Va. GOP eager to hitch Democratic opponents to Obama

RICHMOND

Republicans seem more excited than Democrats about President Barack Obama's bus tour in Virginia this week, seeing it as another chance, weeks before the state legislative election, to link opponents to the president's weak poll numbers and the slumping economy.

Obama will speak at a Hampton military base today on the final leg of a three-day tour to promote elements of his jobs plan. As he arrives, Republicans say, members of his party in Virginia are retreating.

They note that some rural Democratic members of the General Assembly have distanced themselves from Obama and his policies, while others have emphasized compromises they've made with Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Republicans have gleefully highlighted those developments as proof the president is politically toxic. They also claim that Democrats got the White House to reroute the bus tour so it didn't stop in districts where incumbents face stiff re-election competition.

Earlier this month, before the tour route was announced, The Associated Press reported Obama's caravan would travel to Danville, Charlottesville, Newport News and Fredericksburg. Some of those localities are key to Republican plans to regain the state Senate majority from Democrats.

Democrats have disputed that version of the itinerary.

A Capitol Hill Democrat familiar with early planning for the tour of North Carolina and Virginia said Monday that sites were chosen for their connection to jobs bill provisions - Obama's visit to an Emporia high school and a Chesterfield fire station dovetail with a component of the plan to help states pay teachers and public safety personnel.

Either way, the visit comes as a recent Quinnipiac University survey shows the president is viewed unfavorably by 49 percent of Virginia voters.

"These guys, when they thought President Obama was hope and change, they were rushing to his side regardless of how detrimental his polices are," said Karen Miner Hurd, a Virginia Beach tea party activist who leads a political action committee running radio ads against Senate Democrats. "Now they get to eat the fruit of that decision."

It's a stark turnabout from three years ago when Obama's popularity soared and he carried this state en route to a presidential victory, state Republican chairman Pat Mullins said.

"It's interesting with that background to watch the White House scramble now to find someplace where the current occupant of the White House won't hurt the Democratic candidates," he said.

With voter discontent high, Republicans are wise "to try to hang Obama around every Democrat," just as Democrats facing competition are smart not to "mention the president's name," said Christopher Newport University political science professor Quentin Kidd.

Among the Republicans who invoke Obama's name for political gain is state Senate candidate Ben Loyola of Virginia Beach.

He's claimed his opponent, Sen. Ralph Northam of Norfolk, is a key defender of the president's federal health care law and his "failed economic policies."

Northam rejects that characterization.

Voters are understandably frustrated by partisan bickering in Washington, but they want state Senate candidates to explain how they'll represent local interests in Richmond, Northam said. He won't attend the president's speech.

One Democratic incumbent who will is Sen. John Miller of Newport News, who faces opposition from Republican Mickey Chohany.

"I'm not looking at the politics of this," said Miller. "He's the president of the United States. He's coming to the Peninsula to talk about hiring veterans. That isn't a partisan issue."

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com