Virgil Goode Did Not Respond
Tom Perriello Did Respond
Thanks for submitting questions for Perriello and Goode. Originally, we had told both campaigns that we wouldn’t publish their responses unless the other candidate also submitted responses in order to maintain our neutral political position.
After a phone call with a very unreceptive and unhelpful representative from the Goode office who explained to me that “maybe, we would look at the questions, but we get a lot of requests and Virgil is very busy” I realized that there was no way Virgil would answer the questions. Do you remember the TV debate cancellation? The point is Virgil Goode’s lack of response indicates he doesn’t care about speaking to the 5th district, and certainly, given our demographic, doesn’t care about speaking to the younger members of the 5th district. I changed my mind about requiring responses from both candidates.
In case you didn’t know, Perriello is challenging six-term Republican congressman Virgil Goode. According to wikipedia, Perriello is calling for a restoration of America’s commitment to the “common good.” He has twice broken fundraising records for the district and out-raised Virgil Goode in 2007 and the first quarter of 2008.
The Perriello campaign was very willing to answer these questions and I’m happy to publish them. The questions were reader-submitted for the most part. Thank you for submitting questions if you did. I think we got all of them. We asked the questions via email, gave each candidate 5 days to respond and told them to keep their answers short and to the point.
We’ve asked Tom and Virgil about national security, the economic crisis and most least importantly, tartare and aioli. We made minor edits to the original questions and added a few of our own. Tom’s responses are all his own and are unedited. You can find them after the break.
Responses from Tom Perriello in BOLD
1. Is it appropriate for a public official to own a copy of the Qur’an, and if so, why did Thomas Jefferson’s copy, the copy on which Rep. Keith Ellison recently swore into Congress, stir up such staunch opposition among his fellow congressmen?
Public officials should unequivocally be allowed to maintain their religious beliefs, whatever those beliefs may be. Religion should not feature in legislation and public policy, but it cannot and should not be banned from legislators’ private lives.
As for the specific example of Jefferson’s Qur’an: Thomas Jefferson wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which reads, in part: “that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” I thought that Ellison’s decision to use Jefferson’s Qur’an showed that the principle of religious freedom is inseparably embedded in our country’s Judeo-Christian heritage.
2. In my mind the single most important political cultural and social text of Southern identity is I’ll Take My Stand (by Twelve Southerners). Have either of you read it, if not why not, where do you stand on it, and how if you understand its import can you restore in your political actions the beliefs of those authors to the culture of Virginia and prevent The Commonwealth from becoming entirely Suorthern Virginia or New Jersey?
I haven’t read the book, but from what I understand it is a defense of agrarian culture in the face of a rapidly modernizing world. While I believe that most action on cultural questions comes from outside the political sphere, there are some things we can do at the political level. First of all, I am a strong supporter of agriculture, and my district is the agricultural heartland of Virginia. Many of the old tobacco farms have been bought out, but these farms can be the new frontier of green energy and remain important in America’s struggle for energy independence. I also support a two-tiered system of regulation for agriculture. Corporate farms should have to pass consumer safety standards, but these same strict standards are often infeasible to apply to small farmers. When I’m buying something at the grocery store I want to know that it’s safe, but if I’m buying it from my neighbor there can be personal trust and accountability, without meddlesome government regulations. I am also a strong supporter of the locally-grown food movement.
3. Agree or disagree with the following statement: I fear that radical Muslims who want to control the Middle East and ultimately the world would love to see ‘In God We Trust’ stricken from our money and replaced with ‘In Mohammad We Trust.’”
I believe that this sort of statement represents a fundamental misunderstanding of our enemy. The threat of Islamic extremism is very real, but we will not be able to adequately confront it with this sort of simplistic attitude. We must confront terrorists both militarily and politically, and no one who is in Washington right now seems to have figured that out. Not only was the Iraq war a foolish and costly mistake, but it distracted us from actually dealing with radical Islam, and strengthened Iran’s position. Having served as a national security analyst in places like Afghanistan, I am sick and tired of seeing politicians who are more interested in giving speeches like this than in actually fixing the problem. I intend to confront Islamic extremism in a way that weakens, rather than empowers, our enemies.
