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Arlington, Virginia (October 6, 2008) – McCain-Palin 2008 announced that John McCain and Sarah Palin will campaign in Virginia on Monday, October 13th. Senator McCain and Govenor Palin will hold a rally in Virginia Beach at 10:00 a.m. at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. Following the Virginia Beach event, Governor Palin will travel to Richmond to hold a 1:00 p.m. rally at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond. Virginia Campaign Co-Chair, Attorney General Bob McDonnell said, "Voters statewide are excited to have the next President and Vice President of the United States bring their message of reform back to Virginia....

The National Rifle Assn. is about to turn up the volume on its campaign against Barack Obama, airing more ads taking him to task over his gun record. Starting as early as Sunday, the NRA will be airing a new batch of spots in more battleground states, such as Ohio, Virginia and Florida. As colleague Noam Levey reported back in June, some say the NRA is losing sway. But Democrats, who generally favor restrictions on guns, still shy away from the issue, particularly in must-win swing states. The NRA already is up with spots in Colorado, New Mexico and Pennsylvania....

What: Road to Victory Rally: in Richmond, VA with Governor Sarah Palin When: October 13, 2008 Starts at 1:00 p.m. Where: The Arthur Ashe Center 3017 North Boulevard Richmond, VA 23230 Join Governor Sarah Palin at a campaign rally Monday, October 13th at the Arthur Ashe Center. Tickets are available online or by visiting one of the designated Virginia Victory offices between 9:00am and 9:00 p.m. EDT If you have any questions please email: richmondrally@johnmccain.com

ARLINGTON, VA -- McCain-Palin 2008 announced that John McCain and Sarah Palin will campaign in Virginia on Monday, October 13th. Senator McCain and Govenor Palin will hold a rally in Virginia Beach at 10:00 a.m. at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. Following the Virginia Beach event, Governor Palin will travel to Richmond to hold a 1:00 p.m. rally at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond. Virginia Campaign Co-Chair, Attorney General Bob McDonnell said, "Voters statewide are excited to have the next President and Vice President of the United States bring their message of reform back to Virginia. John McCain and...

Republican presidential nominee John McCain and his vice-presidential running mate, Sarah Palin, will appear in Virginia Beach next Monday morning at the resort city's convention center. That afternoon, Palin will stump in Richmond. She'll be the headliner at a rally at the Arthur Ashe Center.

McCain-Palin 2008 announced that John McCain and Sarah Palin will campaign in Virginia on Monday, October 13th. Senator McCain and Govenor Palin will hold a rally in Virginia Beach at 10:00 a.m. at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. Following the Virginia Beach event, Governor Palin will travel to Richmond to hold a 1:00 p.m. rally at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond. Virginia Campaign Co-Chair, Attorney General Bob McDonnell said, "Voters statewide are excited to have the next President and Vice President of the United States bring their message of reform back to Virginia. John McCain and Sarah Palin will...

You may already be registered to vote, but you probably know several people who are not. If they're not registered by today, they can't vote in this critical election. This election is going to hinge on unprecedented voter turnout -- especially in Virginia. Make sure you're registered. Then encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to do the same. Virginia voter registration forms must be postmarked by today -- so be sure to check what time your local post office closes. Ideally, people should register IN PERSON at their local city or county voter office.

A new SurveyUSA poll in Virginia shows Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain by ten points, 53% to 43%. Since a similar poll conducted just after the Republican convention, McCain has gone from up by 2 to down by 10. Key finding: McCain no longer leads in any region of the state.

There is no telling if Warner's margin can hold up. Gilmore is campaigning hard, and Friday's poll suggests he is whittling away at Warner's lead. But if the numbers don't change, it could suggest what political wonks call "reverse coattails" — a down-ticket candidate like Warner using his in-state popularity to generate votes for Obama, a virtual unknown in Virginia just a few years ago. That could pay dividends for Democrats in Hampton Roads, where McCain is seen to have an edge because of his popularity with the military.

A new poll by Suffolk University shows Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) with a double-digit lead over GOP nominee John McCain in Virginia. Obama draws 51 percent to McCain's 39 percent, although the poll's sample skews heavily toward the Democrats, which may be inflating Obama's margin. "Barack Obama has built a coalition of suburban DC area progressives from the north, African-American voters from the south, and young voters statewide," said David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center at Suffolk University in Boston. "That broad-based support suggests a 44-year Republican run in the Old Dominion State, dating back to Lyndon Johnson's...

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's brother made an apparent joke at a campaign rally this weekend that might not play well in parts of newly competitive Virginia. Joe McCain, speaking at an event in support of his brother, called two Democratic-leaning areas in Northern Virginia "communist country," according to a report on The Washington Post's Web site. "I've lived here for at least 10 years and before that, about every third duty I was in either Arlington or Alexandria, up in communist country," Joe McCain, a Navy veteran, said about his military postings. He spoke at an event in Loudon...

Retiring U.S. Sen. John Warner on Saturday voiced disappointment in fellow Republican Jim Gilmore's efforts to succeed him this fall and declined to endorse him. Instead, Warner suggested that he may wind up backing Democrat Mark Warner in the race. The two Warners are not related. John Warner took exception to Gilmore's strong condemnation of a $700 billion Wall Street rescue package that was passed by the House of Representatives on Friday and signed by President Bush. "I'm disappointed that he spoke against the rescue package that's vital to Virginia and vital to the nation," John Warner said during a...

‘YOU CAN’T JUDGE A MAN THIS WAY’: That’s what Obama supporter Ruby Hale says she tells people at church in tiny Rowe, Va. “I am convinced he is a Christian.” WHITEWOOD, VA. -- The isolated towns of Virginia's Appalachian coal region are home to strong labor unions and Democratic political machines that date back generations. Yet voters here who eagerly pushed Democrats into the Senate and the governor's office are resisting Barack Obama. Some Americans say Obama's race and uncommon background make them uncomfortable -- here those people include Democratic precinct chairmen and get-out-the-vote workers. Many Americans receive e-mails falsely...

If you have time this is worth watching. The fireworks really flew, Jim Gilmore took the bailout and beat Warner to a pulp with it. http://jimgilmoreforsenate.com/?q=node/541

RICHMOND, Oct. 4 -- Retiring Sen. John W. Warner said Saturday that he has not decided whether to vote for the Republican seeking to replace him, citing James S. Gilmore III's opposition to the $700 billion federal bailout of the credit markets. In a conference call with reporters, Warner (R-Va.) held out the possibility that he will vote for Democrat Mark R. Warner. The two Warners, who are unrelated, ran against each other in a 1996 Senate campaign but have since become friends. "I'm watching that race, following the positions of the two candidates," John Warner said. "There are cases...

Virginia Republicans are warning that John McCain's prospects for winning a state that has been in the GOP column in every presidential election since 1964 could be in jeopardy. With Barack Obama treating the Old Dominion like a battleground state and reliable polls showing a margin-of-error race there, some are cautioning that McCain is making a critical mistake by allowing the Democratic nominee to outpace him in terms of visits and resources committed.... Together, McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, have held just one campaign event in Virginia. And the campaign has taken its ads off the pricey Washington,...

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain's brother made an apparent joke at a campaign rally this weekend that might not play well in parts of newly competitive Virginia. Joe McCain, speaking at an event in support of his brother, called two Democratic-leaning areas in Northern Virginia "communist country," according to a report on The Washington Post's Web site.

NEWPORT NEWS, VA. -- As the presidential campaign entered its final month, Democrat Barack Obama issued a sharp assault on Republican John McCain's healthcare proposal Saturday, arguing it would lead to higher taxes for some families and knock as many as 20 million people out of their current insurance plans. The topic provided a new focus for the campaign, as Obama launched four television ads in battleground states criticizing McCain's plan. The candidates have spent the last two weeks sparring over the nation's financial crisis.

WHITEWOOD, VA. -- The isolated towns of Virginia's Appalachian coal region are home to strong labor unions and Democratic political machines that date back generations. Yet voters here who eagerly pushed Democrats into the Senate and the governor's office are resisting Barack Obama.

RICHMOND, Va. - Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons — each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state. Finding them isn't the hard part. It's getting them to admit that a past mistake has kept them from the ballot box. "People are really, really reluctant to say, 'I lost my rights to vote,'" Bailey said of his quest, which continued in the run-up to Monday's registration deadline in Virginia for the November election. Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released...

Republican and Democratic opponents have traded insults over American health care. US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called his Democratic opponent Barack Obama a bald-faced liar over his promises of reform on health-care issues. After Barack Obama told a crowd of 18,000 supporters in Virginia that McCain was playing a shell game of “giving you a tax credit with one hand but raising your taxes with the other," Senator McCain's campaign shot back: "Barack Obama is lying to voters. It's a bald-faced lie." Senator Obama used his rally speech in Virginia to take the focus off the US financial...

