A Fight in the 5th: Tom Perriello

DILLWYN

Tom Perriello, a Democrat running for Congress, stepped up to the pulpit at the Crystal Cathedral in Buckingham County on a recent Sunday morning and addressed the predominantly black congregation.

“I know how blessed I’ve been, so I’m not going to politick today. I’m just going to bear a little witness,” Perriello said, a slow gospel jam grooving in the background. “Let us remember today the people who’ve lost their job, the people who can’t afford to keep their electricity bill paid or keep fuel in the tank. We all know there’s a lot of pain in our community right now from a lack of jobs and costs going through the roof.”

“That’s right!” a lady shouted.

Perriello, a national security consultant who has visited some of the world’s hardest-hit war zones, told the worshippers that God has guided him through the good times and the bad.

“God has been very good to me. He has protected me,” the 33-year-old told the congregation. “I spent some time in West Africa and Sierra Leone during the blood diamonds war. I was in Darfur during part of the genocide and in Afghanistan. The good Lord has always watched over me, whether it’s in Albemarle County, Buckingham or Afghanistan.”

Perriello spent several hours attending the service at the Crystal Cathedral during a whirlwind campaign tour of the vast 5th Congressional District, a seat long held by incumbent U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount. Later that afternoon, Perriello headed up to Scottsville for a barbecue featuring his campaign’s official bluegrass band, the Perriello Pickers.

Faith and service

By visiting the church, Perriello was conveying the role that faith has played in his life. He has co-founded two faith-based nonprofit organizations: Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, which is based in Washington and promotes social justice work; as well as the New York-based Res Publica, a civic advocacy group that has sought to end such conflicts as the genocide in the Sudan.

During his campaign, Perriello has bought ads on several Christian radio stations. In the ads, much like his sermonizing at the Crystal Cathedral, he says that his faith asks him to make the world a better place, whether through stopping atrocities in Africa or by working to expand health care access for children in the United States.

Perriello’s visit to the Crystal Cathedral was also an attempt to speak directly to members of the 5th District’s black population. His campaign is working to register many more black voters in the district, as is the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

“By coming here, it’s a chance for me to get spiritually centered in the middle of a campaign and it’s a chance to be where people are congregating,” Perriello said, while waiting for the service to begin. “Most people want to look in the eyes of the person they’re going to vote for. I want to represent everybody in the 5th District.”

Perriello also borrowed a tenet of his Catholic faith for his congressional campaign. All of his campaign’s workers are asked to “tithe” a few hours of their volunteering time to perform service projects in the district. His volunteers have worked on Habitat for Humanity houses in Charlottesville, served up soup at the Salvation Army, as well as many other tasks. So far, his volunteers have performed 530 hours of community service.

At the church — located in a former shoe factory — Perriello never asked for the congregation’s vote on Nov. 4. Instead, he asked the church members to say a prayer that if he is elected that he “never forget the words of the prophet Micah — to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.”

Inspiration to run

Perriello decided to run for Congress after returning last summer from a trip to Afghanistan on behalf of the Century Foundation, a nonprofit think tank headquartered in New York. When Perriello returned to Washington, he was asked to brief officials of both parties about the troubling conditions in Afghanistan. However, the politicians were less interested in fixing things than they were in trying to score political points against the other side, he said.

That desire to put partisanship over progress in Afghanistan, Perriello said, came to symbolize in his eyes how far off-track many U.S. elected officials of both the GOP and the Democratic Party are on numerous issues.

“The threats we face right now — the economic threats, the environmental threats and the national security threats — are very real,” he said. “And neither party is doing anything about it.”

Consequently, the lifelong resident of the Charlottesville area chose to challenge his congressman of a dozen years. If elected, he said, he would be a part of the “politics beyond partisanship” style of politics that he says is championed by Obama and U.S. Senate candidate and former Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner.

“People are hungry for something different this year,” Perriello said. “People are sick and tired of things in Washington — corruption and paralysis.”

Fluvanna County’s Board of Supervisors chairman, Marvin Moss, a longtime Warner ally, said that Perriello may have a shot at unseating Goode.

“Tom has run a terrific campaign,” Moss said at a backyard event he hosted for Warner recently. “He’s the first candidate for this office who has opened offices in nearly every major place in the 5th Congressional District. He’s raised more money than any challenger in recent history. We’re very proud of what’s he done and we’re looking forward to his victory in November.”

Economic focus

The top issue of Perriello’s bid is the economy. He recently wrapped up a tour of 22 counties and municipalities in the 5th District the he called his Economic Revival Tour. “I’m just sick and tired of seeing the jobs go overseas because we haven’t been creative enough to keep them here,” he said.

As part of his plan, Perriello promises to invest in infrastructure such as rail and broadband technology; offer rebates and incentives to small businesses that provide health insurance for employees; and encourage small-town downtown development.

He also wants to boost workforce training in high schools, community colleges and vocational schools.

Plus, Perriello has proposed a program that would be based on Teach for America, which places recent college grads as teachers for two years in urban and rural schools. Perriello’s idea is to establish a similar program for retiring baby boomers. By tapping retirees, he said, it could help fill the loss of the estimated 1 million teachers who are expected to retire by 2015.

The rising cost of fuel, Perriello said, is hugely important to the economy. He supports expanded incentives for alternative energy research. And he believes that the economy will shift to address the nation’s energy challenges and climate change. He wants to help businesses in the 5th District take advantage of the shift and bring high-paying jobs to economically depressed areas such as Martinsville and Danville.

Like Goode, Perriello supports off-shore drilling. But he is less supportive of drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He said domestic drilling for oil would not significantly impact the price of gas.

“It’s a 2-cent solution to a $4 problem,” he said.

Uphill battle

It is not easy challenging a longtime incumbent in Congress. Perriello has felt the need to tap campaign contributors outside the district, opening himself up to claims by Goode that Perriello lacks local support. As Perriello would be a freshman congressman, Goode, 61, says that Perriello would never get the plum committee seats that have allowed him to direct federal funds back to projects in his district. And Perriello lacks the name recognition of a sitting elected official.

In fact, while at the Crystal Cathedral, Pastor Maurice Carter introduced Perriello from the pulpit as “Mr. Tom Perry Ellis,” and subsequently as “Mr. Ellis.”

Despite his uphill battle, Perriello is confident.

As of June 30, his campaign had raised more money than Goode’s, though Goode had more cash on hand. And Perriello says that he is “out-hustling” Goode by barnstorming the district, meeting more voters and attending more community events.

At the Crystal Cathedral, he seemed to win over David Winrow, a retired engineer.

“I happen to be a voting member of the Democratic Party of Buckingham County,” he said, following a one-on-one discussion with Perriello about prescription drug prices, predatory lending and economic reform. “Based on what you tell the congregation, we’ll support you. But don’t feed me a bunch of crap. … I’ve heard it all before.”