Is Harrisonburg in play this November?
Posted by Brent Finnegan on July 7th, 2008
The Washington Post reported that the McCain campaign is expected to start airing ads in the Harrisonburg area tomorrow.
Virginians have supported Republicans for president for more than three decades. But Democrats have won recent statewide races for governor and U.S. Senate, prompting many political watchers to say Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, may have a shot at winning Virginia.
The McCain campaign is reportedly also buying airtime in Norfolk, Richmond, Roanoke, Charlottesville and southwest Virginia. But why Harrisonburg?
Tags: Politics
If in fact Virginia is this year’s Ohio or Florida, small-town votes will mean more than ever. McCain could lose the cities served by Hburg TV, but he’ll win the counties, and he perhaps needs to win them by even more than the expected huge margins.
Think about Harrisonburg as a media market, not as an independent jurisdiction.
Buying ads in Harrisonburg allows candidates to reach up and down the valley (and McCain needs to boost turnout here), as well as crossing over into West Virginia, which McCain also needs to win.
McCain isn’t targeting Harrisonburg … he’s targeting Rockingham, Augusta, Shenandoah, Page, Pendleton, Hardy, Grant, Pocahontas …
McCain is trying to cover his base (abbreviated, of course, CYA) four months before the election, a tribute to Obama’s organization, popularity, and strength. Expanding on what Deona and Adam point out, McCain should be targeting media markets like Cleveland and Miami right now, not trying to boost his take in places he ought to carry easily.
The ‘Burg’s not really in play. Dems will carry it (as we did for Deeds, Kaine, Fulk once, and Fulk twice). McCain appears to be afraid not that the ‘Burg is in play, but that the Valley is.