It’s fairly certain that neither party will come out of Super Tuesday with a confirmed nominee, which makes next Tuesday’s primaries in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia all the more important:
Democrats and Republicans around here are so unaccustomed to attention from presidential candidates or the national press during a primary season that few events were scheduled to capitalize on this year’s unprecedented import.
“In some ways, we don’t know what to do with ourselves. We’ve never felt so important in this process before,” said Adam C. Ortiz, the mayor of the Prince George’s County town of Edmonston who spoke on behalf of Democratic contender Sen. Barack Obama at a candidates forum this weekend.
Given that the first Potomac Primary — when Virginia, Maryland and D.C. voters will cast ballots simultaneously a week from today — is gaining steam, 2008 will be different from 2004, at least among the Democratic contenders for the presidency.
“It’s pretty impressive for a national campaign to get involved and pay significant attention to our little event,” said Scott A. Surovell, immediate past chairman of the Mount Vernon District Democratic Committee.
It should be an interesting week here in Virginia. The road signs have been popping up for the past week or so. On the Republican side, it seemed for awhile like the only candidate putting up signs was Ron Paul (although a good number of his signage that was up along the Prince William Parkway from Manassas to Woodbridge is gone — probably because his supporters illegally put them in public right-of-ways) but I’ve also started seeing signs for Huckabee and Romney.
Update 2/11/08: Here is my prediction of how things will turn out tomorrow for both parties.
