Virginia
Ann Romney greets well-wishers during a short stop last week in Williamsburg, Va. (Adrin Snider / AP Photo/The Daily Press / October 28, 2012)
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By Paul West, Washington Bureau
October 28, 2012, 5:00 a.m.
ASHBURN, Va. — With the presidential contest in Virginia teetering on a knife's edge, Mitt Romney is counting on the economic concerns of suburban women to lock up a state that's almost a must-carry for him.
Joanie Smerdzinski, 34, is one of them. She voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and still finds him more likable than his Republican rival. "I mean, would I want to hang out with Romney? No," said the political independent, who also disagrees with Romney's opposition to same-sex marriage.
But personality and social issues won't secure her vote. "I think the economy is the key issue," said Smerdzinski, who was only leaning toward Romney until he surprised her with his performance in the first debate. "I thought he handled himself well and seemed to have a better plan to get the economy on track."
According to most public and private polling, Romney holds a marginal lead in this state, thanks to a huge advantage among white men. However, a Washington Post poll released Saturday night showed President Obama with a 4-point lead, within the survey's margin of error. Obama needs to expand his support among women, Democrats say, to avoid losing a state he won last time and clearly led this year until recently. The president's closing message is aimed at voters like Stephanie Kolar, a personal counselor who says that Obama's "values are more in line with mine."
"Women's health issues are always important to me, women's reproductive rights issues, even though it does not affect me personally," said the 47-year-old, whose two children include a teenage daughter. She isn't persuaded by Romney's recent efforts to moderate his image. "His presentation seems compassionate, but people can fake 'good' for a period of time," Kolar said.
These women live in one of the new bellwethers of American politics, exurban Loudoun County, about 25 miles from downtown Washington. Along with the far suburbs of Richmond and Norfolk, the outer suburbs of northern Virginia are the real battlegrounds in the fight for the state's 13 electoral votes, and independent women are prime targets for last-ditch persuasion.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Loudoun was, for a time, the nation's fastest-growing county, boosted by federal government spending and booming employment at tech companies such as AOL. New developments sprang from forests and fields, including Belmont Greene, a white-collar community of traditionally styled houses and dark green lawns. But growth has slowed and houses have recovered only a third of the value that was lost when that market's bubble burst.
Politics is rarely a big topic of neighborhood conversation, which is more likely to revolve around the exploits of the Stone Bridge Bulldogs (rated the top high school sports program in Virginia by Sports Illustrated in 2007). Pumpkins and brightly colored Halloween decorations are far more plentiful in front yards than candidate signs.
Yet interviews at front doors and kitchen tables revealed no shortage of opinion about a presidential campaign that is bombarding Belmont Greene with nonstop TV ads and five or six mail pieces a day. Voters are worried about the country's future, disappointed by how the candidates squabbled in the debates and desperate for the contest to end.