BRISTOL, Va. — Republican John McCain will “nastily change the subject” from fixing the economy to personally attacking Democrat Barack Obama during next Tuesday’s presidential debate in Nashville, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews predicted Saturday. “I’m looking for McCain to come after him — hit him hard on culture, ideology, call him a liberal, hit him on taxes,” the author and host of MSNBC’s “Hardball” told reporters at the Bristol Public Library before a local speaking engagement. “They have to change the topic from the economy where they are losing to the culture ... go from the what to the who, ......

John Warner might vote for Democrat By MIKE ALLEN | 10/4/08 1:55 PM EDT Text Size: Retiring Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) beat his Democratic opponent, Mark R. Warner, by 6 percentage points in the Old Dominion’s “Warner vs. Warner” race of 1996. Now, he might cross party lines and vote for him. Mark Warner, who went on to become a popular governor, is running to succeed John Warner in the Senate. Mark Warner’s opponent is another former governor, James S. Gilmore III, a Republican who has received little support from the state’s power structure and lags by 26 points...

GOP dread: Dems could hit 60 Senate seats By: Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen October 4, 2008 05:23 PM EST The possibility that Democrats will build a muscular, 60-seat Senate majority is looking increasing plausible, with new polls showing a powerful surge for the party’s candidates in Minnesota, Kentucky and other states. A poll out Friday shows Sen. Norm Coleman could now easily lose his Minnesota seat to comedian-turned-candidate Al Franken. A Colorado race that initially looked like a nail-biter has now broken decisively for the Democrats. A top official in the McCain camp told us Sen. Elizabeth Dole is...

John Warner might vote for Democrat By MIKE ALLEN | 10/4/08 1:55 PM EDT Retiring Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) beat his Democratic opponent, Mark R. Warner, by 6 percentage points in the Old Dominion’s “Warner vs. Warner” race of 1996. Now, he might cross party lines and vote for him. Mark Warner, who went on to become a popular governor, is running to succeed John Warner in the Senate. Mark Warner’s opponent is another former governor, James S. Gilmore III, a Republican who has received little support from the state’s power structure and lags by 26 points in a...

Undaunted by the heat, James Bailey spent his late-summer afternoons walking Virginia's bleakest neighborhoods on the hunt for ex-cons — each a potential voter who might cast the decisive ballot in this hotly contested state. Finding them isn't the hard part. It's getting them to admit that a past mistake has kept them from the ballot box... Nationally, there are roughly 4 million released felons whose convictions have cost them the right to vote at least temporarily, if not permanently. To return to the ballot box, felons must negotiate suffrage laws that vary from state to state, in many cases...

Jim Gilmore's Statement on the Bailout I am strongly opposed to asking America's hard working families to cover the bets of the Wall Street high rollers and insiders who exploited flaws in government regulations to make personal fortunes and devastate our economy. Mark Warner is supporting the bailout of Wall Street. But what is really going on is an effort to use fear to persuade working families – who are already struggling – to cover the bets of Wall Street high rollers -- who have made themselves tremendously wealthy by exploiting flaws in our financial system.

Warner came to be Virginia’s governor by a path that was purposely political, including the decade he spent becoming a high-tech venture capitalist. Along the way, his four years at GW (1973 to 1977) were crucial in his political development. When he got to D.C. in 1973, Warner immediately started working in the office of Sen. Abe Ribicoff (D-Conn.). “I’ll always remember my first job on Capitol Hill. I would ride my bike every day—I had to be there at 7:15 to open the mail. Here I was, a freshman in college, I thought it was pretty cool.” From that...

Gilmore come out strongly against the $700 billion plan, arguing in a concise way that it amounted to government run amok. Warner supported the bailout, saying it was needed to prevent economic turmoil. Warner tried to pin the need for Congressional intervention on lax oversight by the Bush administration and "greed" on Wall Street. Warner noted that both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama voted in the favor plan, prompting Gilmore to say at one point, "I'm not in this for John McCain, I am in this for the people on the other side of this camera." For once, Warner's...

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has granted voting rights to nearly 1,500 felons this year, bumping up the voter rolls ahead of next month's presidential election and putting himself on pace to exceed the record-setting pattern of his predecessor. During his four years as governor, Mark Warner, a Democrat now running for the U.S. Senate, restored voting rights to 3,414 ex-convicts in Virginia. That exceeded the combined total for all Virginia governors during the previous 20 years, according to the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based advocacy group.