4. For Perriello (a different question was asked to Goode): As a Roman Catholic, you are taught that abortion is a sin, and cannot morally be defended. In recent weeks, several high-profile Catholic Democratic politicians (Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden) have been chastised by church leaders over controversial statements in defense of their pro-choice policies, specifically when human life begins and when human rights are obtained. Do you support these leaders in their stances in opposition to your church, or do you also condemn the positions advanced by these Democratic leaders in regards to abortion?
I believe that the 1,200,000 abortions that occur in America every year are a tragedy. However, I don’t think either party has been interested in actually fixing the problem. The pro-choice vs. pro-life debate has done two things: it’s gotten Democrats elected, and it’s gotten Republicans elected. Given that Roe v. Wade is an issue for the Supreme Court, I will do what I can, as a member of Congress, to reduce the number of abortions.
I’ve already developed a record on this issue - as a faith organizer, one of the bills I worked on was the Abortion Reduction and Family Support Act. This bill garnered the support of 100% pro-life and 100% pro-choice members of Congress by offering policies that have been proven to reduce the number of abortions: prevention measures like funding for programs to reduce teen pregnancy, and support measures like pre- and post-natal care and child care. That’s the sort of leadership I hope to bring to Washington.
5. Given the election-deciding fraud that was perpetrated in the last two presidential races, what sort of policies do you envision for
election reform?
I believe that the first step we must take is voter-verified paper receipts for all electronic voting machines. This is common sense, and will help restore voters’ trust in the soundness of our electoral process (not to mention allowing for a meaningful recount in the case of a dispute). I would also like to ensure that voting machines are fairly apportioned between precincts. Some of the recent shenanigans involving what seem to be voter purges immediately before the election would be unlawful, and I would support efforts to ensure that local registrars are well-informed about the federal laws that govern voter registration.
6. How does your position in the political system specifically help the 5th district in the face of a global economic crisis?
My district has been facing an economic crisis for over a decade now. Since the beginning of this campaign, I’ve made jobs and economic revival my first priority. Charlottesville has been relatively blessed in this regard, but no matter where you live, you’re paying too much for gas, dealing with a broken health care system, and struggling in an economy where too many people who work hard and play by the rules still aren’t able to get by.
I don’t believe that we can fix the economy instantly. There are no shortcuts, only hard work towards real solutions. We have to make a generational commitment to be independent from foreign oil. We must have the best-educated, most skilled workforce in the world. We must commit to rebuilding our infrastructure. These are not glamorous projects that will create great headlines. But these are the ways government can help ensure that our country’s economy is strong.
7. In 20 words or less, why should we elect you?
Short-windedness isn’t really my thing, but here goes: “I will work a double-shift in Congress on real solutions and serious leadership, not just partisan bickering.”
8. Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can’t find the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?
Our education system is not working. The federal government has focused on imposing mandates on localities, rather than providing resources to them. I believe that we need education reform, and we should start with a federal drive to recruit one million new teachers. We’ve gathered a lot of data from No Child Left Behind, and one item that stands out is that the single most important factor in a child’s education is having a quality teacher in the classroom. The federal government should be encouraging folks to become educators, especially people in math- or science-related careers who would be open to second-career teaching. We should be providing incentives for teachers to locate in under-served areas, such as our small towns and rural communities. Maybe then our children will all be able to find America on a map.
9. Do you take your tartare with or without aioli? And if it’s with aioli, please describe in detail the exact method of preparation.
Tartare isn’t really my thing. I’d rather have a good hamburger.
Tagged as: 2008, 5th district, Charlottesville, election, interview, Politics, Questions, race, tom perriello, virgil goode
six-term Republican congressman Virgil Goode
six toes as well, as i understand…
Wait, I have to vote for someone other than president next month? Why didn’t The Daily Show tell me this?
Nice post Kyle. I definitely know who I’m voting for now.
un-be-effing-lievable that he’d bother to answer my idiot question about I’ll Take My Stand.
Anyone got a mailing address for his office?; i’ll drop him a copy and a thank-you note.
I have some shoes you can send him.
@5
that’s right—politicians have tiny feet.
/you know what small feet mean.
/To quote Monica Lewinsky: “Think of a thumb…”
I see why Goode wouldn’t answer questions. It’s not that he won’t take questions from the younger generation. It’s that Charlottesville is effectively gerrymandered out of existence in the district. It doesn’t matter what he answers because he knows the city will vote 80% for the democrat. He doesn’t need Charlottesville to win, so he ignores it.
I admire that Perriello bothered to respond. He seems like a nice guy, but I disagree with his answer in #8. It takes more than just more teachers to improve education. You have to dispel certain stereotypes about acquiring education, and that’s mostly a cultural battle that stems from community and church leaders, not the government.
That chromosome-depleted fool Goode is an embarassment to Virginia. My god, his environmental record alone says it all. Every time he opens his mouth I want to throw the television or radio out the window.
@7 Ethan got it right on Goode’s philosophy towards us. He wins on the status quo.
At least we are in a swing state, even if we aren’t (yet) in a swing house district… moving in that direction though: http://www.raisingkaine.com/Images/perriellopoll.pdf
It’s too bad for Perriello that most of his policies are vague and unrealistic, especially on energy. He has no real chance of winning, but Goode is weakening enough that perhaps he will be toppled in two years.
You have a congressman like this and you can make fun of Falls Church- seriously you guys FAIL.
Manchen… I agree that Goode is a complete and utter tosspot, and the following footage was just released PROVING IT…. one of his supporters luckily had a video camera with them when this happened, shocking everyone within earshot…. seems Mr Goode is not so goodT goody after all….ha. NSFW BTW.
it’s a doozy!~
Floozy http://i37.tinypic.com/kd8g11.jpg cerberus Charlottesville style
Manchen….Argggggh,,…. Charlottesville Shiflett dogs, all DNA deformed and conjoined at the mullett . So did you like my link? You had to clicky on the ricky didn’t you?
He’s really the perfect candidate to attempt to unseat Goode. He has to be a “person of faith” given how unlike Charlottesville the rest of the district is. But he can’t be too Christy or that may turn off Cvillains and depress the solid blue turnout here that he requires to win the district as a whole.
Yeah, I can’t stand Goode. I volunteered for Weed twice in the past. When he says “I’m Virgil Goode and I approved this message”… gaaaaahh! That almost fake twang he uses just pisses me off. When I see him on C-Span and Charlottesville is placed under his name I just want to vomit. The accent coupled with the ignorant sh!t he says…
Yeah, good ole Goode may not pay attention to Cville come election time, but you notice where his office is? Right on the Downtown Mall in the belly of the liberal beast. Like he’d want his office in some tiny little town without so much as a single escort service.
You are sadly misinformed. Paleo Goode has offices all over his benighted district. Go down to Rocky Mount and round up some Baptists to vote for papist Parriello instead of wasting your time on Cvillain.
Type “Rocky Mount, Va” into the Google and what do you see on the map?
what my friend colfer is trying to say is “do the math!”
who is running against mark warner? even the volunteers who stopped by my house didn’t know.
1 1/2 - crickets…
it’s impossible to have one half of a cricket. do the math!
apperntly there is the animal google goggles whid=ch requires a person to solve math problems before sending a drujnk email.
my only beef with that brilliant problem solver is that i use my phone (as a weapon for my own demise) however, sunday brunch- i get to bartend, it is my lovely, sweet spot. come to maya and sit at the bar. eat, drink, be merry- football is on the tv. we can all wake up to a sunday.together.
