Former Reagan aide, ex-lobbyist vie for Va.'s US Senate

Allen is seeking a second term even as he pursues a 2008 presidential bid. He has no GOP challenger.

With turnout of about 5 percent of the state's 4.5 million registered voters expected, political analysts and campaign advisers said there is no way to predict a victor.

Webb and Miller sought to shackle Allen to President Bush, particularly on the Iraq war. Both Democrats have seized on Allen's record of voting with the president 97 percent of the time last year.

The liberal Miller appealed to core Democrats by advocating higher taxes on oil companies, blasting Bush's tax cuts and the failed estate tax repeal, and demanding Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's firing. Miller, 54, has also made an issue of Webb's tenure as Reagan's Navy secretary and Webb's endorsements of Allen and Bush in 2000.

Webb, 60, a decorated Vietnam veteran and best-selling author, broke with the GOP over the Iraq invasion, the federal debt approaching $9 trillion, and Bush economic policies that he says are bleeding the middle class. He campaigns in desert combat boots, calls himself ``Allen's worst nightmare" and says his candidacy beckons ``Reagan Democrats" to return home.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in a rare preprimary endorsement, called Webb the party's best hope to win the seat, or at least force Allen to spend time and money on re-election instead of a White House bid.

In attacking Miller's labor record, Webb called Miller the ``anti-Christ of outsourcing." A Webb flier contained a caricature of Miller with a hooked nose and cash spilling from his pockets. Miller, who is Jewish, called the brochure ``despicable"; Webb said it was not anti-Semitic.

In South Carolina, Republican Governor Mark Sanford is expected to easily defeat political newcomer Dr. Oscar Lovelace for the nomination for another term. In the Democratic primary, state Senator Tommy Moore and Florence Mayor Frank Willis are the heavyweights.