Carville blames the Greens
Democratic consultant James Carville just blamed the Green Party for the fact that Democratic Senate candidate James Webb wasn't further ahead in Virginia. Webb just moved into the lead over U.S. George Allen, but the race is still too close to call. What Carville is saying is that the presence of the Green Party candidate on the Virginia ballot drained liberal Democratic votes from Webb. That does appear to be what happened. The Green Party Senate candidate in Virginia drew 26,000 votes, almost certainly from Webb.
That was a big fear in Pennsylvania earlier in the campaign, but the Democratic Party successfully challenged Green Party Senate candidate Carl Romanelli's nominating petitions and he never got on the ballot. Romanelli's petitions were gathered by a petition firm paid for by money donated by Republicans, including some Santorum supporters. Had he gotten on the ballot, as the Santorum campaign hoped, he very likely would have drained votes from Bob Casey. Liberal Democrats had to swallow hard to accept Casey, who is anti-abortion, but would have voted for the Devil to get rid of Santorum.
They grumbled, though, and if Romanelli had stayed on the ballot, Santorum might have won. Or at least it would have been a lot closer.