Good for Virgil’s Rep for being able to tell without even needing to see the questions that this was a biased survey that was surreptitiously trying to insult him. Perriello would probably be an awesome Student Body President. He should really think about it.
this was a biased survey that was surreptitiously trying to insult him
I honestly wanted an answer to #1. Congressman Goode insulted me with this nugget, and I was hoping he’d clarify so I wouldn’t be insulted anymore. He doesn’t deserve insults for that position. He deserves shame and opprobrium.
Whatev, it doesn’t change that Kyle was obviously biased and so thus didn’t deserve to get an answer. His mock outrage is just amusing to anyone who doesn’t agree with his obvious political leanings.
do the math.
@20 - my cat can do cricket math
“Good for Virgil’s Rep for being able to tell without even needing to see the questions that this was a biased survey that was surreptitiously trying to insult him.”
kind of like the questions in the debate would have been, huh? & katie couric too. how unfair!
Again - whatev. You know it just pissing you because it’s true.
Shame on Kyle for breaking the no politics thing when he so clearly is against one of the candidates. Did he really think that wouldn’t be obvious?
Kyle is master of his domain, and can do what he wants…
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
@29 were you saying “it just pissing [sic] you because it’s true” that a debate would have been unfair? please elaborate.
It’s just pissing you off that it was fair for Virgil’s Rep not to bother responding to what turned out to be an obviously hostile questionnaire. It’s pissing you off that there was no resulting “unfair”-ness, because the Rep couldn’t be bothered with Kyle’s juvenile foray into local political reporting.
Or not.
I don’t know what does or doesn’t piss you off. But I do know I’m right and that’s what I meant.
I’m going to bed now, but before you hate on me because of my political leanings or my failure to include an ’s’ and an ‘off’ from a sentence, consider that I’m not saying Virgil Goode is a magnificent politician and we should all be trying to get him as our Virginia Reel / Salty Dog Rag partner. Just that the Rep didn’t fall off a damn turnip truck and was able to see Kyle for what he is, which is a Perriello supporter. No biggie — but the outrage is a bit much.
@34: I don’t think it was that hostile, and the fact that my congressman, viz., Virgil Goode, holds the position that owning a copy of a non-Christian spiritual book is an offense against the constitution and he refuses to refute or to explain said position, well, my friends, that there is newsworthy.
Do the math.
@34
things that piss orchid off:
-someone stepping on her foot & chipping her toenail polish
-overcooked steak
things that don’t:
-local politics
“i do know i’m right” is quite the dumb-republican attitude, though.
hi. i’m late AND drunk. happy monday, ya’ll.
(still existing in the perguyory of well, where things happen and life does what it will)….
@35 Atreyu - i think you’d be more comfortable over at red state dot org or newsbusters.
cvillain never, ever, ever, purported to be an un-biased news source of record. it is a blog. not c-span. get over it.
@38 about this, not about everything. @40 umm yeah, they purported to not be covering politics for just this reason, because you end up with searingly intelligent comments like “I think you’d be more comfortable over at . . . ” i.e. get off our blog, no tolerance for you. @36 I totally respect that. But Kyle didn’t write a post about the Muslim comments controversy b/c of the no politics rule. He wrote a post about how he’s innocently just trying to get us more information to make up our minds and look what happened the big mean republican doesn’t care about you or want to speak to you but the democrat sure did, wow he’s awesome. It’s disingenuous and dishonest.
Just a little refresher from the CVillain code [ http://cvillain.com/?s=the+code ]
“On the politics issue, we know some of you want it, but at the same time, we’re worried that the site will easily degrade into personal attacks. Each time a national issue comes up, things inevitably trend towards personal altercations, not meaningful discussions about ideas. There is a big difference. There are plenty of sites you can go fight with Red or Blue people. We don’t want to control things, but a lot of you have said in the past that politics spoils the party, and we believe that.”
I have plenty of issues with Congressman Gump, but for Kyle to change the rules on deciding to publish responses after the fact, even if he gave Goode’s camp a chance to respond, certainly shows his colors. I like Perriello enough, but I’d like to see him come back to town and cut his teeth in electoral office at a smaller level - House of Delegates, State Senate, even BoS - before he decided to run for Congress. Like many of his generation, he wants to run before he is sure he can walk.
