By Austin Wright When Cindy McCain, wife of the presumptive Republican nominee for president, gets her picture taken while doing work with the Norfolk-based charity Operation Smile, she's not playing politics. It's personal. McCain has been a volunteer for Operation Smile since 2001, but the charity's mission reached into her life in the 1990s.

NORFOLK Mayor Paul Fraim announced a statewide voter registration drive Friday backed by organizers from Sen. Barack Obama's grassroots organization.  The drive, dubbed "Can You Best Obama," challenges local volunteers to register 151,000 new Virginia voters before Oct. 6.

FAIRFAX Sen. Barack Obama looked Thursday to exploit the gender gap that has become critical to Democratic political success since the 1990s: wooing female voters in a key Virginia battleground and casting his Republican presidential rival as indifferent to the faltering national economy.

WASHINGTON Hampton Roads voters, particularly veterans, are being targeted by a pair of television ad campaigns designed to rekindle the national debate over the future of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

RICHMOND U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia said Monday that he has told U.S. Sen. Barack Obama that under "no circumstance will I be a candidate for vice president." Webb said he informed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of his decision last week.

ARLINGTON A federal ban on offshore exploration for oil and natural gas should be lifted and states should be given financial incentives to encourage them to permit drilling in their waters, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday.

WASHINGTON The end of the long struggle for the Democratic presidential nomination has left activists, provocateurs, talking heads, gossipmongers, and even the much-maligned mainstream media with time and space to fill until the fall campaign. And a good chunk of them are filling it with Jim Webb.

By MATT APUZZO RICHMOND Republican John McCain reversed course Monday and allowed the media into a private fundraiser where he chided Democratic rival Barack Obama for his reluctance to agree to a series of joint town-hall meetings.

By BETH FOUHY Hillary Rodham Clinton ended her historic campaign for the presidency on Saturday and told supporters to unite behind rival Barack Obama, closing out a race that was as grueling as it was groundbreaking.  

BRISTOW His historic nomination secured, Barack Obama turned to the general election campaign on Thursday with Virginia appearances that showcased a pair of potential running mates and underscored his willingness to compete in states that Republicans have considered their strongholds.