A Hunt for Split-Ticket Voters in a Tight Virginia Senate Race
Like so many others in Appalachia, Amelia Trent’s vote is tied to coal, and when it comes to the coal industry and her economic future, Ms. Trent does not trust President Obama.
“Obama is scary. He’s a Muslim,” 
mg: Ms. Trent said matter-of-factly, but incorrectly, outside the small law firm here where she works as a secretary. On the other hand, she said she could never vote for Mitt Romney. “He doesn’t know what poor is — or the struggling middle class, which is what we are around here.”
But Ms. Trent, 59, knows and likes former Gov. Tim Kaine, the Democrat contending for the seat of Senator Jim Webb, a fellow Democrat who is retiring. She said she would vote for him over former Senator George Allen, a Republican trying to win his seat back in a neck-and-neck race that could decide which party controls the Senate.
Of more than a dozen competitive Senate races this year, none appear as close as the contest in Virginia. For both Mr. Kaine and Mr. Allen, the search for people like Ms. Trent who say their vote for senator is not tied to their vote for president has become imperative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/us/politics/in-tight-virginia-senate-race-seeking-every-edge.html?hp