How soon until this election is over?
Be that as it may, he gave Goode a chance to speak and the dude’s people blew him off. There’s no need to portray him as a mean Republican, he’s doing it all by himself. And that’s a fact. Do the math!
@42: Dude, that is the past. Then people said, no we can try it and so Thor did a little political foreplay and the next thing you know we decided we were big kids now and could talk about this stuff if we could be civil and not take things personally.
for a sample ballot of who’s running in your locality, visit:
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/Cidate_Information/Cidate_Lists/CidatesList.asp
and fill out the drop down boxes appropriately
Like I said, the Rep isn’t stupid and was able to see Kyle for what he is, a Perriello supporter who was trying to make Goode look bad, and that’s why Kyle didn’t get a response, not for the BS reasons Kyle is stating in the post. I didn’t know about the Codes updated policy, but in that case maybe you should be directing your comments to Dr. rotinaJ. For the record, I love Kyle. I think this whole post in the way it was done is beneath him and so I’m calling him on it.
Jeez, this liberal “gotcha” media is so unfair…all asking people about their stance on issues, and questioning a candidate about an extremely controversial incident for which he has provided little to no explanation.
By asking both candidates about education, election reform, abortion, and religious tolerance as it relates to public service, you’ve really gone negative, Cvillain. I mean, if you were going to go *that* far, you might as well have asked them the over-the-top biased stuff, like what newspapers they read.
@48. I’m not getting into an argument with you. No way.
“Like many of his generation, he wants to run before he is sure he can walk.”
like sarah palin?
@43, exactly. Don’t tell both candidates that you’re not going to publish answers unless they both respond and then do differently than that. Now you’ve lied to them. There was no reason to promise such a thing to begin with.
Kyle lied to politicians! Oh the irony!
@47 You are speaking for someone else. How do you know what the “Rep” saw? I think it’s important to let the people know if one candidate’s people won’t talk, esp. since um, it’s a politician and co.’s job to do just that.
@50 - absolutely, Sarah Palin started in her small town, got elected mayor, learned her trickerations of whatever stripe you want to see them, was elected governor, and tried to refine her governing “style.” Just because McCain panicked and plucked her before she was ready for the national stage (if she was ever going to be ready) doesn’t mean Perriello can’t learn from her path. I’d be happy to see him on the BoS or in the GA; starting locally, just like Palin did.
I always vote for the better-looking person. Perriello is a cutie pie.
Atreyu, thanks for calling me out. I looked at your email address, so please call me for drinks and I’ll tell you more.
I think the things to consider are:
1. We solicited question ideas from the community, so if you think the questions were biased, that’s somewhat your fault for not submitting questions. I didn’t selectively edit questions unless they were clearly inappropriate. The ones I added were obviously neutral. If they were biased questions, I apologize for not being aware.
See: http://cvillain.com/2008/10/02/submit-your-questions-for-goode-and-perriello/
2. My political views might surprise you. While I will not publicly state who I’m voting for in this election, I had no intention of biasing interviews. I apologize for making you think that I am biased.
3. I think you are overlooking the lack of response. It’s pretty simple game for the 5th district. Not responding is part of a clearly thought out political strategy. The questions weren’t biased and if Goode were smart and in touch with young people, he would have planted questions in his favor. At the same time, having plenty of time to respond to these questions pretty much means he can craft any response he wants. Their office was hostile towards me from the beginning which I explained in the post.
4. Goode can still respond and we would still publish what he wants to say. I don’t see him contacting us, and that’s not our choice.
5. This does make me want to revert to the non-politics.
6. I am not a party supporter because of the nature of politics. Candidates run on what people like to hear, not on what issues actually matter.
Fair enough. I’m going away for a week but I’ll call you when I get back.
And by fair enough I mean you make some good points.
I smell a burgeoning bromance.
