RICHMOND, Va. -- They're stumping like county clerks in Virginia. One presidential candidate was pressing palms in a high school gymnasium while another was holding a town hall meeting with teachers and parents. It seems you can't drive 50 miles down I-95 or I-64 these days without eyeballing someone who might be the next president.
"All of a sudden they love us," said Rachel McCabe, a computer technician from Fairfax who was ogling the array of motorcycles and police cars escorting Barack Obama to a rally in Alexandria yesterday. "Of course, they need us now, too."
Strewn as it is with historic battlegrounds, from Appomattox to Yorktown, Virginia is nonetheless unaccustomed to seeing a fight for the presidential nomination. With the state's late primary and Republican leanings in November, candidates have largely ignored the commonwealth in the past national races.
Yet once again Virginia could be hosting a battle that proves to be a turning point.
Locked in a virtual tie for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in advance of tomorrow's "Potomac Primary," Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama arrived last weekend in pursuit of the state's 103 delegates and have canvassed the state. A sweep by Obama could build on his momentum and chip away at Clinton's apparent lead in states like Texas and Ohio, observers say. Whereas a win by Clinton would suggest her opponent's surge is cresting.
While it garners only four more potential delegates than Maryland, where the candidates also are campaigning, Virginia poses a much different electioneering challenge. It has 2 million more people than Maryland, spread across a vastly larger and more diverse geography. For Virginia Democrats, it offers a rare chance to bask in the presidential limelight.
"It's been hopeless for Democrats here for so long, I think it was just written off," said Carl W. Tobias, Williams professor of law at the University of Richmond. "Now, all of a sudden, they have something to fight for."
Republican John McCain has been to Virginia, too, holding a national security seminar in Norfolk, ratcheting still higher a level of energy that is apparent throughout the state. Neighborhoods that have never seen a campaign sign before October are littered with blue and red cardboard. Political rallies draw thousands of supporters, instead of the customary hundreds or dozens.
For former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, now mayor of Richmond and a Democrat who remembers his party's last hot candidate in Virginia - Lyndon B. Johnson - it feels like a rebirth.
Saturday, he recalled attending an election-night rally in Little Rock, Ark., in 1992, and watching election returns on television with Hillary Clinton. When results showed her husband losing Virginia by just a few percentage points to President George Bush, Clinton was stunned at how close the vote was, Wilder said.
"I told her, 'You would have won if you'd bothered to campaign there,'" Wilder said in an interview.
"I'll tell you this," Wilder added. "You can't underestimate the intelligence of the Virginia voter. We're not a red state, we're not a blue state. We're Virginia."
Even for its local races, Virginia is a notoriously difficult state to stump. It stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Kentucky border, with communities as demographically divergent as the affluent Washington suburbs and the lonely western coal fields. Predicting the outcome on Election Day requires an understanding of the urban woes of Richmond, the economic plight of the mountain country and the military mentality in Norfolk.
And the state's primaries can be politically treacherous, too. Voters in Virginia are not required to stick with one party affiliation, and can vote in whichever race they choose. And so, as with general elections, voters who cross over between parties can play an unpredictable role.
"To the extent that the Republican contest is not seen as competitive any more, you might see a lot more independents coming into the fold on Tuesday," said Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat. "It's difficult to gauge."
A Mason-Dixon poll released yesterday by the state's primary newspapers shows Obama with a commanding 53 percent to 37 percent lead over Clinton, and McCain all but running away with Virginia's Republican vote, 55 percent to 27 percent over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The veteran politicos say they know better than to write history before the polls close.
"What's at stake for the winner?" asked Larry Framme, a former Democratic Party chairman. "About the same number of delegates as the one who doesn't win. It's tight."
Hillary Clinton had to cancel her visit to mountainous Roanoke yesterday because of wind, but her campaign quickly scheduled a replacement visit by Bill Clinton for today. Locals say it's refreshing to see the candidates jumping through a few hoops for the Virginia vote.
Tom Runnett knew something was different when he woke up Feb. 6, the morning after the Super Tuesday primary, and heard political ads on the local radio station at about 5:30 a.m. He said they've scarcely let up since.
"It's been crazy the last five days, like nothing I've ever seen," said Runnett, a 44-year-old maintenance supervisor from outside Richmond who said he's been engaged in Virginia politics his whole life. "It's exciting for someone like me. It feels like the $100,000 payoff on a $1 lottery ticket."
robert.little@baltsun.com