| After
the elections |
| Senate
race reveals regional divide in Virginia |
agencies
More
than 140 years after the Civil War raged across
its tobacco fields, Virginia finds itself in
a new north-south conflict pitting its northern
suburbs against the rest of the state.
Democrat Jim Webb narrowly defeated incumbent
Republican Sen. George Allen in Tuesday's election,
thanks to strong support from the Washington,
D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia, tipping control
of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats. The region's
voters also have sent two successive Democrats
to the governor's mansion.
It's a sign that what was once an overwhelmingly
conservative state is increasingly dominated
by Northern Virginia's racially diverse, densely
populated suburbs across the Potomac River from
Washington, experts say.
Those in the northern part of the state say their
cosmopolitan outlook stands in stark contrast
to the rest of Virginia, which was the home of
the Confederacy's capital during the Civil War
in the 1860s.
"
Folks there tend to be independent and by independent
I mean not that affiliated with the rest of the
world," business consultant Tim Miller,
24, said at a Starbucks coffee shop in the restored
historic district of the Washington suburb of
Alexandria.
Webb drew 71 percent of the vote in Alexandria,
as well as 73 percent in adjacent Arlington
County.
Allen's strongest support came farther south
in the suburbs of Richmond and in the Shenandoah
Valley -- places like rural Rockingham County,
where he won support from nearly three out
of four voters.
Residents of Bridgewater in Rockingham County
and surrounding areas said they did care for
the big-city attitude they encountered on the
other side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
"
I didn't like the people. They were rude. Here,
they treat you like family, they'll listen to
you," said Dave Hall, 37, an aircraft mechanic.
HIGH-TECH FUELS INFLUENCE
Manners aside, Northern Virginia's political
influence will only increase as the booming
high-tech economy continues to attract highly
educated,
Democratic-voting residents from across the
country, said University of Virginia politics
professor
Larry Sabato.
"
The northern part of the state is a Middle Atlantic
state, the southern part of the state still belongs
to the South," Sabato said. "Virginia
... is only going to become more Middle Atlantic."
Even in the heart of Allen country, residents
don't always agree on hot-button social
issues. Schoolteacher April Detamore, 36,
said she
voted for Allen because she opposed gay
marriage.
"
I'm a traditional conservative," she said
as her husband gassed up their Chevy Trailblazer. "It
was a difficult issue to try to explain to my
children."
At a saloon down the street, Hall and
fellow airplane mechanic Jon Marshall,
35, said
they thought that government should stay
out of
the lives of gay people, though they
both voted for
Allen as well.
"
I don't think that should have been a campaign
issue," Marshall said. "Who's to say
that a ban on interracial marriage isn't next?"
Like many Southern states, Virginia
outlawed interracial marriage until
the 1960s
and parts of the state shut down their
public
schools
during that period rather than integrate
them between
blacks and whites.
Race relations have improved since
then and in 1989 Virginia became the
first
U.S. state
to
elect a black governor, Democrat Douglas
Wilder.
Rockingham County and other areas of
the Shenandoah Valley remain overwhelmingly
white but Northern
Virginia's booming economy has drawn
a
flood of immigrants from Latin America
and Asia.
That's not necessarily a good thing
for Alexandria caterer Jodi Carr, 31,
who
said the prevalence
of illegal immigrants might force her
to move from Northern Virginia to a
more distant
suburb.
Though Republicans made a crackdown
on illegal immigration a centerpiece
of
their agenda
this year, Carr said she voted for
Webb because she was fed up with the
war in
Iraq.
"
I just am very sick of the Bush administration
and Allen's support of it," said Carr, a
registered Republican who used to work for Arizona
Sen. John McCain.
The Iraq war also was the most important
issue for Miller, a Democrat who
moved to the Northern
Virginia area two years ago.
"
I would have voted against any Republican right
now," Miller said. "It's like they're
all hiding out under Bush."
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| Brake
ups and technology |
| Dumped
by text? Britney's ex joins growing club |
agencies
Ur
dumped, Kevin Federline -- and you are now part
of a growing club of spurned lovers who have
been ditched by text message.
A video of Britney Spears' soon-to-be ex-husband
apparently getting a text message informing him
that the pop princess had filed for divorce became
the most viewed item on the YouTube Internet
site on Thursday, with more than 1 million hits.
The Web video shows Federline taping a reality
television show and talking about Spears being
his biggest fan -- until he gets a text message.
Then he puts his head in his hands, rips off
his microphone and disappears, returning 30 minutes
later visibly upset.
Spears, 24, abruptly filed for divorce from fledgling
rapper Federline this week after two years of
marriage -- and two children -- while he was
filming in Canada.
Experts on cell phone and text message use and
etiquette said Federline was not the first to
be dumped by text -- and certainly would not
be the last with rising numbers of teen-ager
and 20-somethings using text to avoid confrontation.
"
People in their teens and 20s feel more comfortable
using a text message to communicate something
serious than having to confront someone," said
Delly Tamer, chief executive of online wireless
retailer LetsTalk.com, which researches phone
use.
"
It is instant gratification -- and delayed mortification.
At some point they will have to yell at each
other."
CATCHING ON IN U.S.
The first text message was sent in 1992,
according to British industry group Mobile
Data Association,
with text messaging launched commercially
in 1995.
In Britain 95 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds
use text messaging regularly. But it is only
in the past year or so that text messaging
has soared in the United States. Figures
from CTIA-The
Wireless Association said that 12.5 billion
text messages were sent in June this year,
up 72 percent
from a year ago.
A recent LetsTalk.com survey found 49 percent
of U.S. teen-agers now listed text messaging
as the most important feature of a cell phone.
No U.S. figures were available to track the
use of text messaging to dump partners. But
such
research has been conducted in Europe and
Asia, where the use of text messaging took
off earlier
than in the United States.
A survey carried out by Swiss messaging services
provider Sicap two years ago found that 9
percent of mobile phone users admitted to
having dumped
a boyfriend or girlfriend by sending a text
message.
A survey last October by Macquarie University
in Australia found 100 people aged 18 to
35 used text messaging more when relationships
began
or were in a rocky patch.
Few YouTube viewers seemed to have much sympathy
for Federline, 28, although some acknowledged
it was tough for the break-up to be so public.
"
That was actually sad, For it to be on T.V. WOW.
Good for Brit though," said a note from
Shadowman25.
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