In Virginia, swing voters unmoved by November election choices This year, many of those who live in the alternating brick and siding townhouses, each with a tiny patch of grass out back, are frustrated and confused as another election looms. They've watched as one Washington standoff after another injected needless uncertainty into their lives, especially since many of them work for the federal government or for defense, medical and high-tech contractors in the Dulles corridor. They've seen the value of their three-bedroom houses tumble by 10 to 20 percent, down to about $300,000. Many couples cobble together six-figure incomes, but still end up short each month. The families here reflect Virginia's - and the nation's - new demographics compressed into a single block: white and black, Hispanic and Asian, Kims and Les, Vargases and Sims, Millers and Kashanis. They are at the core of this fall's presidential battleground - a suburb made up of exactly the kind of sporadic voters who put Barack Obama over the top last time. But Deerwatch Drive is also a place where fiscal conservatives do well, where the recession hit hard and the recovery feels anemic. Deerwatch by day is mostly empty, with just a few young mothers and retirees around. But starting at about 3:45 each afternoon, a trickle of workers driving home grows into a steady stream. By sunset, darkened windows glow amber and smells of cooking chicken and onions drift into the street. Eric Vandagriff, a 25-year-old paramedic, ordinarily isn't much for politics, but he's been paying attention lately and the simplistic promises he hears from both parties sound like a joke, he says, and neither party is leveling with voters about the economic pain that lies ahead. Vandagriff, who shares a townhouse with two friends, glumly describes his vote for Obama four years ago like this: "I bandwagoned. I was looking for change. He's determined not to make that mistake again. But if all the Republicans have to offer is Mitt Romney - "he's pompous, he's got a superiority complex" - Vandagriff's not sure what he'll do. Maybe stay home. Just across the street is Matt Erbe, a 45-year-old federal worker and lifelong Republican. His mortgage is underwater, his pay's been frozen for two years and he's so fed up with the president that he's considering putting an upside-down Obama bumper sticker on his car - a signal of distress. But hold on: Erbe says the party most responsible for the nation's budget mess is his own - and Republican bashing of federal workers grates at him: "Look, we're trying to do a decent job, and nobody's getting rich off this work." The GOP candidates leave him cold. "Mitt Romney acts like he's going to fly over my house in a Learjet," says Erbe, who voted for John McCain four years ago. Bottom line: He's leaning toward Obama.