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| Democrat starts working on D.C. team |
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Democrat Tom Perriello gathered with supporters in Martinsville on Friday and claimed victory in Tuesday’s 5th District House race against incumbent Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount. (Bulletin photo) |
Sunday, November 9, 2008
By BULLETIN STAFF REPORTS -
Less than 24 hours after he came to Martinsville to claim victory in the 5th District U.S. House race, Tom Perriello started getting advice Saturday on setting up shop on Capitol Hill.
Perriello, a Democratic political newcomer from Albemarle County, said met with former 5th District congressman L.F. Payne Jr. Saturday morning. Perriello said he asked Payne to head his transition effort because Payne “is such a great resource. He knows Southside so well and Washington so well.”
Payne represented the 5th District from 1988 to 1997. His retirement from Congress paved the way for the election of Perriello’s opponent, six-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount.
If he is certified the 5th District race winner in Tuesday’s election by the Virginia State Board of Elections on Nov. 24, Perriello needs a transition team to help him prepare to start work as a lawmaker as soon as Congress reconvenes in January, according to Jessica Barba, his communications director.
Perriello said the team will consist of influential people from both the 5th District — including Southside — and Washington, regardless of political party. He said he expects to be able to announce team members in a few days.
“We want this to be a nonpartisan transition,” he added.
Barba said Payne will help Perriello on matters such as setting up an office on Capitol Hill, developing the office’s budget and “building on relationships” he made with people he met during his campaign.
Perriello said he and Payne also talked about congressional committees he might want to serve on. He said Saturday that he is interested in serving on any committees whose duties involve bringing jobs to rural areas.
Perriello, a lawyer and national security analyst, also is interested in committees pertaining to infrastructure, such as energy and transportation, as well as national security. He said that both Democrats and Republicans have “dropped the ball” on national security issues and “some fresh ideas” could benefit military troops.
Payne said Saturday Perriello and other new members of the House have been invited by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to go go Washington next Sunday to meet for dinner to become acquainted.
Although the final vote tally from Tuesday’s election is not yet finalized, Perriello told a jubilant crowd of more than 75 people at Jefferson Plaza in Martinsville on Friday that “the outcome is certain. We will win this race.”
Perriello said votes in 21 of 22 localities in the district have been canvassed.
Barba said the remaining locality involved only a few votes but neither she, Perriello nor two workers at the board of elections knew which locality that is.
The board of elections Web site reported Saturday afternoon that Perriello was ahead of Goode by 745 votes. Perriello had 158,703 votes (50.09 percent) while Goode had 157,958 votes (49.85 percent), with 144 write-in votes (0.04 percent) and 307 of 307 precincts reporting.
There is only a 0.24 percent difference in vote totals between Perriello, a Democrat from Albemarle County, and Goode, a Republican from Rocky Mount. That is significant because the loser can request a recount if the margin is within 1 percent.
Goode issued a statement Friday in which he noted reporting irregularities in Tuesday’s returns.
“While current unofficial tallies have me trailing my opponent,” the statement said, “these irregularities have cast doubt on the reported totals. It is essential that we get to the bottom of these problems and insist on a thorough and proper vote counting process. We will continue to fight to make sure that every single legitimate vote in the 5th District is accurately counted and reported."
The election results and the leader in the race have changed a number of times during the counting and canvassing since Tuesday’s election. For example, Goode said Wednesday that he had a more than 300-vote lead, with all but one reliably Republican precinct reporting. But the state board of elections showed Perriello leading by 31 votes. By Friday afternoon, the lead had grown to 745.
‘Go, Tom, go!’
Perriello’s news conference Friday was held in the atrium in the Jefferson Plaza uptown. When he walked in, some in the crowd chanted, “Go, Tom, go!” and/or squealed, applauded and raised their hands in support as Perriello smiled, hugged people and shook hands.
He expressed confidence in the thorough, bipartisan canvassing process to verify the election results and that he would emerge the winner.
“We have defied the odds,” Perriello said, recalling times in the beginning of his candidacy when it made little sense for someone to support a political newcomer against a longtime incumbent.
Goode first was elected in 1973, at age 27, to the state senate, representing the 20th District. He held that post until 1996, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He has held that position ever since.
Perriello said he launched his campaign’s economic R.E.V.I.V.A.L. tour in Martinsville especially for working families to bring back jobs and foster economic development. The Henry-County Martinsville area has lost thousands of jobs in recent years and Martinsville often has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. So Perriello said he was returning to Martinsville on Friday to claim election victory.
He had promised if elected to work a double shift in Washington to represent the people of the 5th District, and “that double shift starts today.”
Perriello said he tried to run a campaign that focused not on attacking his opponent but rather on presenting a better plan for improving Southside and having a strong grassroots effort that contacted as many people as possible.
Still, Goode has been in public office for 35 years and seldom had trouble winning re-election. So how was Perriello apparently successful when other challengers have failed? Perriello said he thinks his campaign was more positive than that of previous Goode challengers. People are “sick of the blame game,” he said.
“It’s not about Democrat and Republican; it’s right versus wrong,” he added.
Perriello expressed tremendous respect for Goode and his decades of service, and said he will respect any decision Goode makes about seeking a recount.
Several people expressed delight with Perriello’s claimed victory.
Paula Burnette, Iriswood District representative on the Henry County Board of Supervisors, said that Perriello “has a good heart for doing the right thing.”
Joan Ziglar, who is Martinsville’s commonwealth’s attorney, said she told Perriello “I had to eat crow today because I told him he would never beat Virgil. He has big shoes to fill behind Virgil.”
She said she has much respect for Goode, who has written letters of recommendation for her, helped people in her family with disability issues and returned every call she ever made to him.
Payne now is president of McGuire Woods Consulting and lives in Charlottesville. He said Perriello's father, Vito, was his children's pediatrician, and when Tom Perriello was a student at Yale University he did an internship in Payne's congressional office.
"I've known the family for a long time and known and admired" Tom Perriello for his accomplishments, Payne added.
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