Kerry Claims the South

After North Carolina Sen. John Edwards' sizeable victory in South Carolina last week and Gen. Wesley Clark's win in Oklahoma, the margin of Kerry's success in Virginia and Tennessee came as a surprise, and evidence that most Democrats can't wait to rally around a single candidate with a good chance to win in order to gear up their campaign against President George Bush.

While Edwards came in a distant second in both races, he continued to showcase his credentials as an eventual running mate on the Kerry ticket, while Clark's poor third place showing called the continuing viability of his campaign into question, and he formally dropped out yesterday.

Kerry finished with 51.50% of the vote in Virginia among 202,403 voters, or 9.24% of all registered voters. Edwards had 26.62%, Clark 9.25% and Dean 6.99%.

Dean's strategic decision almost two weeks ago to focus all his energy on Wisconsin in an attempt to gain a foothold for a rebound left his energetic Virginia organization, with state headquarters based in the City of Falls Church, without significant resources or media presence. Nevertheless, volunteers, many young, continued valiantly making phone calls and distributing literature through the close of the polls on Tuesday.

A virtual non-stop beehive of activity since opening in November on the ground floor at 200 Park Avenue, the Dean headquarters significantly buoyed the City's pizza industry. City businessman and former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Don Beyer worked out of the office daily as Dean's national treasurer, and Falls Church resident Patrice McKenney was the state campaign coordinator.

The large space, its walls strewn with posters, news clippings, phone lists and schedules, had been home to countless brigades of volunteers, including groups of middle school students and racial and ethnic minorities, visiting foreign students, senior military officials deriding Bush's policies and frequent visits from regional and national network television crews. It provided an after-school living laboratory opportunity for young students in Falls Church to immerse themselves in the real world of political organizing for two and a half months.

Kerry's state campaign headquarters was also located in Falls Church, just outside the City limits at the Westlawn Supermarket shopping center. But it did not open until just 10 days before the primary.

But the lasting contribution of the Dean campaign effort to Falls Church will be overshadowed, at least for awhile, by a disappointing vote total. Still, 16.85% of City of Falls Church votes Tuesday (290) went to Dean, way above his 6.99% statewide total and higher than in any other jurisdiction in Virginia. Next best was Charlottesville with 14.51% followed by Arlington with 12.05% and Albemarle County with 11.62%.

Another source of consolation for Falls Church was its highest-in-Virginia overall voter turnout at 24.23% of registered voters. This is becoming a pattern for Falls Church, with the next highest turnout being 20% in Arlington, 19% in Lexington and 18% in Charlottesville.

In Falls Church, Kerry almost matched his statewide margin, gaining 50.78% (874) of all votes, followed by Edwards with 21.67% (373), Dean 16.85% (290), Clark 7.03% (121), Dennis Kucinich 2.15% (37), Al Sharpton 0.7% (12), Joe Lieberman 0.46% (8), Dick Gephardt 0.23% (4) and Lyndon LaRouche 0.12% (2).