@56 kyle, you show more grace by engaging Atreyu than he has shown any of us.
@ Atreyu - i would never tell you to “get off” the blog. but i do think you are being disingenuous. I am the person who submitted the question re: Goode’s comment about “radical muslims…putting in muhammed we trust” on our money. Those were Goode’s words, spoken on the floor of Congress, the people’s house. I don’t know about you, but that kind of talk does not represent how i think, or how i think this nation ought to be governed.
i think you are resorting to “playing the ref” because you have a perceived injustice which i think is neither real nor rational. all your outrage over kyle’s post and the “bias” of cvillain is very tiresome.
respectful disagreement. that is all.
@56
Re: point #4: Why did you originally tell both candidates that you’d not publish responses unless they both responded? Doing so and then doing other than that really effects this whole effort. Ultimately, it ends up being “he didn’t do what I wanted, so it doesn’t matter what I told him before.”
@56: Ummmm… well, I appreciate you doing this. However, I think it is pretty obvious many of your political leanings (or at least preferential candidate, in this case), by bolding the sentence in the main post: “The point is Virgil Goode’s lack of response indicates he doesn’t care about speaking to the 5th district, and certainly, given our demographic, doesn’t care about speaking to the younger members of the 5th district.”
I think that’s fairly obvious. However, to the people claiming the questions were biased, I would have to agree with Kyle here… they were submitted by you and me, and everyone had the opportunity to submit a question (liberals/conservatives, Democrats/Republicans alike).
I do agree somewhat with Stormy. Perriello seems like he will be a decent politician (look at how he dodges answering various questions
), but this may be too big a step for him. His grasp of some of the issues seems weak, although he seems to genuinely be trying to get a better handling of them.
@59 Hmm, you make some good points as well
@62: Kyle’s white and wealthy so he’ll probably vote Republican. This isnt an example of his bias, more like he got pissed that Goode’s people didn’t deem his blog important enough to respond to so he dissed them.
thought we weren’t doing politics…..truly would love to have a safe haven from politics….
there is no safe haven ditto. It’s a pretty critical election.
why does this post appear at the top of all articles when other articles are posted afterward…
confused.
@67: It’s a “feature” article.
um, don’t get it.
hi, stanley, thanks for commenting in the wee ones
other than posted by kyle, duh
um, don’t get it.
Hi, BP. The cVillain editors (of which I’m not one, to be clear) designate some articles with “feature” status and those sit at the top of the page with a pinkish background, as compared to the eggshell color that colors the rest of the blog. The editorial reasoning behind doing so seems to be to call out a post of primary interest or something.
oh, totally missed out on the color-coding. thanks for the info. creeping back upstairs, now. so not interested in anything political these days… Thinking of voting early - can’t stand any more failin’ Palin, McCreepy McCain…
@64 What makes you think he is wealthy? This site probably generated enough advertising revenue to pay server costs.
@74: I’ve seen his parents’ house. Woo!
@64, @66
I’m glad the ban’s been lifted on politics as long as the discussions stay on topic and don’t devolve into vitriol.
Once I researched Goode’s voting record it was easy to decide on Perriello. For me, that is more important than the fact that Goode didn’t respond to Kyle’s questions. Assuming that not everyone will do that kind of research, Kyle’s questions might help us make more informed decisions.
@75 Can you see Russia from his parents’ house?
I’m not sure. Let me get some notes and get back to you.
just ask for some of his “notes” and you won’t have to get back to us, you’ll be vacationing in Cabos San Lucas…
Oh crap I got so bored looking for the darn FFA so I’m just going to put this here…. Shen it is not porn, its a political funny from a friend in Falls Church….
Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L38wthA4Ld0
Then this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq8Uc5BFogE
I am so sick of hearing “I’m Virgil Goooooode and I approved this ad.” I hope and pray Periello is victorious in the end and wins the election. Sadly, because of the bumbling idiots in charge of elections this cannot be an instantaneous process. Tabulate the e-ballots. Count the absentee votes. What’s the big deal? But no, not that simple they say. “It could take MONTHS” the paper reported this morning. And just why is THAT? Because they are as confused and bumbling here as they were in Florida when “hanging chads” made that election just as complicated.
