Bush 'sank' GOP in Virginia

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RICHMOND -- President Bush's sinking popularity helped seal Democrat Timothy M. Kaine's victory in Virginia's gubernatorial election Tuesday, politicians and pollsters said yesterday.

"We know that George Bush is just killing us," said Delegate David B. Albo, a Republican who narrowly defeated his Democratic challenger in Fairfax County. "His popularity just brought the ticket down. There's no other way to explain it."

Mr. Kaine, the current lieutenant governor, defeated Republican Jerry W. Kilgore by six percentage points in a contest that had been a statistical dead heat in the days before the election.

With 99 percent of the state's 2,395 precincts reporting, Mr. Kaine won 1,009,532 votes, or 52 percent, and Mr. Kilgore received 902,244 votes, or 46 percent. H. Russell PottsJr., an independent candidate, collected 43,675 votes, or 2 percent.

In addition, Mr. Kaine fared particularly well in Republican strongholds such as the outer suburbs of Northern Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley and Virginia Beach.

Scott Rasmussen, president of the New Jersey-based polling firm Rasmussen Reports, said the voters who made up their minds just before Election Day -- about 12 percent of voters -- favored Mr. Kaine by 15 percentage points.

That suggests some voters were turned off by a last-minute visit by Mr. Bush on Monday on Mr. Kilgore's behalf. A Rasmussen survey of Virginia voters found that 51 percent approved of the president's performance. Nationally, Mr. Bush has registered a 37 percent approval rating.

"It was not a good year to run as a Republican in Virginia," said Mark Rozell, a public policy professor at George Mason University, adding that the Bush visit "probably backfired" and spurred Democrats to get out the vote.

What's more, the Rasmussen survey found that Mr. Kaine won 22 percent of the Republican vote.

According to the Virginia State Board of Elections, voter turnout was 44.44 percent in Tuesday's governor race. Turnout was 46.38 percent in 2001, when Democrat Mark Warner defeated Republican Mark Earley by five percentage points in the gubernatorial contest.