Below The Beltway

According to two polls released today, Barack Obama is surging to a near-commanding lead in Virginia.
First, SurveyUSA gives Obama a ten-point lead over McCain among likely voters:
9 days until votes are counted in Virginia, Democrat Barack Obama is ahead 53% to 43%, according to this SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, WJLA-TV in [...]

For good reason, the Virginia GOP is worried that John McCain could be the first Republican Presidential candidate to lose the Old Dominion since Barry Goldwater:
Virginia Republicans are warning that John McCain’s prospects for winning a state that has been in the GOP column in every presidential election since 1964 could be in jeopardy. With [...]

With only a month left until Election Day, both the Obama and McCain campaigns spent another Saturday concentrating on Virginia’s 13 Electoral Votes:
Sen. John McCain’s brother Joe headlined a rally for the Republican presidential candidate yesterday in Loudoun County that drew hundreds of supporters, many of them veterans.
Elsewhere in the battleground state, Sen. Barack Obama [...]

There’s yet more evidence that Virginia has moved in the Democratic column this year from the latest CNN/Time poll:
A new CNN and Time Magazine poll out today shows Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) with a 9 point lead over Arizona Sen. John McCain in Virginia.
Obama receives 53 percent of the vote to McCain’s 44 percent.
Obama holds [...]

There is a new poll out that seems to corroborate the idea that Barack Obama may have a good chance at winning Virginia after all:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has opened up a narrow lead over Republican John McCain in Virginia, according to a poll by Insider Advantage that was published today by the Southern [...]

Although it has slipped slightly from the five-point lead he had late last week, Barack Obama continues to be in the lead in the latest Fox/Rasmussen poll of the Presidential election in Virginia:
The latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Virginia finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 50% to 47%.
This is the second consecutive poll [...]

With recent polls suggesting that Virginia may go Democratic for the first time since 1964, it’s no surprise that Barack Obama and Joe Biden made their first joint appearance in nearly a month in the Old Dominion:
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), took their campaign to [...]

If this poll is accurate and not an outlier, it could indicate a significant change in the election:
Matching a trend seen in national polling, Barack Obama has pulled ahead of John McCain in Virginia over the past week as the Wall Street financial crunch has put economic concerns front and center.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone [...]

As it has been for much of the summer. Virginia remains a toss-up in the Presidential race:
The race for the White House in Virginia is a tie this week. The latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds John McCain and Barack Obama each attracting 48% support in the Old Dominion.
One week ago, McCain had a [...]

The first Republican Governor of Virginia since Reconstruction will be campaigning for Barack Obama:
Linwood Holton, Virginia’s first modern Republican governor, will endorse Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Monday and start campaigning for him around the state.
Holton, who was in office from 1970 to 1974, is Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s (D) father-in-law. Kaine [...]