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Senate candidate misses event to visit son, who is being sent to Iraq; Allen campaigns on a horse. Date published: 9/5/2006
BUENA VISTA--If you were in Buena Vista for yesterday's Labor Day parade, you couldn't miss George Allen and Mark Warner.
Allen was the sole person in the parade riding a horse, while Warner must have shaken every single hand along the parade route. While both men are potential candidates for president in 2008, that wasn't the focus yesterday. Allen must first fend off a challenge for his U.S. Senate seat this fall, and Warner was putatively in Buena Vista as a surrogate for Allen's challenger, Jim Webb. So the campaign signs were all about Allen and Webb, and both Warner and Gov. Tim Kaine--who shook his own share of hands--took care to praise Webb, who skipped the annual political event to spend time with his son, a Marine who is shipping out for Iraq this week. Buena Vista is one of several traditional Labor Day stops for politicians in Virginia. Labor Day marks the kick-off of the fall campaign season, when voters tend to be done with summer vacations and more receptive to the campaigns' messages. In Buena Vista, candidates put up hundreds of campaign signs, shake hands, kiss babies, and deliver their stump speeches at the end of the parade route. It's a routine that Allen, Warner and Kaine have performed dozens of times in their political careers. The election changes, but the faces don't. Kaine called his role in Buena Vista that of a pinch-hitter. "It is so much more pleasant to be here campaigning for someone else," Kaine told reporters. "It's fun to be with Mark. We've done this parade a few times." Kaine and Warner both praised Webb's military background, saying it would give him a unique perspective as a senator. They said his independence and willingness to work across party lines is needed, an oblique dig at Allen's high frequency of voting with President George Bush. "When you know about his public service career, this race is a logical step," Kaine said during a speech that mostly centered on Webb. "He's got a record that really speaks for itself." Both Kaine and Warner deflected questions about the "macaca" incident--Allen recently called a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent "macaca" and welcomed him to America, although the man was born in Fairfax. The incident seems to have driven up Webb's numbers, as recent polls show him statistically even with Allen.
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