"BUENA VISTA - Seven candidates seeking statewide offices competed for the attention of a traditional Labor Day parade crowd on Monday. But they also had to contend with high school bands and marching units.

The bands and marchers won the attention of most.

Many in the crowd said they came to see the bands, not the politicians and their sign-carrying supporters, but applauded politely for the candidates whose trek to this 6,000-resident river city’s 35th annual Labor Day parade marks the unofficial start of Virginia’s fall campaign season.

The most noticed politician, Gov. Mark R. Warner, ran the parade route, shaking hundreds of hands, sprinting up onto front porches to greet residents and sweating completely through his blue shirt.

During the annual ritual for Warner, his 14th, he tried to extend some of his personal popularity here to Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. Several “Warner for President” signs were in evidence along the route.

As Warner and Kaine worked the blocks of parade watchers together, the governor repeatedly encouraged people to vote for the Richmond Democrat seeking to succeed him in the Nov. 8 election.

A short distance behind Warner and Kaine, former Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore shook hands down both sides of Magnolia Avenue. He was greeted with polite encouragement from many watching the parade.

Independent candidate for governor H. Russell Potts Jr., a four-term GOP state senator from Winchester, followed Kilgore with a much smaller entourage than the dozens of young, out-of-town marchers from each political party supporting Kaine or Kilgore.

Potts shouted out, “Russ Potts, running for governor,” as he went up to shake hundreds of hands along the route of his first-ever Buena Vista Labor Day parade.

“They like the underdog,” Potts said. He noted that residents of Buena Vista were devastated by flooding from Hurricane Camille in 1969 “and they picked themselves up by the bootstraps and improved it.”

Four years ago, this blue-collar city southeast of Lexington gave 59 percent of its 1,455 votes to Warner for governor, 55 percent to Kaine for lieutenant governor and 59 percent to Kilgore for attorney general in a show of ticket-splitting that somewhat matched the state’s results.

The Rev. Bob Breeden, a 79-year-old Buena Vista native, said he voted for Warner four years ago but supports the statewide Republican ticket this year.

Four years ago, the state’s finances and Warner’s prescription for fixing them won his vote, Breeden said. Warner “did bring us out of the financial condition the previous governor put the state in,” said the self-described independent conservative voter.

This year, Breeden said he is voting for Kilgore and running mates William T. Bolling for lieutenant governor and Robert F. McDonnell for attorney general because the “semi-retired” Baptist preacher said he likes their opposition to abortion and “mostly their conservative views.”

Melissa Roberts and Bert Camden, residents of nearby Rockbridge County, said they came to see the parade and Roberts’ daughter, Stephanie, marching and playing cymbals in the Parry McCluer High School band. Roberts and Camden said they like Kaine’s honesty and that they will vote for him.

Democrat R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County was on home turf in his 25th Virginia Senate District as he worked the crowds and found many a friendly greeting along the route.

Deeds also, somewhat uncharacteristically, gave the shortest speech of the seven statewide candidates. He said Virginia “cannot go back” on the progress made in better funding for police, educators and the environment through last year’s budget reform and tax increases.

Charlottesville Democrat Meredith Richards marched in the parade as a supporter of her party’s ticket and perhaps a candidate for a special election that would take place after November if Deeds bests McDonnell for attorney general.

“All I can say is I am ready, willing and able,” Richards said.

Leslie Byrne, a former congresswoman and state senator from Fairfax County, was the only candidate who rode in a convertible, a BMW, instead of walking the parade route. The Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor later urged a crowd in Glen Maury Park not to let Republicans divide Virginians “by God, by guns and by gays.”

“Nobody’s going to take anybody’s guns away and we all love the Lord,” Byrne told the crowd.

Speaking next, Bolling said that Byrne’s words on guns ring hollow because she was given what he called “an ‘F-minus’ rating” by the National Rifle Association.

Bolling also turned around another appeal from Byrne, who had closed her remarks by asking the crowd to vote and help give the state “Tim, Leslie and Creigh - a little T.L.C. for Virginia.”

Bolling insisted that Byrne’s T.L.C. “means tax them like crazy, and we have had enough of that in Virginia.”

Kaine, Kilgore and Potts all spoke about taxes with Kaine urging continuation of Warner’s record investment in education and Potts saying, “Shame on anyone that turns their back on Virginia and the core services that we really need.”

Kilgore said he was proud “to have stood against the largest tax increase in Virginia history.”

Kaine signs lined the parade route and several orange “Sportsmen for Kaine” signs vied with other orange “Sportsmen for Kilgore” giant signs throughout the city.

Kilgore said his campaign decided to save money on signs and instead donated $5,000 to disaster flood relief on the Gulf Coast." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, September 6, 2005)

Contact Bob Gibson at (434) 978-7243 or bgibson@dailyprogress.com.