RICHMOND — Their reasons vary, but Virginia Democrats at their party’s national convention in Boston this week are unified in their disdain for President Bush and passionate about limiting him to a single term.
Carolyn Summerlyn, a union representative, wants Mr. Bush out of a job next January because of the American workers who have seen their jobs vanish or exported to Asia during his watch.
Dee Zisman, a Fredericksburg school teacher, wants him out because of what she sees as a bungled misadventure into Iraq that threatens to put the youngest of her brothers in harm’s way.
And retiree Collins Howlett said it’s time for Mr. Bush to go because of what he and many other black voters perceive as the president’s disregard for them, a notion reinforced by Mr. Bush’s refusal to address the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s national convention. (Mr. Bush declined to do so, he said, because of the hostility of the group’s leadership toward him. He did speak to another black organization, the National Urban League, on Friday.)
“I’ve never seen the kind of cooperation among Democrats the way it is now, and I’ve been a Democrat for 40 years,” said Mr. Howlett, 71, of Richmond, one of 96 Democratic National Convention voting delegates from Virginia.
Mr. Bush evokes the same visceral response from Democrats that President Clinton aroused in Republicans. Even in Virginia, where Democrats aren’t known as an in-your-face bunch, the mood is restive if not pugnacious.
Some party insiders even insist that conservative Virginia, where no Republican presidential nominee has lost since Barry Goldwater in 1964, is up for grabs this year.
“My husband never understood why some people had such an adverse reaction to President Clinton, but now he does. He feels the same way about President Bush,” said Marjorie Clark, 66, of Richmond, a longtime Democratic activist.
“This isn’t all about John Kerry,” Mrs. Clark said last week after a spirited pre-convention orientation session for delegates at Mr. Kerry’s new Virginia campaign headquarters in Richmond. “It’s also about the rights and the opportunities people believe they’re losing under George Bush.”
Mr. Bush and the GOP are content for Virginians to assess the president’s record and vote accordingly, said state Republican Party spokesman Shawn M. Smith.
“President Bush remains focused on the people’s business and winning the war on terrorism, cutting taxes and working to create jobs. The Republican Party will continue to contrast our compassionate-conservative philosophy with the Democratic Party’s anger and attacks,” Mr. Smith said.
The anti-Bush mood was clear from a survey the Associated Press conducted with 92 of the Virginia Democratic delegates. Four delegates did not participate. The delegates said the top three issues are the nation’s open-ended military engagement in Iraq, the economy and jobs, and health care.
Thirty-three delegates ranked Iraq (and its foreign-policy fallout) as the No. 1 issue. The economy and jobs were the top concern of 23 respondents, but 40 ranked them as their second choice, while 29 delegates ranked health care as their third priority.
“I have a son who served in Afghanistan and Baghdad, and it’s personal for me. The present administration has destroyed diplomacy,” said delegate Gary W. Kendall of Free Union.
Miss Zisman, raised with 13 siblings, last week wore a T-shirt emblazoned on the front with photos of her six brothers in military dress uniform: three served in the Army, two in the Navy and one in the Air Force.
The youngest, Adam Trevino, remains in the Army Reserve, which Miss Zisman said haunts her 84-year-old mother because of the military death toll in Iraq.
“She keeps her rosary in her hand, constantly praying that they won’t send Baby,” Miss Zisman said.
Retiree Sherwood Branch said he senses that blacks will register and turn out in force this fall to vote Democratic, motivated by Mr. Bush’s refusing the NAACP’s invitation to speak at its annual meeting in Philadelphia.
“It seems like this president has driven a wedge into the classes of people he’s willing to work with and work for, and his snub of the NAACP is a classic example of that,” he said.
Kerry-Edwards Virginia campaign insiders insist that theirs is a swing state, despite 40 years of Republican dominance. The campaign will have a paid staff of about 15 that is likely to grow larger by the Nov. 2 election. It also has waged a substantial TV ad blitz — all in a state that former Vice President Al Gore completely ignored as a presidential candidate in 2000.
But political analysts say the only way Mr. Bush will lose Virginia this year is if Mr. Kerry wins the election in a landslide.
Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have had an active organization in Virginia for months. Moreover, the state party has proved its ability to muster voters on Election Day. Republicans fill eight of the state’s 11 U.S. House seats, both U.S. Senate seats and majorities in both houses of the state legislature.
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