on Tuesday, the candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general are focusing all their efforts on getting people fired up enough to go vote.
The three Democratic candidates spent the weekend in Southwest Virginia, a rural region that Gov. Mark Warner won in 2001 but where Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore is the hometown boy.
Gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine, lieutenant governor candidate Leslie Byrne and attorney general candidate Creigh Deeds hit rallies and potluck dinners across the coalfields, with the popular Warner alongside.
"We are packing our schedule wall-to-wall between now and Tuesday night," Kaine said last week after his endorsement by former Gov. Doug Wilder. "We don't want to take any vote for granted."
Meanwhile, the Republicans were traveling as a ticket as well, but on the other end of the state. Kilgore, lieutenant governor candidate Bill Bolling and attorney general candidate Bob McDonnell held get-out-the-vote rallies in Fairfax, Virginia Beach and Newport News yesterday.
Friday they had been at rallies in Lynchburg, Danville and Martinsville, another rural area of the state that typically votes Republican, but where Warner did well in 2001.
Kilgore was scheduled to make a rush trip down to Bristol for a dinner last night, then was due back in Northern Virginia--where the largely Democratic inner suburbs are juxtaposed with the increasingly Republican outer suburbs--for two church services Sunday morning. He's attending a Redskins game and tailgate with Sen. George Allen Sunday night; Allen was at several other stops as well.
"I think everybody agrees, this'll be a close election. The candidate who wins will be that one who best turned out his vote. We intend to be that candidate," said Kilgore spokesman Tim Murtaugh. "Going into it we're thinking Republicans always close strong in Virginia. We have a get-out-the-vote operation in place on the ground that is unparalleled, and we're going to finish strong."
Going into this last weekend, two new polls showed Kilgore and Kaine locked in a dead heat--Kaine was up by about two points in both a Mason-Dixon and a Rasmussen poll, but as that's within the margin of error, it's essentially a tie.
That's no different from polls taken over the past few weeks; neither candidate seems to have been able to pull very far ahead of the other one, despite spending record amounts of money in this race.
As of Oct. 26, the Virginia Public Access Project had tallied Kilgore's and Kaine's fundraising at $18 million for Kaine and $22 million for Kilgore. Both men have spent nearly all that money, and late donations were still flowing in through the campaign's last days.
The money has been going to advertising, mailings, phone banks, get-out-the-vote efforts and TV ads and airtime.
Both groups of candidates are planning big final rallies tomorrow night in Richmond, but Kilgore's campaign has scored a coup--President Bush will be at the Republican rally, originally scheduled for downtown Richmond but moved to Richmond International Airport to accommodate the president.
Murtaugh said Bush "offered to help," and the Kilgore campaign was delighted.
Of course, one doesn't have to attend one of the many rallies to see the candidates. Anyone who has turned on a television set recently knows the airwaves are loaded with campaign ads. That will remain true through Tuesday, as the candidates seek some form of contact with every voter possible.
The candidates won't slow down on Tuesday, either. Their schedules include voting and visiting other polling places to woo some last-minute voters. Then all six will be in Richmond for what both sides optimistically call "victory parties." Democrats are partying at the Richmond Marriott, while Republicans are across the street at the Convention Center.
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