RICHMOND - The battle for the hearts and minds of Virginia's rural voters took a nasty turn last month after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine blasted Republican rival Jerry Kilgore for "letting slick radio announcers to do his dirty work."

"If I have something to say, I'm not afraid to say it myself," Kaine said in a radio advertisement that aired on rural and small-market radio stations. Two days later, Kilgore's campaign complained that Kaine was mocking the Scott County native's reedy twang and insulting all Virginians who speak with country accents. The Kilgore campaign hit back with newspaper ads that featured indignant statements from two Republican congressmen - Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke and Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount.

Kilgore, who often makes self-deprecating remarks about his accent, insisted he was genuinely insulted. Kaine, whose in-laws hail from Southwest Virginia, said Kilgore's response was a contrived attempt to "whip up regional resentment" about an ad that had nothing to do with the Republican's distinctive voice.

Regardless of how the heated exchange is interpreted, the tit for tat between Kaine, the lieutenant governor, and Kilgore, the former attorney general, called greater attention to their early efforts to court rural voters who could be critical to the election's outcome. Southwest and Southside Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley have received plenty of attention from both candidates in the early stages of the race.

"It's clearly showing the significance that candidates place in the downstate market," said veteran Republican strategist Chris LaCivita, who directed U.S. Sen. George Allen's 2000 campaign and worked on Allen's 1993 race for governor.

Four years ago, Democrat Mark Warner captured 51 percent of the rural vote in his victory over Republican Mark Earley, becoming the first Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 16 years to win a majority of the votes cast in areas outside Virginia's cities and suburbs.

Warner, a wealthy venture capitalist with no personal ties to rural Virginia, used marketing gimmicks such as bluegrass theme music and a NASCAR vehicle sponsorship to get voters' attention and push his message of economic opportunity. He also staked out centrist positions on hot-button topics such as gun control, abortion rights and gay marriage, defusing wedge issues that typically favor Republicans.

LaCivita said Warner succeeded at "creating the perception that he is a conservative Democrat." Kaine will have a difficult time creating a similar impression, LaCivita said.

"It's more of a difficult strategy for him to employ because he has a record," LaCivita said.

Kaine, who grew up in Kansas, also must compete with a native of Southwest Virginia who connects easily with the region's largely conservative electorate. Kilgore won 65 percent of the rural vote in his race for attorney general and carried every locality in Southwest Virginia.

"Tim Kaine's got to get back to the grass roots and get through the culture," said consultant Dave "Mudcat" Saunders of Roanoke County, who helped craft Warner's rural outreach effort in 2001 and is co-writing a book on Southern campaign strategy. "Jerry, being a Republican from Southwest Virginia, is already through the culture."

Kaine has made early overtures to culturally conservative voters with radio ads on Christian and small-market stations. In one spot, Kaine declares: "My family and Christian faith are the core values that guide me." Kaine also speaks often of his taking a year off from law school to work with Jesuit missionaries in Honduras.

"I've gotten some very positive responses" from the ads, Kaine said last week.

Kilgore's campaign has used Kaine's record as a lawyer, Richmond city councilman and mayor to paint the Democrat as a liberal whose positions on capital punishment, gun control and taxes are out of step with the state's electorate. Kaine has hit back and accused Kilgore of distorting his record.

Some of the harshest exchanges between the two camps have been over the death penalty. Kaine has said he opposes capital punishment on moral grounds but would uphold Virginia's law and carry out executions if elected.

When Kilgore criticized Kaine's stance, Kaine accused the Republican of attacking his Catholicism. But Kilgore's campaign notes that Kaine called for a moratorium on executions as recently as 2001, when Kaine was running for lieutenant governor.

Virginia Tech communications professor Bob Denton, who analyzes campaign advertising, called Kaine's decision to emphasize faith in his early campaign ads "a good move."

"It inoculates him, somewhat, from the death penalty attack," Denton said.

Kilgore also has attacked Kaine's position on gun rights, pointing to Kaine's use of city funds to help bus Richmond activists to the Million Mom March in Washington, D.C., in 2000, when Kaine was Richmond's mayor. Kaine said he approved funding for the trip to show support for participants who had lost family members to gun violence. He later reimbursed the city after gun rights advocates complained.

"My heart worked maybe a little faster than my head," Kaine said.

Kaine insisted he would not seek new gun control measures if he becomes governor.

"Nobody who supports the Second Amendment has anything to fear from me," he said.

Kilgore plans to continue pushing these issues, but said that many other matters also will move votes in rural Virginia. Education and economic development will carry just as much weight with some voters as criminal justice and social issues do with others, Kilgore said.

"I think it caries from region to region and person to person," Kilgore said. "Not everyone votes based on the same issue."

Asked if he can duplicate his 2001 success in Southwest Virginia, Kilgore said: "We are very confident that we can carry that region."

"I'm from there and I go there all the time," said Kilgore, who formally kicked off his campaign in March in his hometown of Gate City.

That may explain why Kilgore said he took offense to the Kaine radio ad that implied the Republican is afraid to speak for himself. But, Kilgore said last week, "We have moved on."

Kaine, who also wants Kilgore to agree to a series of debates, said he is not trying to call attention to Kilgore's twang. Kaine pointed out that his wife, Anne Holton, spent much of her childhood in Roanoke and her father, former Gov. Linwood Holton, hails from Big Stone Gap.

As if to underscore that point, Kaine began airing a new radio ad in far Southwest Virginia last week to promote his ties to the region and his recent endorsement by the United Mine Workers. In the ad, Kaine says: "I have very personal understanding of the concerns and values of the area."