Change in color

STAUNTON — The Frontier Culture Museum’s Lee Cochran Pavilion jammed full of Democrats said it all to Sen. Creigh Deeds.
“Happy days are here again,” the Democratic senator and a 2009 gubernatorial candidate said of the 450 Democrats who came to the museum Saturday night from Waynesboro, Staunton and Augusta County for a fundraiser called “Paint the Valley Blue.”
And even if it was only for one night, the Democrats dominated the Shenandoah Valley’s political landscape.
They trotted out Deeds and Sixth District congressional candidate Sam Rasoul, and the main attraction of the night: a call from former Gov. Mark Warner.
Warner, a U.S. Senate candidate in November, phoned in from the University of Virginia Medical Center, where he was resting from a basketball injury that forced him to miss “Paint the Valley.”
Deeds said the Democrats who came out Saturday night — paying $35 each — reflected the desire for change.
“There is something in the country. The feeling is palpable. It’s not just urban Democrats, it’s everywhere,” Deeds said.
He said Americans are looking for change.
“At the end of the day, it’s about more than politics — liberal or conservative. People are sick and tired of the way things are,” he said of the high gasoline prices and other economic stresses.
Levar Stoney, executive director of Virginia’s Democratic Party, called Virginia the “quintessential battleground state” in this year’s presidential election.
And the signs suggest he is right. Warner will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Democratic National Convention on Aug. 26 in Denver.
And on Wednesday, Warner and presumed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama will visit Martinsville in Virginia’s depressed Southside for an invitation-only town hall meeting.
And while no one is sure how well Obama will do in the traditionally Republican Shenandoah Valley, Stoney said it is important “to cut into the margin” in the Valley.
“We are battling in every locality,” Stoney said.
Tom Long, chairman of the Augusta County Democratic Committee, called the turnout for Saturday night’s fundraiser a good start.
But he said Democrats winning in Augusta County, Staunton and Waynesboro may still take a while.
“It could be multi-election, multi-decade,” he said.
Virginia Obama Campaign Director Mitch Stewart told the “Paint the Valley Blue” crowd that, since January, 200,000 new voters have been registered in Virginia, and two-thirds of those are 35 and younger.
Deeds said the influx of new voters is encouraging, but said registering new voters won’t be enough to get Virginia for Obama.
“We had the motor voter drive in the 1990s. People did not turn out,” he said.
Deeds said voters will come out this year if they feel voting for a candidate “can make a difference in their lives.”
But Deeds saw encouraging signs Saturday night, saying he had never seen so many Democrats under one roof in Augusta County.