Election results show rising strength for Dems

Barack Obama won with wide voting margins in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, painting the metropolitan area a decidedly deeper shade of blue in Tuesday’s historic presidential election.

Obama received 78,884 votes in the Charlottesville region, compared with 63,325 votes for GOP nominee John McCain, according to unofficial returns.

Obama won decisively in the region’s most heavily populated localities — the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle — as well as Nelson County. He squeaked by McCain in Buckingham County by only 66 votes.

McCain received big majorities in the counties of Greene, Louisa, Madison and Orange. But in those localities, the Republican margin of victory was smaller than in 2000 and 2004. McCain barely won in Fluvanna County, beating out Obama by 241 votes.

The election results in the Charlottesville region reflect what happened in Virginia as a whole. The state’s vote-rich urban areas — such as Richmond, Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads — went largely for Obama, who won the state with 51.7 percent of the vote. Virginia had not backed a Democrat for president in 44 years.

“This was Virginia’s confirmation election,” University of Virginia politics expert Larry J. Sabato said. “We are a competitive, toss-up state.”

Virginia’s election results map looks like a few islands of blue in a vast sea of red, Sabato pointed out, but that is because Democrats are winning the urban and suburban population centers, while Republicans are winning the rural, less populated parts of Virginia.

“Trees, rocks and acres don’t vote,” Sabato said.

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat, performed even better than Obama in Central Virginia. In his successful quest to replace retiring John W. Warner in the U.S. Senate, Mark Warner won every single locality in the Charlottesville area with massive margins.

Warner’s popularity with supporters of both Obama and McCain was apparent in Tuesday’s election returns. Warner defeated former Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican, by a margin of 48,715 votes in the Charlottesville area. Obama beat McCain by a margin of 15,559 in the region.

For Albemarle County, Tuesday’s election marks the latest in a recent string of consecutive wins for top-of-the-ticket Democrats. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Arlington, won the county with 57.5 percent of the vote in 2006. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine won it with 61.2 percent of the vote in 2005. And Warner carried it with 56.4 percent during his gubernatorial bid in 2001.

The county has more gradually shifted to a Democratic stronghold for presidential candidates. Eight years ago, George W. Bush won the county with 49.6 percent of the vote. And in 2004, John Kerry beat Bush with 50.5 percent, a margin of only 899 votes. Obama won Albemarle on Tuesday with 58.4 percent of the vote.

Christian J. Schoenewald, chairman of the Albemarle County GOP, said he does not believe that the county’s political demographics have tilted in favor of the Democrats. Rather, he said, Tuesday’s election represents unhappiness among Albemarle residents about a lackluster economy, two ongoing wars and a deeply unpopular Republican president.

“People were dissatisfied,” he said. “They wanted change. Now they’ve got that. Now we’ll see what they do with it.”

Schoenewald said he does not think that recent victories for Democrats in Albemarle County suggest that state or local races might flip away from the GOP.

“This election was driven more by circumstance, rather than a political shift,” he said.

Albemarle County Democratic Committee Chairman Fred Hudson disagreed. Democrats are winning, he said, and they will continue winning.

“There’s been a progression toward blue in Albemarle County,” he said. “Anybody would have a hard time arguing that it hasn’t become a substantially dark shade of blue.”

The Democrats’ local victory, Hudson said, came about because of the party’s inspirational presidential candidate and a concerted effort by the local party and the Obama campaign to register and mobilize thousands of voters.

“It was an effort that was huge,” he said. “It showed what people can do when they come together for the common good.”