A poll's eye view works wonders

It's taken a while, but now that we've cleaned off the mud from the election and can see more clearly, it seems not everyone came away jaded or disheartened at seeing politics in action.

Take J.T. Newberry.

A public policy major at the College of William and Mary, Newberry worked at the polls on Election Day up in James City County.

The experience? "Overwhelmingly positive" was how he put it.

We all complain about voter apathy (well, we in the press do) but the fact is, some people really like to vote, and he saw it firsthand.

An elderly person came in with braces on both legs. A woman with three broken ribs could not leave her vehicle, so the poll workers brought a ballot to her. Another said he planned to vote "come Hell or high water."

"It's incredible the amount of effort that people were willing to go through," he said.

Which brings us to the point of Newberry's experience. He was among dozens of young voters who worked the polls as part of Democracy 101, a civic service program launched by Virginia21, the non-partisan advocacy group for the college-age crowd.

The group recruited students to serve as officers of election in 12 localities, including Newport News. It was all about participation.

The effort earned a shout-out from Jean Jensen, the state's top election officer. "I am pleased to see the next generation of leaders stepping up and getting involved in this important work," said the secretary of the state elections board.

The work isn't easy, as Newberry will attest. The day starts early and ends late. Some people want help. Some are in a hurry. IDs must be checked, stickers handed out, all that stuff.

"It was pretty intense," he said.

Scabillions of Dollars!

Elections are expensive and annoying critters, but this boggles the brain.

This year's elections cost at least $2.5 billion. Yes, billion.

According to Political Money Line, a respected operation that tracks political expenditures, House candidates this year spent $1.14 billion to get themselves re-elected. Or not.

That's a 36 percent increase over what was spent in the 2004 midterm elections.

Senate candidates dropped $401 million on their dozen or so competitive races. This is up 44 percent from the last Senate election cycle.

Democratic party organs spent another $397 million, while Republican party organs firehosed an additional $407.5 million into re-election efforts.

Outside 527s (named after the section of the tax code that allows their existence) spent $183 million this election cycle to influence the outcome.

None of this includes the cost of actually holding the election itself -- buying the voting machines, printing ballots, mundane stuff like that.

All this money was spent to change the party make up of 30 or so House seats and six Senate seats, an average of $70 million per seat shift.

And we wonder why the rest of the world thinks America is wasteful and extravagant?

George Allen and the future

George Allen, the famous football coach, was fond saying "the future is now." That phrase doesn't quite apply to his son, the soon-to-be ex-senator.

Sen. Allen snatched defeat from the jaws of victory this week in losing to underdog Democrat Jim Webb. Allen saw his 2008 presidential hopes dashed, and his image took a severe beating thanks to the "macaca moment" that made him fodder for comedians.

Is Allen finished?

To borrow another football phrase, this one from ESPN's Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend."

Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at CNU, said Allen can not only rebound from this defeat, it might not be as hard as some think. He offers these two points.

Allen was a popular governor who left the state in good shape. He remains well liked by many voters. His mistake was running a lousy campaign.

"The voters' memory is short and the impression of George Allen for most people is not the George Allen of the last three months," Kidd said.

Second, who says losing an election means the end of career? Whatever happened to that poor Mark Warner who lost a Senate race in 1996? Warner was not only elected governor five years later, he became a model for pro-business, centrist Democrat who harbored his own presidential ambitions. Warner opted out of the 2008 presidential race, but he remains a formidable player in Virginia politics.

"Losing an election doesn't cause you to be washed out of the game," Kidd said. "We've seen many people in the past come back from a loss and win office again."

An Allen-Webb battle of proxies on tonight's NewsHour

The Allen-Webb Senate races gets another shot of national television coverage tonight on PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Speaking for Allen will be Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell. Webb will be represented by Gov. Tim Kaine.

In Hampton Roads, the show airs at 7 p.m. on WHRO, Channel 15.

At least Webb's agent has to be happy about the lit crit

Sen. George Allen’s criticism of challenger Jim Webb’s literary efforts may or may not pay off for the senator come Election Day. Or it may or may not backfire.

For the moment, Webb says he’s leaving the matter behind. He addressed the attack over the weekend and has said all he has to say.

Except for one thing.

"I will tell you one interesting statistic that I just found out today," he told the Daily Press’ Jim Hodges. "Over the 24 hour period beginning Friday my Web site, JamesWebb.com, got 170,000 hits."

JamesWebb.com is Webb’s author page, not to be confused with WebbforSenate.com, his campaign site.

So you have to wonder: How many of those hits will turn into votes? And how many will turn into sales?