Virginia Senate: The race at a glance

(Image credit: AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

last updated 8 January 2015

In 2006, when Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), the son of a legendary Washington Redskins coach, lost what was seen as a safe election to Jim Webb, a little-known former Navy Secretary, many politicos wrote off the Republican's political career for dead. (A big part of the problem: Allen infamously called an Indian-American Webb staffer "macaca.") But six years later, Webb is retiring, and Allen is back, running neck-and-neck in the polls with popular former Gov. Tim Kaine (D). The two giants of Virginia politics are fighting one of the closest-watched contests in the country, and the result in Virginia could decide control of the Senate — and the White House.

THE CANDIDATES

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Allen and Kaine are both reasonably popular and well-known in Virginia, and both have won statewide elections in the past. As in many close races this year, the Republican is trying to lash the Democrat to President Obama. In this case, that's a plausible line of attack since Kaine was Obama's DNC chairman from 2009 to 2011, but also arguably unrewarding, since Obama is pretty popular in Virginia and might well win the state. Among the specific aspects of the anti-Kaine attacks: Allen opposes ObamaCare and Obama's DREAM immigration order, and accuses Kaine of wanting to raise taxes and abandoning Virginia when he was both governor and DNC chief. Kaine is focusing on Allen's record in the Senate, blaming him for exploding the budget deficit and being hyper-partisan, and for backing an anti-abortion "Personhood" law. Kaine is also touting his own bipartisan accomplishments and commitment to protecting Medicare and Social Security.

The race was basically tied for more than a year, until September, when Kaine started pulling ahead. But "Kaine's fate is most likely tied to President Obama's at the top of the ticket," says Huffington Post Pollster, and its unclear yet if Kaine's numbers will come down in line with Obama's recent decline. One of the three big election forecasters (Larry Sabato) rates the race "Lean Democratic," while the other two (Charlie Cook and Stu Rothenberg) call it a tossup. The New York Times' Nate Silver rates it "Likely Democratic."

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox