Battle Puts Focus on Key N.Va. At a Fairfax County store, a man dressed as an elephant helps hand out fliers for Republican state Sen. Jane H. Woods. Mass. And Democrat Leslie L. Byrne, a onetime congresswoman, sits at her keyboard before dawn, trolling for votes in cyberspace. There are few places left for Virginians to hide in these final days before Tuesday's elections. Candidates are on television, in your mailbox, at your doorstep.
Roadways are ablaze with signs.
Party leaders have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars targeting voters in these districts with messages intended to resonate in Northern Virginia. Their polls show voters in the Washington suburbs clamoring for smaller classes, more teachers, higher academic standards. They want growth managed, commutes shortened, guns controlled and taxes lowered. Multilingualism also is in, with candidates printing fliers in Spanish, Korean and Chinese and being careful not to skip television and radio appearances geared to immigrant communities. And as both parties struggle for an edge on core issues, candidates magnify slight differences.