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Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., said the state could well decide not only the presidential election but control of the Senate: Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican George Allen, both former governors, are in a tight race to succeed Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat. Obama is helped by the state's more moderate and Democratic Washington suburbs, by an unemployment rate that is well below the national average and by a minority population that voted heavily in his favor last time. Nearly 20 percent of the state's population is African-American, and its Hispanic presence has grown sharply in the past decade, especially in the north. Romney can benefit from what Farnsworth called a "highly organized and relatively cohesive Republican Party in Virginia that is very capable of winning elections." Obama could also gain from backlash over a controversial state law signed earlier this year by Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell that requires Virginia women to have an ultrasound test before an abortion. What's more, former Republican Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia is seeking to get on the Virginia ballot as the presidential candidate of the Constitution Party. If successful, he could draw precious votes away from Romney
-- and Obama would not need to break 50 percent of the vote to win. While touring the state, Obama will reiterate his call for extending Bush-era tax cuts for the middle class, insisting that households earning more than $250,000 revert to paying the higher rates they faced under President Bill Clinton. That stance puts him at odds with Kaine, who has called for retaining the Bush tax cuts for households earning less than $500,000. Obama's position is also opposed by Webb, who has rejected calls for any tax increase.
Despite its relatively low unemployment rate of 5.6 percent, the state relies heavily on military contracts that could suffer significantly under automatic spending cuts authorized by Congress and signed by the president last year. The Hampton Roads area that Obama is visiting Friday is home to a large military presence
-- the world's largest naval base is there -- and its economy is heavily dependent on defense spending. Campaigning Thursday in Virginia on behalf of Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told veterans in Virginia Beach that Obama would destroy the region's job base through defense spending cuts if he's re-elected. "He has your region of the country right in his crosshairs," Giuliani said at a rally at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post. "I mean he can do more damage to you than he does to most of the rest of America if we should make the mistake of re-electing him because the cuts he has in mind for our military are devastating." The proposed cuts in defense spending were designed to be so large that they would force Congress to adopt other means of reducing the deficit. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned against the military spending cuts, and Obama has instead called for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday blamed the deficit stalemate on Republicans for opposing increases in revenue. "The across-the-board cuts were objectionable and onerous to both sides for a reason," he said. "That's why Congress has to act."
[Associated
Press;
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