John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, will launch a foray into the Republican heartland of Virginia tomorrow with an advertising campaign intended as a show of strength. The Kerry camp's inclusion of Virginia in a 20-state, $17m (£9.2m) campaign is unusual because no Democrat has won the state for 40 years. But party strategists believe the expansion of Washington's liberal suburbs into northern Virginia, and Senator Kerry's appeal to the high concentration of veterans around naval bases along the Virginia coast, put the state in play.
"We are not going on the air any place we do not think we have a chance to win," Mary Beth Cahill, the Kerry campaign manager, told Associated Press.
However, some observers portrayed the move as a stunt designed to generate news coverage, give the impression of gathering momentum behind the Kerry campaign and tie down Bush funds in defending the president's base. The Kerry camp has already broadcast political advertisements in two other Republican strongholds it regards as vulnerable, Colorado and Louisiana, forcing the Bush campaign to spend money defending them. The president's strategists have since decided that there is no real threat in Louisiana and taken anti-Kerry advertisements off the air there.
Senator Kerry has been able to venture deep into Bush country because he has raised far more money than his Democratic predecessors - $115m - and because he is in a strong position in the closely contested states where the outcome will determine the presidency.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1228608,00.html
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