Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell made news this week with the revelation that he plans to institute legislation seeking “uniformity” in how Virginia’s residency requirements are applied to potential voters.

As Jeff Mellott reported in Dec. 4’s DN-R, at issue is whether college students, by claiming domicile and voting in the areas in which they attend college, are affecting local and state elections. Virginia law allows voters to register by providing a permanent address in the municipality where they register. The registrar does not (and cannot) confirm whether these permanent residents follow up and do things like change the address on their driver’s license or car registrations to match their new home addresses.

Political observers such as James Madison University professor Bob Roberts think Mr. McDonnell will have a hard a time getting these proposed changes through the General Assembly, which convenes next month. Roberts told the DN-R that “getting Republicans and Democrats to agree on the details” of residency requirements would prove a tough task.

As the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2009 gubernatorial race, Mr. McDonnell can’t be too happy about that. Conventional wisdom says that increased voter registration in college towns leads to increased Democratic voter turnout (sorry, College Republicans), and as The Washington Post reported earlier this week, the demographic trends in Virginia are already solidly blue.

The Post noted that a review of the most recent election shows that “Virginia Democrats amassed a formidable coalition as the state’s suburban communities grow more diverse, white voters in Northern Virginia shun the GOP, young voters align with the Democrats and black voters prove they continue to have clout downstate.”

That recap certainly paints a sobering picture for a statewide Republican candidate, but the 11 months until the 2009 election is an eternity in politics. Mr. McDonnell should cruise to the GOP nomination, but three Democrats are in the mix to challenge him in the general election: Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria, and former Democratic Party National Chairman Terry McAauliffe. As most will remember, Mr. Deeds lost to Mr. McDonnell in the 2005 attorney general’s race by a razor-thin margin.

While President-elect Barack Obama won Virginia last month with 52.6 percent of the vote (higher than his share in Ohio and Florida), Republican leaders in the state, the Post reported, attribute the party’s poor showing to President Bush’s low approval rating, the Wall Street meltdown and the unprecedented media flood by the Obama campaign.

So Mr. McDonnell will be facing an uphill battle in his quest for the governor’s mansion. Democrats, the AP notes, composed 39 percent of Virginia voters this year, according to exit polls. That was up from 35 percent in 2000 and 2004. Republicans, on the other hand, accounted for 33 percent of the state’s electorate in 2008, down from 39 percent in 2004.

Student voters or not, Mr. McDonnell will be an underdog and needs to run like one starting now.