AFTON, Virginia // Next week Jeff Critzer will lose his job at the textile plant where he has worked for 26 years. His employer, American Fibers and Yarns Co, which makes the raw materials used in such cloth items as uniforms and curtains, has long struggled with rising production costs and increased competition from abroad. Now the North Carolina-based company will close for good, shutting this small factory in mountainous Nelson County where Mr Critzer had worked his way up to production supervisor.
Like many of the plant's 43 employees, his future is uncertain. "I just have to put in applications and see what comes up," said Mr Critzer, 46, a father of four, including a nine-year-old son and a 17-year-old daughter. "With the economy being what it is right now, people are not doing a lot of hiring." Like the majority of US residents, Mr Critzer's top concern this election season is the economy. And, if campaign rhetoric is to be believed, Mr Critzer and many Americans like him who have fallen on tough financial times, are the top concern of both presidential candidates.
So far, Mr Critzer likes the things Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, is saying about how to fix the economy. "When I listen to [John] McCain ? it's just the same old stuff again, and that's not working right now," he said. "We need new ideas." Mr Critzer is not registered with a political party, but his ballot will be especially important next month. Virginia, which has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, is up for grabs, one of the most bitterly contested battlegrounds in the United States.
And Nelson County is a battleground in its own right: John Kerry defeated George W Bush here by just four votes out of 7,139 votes cast in 2004; in the 2000 election, Mr Bush bested Al Gore by six. This year, people seem equally split, at least if roadside signs are any indication: on a wooden barn along Route 151, the county's main drag, a giant billboard-sized sign declares: "Virginia is McCain Country"; a few kilometres down the road, almost the opposite claim is made: "Nelson is Obama Country".
The county is situated on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains - "the sunny side", as some of the locals call it . Apple orchards stretch the length of the main road; properties are enclosed behind rustic fences. Out here, the economy is on everyone's mind. The lifeblood of Nelson County is tourism. It boasts a ski resort, Wintergreen, that is the county's largest employer, plus nine wineries, two breweries and a whisky distillery. Residents worry their main industry could take a hit this year as US residents pinch pennies and forgo holidays. They fear that those who do show up may spend less money.
Andy Hickman, owner of an Exxon petrol station that doubles as a grocery store, said with business down up to 20 per cent from last year he has started closing his shop early to save on energy. For him, the downturn is a reason to vote Republican. "I'm not a 'Yellow Dog' Democrat," he said, using a nickname for conservative Democrats. "I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. I voted for Clinton, I voted for Bush. I just trust McCain more than I do Obama," Mr Hickman said.
Mr Hickman's livelihood is tied to tourism. His petrol station rests near the Wintergreen ski resort, and its visitors are also his customers. "We catch a bunch of 'em, if they have any money left," he joked. But he said everyone here is anxious about the future. "Merchants are already worried about Christmas sales, retails sales, and I don't know if people have money to ski or not." Mr Hickman said he lost US$12,000 (Dh44,000) in his retirement fund during the week that legislators in Washington squabbled over the Wall Street rescue plan.
"I just don't think that Obama has the experience to deal with the problems we are going to have," he said. Mounted behind the cash register, a small television showed the market had plunged another 500 points. Mr McCain and Mr Obama hope voters will see them as the steadier hand to deal with the economic crisis, and both have made a strong push for Virginia's working-class voters. The candidates spent a combined $2.6 million on television advertisements here from Sept 28 to Oct 4, the fifth highest total for any state in that period, according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A poll made public last week by Suffolk University in Boston showed Mr Obama with a double-digit lead - 51 per cent to 39 per cent - over Mr McCain. A new CNN Virginia poll of polls shows the race a little tighter: 49 per cent for Mr Obama and 45 per cent for Mr McCain. Some locals said they have noticed an uptick in the number of Democratic signs in Nelson County this year, though not many people here were willing to make bold predictions about who might win.
Even Mr Critzer said he could change camps between now and election day. "November 4th has not gotten here yet and things could change. My mind could be swayed." sstanek@thenational.ae
