US campaigns hunt votes in fast-growing exurbs

Reuters reports:

They are called exurbs, the far-flung outer suburbs where country roads are now lined with fast-food joints and fields have erupted in a crazy quilt of chain stores, condo complexes and rows of nearly identical houses.

For residents and officials, they can be a fast-growing nightmare of urban sprawl, traffic jams and crowded schools. But in many areas, they have also become crucial new election battlegrounds that could hold the key to U.S. political power.

"Over the next 20 years, these are the areas that will decide who is elected governor, who has majorities in Congress, who controls the statehouses," said Mike Henry, who managed the victorious campaign of Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia last year.

"If your campaign is not in the game in these suburban areas, your election is in jeopardy," he said.

Unions,public transportation,gun control and restricting Wal-Mart from opening stores aren't were the exurbs are.