IMHO, even if Tom does not win, Virgil will at least have a nice case of the screaming $hits till the day the FINAL results are announced. I am sure he thought he was a shoe-in….a clear winner. Not so. The people were split. And if more of them were not prejudiced against Yankees from the getgo, Periello would have been a landslide winner! But Virgil’s ads had to lie about Tom being a New Yorker and only coming here to get elected. Really? I believe Tom Periello is a Virginian. He spent a mere two years in NY. Too bad Virgil Gooooooode failed to do his homework, or worse, allowed others to research Periello’s life. BIG mistake, Virgil.
Go to http://youtube.com and type in Virgil Goode. Have a field day seeing clips that will provide not only some good laughs, but some insights into just who this man is.
hey Anna.. you should run elections next time!
Perriello went to Murray Elementary, Henley, WAHS, St. Anns. The only thing New York about him is the “o” on the end of his name. If he were named Catullus, they woulda had to try something else.
Poll workers are paid a pittance and work from 5am to 8pm with very few breaks. At 7pm, bleary-eyed, giddy, and hungry, they start tabulating whether the number of ballots they handed out matches the number of votes in the machines. That’s when the trouble can start.
One representative of each party can hang out for the count, after 7pm, in each precinct. Then everything has to be sealed up in a series of confusing envelopes and sent to the local electoral board, where more people count. The parties have people there too I think. And anytime that stuff is unsealed in later days, the parties can have somebody on hand.
So it’s a big clerical thing done once a year or so, with very old and very young workers. All it takes it one slovenly teenager who got sent there by his guidance counselor to mess up a whole book.
Somehow I think they do a better job in France.
@81
Those ads were racist.
Periello up 102 votes as of 1;00 P.M. today (or so says CNN).
perriello 158,523
goode 157,894
write-in 138
as of: 4:22 PM EST
seriously, who ARE these assholes writing in votes?
more importantly, how many voted here and absentee where thry came from?
Goode’s ads calling Mr.Periello a “New York Lawyer” and a “slick New Yorker” are a clear example of his ignorance as well as his obvious prejudice. Not that Tom Periello is “a New Yorker” (let alone a SLICK one!) in the first place. Does Goode not realize that it has been Northerners who have moved to the South who have been largely responsibe for developing places like Moneta….the Smith Mountain Lake area? Does he not realize that many of his constituents in Virginia are from the North? These ads by Goode have ended up making him the very epitome of what many Southerners believe Northerners see them as. He demonstrated his provincial, narrow minded mentality when he spoke against the use of the Quran (Koran) by a Muslim congressman at his swearing-in. His “everyone needs to think and be like me” attitude is simply appalling. He has become a joke.
@88, I voted absentee for VA Beach…wish I coulda voted for Periello though.
In 2005, Goode faced questions when a major corporate campaign donor, defense contractor MZM, Inc., was implicated in a bribery scandal that resulted in the criminal conviction and resignation of California congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. Although Goode insisted that his relations with MZM were motivated solely by his interest in bringing high-paying skilled jobs to his district, in December of that year he donated the $88,000 received in MZM contributions to regional charities.
On July 21, 2006 Richard Berglund, a former supervisor of the Martinsville, Va. office of MZM Inc., pleaded guilty to making illegal donations to Goode’s campaign. Court papers indicated that Berglund and MZM owner Mitchell Wade (who previously pleaded guilty) engaged in a scheme to reimburse MZM employees for campaign donations. There was no allegation of wrong-doing on the part of Goode’s campaign.
@91
weird. i saw somewhere on the web (ez-google) that HM donated $50,000 to Virgil Goode a while back. i wonder if it was at the same time as the above. pretty sure it was when HM was a CA resident. is there a tie-in, GVL?