Now in a fight for his political life, U.S. Sen. George Allen turned to what he called border "patriots" for some support Thursday in Roanoke.

His Democratic challenger, James Webb, relied on star power for a boost at events in Richmond and Arlington, as a bitterly contested campaign inched closer to its Tuesday conclusion.

Allen used a morning news conference at the Wyndham Roanoke Airport hotel to highlight his tough stand on illegal immigration. The Republican incumbent picked up the endorsement of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps political action committee. The citizens group opposes illegal immigration and is patrolling U.S. borders.

Chris Simcox, chairman of the Corps PAC, said Allen is an incumbent member of Congress who understands the "moral obligation" the government has to stop illegal immigration.

Allen and Webb agree on the need to seal U.S. borders, but Allen has taken a more forceful stance on dealing with illegal immigrants already in the country. He opposes plans to provide them an accelerated path to citizenship, a position that puts him at odds with President Bush.

"Rewarding illegal behavior only creates more illegal behavior," Allen said.

Simcox, based in Arizona, is traveling the country to promote his organization's endorsement in 27 congressional races. The Minuteman group is bipartisan, but all 27 of the candidates it is supporting this year are Republicans, Simcox said.

Allen has accused Webb of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, a charge that Webb's campaign denies. Webb has said the U.S. must first secure its borders and then determine how to deal with illegal immigrants already in the country.

Webb's campaign staged a boisterous outdoor rally with prominent Democrats at Virginia Union University in Richmond. More than 700 spectators, many of them college students and students from nearby Maggie Walker High School, waved signs and cheered wildly for Webb, Gov. Tim Kaine, former governors Mark Warner and Douglas Wilder and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Webb also held an evening rally in Arlington with actor Michael J. Fox and retired U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a 2004 presidential candidate. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, has been making appearances for candidates who support expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Webb supports easing restrictions on such funding. Allen voted to sustain Bush's veto of a bill that would have made that possible.

At the Richmond rally, Webb took the stage to the beat of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" and noted how far his campaign has come since it began in February with Allen appearing to be invincible.

As the race has tightened, the bitterness between the campaigns has increased. Webb accused Allen of waging "a classic Karl Rove campaign -- a campaign that is designed to divide people, to go after your emotions and to assassinate people's character."

"We're going to bring a different kind of attitude into the United States government," Webb said. "It's time for us to stop pointing fingers at each other and work together to make this a better country."

Obama was greeted with screams and squeals when he preceded Webb to the stage. Obama said the climate is conducive for change when voters go the polls Tuesday, a day when Democrats hope to wrest control of Congress from the Republican Party.

"The American people are in a serious mood now," Obama said. "They're in a sober mood. And that's a good thing. Because here's the thing about the American people -- when they pay attention, good things happen. And when they start paying attention, the folks in power right now are in trouble."

Wilder, Warner and Kaine mixed praises for Webb with blistering critiques of the Bush administration and the Republican Congress.

Webb's campaign also had a presence in Roanoke on Thursday. State Sen. Linda "Toddy" Puller, D-Fairfax County, was the keynote speaker at the "Women for Webb" event.

Puller's late husband Lewis, like Webb, was a Vietnam veteran. Lewis Puller's story, which ended in his suicide in 1994 after years of pain from severe combat injuries, is well known to those who know Toddy Puller. That has given her an intricate perspective of war, she said Thursday, adding that "war is hell" and that "Jim Webb has been in war. He understands what war is."

"This war [in Iraq] has particularly bothered me because of what I know about Vietnam," Puller said.

The war has been a defining issue in the Senate race. Webb, a former Navy secretary, has called the war "a strategic blunder" that has further unsettled a dangerous region of the world. Allen has been a reliable supporter of U.S. war policy but has sought to distance himself from Bush on the issue in recent weeks. He repeated Thursday that "we need to adjust and adapt our tactics in Iraq."

Both candidates, weary from a grueling campaign, seemed ready to reach the finish line.

"It's a tough race and it's come down to the two-minute warning," Allen said after shaking hands with hundreds of workers during a shift change at the Philip Morris USA complex in Richmond.

Webb described his Election Day plans during the rally at Virginia Union.

"On Tuesday morning, I'm going to vote. I'm going to go by and say hello to the people at my campaign headquarters and thank them. And I'm going to have a beer."