Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee for Governor of Virginia, has some new recent ads seeking to repair potential weaknesses among key demographics: Working women who might be offended by his hard-right grad school thesis denouncing them, and northern Virginians who have been voting Democratic.

One ad features women who worked with McDonnell when he was state Attorney General, insisting that he has supported women -- that "half the deputy attorneys general Bob M appointed are women," and that he was "putting women in positions of authority." The bottom line is that Democrat Creigh Deeds' attacks against McDonnell, saying he doesn't support women, are "dishonest."

In another ad, McDonnell speaks favorably of northern Virginia -- a region that has become a Democratic stronghold, and was been responsible for the big Dem wins in recent years -- and says he'll serve them effectively on the key local issue of transportation funding:

"I grew up here in Northern Virginia," says McDonnell. "So I understand how vital transportation is to growing our economy and creating jobs."

It's a long way from past Republican treatment of northern Virginia. During the 2008 election, John McCain's brother Joe McCain referred to Arlington and Alexandria as "communist country." McCain spokeswoman Nancy Pfotenhauer infamously remarked that the campaign was winning in "real Virginia," separate from the D.C. suburbs. And as recently as this past April, Mike Huckabee told an audience in Appalachia that it was important for them to get out and vote for McDonnell, because people in Northern Virginia "aren't necessarily thinking the same way folks like you and me think."