BUENA VISTA, Va. — One of the hottest U.S. Senate races in the land is heading for rural Virginia, ratcheting up the rhetoric and throttling up their campaigns for the final sprint to November’s election.

Republican George Allen and Democrat Tim Kaine are on scheduled to march in Monday’s Labor Day parade in bucolic Buena Vista on the western slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The day of parades and speeches has, over the years, become one of the abiding traditions of Virginia public life.

Other events are scheduled in Covington, also home to an end-of-summer parade and political speeches.

The parade punctuates the end of the Republican National Convention last week in Florida and this week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

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