Published: October 25, 2008 07:37 pm      

Battleground: Southwest Va.

ABINGDON, Va. — Yes, Virginia, there is a … well, with holiday season fast approaching, you know the rest. What you don’t know, with Election Day closing fast as well, is who will win your 13 electoral votes in the 2008 presidential race.

Several recent prominent polls give Democratic nominee Barack Obama a moderate to significant edge in the state over Republican rival John McCain.

Regardless of who will ultimately prevail in that electoral vote quest, former Gov. George Allen believes unequivocally that to do so he must win the region known as the “Heart of Appalachia”. His advice to the Republican campaign is to get its candidate west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

“It’s great to have them in Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Hampton Roads, but Southwest and Western Virginia from the Shenandoah Valley all the way down here to the Mountain Empire is vitally important,” Allen said Monday, speaking to reporters after a Countdown to Victory rally held at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.

“Southwest Virginia will go for Democrats every now and then and Republicans every now and then, but to win Virginia, you have to win Southwest Virginia. While it may be only one-tenth of the state’s population, it is one region that can go one way or the other.”

Since Allen’s comments, the Republican Campaign Calendar has listed three scheduled state appearances by Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Monday, including a rally in Salem beginning at 3:30 p.m.

Allen was accompanied by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, and Virginia First District Delegate Terry Kilgore on a McCain-Palin bus tour through Southwest Virginia that included stops in Roanoke, Blacksburg, Abingdon, Gate City, and Richlands. Barbour believes his state will favor McCain over Obama, albeit by a slimmer margin than that achieved by George W. Bush in 2004, and that Virginia will do the same.

“I believe at the end of the day, McCain will carry Virginia, but it will be because of the issues,” said Barbour, who is in his second term as Mississippi’s chief executive. “Energy is an enormous economic issue in this part of the country and Barack Obama has been very outspoken against coal. He says it’s dirty energy and should be taxed. His running mate, Joe Biden, said that we shouldn’t build another coal plant in America.

“Coal is a very important part of our energy mix and John McCain believes we can use coal in an environmentally acceptable way and he’s committed to that. That’s not just good for the coal country, that’s good for the whole country.”

In a phone interview on Friday, Virginia Ninth District Congressman Rick Boucher argued Barbour’s claims, asserting that Barack Obama is “a far stronger friend of coal” than is John McCain.

He cited McCain’s “No” vote against the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that allocated $1.7 billion in tax credits for the use of clean coal technology.

In addition, Boucher credited Obama for being the lead Democratic sponsor of legislation that “would jumpstart an industry that would liquefy coal so that American coal and the fuel derived from it can be burned in place of imported petroleum in car and truck engines.” According to Boucher, it was an issue that was controversial and one where the environmental community was on the other side of. He attributed Barbour’s comments to a party commitment to talking points and lack of knowledge about Obama’s record.

“We always welcome visitors from Mississippi and other Gulf Coast states, but Mississippi is not a coal-producing state. Barbour has no personal knowledge of the record and chose to ignore it. But we do hope he’ll come back and enjoy the many pleasures of Southwest Virginia,” Boucher said, who is running unopposed for re-election this year.

Jerry Kilgore believes Obama will need to win two major regions to turn Virginia blue. He concedes Northern Virginia will be a challenge for McCain. In the last eight years, it has trended democratic with a growth of more than 15 percent and an influx of younger, more educated, and wealthier constituents. It accounts for one-third of the state’s population.

But, besides Southwest Virginia, he believes McCain has strength in the Hampton Roads and Richmond areas.

“We feel great about John McCain’s record of military service and Hampton Roads is strong military. Richmond has always gone Republican in Presidential elections,” said Kilgore. “I think Southwest Virginia and Southside will vote their core values on Election Day. They will go back to the basics, where they stand on tax and social issues, where they stand on the gun issues. On all of them, Obama is wrong for Southwest Virginia.”

Boucher disagrees and, in regards to the gun issue, referred to Obama’s comments at a Town Hall meeting in Lebanon, VA in September.

“He clearly said that he supports the rights of Americans to own firearms and in no way would he interfere with those fundamental rights,” Boucher said. “Those 2,500 people in attendance left with an absolutely clear understanding that Senator Obama is a friend of gun owners and the second amendment and will do nothing to undermine their right to own and use firearms.”

According to Boucher, Obama is the first nominee of a major political party to come to the 9th Congressional District since William Jennings Bryan came to Pocahontas in 1900. He believes his visits show a “level of interest and understanding of the district’s problems and in working on solutions.”

“He really wants to carry Virginia and I believe he is going to. He is ahead in the polls and doing well in this region. There has been a dramatic movement towards him over the last few weeks and the turning point was the town meeting in Lebanon. It demonstrated to Southwest Virginians that he has an interest in us and a concern about our needs in this region that we haven’t seen literally in 108 years.”

Without naming them, Boucher predicted Obama would carry some Southwest Virginia counties and that he would do well enough in the region to win the state and consequently the presidency.

Larry Edens is a Daily Telegraph contributing writer.