Virginia is looking up for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and he may have big enough coattails for senatorial candidate George Allen to hitch a ride.
Jim Gilmore, former governor of Virginia, said, ???Romney will carry Virginia. That???s my expectation.???
???If Romney carries Virginia by two or three, then I think George comes right on in,??? he said.
???Now, it???s a question of who is going to turn out, and I think the Republicans have much more of an air of desperation about them, that they really want to go to the polls,??? he said.
Gilmore is currently president and CEO of the nonpartisan, non-profit Free Congress Foundation, but as a former governor, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, and former chairman of the Republican Governors Association, he gives Romney his endorsement, he said.
???My sense is that the Virginians are going to turn out much more for Romney than they are for Obama. Obama seems to be on autopilot,??? he said.
An Oct. 25 Rasmussen poll put Romney ahead of President Barack Obama by 2 percentage points in Virginia.
A more recent poll by Gravis Marketing found that Republicans in the state may come out on top overall, even if Romney doesn???t win.
Douglas J. Kaplan, president of Gravis, said, ???If Romney wins Virginia, then Allen could win because a lot of times the undecided go against the incumbent, but there???s no incumbent in the senatorial race.???
"We had George Allen +2 in the poll, which we found interesting," he said.
???In Florida, for instance, we found that Romney???s probably got to win by 6 in order for Mack to win, but in Virginia it seems like Allen could win, possibly, without a Romney win,??? he said.
That???s interesting, he said, because his poll found the presidential candidates tied.
John Stirrup, the County Supervisor in Prince William for 8 years and a candidate for the Virginia state senate in 2011, said, ???I think the election will really be determined-both of them-by the outcome for the election in Western Fairfax, Loudon, and Prince William.???
The area that forms a 10-mile radius around Centerville has been a bellwether for all the state elections in recent years, he said. Obama will make a campaign stop in Prince William County Nov. 3, according to a White House press release.
???If that circle goes really heavily red, that will probably indicate how the rest of the state will go,??? he said.
???I live and spend a lot of time in that area, I like the energy that I see in that area for Romney and Allen and even for Chris Perkins, who???s running in the House,??? he said.
Chris Perkins, a retired U.S. Army colonel, is running this year for Virginia???s 11th district in the House of Representatives.
