Local Democrats, Republicans stage last-minute rallies

The scenes were similar – 150-or-so grown-ups eating in school cafeterias – at the annual last-minute rallies staged by opposing political parties. And while the Democrats had potluck and the Republicans catered fare, the message was the same – it ain’t over yet.
Speakers at both events harkened back to four years ago, when the same two men now up for governor elbowed for attorney general.
Republican Bob McDonnell beat Democrat Creigh Deeds by just 360 votes that year. 
In both cafeterias, it was a battle cry for the hard-core loyalists to call all their friends and remember to mention it at church in the morning.
Both parties prided themselves on a clean campaign and scolded the other’s dirty one. Both reminded their fans that the candidate in question understood the value of hard work and Southwest Virginia.
The mood was somewhat more somber at the Democrat’s 5 p.m. buffet at E.B. Stanley Middle School in Abingdon. At last count, Deeds was down 12 points in the polls.
“It’s always disappointing when you’ve gotten bad news,” Washington County Supervisor Tom Taylor said. “But, polls have been wrong in the past and I hope they’re wrong this time.”
But some said even if the polls are right, they’ve got three days to make up the difference.
“The point of this is to build momentum for our committed party loyalists,” Congressman Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said. “Most of the campaigning is over, the advertising has aired, the candidates have had their say. The election is in the hands of the people here tonight, and they are going to work hard and turn out the vote.”
Betty Ferrier, who said she’d been politicking for the Democrats for five decades, ate a miniature pecan pie as she critiqued the party’s campaign strategy. She said Deeds is a solid Virginian, and he forgot that edge somewhere in the campaign. But, she likes him anyway.
“He’s a good fella,” Ferrier said. “He was born and raised in Virginia. And I’ve been on the phone, just thinking of people I know that need to be reminded to vote. Especially young people looking for a change – we really need one.”
The event was headlined by Alan Wagner, the gourmet popcorn-making and ophthalmologist husband of lieutenant governor candidate Jody Wagner. Alan Wagner described his wife as strong, hard working and down to earth, then called everyone to wrangle their friends and neighbors Tuesday morning. 
“You drag everybody out of their comfortable little houses,” he said. “And it will be a sun-shiney Tuesday.”
Twelve miles down the road, the Republicans were more cautiously celebratory.
“It’s about the hauling and the calling and getting the votes out,” Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, said. “Just because we’re ahead in the polls, we can’t stop now; we’ve got to push, push, push until 7 o’clock on Tuesday night. Then we’re gonna have a good time.”
The Republican speakers took a break to acknowledge some of their longest-tenured members, applauding four attendees who were more than 90 years old. 
Two of McDonnell’s daughters made a celebrity appearance. Cailin McDonnell, his second-oldest child and his campaign’s youth outreach coordinator, thanked the audience for the support in Southwest Virginia.
She noted that her father’s campaign for attorney general was in the same year that Iraqi women had their first chance to vote. Seventy percent of Iraqis stood in line, and blue-thumb photos made their way around the world. But in Virginia, just 40 percent of the electorate went to the polls.
She introduced her big sister, Jeanine McDonnell, who got the first standing ovation of the night for missing her father’s last campaign in favor of working in Iraq.
She called her father fair and good, a fan of strong women and an advocate for veterans. 
Next up, state party chairman Pat Mullins described the national ramifications of their party’s “dynamite ticket.”
“This is being watched very closely in the halls of Congress,” Mullins said. “It’s definitely about our election in Virginia, but it’s got ramifications that go past the borders of the commonwealth.”
He said that the last time the party was in a similar position was 1993. President Bill Clinton had just taken office when Republicans in both Virginia and New Jersey swept the off-season elections.
“The next year we picked up 58 seats in the house,” Mullins said. “People look back at that as the second revolution.”
Back at E. B. Stanley, Deeds’ campaign manager, Joe Abbey, rallied the troops in a final attempt to avoid a Republican sweep.
“We knocked on over 100,000 doors today,” he said. “We’re going to hit that many tomorrow, then again on Monday and again on Tuesday. It’s not going to be easy; we’re going to be exhausted Tuesday, but we’re going to be victorious.”

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