Gainin' On Ya

Looks like Barack Obama has a spare few million to spend in West Virginia:

Leading in polls and exuding confidence, Democrat Barack Obama is edging into traditionally GOP states -- now including West Virginia -- as Republican John McCain looks to protect his turf less than three weeks before the election.

On the heels of the campaign's final debate, the Democrat is launching TV ads in West Virginia, which George W. Bush won four years ago and hadn't been on the list of target states until recently, according to two Democrats with knowledge of the strategy.

Obama lost West Virginia in the Democratic primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton as he struggled to win over working-class whites. But Democrats say the economic turmoil in the hard-hit state and TV ads Obama has been running in its neighbors have made West Virginia competitive. These Democrats spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering the campaign.

I'll bet he goes back into North Dakota and Georgia before this is over, too. And the article is talking about Kentucky. Kentucky!

And the improved environment for Democrats generally, combined with the incredible ground game from the Obama campaign, has rallied a late push into state legislative races:

The Democratic National Committee is waging a last minute injection of as much as $20 million into state legislative races in key states, hoping to take advantage of Democratic momentum this cycle.

A senior Democrat familiar with the conversations said: "We are looking at options, races, where we can be helpful, as we did in 2006. This is the time when some races pop."

DNC chairman Howard Dean has made it a priority to help Democrats win down the ballot, so that if Obama wins the presidency, Democrats will have a larger majority in Congress. But with states planning to redistrict their congressional boundaries in 2012, control of state legislative chambers is all the more important, people close to Dean said.

Very sharp strategy. Dean has learned from the bottom-up conservative movement that started in the states.

Drudge can cheer himself with cherry-picked polls all he wants, but this is a bloodbath.