Friday October 3 2008 Event: Richmond GOP Gilmore/Warner Debate Watching Party Date: 10/3/2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM Location: The Richmond GOP debate party will be held at suite 403 of the Tuckahoe Condominiums, located at 5621 Cary Street (at the intersection of Three Chopt, Cary Street, and River Road in Richmond's West End near the Country Club of Virginia). Parking is free. You can park along the east side of the Tuckahoe Condominiums on Rio Vista Lane or across Cary Street on St. Catherine's Lane. About: Come join fellow Republicans this Friday, October 3 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m....

Woodbridge, Virginia (October 1, 2008) – Delegate Jeffrey M. Frederick, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, called it an “outrage” upon learning that the Virginia Education Association (VEA) was coordinating political activities on behalf of Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama at Virginia public schools. A widely-circulated email originating from Doris Boitnott in the VEA government affairs department addressed to VEA President Kitty Boitnott, among others, asks teachers to wear blue for “Obama Blue Day.” The email further asks teachers to register or recruit two voters to support Obama, saying, “There are people out there not yet registered. You teach...

Mason-Dixon, a polling outfit that surveys Virginia every year for statewide races, has McCain remaining in the lead there. He leads Obama 48-45, within the 4-point margin of error. Other polls have showed a closer race of even Obama in the lead, but Mason-Dixon is widely viewed by Virginia politicos as one of the most reliable indicators of the commonwealth. Obama continues to play hard there, though, and will return to Newport News, in the African-American and military-heavy Tidewater region this weekend.

--One of the candidates for Virginia's U.S. Senate seat would vote for the financial bailout bill currently being debated in Congress. The other isn't so sure. Democrat Mark Warner said this week that he thinks Congress has a responsibility to take action, although he'd like to see the bill contain more protections for homeowners. He also is glad that under the new proposal, there are higher limits on bank deposits covered by FDIC insurance. "The bill can be improved," Warner said, but "Congress has got to act. Not acting, basically playing Russian roulette with the American economy is just not...

An e-mail distributed by a Virginia teachers union encouraged members to bring politics into the classroom by wearing blue in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and simultaneously suggested that the union's voter registration efforts include those "you teach."

Virginia Republicans are in an uproar after the state teacher's union sent an e-mail to its members encouraging them to wear blue-colored shirts to school to show their support for Barack Obama. State Republicans are calling it an undisguised attempt to influence students' political views. The Virginia Education Association sponsored "Obama Blue Day" on Tuesday. In an e-mail sent last week, it urged teachers to participate by dressing in blue. "There are people out there not yet registered. You teach some of them," the Sept. 25 e-mail reads. "Others, including our members, remain on the fence! Its time for us...

The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech’s student newspaper and a Campus Politico partner, posts video of former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner having a little fun at Sarah Palin’s expense. “You know, heck, I haven’t been mayor of a small town,” Warner jokes in a speech discussing his qualifications for the Senate. “But I can see Maryland out my window.” Watch to the end for a peek at Warner’s soon-to-be-famous dance floor moves. -- Alexander Burns

John McCain kept his three-point lead over Barack Obama in a Mason-Dixon Research poll of likely Virginia voters that was released today. The Republican’s 48-to-45 advantage in the Mason-Dixon poll once again emphasizes Virginia’s status as a battleground state, because the poll’s margin of error is four points. McCain’s margin, of only three points, means the pollster can’t be confident about who’s ahead. In the Lynchburg-Danville region, the Mason-Dixon poll gives McCain an 11-point advantage over Democrat Obama, but the margin of error is higher for the poll’s regional breakdowns. In Roanoke and Southwest Virginia, McCain is ahead by a...

The presidential race remains too close to call in Virginia, with Republican John McCain clinging to a statistically insignificant, three percentage point lead over Democrat Barack Obama, according to a poll taken for The Virginian-Pilot and other news organizations. The Mason-Dixon Virginia Poll, drawn from interviews Monday through Wednesday with 625 registered voters, found 48 percent supported McCain, compared to 45 percent for Obama. Seven percent said they remain undecided. The results are well within the poll’s four percentage point margin of error, indicating that the state’s 13 electoral votes are still up for grabs. A Mason-Dixon survey last week...

