Tough fight on both sides

The buses pulled into the commuter pickup lot Tuesday morning, past cars sporting bumper stickers for Republican Sen. George Allen (Cadillac SUV) and Democratic challenger Jim Webb (Volvo station wagon).

For years Loudoun County has been reliably Republican: President Bush took 56% of the vote here in 2004, and Allen, the popular former governor with presidential aspirations, won 57% in 2000.

But no more.

With three precincts yet to report, Webb, a former Navy secretary who switched parties to run against Allen, was winning the county, 50% to 49%. Overall, unofficial state election figures showed Webb leading Allen by less than 2,000 votes with all but 18 precincts reporting.

The GOP started to lose its grip on Loudoun County last year, when 53% of voters backed Democrat Timothy M. Kaine in the governor’s race.

Locals blame more liberal-minded transplants who have moved here over the last decade, attracted by affordable housing within commuting distance of Washington.

For 21 years, Charles “Butch” Aronhalt, 57, has run B&B; Automotive Machine Shop, between the Leesburg commuter bus lot and a strip mall that includes Loudoun Guns.

His office is Allen’s kind of place: There’s a pickle jar on the counter and a pickup in the driveway. But Aronhalt isn’t an Allen man. Doesn’t trust him. Doesn’t trust Webb, either. In the end, he didn’t vote.

Commuter Scott Livingston, 42, had never voted in a midterm election before. A professor of physical therapy at George Washington University, he voted for Webb, he said, because he opposes the Iraq war. “I’m hoping there’s a change” in Washington, he said.

Another commuter, David Schmidt, 48, of Leesburg, stuck an Allen bumper sticker on his SUV and voted for the senator because “he really does better represent the state in terms of strongly defending the country.”

By Tuesday night, he wasn’t sure Allen could pull it off. “It’s definitely up for grabs,” he said.

Republican Jamie Thompson, 41, said the race would probably be remembered for destroying Allen’s hopes for the White House.

“He’s either going for another term or to a think-tank job,” said Thompson, who supported Allen reluctantly.

“The fact that he didn’t have a landslide election shows he isn’t viable on the national scene.”

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com