Virginia Gubernatorial Rematch
Barack Obama owes his presidency in part to his campaign’s mastery of the internet. A corps of online Obama enthusiasts helped him identify and mobilize previously-hidden groups of voters–particularly those under 30–and build an historic fundraising apparatus. In much of the country, Republicans were left with a clear majority only among older and rural voters, those least likely to have broadband service. The Obama apparatus worked to near perfection in Virginia, where the tech boom of the 1990s brought thousands of new, internet-savvy voters to the suburbs south and west of Washington and helped complete a shift of the state’s political center of gravity to that region from Richmond. Many of the newcomers work for the federal government or for private employers who do business with it; they tend to be more politically engaged and more inclined than voters downstate to view government at all levels as a force–at least potentially–for good. Democratic bloggers from the region were influential in Gov. Tim Kaine’s 2005 election and Jim Webb’s 2006 Senate victory. Their work last year for Obama helped him become the first Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to secure Virginia’s electoral votes. Along with Obama, Virginians chose