Candidates to court Virginians: McCain in the north; Obama in the south

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s plans to visit Virginia today sparked a series of barbs Monday between his staffers and the co-chairmen of Republican nominee John McCain’s campaign.
“Sen. Obama does not have the experience to come up with an economic plan. Sen. McCain will continue the tax cuts,’’ passed under President Bush, said former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, McCain’s Virginia campaign co-chairman.
The federal tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 are set to expire. Obama will raise taxes, a bad move given the current economic situation, Kilgore declared.
Kevin Griffis, Obama’s Virginia communications director, called talk about Obama raising taxes “a flat-out lie.”
Griffis pointed to an analysis of Obama’s tax package by a watchdog group called the Tax Policy Center, which concluded that the Illinois senator “offers much larger tax breaks to low- and middle-income taxpayers and would increase taxes on high-income taxpayers.”
The Tax Policy Center is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institute. Brookings is considered a centrist to liberal think tank.
Del. Chris Saxman, R-Staunton, also a McCain Virginia co-chairman, said the Arizona senator’s message of reform, prosperity and peace will resonate with Virginia voters in November.
Obama is scheduled to visit Lebanon in Southwest Virginia today. A town of 3,300 people, the largest in Russell County, Lebanon is tucked in the heart of coal country. It was a political touchstone for Democrat Mark Warner several years ago when he targeted the community for multimillion-dollar technology centers.
That move was aimed at bolstering a campaign pledge not to leave rural areas behind and it was considered part of a larger effort to build support for Warner’s own potential presidential bid.
Towns such as Lebanon, with an unemployment rate that as recently as 2006 ran twice as high as the state’s, are considered fertile ground in the push to turn Virginia blue in November.
But McCain backers insisted Obama would find little traction there.
“My guess is he does not have the staying power. He is too liberal,’’ Saxman said. Kilgore said Obama is “out of touch” with the people of Southwest Virginia.
Griffis countered that Republicans have ignored downtrodden rural locales such as Lebanon.
“An Obama administration remembers that places like Southwest Virginia exist. The area has been largely forgotten under McCain and President Bush,’’ Griffis said.
He cited as proof of Obama’s attention to towns such as Lebanon the Democrat’s plan to invest $150 billion over 10 years in renewable and clean energy, including clean coal technology.
Obama has been a frequent visitor to Virginia’s coal country.
The state has received little attention from McCain, who had the GOP nomination wrapped up by the time the primaries were held in February.
He is scheduled to visit Fairfax on Wednesday with running mate Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor whose selection in advance of the Republican National Convention stirred the party base.
“People are clamoring to see them,” Saxman said. “It’s an excitement level I’ve never seen before.”