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner said he would have voted for the economic bailout bill yesterday, although he said it needed improvements. "There are real people with real homes with jobs whose lives are in the balance by the way this is playing out," Warner said. Warner, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat of the retiring Republican Sen. John W. Warner, was interviewed today by the editorial board of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The two Warners are not related. A strong favorite to defeat Republican Jim Gilmore, also a former governor, Warner said more regulations of the finance industry...

Teachers union e-mail touting Obama scorned Mike Drost Thursday, October 2, 2008 An e-mail distributed by a Virginia teachers union encouraged members to bring politics into the classroom by wearing blue in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and simultaneously suggested that the union's voter registration efforts include those "you teach." The Virginia Education Association (VEA) e-mail drew strong criticism Wednesday from elected Republican officials and some residents after the state Republican Party obtained a copy. The author of the e-mail conceded Wednesday that the e-mail should have been worded differently. The VEA is an affiliate of the...

The candidate of change, the shining proponent of a "new way" in national politics, says that you aren't allowed to bring a sign to his rally. So much for the right of free political speech. To add insult to injury, this rally was held at the publicly funded University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. So, now the government is lending the weight of its authority to squelch free speech. So, where is the hew and cry about this unAmerican activity? Did the media even note this heavy-handed policy? But, it is all true nonetheless. The rally was held and...

By Shea Connelly Cavalier Daily Editor's Note: Shea Connelly is a writer for the Cavalier Daily, the leading news source for the University of Virginia. This article was brought to CNN.com by UWIRE, the leading provider of student-generated content. UWIRE aims to identify and promote the brightest young content creators and deliver their work to a larger audience via professional media partners such as CNN.com. Visit UWIRE.com to learn more. Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. kicked off the voter drive by urging students to register locally. (UWIRE) -- The commonwealth of Virginia has traditionally been a Republican stronghold -- the last...

ABC’s Sunlen Miller, Matt Jaffe, and John Berman Report: The rain pouring down, his jacket off, his white dress-shirt clinging to his body, Barack Obama played to a crowd in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat since 1964. Obama and his running mate Delaware Sen. Joe Biden took the stage at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., before a crowd of 10,000 to 20,000 people who had been waiting hours in the mud to see them. The weather in northern Virginia has been awful the last couple of days. And not long after Joe Biden’s introduction, just...

Warner said he's convinced major federal intervention in the financial markets is needed soon. He said he understands the frustration of taxpayers who see the $700 billion bailout being discussed on Capitol Hill as a welfare program for Wall Street moguls, and he wants plenty of safeguards for taxpayers to protect whatever federal investment is made in troubled securities. But however justified taxpayers' anger is, Warner argued that they need to understand that the stakes are far higher than the balance sheets of Wall Street financial firms and their leaders. "Like it or not, we're all caught up in this,"...

Polling this week in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia shows that Barack Obama has gained a net 3 to 5 percentage points in each state compared to the previous Fox News/ Rasmussen Reports poll. In Pennsylvania, Obama now leads by eight percentage points, 50% to 42%. In Virginia, it’s Obama 50% and McCain 47%. The candidates are within a single point of each other in Colorado (Obama 49%, McCain 48%), Florida (Obama 47%, McCain 47%), and Ohio (McCain 48% Obama 47%).

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), took their campaign to fast-growing outer suburbs in Virginia yesterday as they appealed for support from the young families and long-distance commuters who they believe could be key to winning the state's 13 electoral votes.

Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks during a campaign rally in the rain at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, September 27, 2008. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA)

Reader Ron e-mails that the Obama campaign has issued a decree banning all signs at a rally today at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia. It is a public campus on public property.The local newspaper, the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star is up in arms: NOT ALL COUNTRIES guarantee their citizens the right to virtually unbridled freedom of speech. The United States does. Would someone please tell the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama? And the dozing guardians of liberty at the University of Mary Washington?Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, is scheduled to speak at a rally at the...

The University of Mary Washington is scheduled to hold a rally with both Obama and Joe Biden at their historic Fredericksburg, Virginia campus on Saturday, September 27, at 5:15 PM. The university's bookstore is selling 1,000 Obama / Biden t-shirts at their bookstore starting today (Friday). T-shirts have the university's logo on the front and has the words " Obama was there, Biden was there, I was there, UMW 08 " on the back. Cost: $9.99. Profits from the t-shirts go to the university's bookstore. The idea for the campaign slogan t-shirt came from the university's bookstore manager, Kathy Underwood,...