Virginia's status as a battleground state in the upcoming presidential election has focused state and national attention on Blacksburg and Montgomery County.

Tonight the Blacksburg and Virginia chapters of AARP are co-sponsoring a town hall-style viewing of the presidential debate at the Lyric Theatre. Then, on Oct. 15, National Public Radio and WVTF will co-sponsor a "National Listening Party" radio show to be broadcast live from the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center.

Beginning at 11 p.m., a panel of NPR journalists, a live Blacksburg audience and callers from across the country will discuss on air the issues raised in the final debate between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

NPR chose Blacksburg because of a desire to partner with local affiliate WVTF and because of the station's connections to Virginia Tech, said NPR spokeswoman Anna Christopher.

The participation of students is expected to have an unprecedented impact on the presidential election. And Blacksburg, with its about 27,000 Tech students, is seen by many is a barometer of the coming election.

Registrars in Radford and Montgomery County have experienced an influx of students registering to vote. And officials with both the county's political parties say they have been overwhelmed with new volunteers, many of them young people.

More broadly, Montgomery County -- with Blacksburg as its population center -- is one of the largest voting blocks in Southwest Virginia, according to Ray Roberts of the Montgomery County Republican Party.

Carrying the southwestern end of the state is crucial for the McCain campaign to offset Northern Virginia voters, who are expected to go for Obama, Roberts wrote in an e-mail.

The attention now focused on Blacksburg "indicates how key the voter turnout in Montgomery County is to carrying Southwest Virginia," Democratic Party chairman Steve Cochran said.

"The citizens of Blacksburg and the NRV are a fairly educated voter source who ... keep themselves educated on state, federal and international issues," said Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg. "They are open minded and will listen to both sides."

Shuler said he sees Blacksburg residents as a good barometer of the area's political priorities.

The county's 86,000 residents often go to the Democrats in national elections, and last year residents ousted Republican incumbents in the circuit court clerk's office and on the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors.

But this year, interest in both local political parties has skyrocketed, officials say.

"We've seen a constant stream of people. You can't keep up with them," said Del. Dave Nutter, R-Christiansburg. "I've never seen anything like this."

Attendance at the county Democratic Party fundraising dinner this year was about double what Cochran has ever seen. "The interest is unprecedented," he said.

Nutter said he sees the growing national profile of Montgomery County as a natural outgrowth of the rising national status of Tech as a research institution and the county's steady population increases.

Could this national attention translate into clout for Southwest Virginia in the General Assembly and Virginia in the U.S. Congress, especially when it comes to fighting for dwindling state and federal funds in a grim budget cycle?

Maybe, officials said.

National attention could bring political clout to Southwest Virginia. But "having clout and getting resources don't always translate one-to-one," Cochran said.

Both Nutter and Shuler will face battles in the General Assembly to secure funding for localities clamoring for more money for schools, roads and other priorities.

Nutter characterized the current state budget indicators as scary. Reports indicate that tax collection is down significantly. Officials had been anticipating a $2 billion to $3 billion state budget shortfall.

"I would hate to think what the projections are now," Nutter said.

Shuler credited Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine for addressing the state's budget crisis early.

Still, he said, "the pressure is on us to prioritize what's really important."