"Erving Sabb, a black Alexandria barber, sat in his chair at the Hair Clinic and considered what he knew and didn't know about the two men running for the U.S. Senate in Virginia.

'Well, not voting for the Republican, Allen. Never could support him,' he said, referring to Sen. George Allen.

'But this Webb fella . . . he used to work for Reagan, didn't he? He was a Republican, too?' Sabb, 61, asked, shaking his head thinking about Allen's Democratic challenger, James Webb. 'I vote for Democrats, but I'll only vote for a guy I know is a real Democrat. I want to know if he's really one of us.'

Whether Webb, a former Republican and Navy secretary in the Reagan administration, will be able to energize loyal Democratic voters such as Sabb will be critical in determining who wins one of the tightest Senate races in the country.

African Americans, who make up about 20 percent of Virginia's electorate, vote reliably for Democrats and are key to their success in the Republican-dominated state. But Webb has struggled to gain their support because of questions about whether he used a racial epithet to describe blacks when he was younger and because of his stance on affirmative action, which he once called 'state-sponsored racism.'

Allen has had his own problems with black voters, dating to his days as a state delegate. Blacks have long been turned off by Allen's affinity for the Confederate flag and his 1984 vote against a state holiday commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., among other things. Last month, a handful of Allen's former teammates accused him of repeatedly using a racial epithet for blacks when he played football at the University of Virginia, a charge Allen denied.

Allen has tried to mend fences with the state's black community, highlighting his support of black colleges and appearing at several important political events.

Nonetheless, a Washington Post poll conducted last month showed that blacks were overwhelmingly supporting Webb: 81 percent of African Americans said they would vote for the Democrat, compared with 11 percent who said they'd vote for Allen.

But the determining factor, political experts said, will be how many of those voters go to the polls on Election Day, given concerns about both candidates.

'If I was running this race for Webb, the path I would seek for victory is running really well in Northern Virginia and getting a big black turnout in the Tidewater area and the Richmond area,' said David Bositis, an expert on black voting patterns at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. 'How many black voters are going to show up . . . that's going to be key.'

Successful Virginia Democrats have been helped by high turnout among blacks. In 1989, when L. Douglas Wilder became the first black candidate to be elected governor in the nation's history, African Americans made up 17 percent of voters, according to an analysis by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.

In 2001, when Mark R. Warner took the governor's mansion, blacks constituted 15 percent of voters. Both Wilder and Warner won more than 90 percent of their vote.

In between those elections, Republicans Allen and James S. Gilmore III won gubernatorial races in elections when black turnout was less than 14 percent, according to the center's analysis.

Webb probably needs a better turnout than his Democratic predecessors. Many black leaders were initially critical of the former Marine for his position on affirmative action, which has been endorsed by the Democratic party establishment for decades. Webb said he supports affirmative action for blacks but not for other minorities. Otherwise, he thinks preferential job and education programs should be awarded based on economic conditions or not at all.

Webb lost nearly all of the state's majority black communities to Harris N. Miller during the Democratic primary. And although the state's Legislative Black Caucus endorsed Webb in his race against Allen, they did so by a 9 to 8 vote, according to two people who were familiar with the decision.

Webb's effort to woo conservative GOP-leaning voters and independents back into the Democratic column has also clashed with the sensibilities of many black Democrats. His first television commercial, for instance, sought to connect the candidate with Reagan, an unpopular figure among blacks.

After appearing before an audience of black voters in Alexandria last week, Webb acknowledged that he started with an uphill battle reaching out to African Americans.

'The number one thing that I saw is that I worked for Reagan. . . . It was especially hard for the African American leadership,' he said, adding that he still believed Reagan was a 'very fine' president. 'But I've explained my journey on that . . . and it's been a process of us getting to know one another.'

In recent weeks, Webb has tried to boost his presence in black communities. Late last month, he visited a dozen black churches in Hampton Roads. In addition, he picked up support from several black newspapers and received the endorsement of Wilder, now the mayor of Richmond. Wilder plans to campaign with Webb today in Richmond, and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will join him on the stump there tomorrow.

Some activists said that Webb's opposition to the Iraq war will help with black voters, overriding other potential concerns. Recent polls have found that blacks are more likely than whites to say that the Iraq war was a mistake.

'I think there's going to be a lot of support for him,' said Robert James, a black Democratic activist from Arlington County. 'He opposed the war early, and in regards to affirmative action, we're beginning to like what we see.'

That view was borne out by those who attended the Alexandria event, where Webb received enthusiastic applause when he talked about raising the minimum wage and his concern about a growing economic divide in America.

'Now that I'm beginning to hear more of his message, I'm beginning to feel more comfortable,' said Thad Denney, 52, an insurance agent from Fairfax, who was at the event. 'I'll admit it, I only knew him from his days as Navy secretary and didn't know where he stood. I wasn't sure if I was going to vote for him . . . but I'm thinking about it now.'

Allen also has tried to mend fences with the black community, appearing at an NAACP dinner earlier this month and signing a lifetime membership to the organization. At the dinner, Allen said that he was not perfect and looked forward 'to joining hands' with black voters.

Supporters say that Allen has pushed education programs, including Virginia's Standards of Learning and the federal No Child Left Behind law, that are especially beneficial to blacks.

He also picked up an important endorsement from state Sen. Benjamin J. Lambert III (D-Richmond), a leading black lawmaker, who said in an interview that Allen has 'appeared to be trying hard' to reach out to black voters and will help secure federal money for Virginia's historically black colleges.

Still, there is long-standing anger toward Allen and skepticism about his support for black colleges.

In an interview, Harrison B. Wilson, president of Norfolk State University from 1975 to 1997, said that when Allen was governor he never visited the school, turning down three invitations to speak at its commencement ceremony. 'Every other governor came and had lunch with me and visited campus and spoke at commencement while they were in office,' said Wilson, who recently aired his feelings about Allen with his church congregation.

Dick Wadhams, Allen's campaign director, said black church leaders and William Harvey, president of Hampton University, continue to support his candidate.

Lambert said he wasn't concerned.

'I kind of like to judge people on what they do now,' Lambert said. 'I think George has changed an awful lot. I didn't like some of the things he did as governor as well, but at the same I time I think our relationship has improved tremendously. He is very apologetic for things that happened earlier in his life.'" (Chris L. Jenkins, The Washington Post, November 1, 2006)

Editor's Note: An index to coverage of George Allen on the Loper website may be found at http://loper.org/~george/archives/2006/Aug/925.html