5th District candidates fight to the very end

Media General News Service
Published: October 31, 2008

In what some pundits are calling the “sleeper race” of this election, Congressman Virgil Goode and his Democratic challenger are fighting to the bitter end.

On Thursday, the Goode campaign sent out a statement reiterating its TV commercials insisting that Democrat Tom Perriello is a “New York lawyer” and that “posh” New Yorkers are bank-rolling his campaign in the 5th District House race.

Perriello, who was born and raised in the 5th District, dispelled the rumors earlier this week, saying he has never practiced law at all, but is licensed in New York because of his involvement in trials dealing with war crime perpetrators in West Africa, which are often brought through New York courts.

Most of Goode’s advertisements have focused on painting Perriello as an out-of-towner who is out of touch with the needs of Southside.

On Thursday, Roanoke-based TV station WDBJ pulled an ad sponsored by the National Republican Campaign Committee that alleges that Perriello supports same-sex marriage. The station said the ad is “patently false.”

Jessica Barba, spokeswoman for the Perriello campaign, said the Charlottesville area resident “does not support more government intervention in defining marriage.”