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WASHINGTON (AP) - Southern Democrats who watched the trouncing of their party's gubernatorial nominee in Virginia this week are starting to worry that a rising anti-Democratic tide in the South may reverse their hard-fought gains from the last two national elections.
"They say people won't walk a mile to vote for you but they'll walk 100 miles to vote against you," said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat who won his Alabama seat with just 52 percent of the vote last year. "Well, people walked 100 miles Tuesday."
If the Virginia race signals a growing movement against the party's agenda, Democrats know it will be particularly fierce below the Mason-Dixon line next year. Even the perception of such a trend is enough to seriously damage the party's ability to recruit top candidates in the region. On Capitol Hill, it could convince moderates to distance themselves from the party on key votes, such as health care.
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