Virginia can be divided roughly into 4 regions:
Northern VA (blue), population 2.1 million
Shennandoah (red), population 2.1 million
Tidewater (purple), population 1.8 million
Capital region (purple), population 1.3 million
2005 Gov race (DEM Kaine won election + 3/4 regions)
NVA: 58.7% for Kaine (28% of statewide vote)
Shen: 45% for Kaine (30% of statewide vote)
Tide: 53% for Kaine (22% of statewide vote)
Cap: 51% for Kain (20% of statewide vote)
George Allen is about to launch a sustained $650,000/week television ad campaign across the state (a negative ad re: Webb). 3/4 of that $ is going into NVA. That's $3 million he's throwing at NVA on this one ad between now and the election.
Today, the Sons of Confederate Veterens is holding a news conference regarding George Allen and the confederate flag. Allen would prefer the SCV not hold news conferences at all, but just shut up and vote for him.
Senator George Felix Allen and son Forrest in confederate garb on the set of "Gods and Generals".
Unfortuneately for Felix,
State leaders of the Sons of Confederate Veterans have scheduled a news conference today to criticize Allen's recent remarks that the Confederate flag could be seen as a symbol of hate.
"George Allen was a good friend of ours, and we don't appreciate him turning on us to get out of political trouble," said Frank Earnest of Virginia Beach, commander of the Virginia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "He's degraded us, the flag and our heritage."
Felix is being called out in public by his base. How will he mend those fences while promoting himself as the new champion for racial tolerance? He can't and he won't.
Dick Wadhams, Allen's campaign manager, offered little consolation to the group. "They can say or do whatever they want," Wadhams said.
Uh oh. Under the bus goes the SCV, the CCC, the Daughters of the Confederacy, the League of the South.
Given this statement and the ad buys, it looks like Felix will cut some losses in other parts of the state and hope he can make up the difference in NVA. Make no mistake, that Allen (ads, "ethnic" rallies, apologies) is compelled to make NVA the battle ground is a victory for Jim Webb.
from another article
"Senator Allen in the past has been a friend. But he has apparently turned 180 degrees as far as honoring Virginia's history and heritage," said Brag Bowling, a past commander and now a national officer of the group.
"'We cannot pay respect and honor to the Confederate States of America, because many of our ancestors died at the hands of these same rebels and Confederates,' said Glenn, pastor of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church, a predominantly black church in predominantly white Chesterfield."
"'How are you going to ask a citizen of African ancestry to reflect on the history of people that raped, lynched, castrated and brutalized people who looked just like him? You wouldn't ask Jews living in Heidelberg, Germany, to reflect on Hitler and his contributions to the Third Reich.'"
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